game news From a man’s dream to a true masterpiece, The Last of Us is 10 years old!
The video game The Last of Us celebrated its 10th anniversary on June 14th. A symbolic anniversary for a game that had a profound impact on the video game industry. For this occasion, we wanted to quickly return to the creation of this video game monument.
Naughty Dog and the turning point Neil Druckmann
It’s impossible to talk about The Last of Us without talking about Neil Druckmann. The idea for The Last of Us blossomed in this young Israeli-American’s brain long before its debut at Naughty Dog Studio. Indeed, on the benches of the university, Druckmann first imagined the story of a young girl and a man bonded to survive amidst a city overrun by the undead. Much later, when Druckmann took his first steps at Naughty Dog, he returned to this cute project and began writing a comic titled in his free time The turn. But his ambitious six-issue project didn’t sit well with publishers. The idea was then discarded.
Faced with this snub, the young man decides to throw himself body and soul into his job. And for once it pays off. Druckmann is quickly becoming the rising star of Naughty Dog. It ranges from the Jak and Daxter license to the more mature Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. This is where he will really make a name for himself and most notably befriend Bruce Starley. Your complicity and your work will make management heard. For the latter it is necessary to make use of these two vital forces. So they are entrusted with a major project: the return of the Jak and Daxter license. So you get to work, but something quickly gets stuck. The two accomplices feel held back They want the freedom to tell a different story, their own story. And Christophe Balestra and Evan Wells give them that freedom.
This is where Druckmann’s project reappeared, which he had already shared with his colleague. The two men quickly agree to use it as a basis for their game. And then there is a small mushroom: le cordyceps. In case you didn’t know, Cordyceps does exist. Druckmann and Starley will learn of its existence thanks to an episode of the documentary series Earth. Seeing the devastating effects of this fungus on the ants, they decide to use it as a basis for the development of their post-apocalyptic world. Now that the base is in place, the Mankind Project, as it was then called, can begin. As the months go by it becomes clearer. Women are no longer the only ones infected with Cordyceps, Tess loses her role as an antagonist, Marlène loses importance, Ethan becomes Joël… Gradually, Mankind becomes The Last of Us, presented at the Spike Video Game Awards and then at E3 2012. The machine is started.
20 years into a pandemic that has radically changed the face of the world, those infected have lost their minds and the survivors are killing each other for control of food, weapons and everything at their disposal. Joel, a violent survivor, was hired to rescue 14-year-old Ellie from a military quarantine. This routine job quickly turns into a bloody journey across the United States.
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The last of us, the consecration
For Naughty Dog, The Last of Us is something like a UFO. It’s the first time the studio has split into two teams, but also the first time it’s tackled a story-driven project. If that was already the case with Uncharted, it’s The Last of Us that puts Naughty Dog to the test of the storytelling masters. The title has chosen to play heavily on the “father-daughter” relationship. And it works damn well. Four years after the project started, The Last of Us on June 14, 2013 offers indeed a remarkable release. And despite the doubts and fears, it’s a real success, almost an ovation.
With 98 reviews on Metacritic, it scores 95 points. This Metascore is the fifth PS3 game score to date. Only Grand Theft Auto V, Uncharted 2 and Batman Arkham City did better. The press raves about him. IGN’s Colin Moriarty discussed “a masterpiece”. at iGamesNews, Boulapoire etc we are qualifies it as “breathtaking”A “Synthesis of all that was best done in this generation”. With us, mini blob gives the grade 19 out of 20 and speaks of one “Adventure You Won’t Get Out Of This Unharmed”.
This great praise is quickly joined by a whole host of prizes. BAFTA for Best Game, BAFTA for Best Story, Writers Guild of America Award, VGX Award for Best PS3 Game… It’s a consecration. And as is so often the case, this is reflected in sales. The Last of Us posted more than a million sales in its first week of release. It’s impressive for the time. It’s the best start of 2013 even then. Overall and if we factor in the remastered version released in 2014, the game would have sold more than 20 million copies over time. With such success, it’s impossible for Naughty Dog to stop on such a good track.
Enter the legend
The release of The Last of Us marks the beginning of a new era for the studio, offering a new franchise to exploit. And it would have been a shame not to have it. Following publication, Druckmann reveals he’s not averse to the idea of a sequel. But before that, there’s one more DLC that will expand the universe of The Last of Us a bit, The Last of Us: Left Behind. You know the rest. The game will have the right to a remarkable sequel and even a remake. But that’s not all !
The world of The Last of Us will gradually expand beyond the mere prism of video games. As early as 2013, Druckmann managed to have his comic published under the name The Last of Us: American Dreams. Shortly thereafter, he will try another type of adaptation: the cinema. A film project, The Last of Us, written by its creator and produced by Sam Raimi, was actually in the pipeline towards the late 2010s. However, the latter will never see the light of day. Another disappointment for Druckmann, which will end in beautiful revenge a few years later with the release of the HBO series The Last of Us. How come, we’re beginning to see a repeating pattern, aren’t we?
What will Druckmann’s next wish be? Will it see the light of day after a string of cancellations like the game itself? What is certain is that the license is far from dead ten years later. Naughty Dog is currently working on a multiplayer game, The Last of Us Multiplayer (tentative name), but also “a whole new single player experience”. There is no longer any hope for The Last of Us 3 to see the light of day in the years to come. So the universe of Ellie and Joël still has some great players ahead of it. And we can’t wait to see where this great story that began ten years ago will take us over the next ten years.
