On Tuesday, Neil Druckmann, who is the creative director at Naughty Dog, sat down with Troy Baker, Ashley Johnson, and Nolan North, where he revealed some interesting things about the first Last of Us, while he also shared some information about the upcoming sequel which is currently scheduled to be released for the PlayStation 4 in May.
In the video, which can be seen below, Druckmann says that The Last of Us was originally going to be called Mankind, but they chose to go with the former rather than the latter, which was a much better choice.
Also in the video, Naughty Dog’s creative director says that The Last of Us Part II won’t be a repeat of the original game, adding that it’ll be quite different. His explanation for this was simple: if people want to replay the first game, then they can do that anytime, but the devs are aiming to make the sequel a different experience for players. Of course, there will likely be some similarities between the two games, but it won’t be a simple copy and paste with next-gen graphics.
Other topics that are covered in the hour-long video are listed below.
- Ashley Johnson, who is the voice actress behind Ellie, talks about some of her favorite scenes from the first game. She also reveals some of her acting methods for some of the game’s more intense moments.
- Neil Druckmann talks about what it’s like being Naughty Dog’s creative director and explains why job titles don’t matter much at the Sony-owned studio.
- They show some behind the scenes motion capture sessions from the first game.
Last fall, Naughty Dog revealed that The Last of Us Part II was going to be released in February, and shortly thereafter, they delayed the release date until May. In addition to the delay, the studio revealed that the core game won’t have a multiplayer mode, saying that it’ll ship as a single-player title. But, even though the game won’t have an online-based mode upon release, one will come at a later date, although Naughty Dog didn’t provide any further details on what the TLOU Part II’s will feature, nor did they give a release window.
Even though the game’s original release date was delayed, all signs indicate that they will have the game ready before its scheduled May 29 release date, so don’t expect to see the game get delayed a second time.
