Ben-DutkaMuch has been made of the brutal violence on display in The Last Of Us trailers.
Some have called it unnecessary and gratuitous, but developer Naughty Dog has defended the implementation of such imagery time and time again. Most recently, creative director Neil Druckmann told ShackNews that in truth, it's all about "setting a tone."
"The violence you see inside this world isn't gratuitous and over-the-top just for the sake of being violent. It's setting a tone. It's setting a reality that Joel and Ellie are having to deal with. Everything has to feel tense. Everything has to feel grounded in reality. The reason why we're going for such realistic violence is because we want you to believe that the stakes are high for Ellie and Joel."
The character of Ellie will also serve to soften Joel a bit; she might stop him from performing an especially brutal action, but she's already accustomed to a level of shocking violence that is much higher than normal. After all, we're looking at a kill-or-be-killed post-apocalyptic setting where violence is just inevitable. Still, this explanation may not be enough to persuade every naysayer… Those who hate violence of any kind will remain irked.
Related Game(s): The Last Of Us
This is what a lot of people have been saying all along. Dont worry ND, you dont have to explain yourselves. You are the developers and you know what needs to be implemented to tell YOUR story.
Cant wait for this game!
It's just because they show those scenes a lot in previews of the game.
They have to appeal to the masses, you know that already. Imagine if they showed no action in uncharted and just showed the puzzle sections. No one would buy it at all.
There's always Hanna Montana The Game for the pansies complaining about The Last Of Us. Seriously, why do the people who have a problem with "insert thing to complain about here" always subject themselves to the very thing that irks them?
If you don't like what you see, don't play it. If you play it don't complain about it. The rest of us don't need a vocal minority trying to ruin something that is going to entertain us for a few hours.
It's really annoying me that ND feels it has to explain the violence. For people that are sensitive to it, all I can say is 1. it's a video game, 2. if it's too violent for you, don't play it. Simple really.
Context. 'nuff said.
Good for you Naughty Dog! Make the game that you want! This is the part of the industry behaving artistically like it should! Others will try to tear it down into the muck, into something political or strictly financial, but so far this game has prevailed!
does it really help set a tone though?
how does gun butting a guy to the ground, than loading a shotgun shell into his mouth set a tone better than just gun butting him?
how does the former make the player believe the stakes are high for your characters better than the latter?
it doesent!
creating a high sense of tension through urgency and pannic, you being caught off guard, you needing things but dont have them, you running out of ammo and about to be killed but ellie comes in and saves your a$$, that is what creates tension, that is what makes the player believe that the stakes are high for the characters.
blowing a guys head off with a zoomed in camera does absolutely JACK set a tone!
it IS gratuitous violence for the sake of gratuitous violence, just like how every game has to have gratuitous cleavage.
why does every feemale character have to have the a$$ of beyonce?
as the saying goes, sex sells!
and sadly so does violence…….
You clearly have no sense of what ND explained in that quote, in the article.
Of course it sets a tone. Think about it, in Uncharted, how violent was it when you shot someone in the head? There was a little bit of blood and that was it, no massive gaping hole; it is entirely unrealistic. That's because the tone of the game is in the vein of pulp action adventure, e.g larger than life.
Then think about The Last Of Us. It's trying to create a 'every man for themselves' survival theme, so therefore it is a much darker tone than anything in Uncharted. So shooting someone in the head and seeing the real impact it would make, does add to the tone it's trying create.
The point of that scene was to prove a point. There is no way in hell that the guy would have just gotten up and said, "ok man, we're cool." He needed to put him down because the guy would have come back for them anyways. It is a vicious cycle but one that you have to continue if you were living the way they were. Such stupidity like always from you.
and where did i say he would get up and say its all cool?
christ, when will you people stop assuming things and shooting the gun before its pulled out of the holster.
shooting the guy in the head with close up shots, or just smacking him in he head knocking him unconscious, have the SAME "tone" effect!
as i said before, 1 reason whey they do it.
violence sells.
Underline does have a point. It doesn't need to be "splatter" to set a tone. Sometimes the details you *don't* see are the most gross ones.
Video games in general has much to learn when it comes to storytelling. It's not all about being as graphical or explicit as possible. It's not the only way to be "realistic".
Last edited by Beamboom on 1/6/2013 1:28:53 AM
what you dont see is always more effective!
alien, need i say more?
reason why is the human imagination is so powerful will always conjure up something far scarier and more intimidating than hollywood ever will!
Hmmm, is there any footage of Joel fighting the mutated thing?
All gameplay footage I've watched are only fighting humans.
lol, does no-one like to be surprised anymore?