The survival title will find a blend between story and gameplay, Naughty Dog believes

Feb 22, 2013 23:11 GMT  ·  By

Naughty Dog has talked about its upcoming The Last of Us game, confirming that, while the whole experience is more mature than its previous titles, it's still about a bond between two characters, this time in the form of protagonist Joel and his sidekick Ellie.

Naughty Dog has made a name for itself by delivering some great titles over the years across many different PlayStation consoles, including the most recent Uncharted franchise on the PS3.

Now, the studio has talked about its upcoming all-new property, The Last of Us, and has revealed that it's quite a mature experience that emphasizes the bond between the two main characters, Joel and Ellie, and how it's tested by all sorts of challenges.

"I don't think we're really comparing The Last of Us with any of our previous games," Naughty Dog co-president Christophe Balestra told Eurogamer. "We've gone really mature, and really we just wanted to see two characters bond.

"How can they get through this journey, and this world, which isn't an easy world. How them being so different in the beginning - how can they learn from each other? That was really our main focus in the beginning. It's in those moments, those situations where you will be forced to make tough decisions. That's what we wanted to put them through."

What's more, Naughty Dog's other co-president, Evan Wells, also has highlighted that the whole team knows when to sacrifice gameplay for story and when to go the other way around.

"The game designers know that sometimes story is going to trump gameplay, and sometimes our writers and our directors know that gameplay is going to trump story. We can concede in both directions. And that's the attitude we apply to it. Hopefully the results speak for themselves."

The Last of Us will be released in June and lots of fans are already eagerly looking forward to the new title.