We're now in a post-The Last of Us 2 world, and fans are still coming to terms with everything that happens throughout the story. Wherever your opinion falls, there's no denying that Naughty Dog's sequel is an incredibly ambitious game, featuring the largest open spaces the studio has made yet. Exploring Seattle as Ellie, you get the sense of what an open world Last of Us could be like. Funnily enough, the developer was considering an open world structure in the early days of production.
Speaking to IGN in a recent interview, Neil Druckmann was asked about how the team built the game's overall structure. "Initially, this game was gonna be open world, with several different hubs," he explains. According to the director, the first of these hubs would have you playing as Abby among her friends, and eventually the group would be attacked, rescued by Joel and Tommy, and taken back to Jackson. "You would then spend a while in Jackson doing missions before some critical point where Abby would reveal who she is," Druckmann continues. The second hub would've been Seattle playing as Ellie, and so on.
However, Naughty Dog came to the conclusion that an open world structure in this vein wouldn't suit the narrative it wanted to convey. "With the game we were trying to make, with the story we were trying to tell, with the characters we had at our disposal, it didn't make sense for it to be open world, and those aspects felt like they were too much in conflict."
Druckmann says the game became "wide linear" with certain areas being quite large but the overall structure driving the story forward. With how fleshed out certain parts of the game feel, like Jackson, Seattle, and others, you can see how the game could've been made up of these sandbox-like hubs. Still, we think the studio made the right call. When you're making such a story and character rich game, making it open world could definitely dilute the storytelling.
Anyway, there it is. Would you have wanted The Last of Us 2 to be open world? Do you think Naughty Dog's next game could go in that direction? Smash some windows in the comments section below.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 34
It would have been nice to spend more time in Jackson. We hardly see any of the actual settlement in the game.
ultimately the last of us part II didn't make any sense
@LiamCroft after you finished the story it could move to a open world format. You could look for artifacts without having to play through the story again.
I really enjoyed the Downtown Seattle area. The whole marking the map as you go was nice, and being able to pull up the map anytime you wanted. And areas would get crossed off once you looted the entire place. Open World could have been very nice.
@BleedingDreamer i like this idea. I am just at the end of the story, but i would rather explore the environments to clean up the last remaining artefacts.
I also agree with @LiamCroft that it would have been nice to spend more time in Jackson at the start of the game.
Ultimately though i am glad it wasnt open world. How many open world games do we see these days. I don't think it would have worked for the story they were telling and i am glad they stuck to the route they did. I expect the game wouldn't have been so detailed if they had moved from the semi linear structure. Some of the game already feels open world on a small scale anyway
@mini_piekarnik
Agreed.
Beat it anyway but i wasn't a huge fan of the story (especially Dina) Might be in the minority that enjoyed playing as Abby purely from gameplay and her punches
But thankfully i got $40 back after buying it used myself last weekend so now i'll use that for ghost of tshushima.
Sounds interesting, but ultimately I think they made the right decision, still think I would be exploring now lol. Going back for a 2nd play through in a bit going to play GoT first though, wasn't that exited for it in the start but the more I see the more exited I'm getting roll on next Friday 😁
I was really pleased it wasn't open world. For some reason people seem to think open world means better and that isn't always the case.
Game of the year....until Cyberpunk 2077.
@Nah900 not long now till GOT. It's going to be good!
Well the lore is there, the world is there, why not start with a fresh set of characters and an open world game? There's still plenty to explore in this world!
I loved how they made bushy corners and areas so you instinctively know you can't go in or over there. But I also didn't like how many story events felt far too fortuitous - how key characters met for example - thus making it as linear of an experience as it could be. Still 7/10 Great stealth/action game.
I would disagree with Neil on this one you can still tell a fantastic story with an open world setting and this story could have been told with the hub system he talks about. I also don't get this conflict he talks about maybe he can elaborate at some point. I liked the last of us 2 but I was a bit disappointed that gameplay was nothing we haven't seen before though.
I'm glad they didn't go down the open world route. The story was allowed to be deeper by focusing more on a normal level path rather than the overused open world setting.
Still game of the generation
It certainly has more of an open-world feel to it compared to their other games, and I don't just mean the open area of Seattle.
I'm not sure it would've worked as well though so think they probably made the right call here.
Interested to see them try this in future perhaps.
Has zero need to be open world. Ends up loosing track of the story and tension build up. Structure keeps the story moving along.
They basically did what Metro Exodus did. Give semi open sections when possible. But bring you back in when the story can't be told that way.
Started playing Days Gone right after, and it feels disjointed now after hrs in TLOU2. Probably like it more if played it first.
They made the right call.
@SuperNintendoMii you get a like for the dreamcast swirl some 😊
Haven't played it yet, but personally...thank God. Seems like everything has to be open world/rpg-like these days. I like the genre as much as anyone, but there's so much copying and overlap it just feels so homogenised.
A spin-off open world with customizable characters might work better, not narrative like this.
We don't need every game to be open world, wide linear like uncharted 4 (and tlou 2 chapter 9) is great too
Interesting idea, certainly I agree that it would have been nice to see more of Jackson but overall I think they made the right choice with Part II's structure.
Would I like to see Naughty Dog try their hand at an open world game? Hell yeah, I imagine if they were it would be different from often maligned Ubisoft formula that many gamers moan about (although not me).
I'd also be up for Rockstar making a wide-linear game as I'm sure they would make something special in this arena as well.
Also, no there aren't too many open world games out there. Indeed the majority of games which are produced AREN'T open world at all. I wish people would stop spreading such lies.
😉
@Medic_Alert Yeah God Of War's central hub is fantastic and was utilised in such a way that it didn't interfere with the main story.
I was playing Days Gone when I heard Part II would have hordes and thought 'aw *****, here we go again' but the reality was somewhat different. I suppose Deacon was given more appropriate weapons to take down a horde plus he always had access to a speedy form of travel in his bike. Something I took advantage of many many times!
I liked the whole replay of God of war you could explore and come back, to be honest an open world last of us could have worked for the collectibles and could spawn some enemies on areas you come across again but I guess it is what it is.
I did not find it that interesting when I did go searching around in the world they created so glad it was not open world.
Well I keep saying ND's next project will be open world. If Guerilla did it, ND definitely can. All the same TLOUII is "bigger" than some repetitive open worlds, bigger in the way of campaign length and variety.
I think it's cool to play linear story based games from time to time and I am glad it was what it was. I had like 30 hrs walktrough with exploring everything pretty much. Really enjoyed the game, but it was starting to drag a little bit in the end. Don't think it would have been a great open world game, although the first area outside the intro where you can explore that Seattle entrance was somewhat interesting concept of what it could have been if whole game was taking that path
I actually think this could have worked as a pseudo open world, the first part of Seattle when Ellie has the map showed great promise and her section could have been using the larger map yourself to head out and try to find Abby.
Similarly Abby could have her own area between the Stadium, Hospital and Aquarium, maybe just have the Island as more linear.
Either way I feel ND have shown that they are certainly up to the task of an open world whether it be a new game or part 3 following Abby and Lev as they search for the fireflies and maybe try to grow them as a group again looking for a cure, or even have Ellie in a situation where they have to work together
Good. I love open world games but not everything needs to be in that genre. Sometimes a linear story, with more 'open environments,' works just fine.
What it really needed was wider level design and more reason to poke around the environments, and based on everything I've heard, it sounds like ND did a good job with the former, at the very least.
ND has dropped the ball with every open area they've made since the Jak games, they're better off doing the smaller, more scripted kind of maps.
@Netret0120 - Good to see I'm not the only one who didn't like Dina. The story was grim enough but every moment I had to spend with her piled on the misery!
Potty mouthed, willing to f**k up kids in a snowball fight, bad Shimmer jokes and her "don't worry it's not yours" line was gold. I really liked Dina.
@Shigurui
Yeah Dina was terrible. Literally didn't give a flying F about her.
I even think this game would have potential to be a full blown action MMORPG, something like a mix of ESO and H1Z1. Would buy, go in dry and not care a bit about the story.
As for TLOU I - it was VERY linear but had a tight story with interesting characters. You all know how I "liked" TLOU II so I won't repeat myself, that said if TLOU II itself was open world, maybe I could have gotten as far away as possible from the main storyline and make up my own!
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