The first few details and screenshots on Naughty Dog's surprise VGA announcement The Last of Us are here. The screenshots come directly from a gameplay demo shown to Game Informer, and are not high-res static renders.
Details about the gameplay are as follows:
- Players will be controlling Joel as he and Ellie navigate the wasteland. Ellie will be Ai controlled, and according to Game Informer, "she managed to keep up, yet stay out of the way."
- Players will have to find new melee weapons as the ones you pick up will degrade and break over time. Aside from that, there will be guns in the game, but it's very likely they'll be scarce, as will ammunition.
For right now, that's all the cards Naughty Dog is willing to show, but it still says a bit about how they're handling things. It seems clear that this is not a shooter, and will not turn into one at any point. The survival aspect looks to be front-and-center, and while the apocalypse is something quite popular in games right now, Naughty Dog is clearly focusing on the psychological aspects of surviving such a catastrophe.
The Last of Us is expected to release in late 2012 or early 2013 for the PlayStation 3. And now I already want the year to be over. Thanks Naughty Dog.
