Sony's reveal of The Last of Us at Spike's VGAs wowed gamers and many in the industry. Following Uncharted 3, which itself had incredible presentation and storytelling, Naughty Dog said it's looking to "raise the bar" and change the generally "poor" storytelling in video games.
Naughty Dog creative director and writer Neil Druckmann told Eurogamer, "We try so hard at Naughty Dog to push things. And then games come out that are fun and exciting and get visceral things right, but to read in reviews that they have an amazing story is disheartening to us because we work so hard at it. As critics we need to raise the bar, otherwise no-one's going to change. We're going to keep pushing ourselves, and kill ourselves to make this story happen - but hope that by doing it, the rest of the industry is going to take notice and try to do the same thing."
The trailer for The Last of Us shows a gruesome tale of survival and a young female and father figure protecting each other. And that's really at the heart of the story, said Druckmann. "This is going to sound corny, and it might not appeal to gamers, but I would say it's a love story. It's not a romantic love story, it's a love story about a father-daughter-like relationship," he said.
Druckmann added, "We approached this genre because we felt no-one is getting to the heart of it. It tells you something about the human condition - that's what you want to do as a storyteller. We're not saying every game needs a strong, compelling and dramatic story, but if you are going to make a narrative-based game then you better learn the craft."
The Last of Us has not been assigned a release date yet.
