The Last of Us looked posh in the trailer that debuted at the VGAs a few days ago, and Naughty Dog seems pretty sure of themselves. Sure enough, in fact, to criticize the rest of the industry to Eurogamer.
"We try so hard at Naughty Dog to push things," said creative director and writer Neil Druckmann, who filled the same role for Uncharted 2. "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."
Yeah, yeah, we love Uncharted's storytelling as well, but isn't it just a glorified version of what movies do anyway? Many gamers prefer the "show, don't tell" approach of developers like From Software (Demon's Souls, Dark Souls) and Team ICO (Shadow of the Colossus, The Last Guardian). Still, we won't argue his point that most games fall well short in the storytelling department.
As for The Last of Us, "this is going to sound corny, and it might not appeal to gamers, but I would say it's a love story," said Druckmann. "It's not a romantic love story, it's a love story about a father-daughter-like relationship."
How's that sound to you? Do you agree with Druckmann or is Naughty Dog too fond of eating their own cake? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter or Facebook.
