Can you wait to be “The Last of US”?

We’ve done the post apocalyptic game before, we’ve all faced down hordes of zombies and monsters, so what is so special about The Last Of Us? The real answer is, we don’t know yet. That is part of the fun with Sony is releasing information on this game in a very slow, leaked manner. No release date yet or even release window. We were first teased with the “ant” video. If you go to their site http://www.lastofus.com you can watch as an ant becomes infected by a fungus that starts to mutate its body. What does that tell us? Okay, maybe we aren’t dealing with the Walking Dead this time.

Everything else we’ve seen has left us with more questions then answers, including the screen shots that showed us glimpses of what the world looks like. Obviously whatever happened in this world, is before the story in the game as it picks up sometime after civilization has had its downfall. Then, Sony released the trailer, captured directly from the PlayStation 3 system, along with some details of the game which you can see below.

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Naughty Dog, the developers behind Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, is the studio behind the game described by Sony as “a genre-defining experience that blends survival and action elements to tell a character driven story about a population decimated by a modern plague.” The plague, I assume, is similar to the fungus that was introduced in the “Ant” video which is a theory backed up by the appearance of the mutated human in the trailer.

The main characters are introduced as Ellie, described by Sony is “a brave young teenage girl who is wise beyond her years” and Joel, “a ruthless survivor.” Both appear to be accurate descriptions based on what you can infer from the trailer. Joel spends his time fending off and killing a normal human, and Ellie is obviously not a stranger to danger and keeps a cool head in situations that would have normal teenagers (girl or boy) scared to death.

The game was revealed to be about these characters as they “work together to survive their journey across what remains of the United States.” Which leaves us all with yet more questions. Aside from the obvious story line queries, I find myself wondering more about what the game mechanics will be like. If it’s anything like Uncharted 3, I believe it will be a stand out title for the genre. I’ll admit after the Left 4 Deads and Resident Evils I was quick to dismiss this title even though all I was seeing was the name. I can’t deny however that Sony and Naughty Dog managed to reel me in with the possibilities of something different. I’m curious what everyone else is expecting from this game. Let me know your thoughts!