Summary
- The Last of Us should explore a new location to introduce fresh enemies and challenges for the protagonist, enhancing the gameplay and combat experience.
- The lack of enemy variety in The Last of Us 2 makes the combat encounters feel repetitive, emphasizing the importance of diversifying the battles in future games.
- Relocating the game to a different setting could change the behavior of even basic enemies, providing new challenges and opportunities for Naughty Dog to showcase its art direction and storytelling skills.
At the surface level, people unfamiliar with The Last of Us could be forgiven for thinking that it's just another zombie survival series. The infected enemies and post-apocalyptic setting make it fit a mold, but the sublime storytelling and intricate character development make the pair of games and DLC expansion stand out from its contemporaries. It's Naughty Dog's crowning achievement despite the studio also being at the helm of the likes of Uncharted, Jak and Daxter, and Crash Bandicoot. It's got a sky-high reputation, and one that future games have to live up to.
What comes next is still somewhat unclear, especially for The Last of Us' mainline series. A multiplayer game is in the works, but development is reportedly proving difficult, and a third single-player game is yet to be revealed, despite being rumored since The Last of Us 2 launched in 2020. That game could go in almost any direction, both narratively and geographically, and deciding to uproot the story to a different location could present endless possibilities with the enemy variety, making a potential The Last of Us 3 an improvement on the sequel, no matter how tough that may seem.
- The Last of Us has explored America, from coast to coast, and so it would make more sense in the story to go somewhere new to justify having new adversaries who can pose a fresh challenge to the protagonist.
- Enemy variety is essential to gameplay and level design, as each new type can be handled uniquely, and The Last of Us has to bring new foes into the fold to keep its somewhat simple combat engaging.
- An entirely new setting could provoke even the smallest enemies to act differently from previous games, further strengthening the series' ability to keep fans entertained with the no-frills combat.
The Last of Us Presents a Hostile World
In The Last of Us 2, the enemies are varied in terms of the narrative, but aren't particularly diverse in gameplay, rarely requiring different tactics to defeat them. The infected, Washington Liberation Front, and Seraphites are each massively different and present an equal threat to Ellie and Abby, and much of the game is spent desperately avoiding their gaze, or frantically battling through them to make it out alive, but the combat encounters often fail to make a long-lasting impression as they usually play out the same way.
The Washington Liberation Front and the Seraphites are narratively poles apart, with one being a well-maintained military force whereas the other adopts a more religious perspective.
It keeps to The Last of Us and Naughty Dog's strengths, as the limitations of the gameplay mean that the narrative has to be the main thing that holds players' attention. To prevent the franchise from feeling stale the diversity of the battles needs to be widened, and staying in the United States could feel like more of a restriction than it did in previous games.
Relocation Could Reinvigorate The Last of Us' Enemy Variety
The Cordyceps fungus is a fascinating plot device, as it makes the infected act hostile towards Joel, Ellie, and Abby, but there is still a part of their humanity that remains. This could seem like a simple idea to make The Last of Us' story more plausible, but when it comes to enemy AI it could be a game-changer. Should the next game go somewhere new, the culture, architecture, and aesthetic of the land could change the way even a runner could behave.
It could be that some nations have found a way to subdue the effects of the infection, or even that the closer the protagonist goes to the source of the outbreak, the more volatile even basic enemies become. The Last of Us has art direction that makes every setting feel truly exceptional, and exploring other parts of the world could help Naughty Dog flex its muscles, but more critically it could bring a new challenge to the player by readjusting how the infected and human adversaries act, and react.
The Last of Us takes Joel and Ellie across a post-apocalyptic America, from Boston to Salt Lake City. Its sequel, The Last of Us 2 almost exclusively takes place in Seattle.
The Last of Us Part 2
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 93 /100 Critics Rec: 95%
- Released
- June 19, 2020
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
- Developer(s)
- Naughty Dog
- Publisher(s)
- Sony
- Engine
- Proprietary
- Franchise
- The Last of Us
WHERE TO PLAY
Play the winner of over 300 Game of the Year awards, remastered for the PlayStation®5 console. Relive or play for the first time Ellie and Abby’s story, now with graphical enhancements, new gameplay modes like the roguelike survival experience No Return, full DualSense® wireless controller integration, and more. Five years after their dangerous journey across the post-pandemic United States, Ellie and Joel have settled down in Jackson, Wyoming. Living amongst a thriving community of survivors has allowed them peace and stability, despite the constant threat of the infected and other, more desperate survivors. When a violent event disrupts that peace, Ellie embarks on a relentless journey to carry out justice and find closur
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
