I love The Last of Us And Unexploredbut I would also be content to never see another game in this series again. After all, Naughty Dog has exclusively developed games from these two franchises for almost 20 years. It's great to think about, isn't it? The first Unexplored Development of the game began in 2005 and since then the studio has created either a Indiana Jones-like romp or an entry in his prestigious non-zombie soap opera. The studio that created Crash Bandicoot It's no stranger to spending a lot of time with a franchise after spending entire console generations on it crash And Jak & Daxter before swinging in Unexplored during the PS3 era. But I see the first trailer for Intergalactic: The Heretical Prophet at The Game Awards I felt like I was watching the studio break free from the franchise shackles that PlayStation had been subjected to for so long. Still, it seems like there's a catch.
Maybe we've achieved it summit The Last of Us fatigue in the four years since then Part II introduced in 2020. Between Remakes, Remasteredand a HBO seriesthe co-protagonists Joel and Ellie were almost inescapable. Even as the series won awards and attracted millions of viewers, there was a general feeling among people that they were fed up with it The Last of Us. It doesn't help that the series has remained prominent in recent years without giving us anything new to talk about, with each new project being a remake or reboot of what came before. Even though there's apparently a third game lurking in some office drawer at Naughty Dog, we haven't really had anything new to talk about in years. Part II is a top 5 game of all time for me, and even I'm tired of repeating it, although I'll have to do it again when the second season of the show comes out next year. So yeah, let's finally take Naughty Dog to a fresh new universe and not one it's been taking us back to for two or three generations.
Intergalactic: The Heretical Prophet is a new science fiction game in which space travel made great progress in the mid-80s. Director Neil Druckmann has cited science fiction anime Akira And Cowboy Bebop as inspirations, and you can see we've already gotten into the game in this quick glimpse. The first trailer has a retro-futuristic aesthetic, evident in details such as bounty hunter protagonist Jordan listening to CDs and using tube televisions in her spaceship. The game's tone and theme seem far removed from the swashbuckling treasure hunts and gruesome zombie-killing that the studio has focused on for so many years. Druckmann says it's a “Return” to the studio’s action-adventure roots which go back to the Crash Bandicoot Series though Intergalactic clearly maintains some of the cinematic prestige TV ambitions of Naughty Dog's recent projects. It's exciting to see a studio of talented people able to work on something completely original for the first time in so long.
Druckmann said The New York Times that after the success of “den Raum” the studio “deserved” to do something new Unexplored And The Last of Usboth of which developed into multimedia franchises that Sony has expanded into other media. I'm not thrilled to hear that Naughty Dog appears to have the same ambitions Intergalacticas Druckmann says the studio is now primed to become “an IP powerhouse.” I could imagine that it will be linked to this game in exactly the same way as before Unexplored And The Last of Us. After the end of Uncharted 4This series could (and should) disappear, but if it's simply replaced by another decade-long franchise that Naughty Dog returns to in every other game, hopefully that doesn't also mean the studio won't be free to discover the next big one Idea for another console generation or two. However, it seems that the return on profitable franchises that keep rolling in is safe, because any dip in profits that can be squeezed out is all big companies want right now
AstroBot was launched this year and paid homage to PlayStation history particularly missing from PS5 games to celebrate. Since Sony's current platform reaches the second half of his lifeIt's encouraging to see the company's major studio get the chance to do something new and hopefully leave a mark on the console's legacy. I just hope we don't have to wait another decade until Naughty Dog does something new again.
