The Last of US Gameplay Shows a Fantastic, Brutal Post-Apocalypse

After the CG trailers introducing us to the very vibrant end of the world in Naughty Dogs latest franchise, E3 2012 has shown us some in-game action for the first time, and it was fantastic.

This is all very obviously a naughty dog game, right from the graphics to the animations and character interactions, it all flows very smoothly and realistically, even when the action gets going, though with the added drastic increase in tension. Make no mistakes, this game is very much a survival horror. Health doesn’t regenerate, ammo is scare enough you wouldn’t be wrong to call it non-existent, the human enemies shown off are smart and vicious, and every action you perform has a distinct feel of fighting for your life, whether its cowering behind cover after your gun runs dry, or wrestling with another man to take his shotgun.

There’s a sense of danger and urgency that just isn’t present with any other game, and unlike ND’s other franchise – Uncharted – killing someone isn’t simple and it isn’t glorious. There’s no quip after the kill here, instead you’re likely to find one of the characters disgusted at what just took place, with the action being so close up and hands on. Take for example the man who rushes you when you run out of ammo. The way you see the force of impact from the object a small girl throws, an action most other games would just shrug off. Then the way you beat him against the wall and furniture until he stops moving, leaving behind blood and brain matter and a very noticeable silence.

The survival also comes into play with the ability to create items (Molotov cocktails for instance where shown in the video) from scavenged parts, which results in such a grizzly kill Ellie is actually shocked.

Simply put this video hasn’t met hopes for what the Last of Us could be, it’s decimated them. Everything about the demo screams quality and production levels unseen before, even by Naughty Dog. How they’re ever going to top this is a mystery. We havn’t even seen gameplay against the mutants yet, just the horrors of man.

Colour me very very excited…