In an interview with Gaming Examiner’s Tony Hsieh, Neil Druckmann, the creative director of the “The Last Of Us” stated that they will “be supporting multiplayer [in] The Last of Us [...] [but it won't have] co-op within the main campaign.” So what could it be? Here are my three theories/ideas.
1) A “Demon’s Souls” style of online interactivity.
Demon’s Souls was an incredible new benchmark for online gaming. With its bone crushingly hard gameplay, Demon’s Souls was a difficult game to play through. To circumvent these troubles, players themselves left notes for others as advice. Perhaps “The Last of Us” could do the same. The player can have Joel, the main character of the game, write a message on a sticky note and place it on walls for other survivors to warn them of upcoming hazards. Some messages could be written such as “Large amounts of zombies ahead” or “ammo in the room to the left inside the cabinet.” This would be an excellent way to incorporate a sense of survival among the community of “The Last of Us” players.
2) Battle for Ammo Areas
A main stable of the gameplay is ammo. If you run out fighting arm less, Joel is vulnerable. In these segments, a friend of Joel’s, you create yourself, rushes to find ammo for Joel after being called on a cell phone or radio transmitter. Your created character eventually finds ammo within an office (this is an example of many areas for this to happen) but on the other side of the map, is another player fighting for the same ammo. The two combat each other, only being able to use one round of ammo for your pistol. At the beginning, the players have a chance to head shot their enemy in a stand off but if they fail, the two will face one another in a 1 vs 1 shoot out. If both run out of bullets, the two players race towards the ammo available in the allotted area. The person who first grabs it, has to run out of the map at an objective point. The other tries to catch up to him and if he/she does, a quick time event occurs, which ends in either the chaser succeeding or failing. This fight is a battle to the death. The person who prevails will be able to give Joel the ammo he needs but when a player fails and dies, that contact is lost. Joel only has so many contacts to talk to and the amount of chances to renew your bullets with this ability lessens as each of Joel’s friends die. It is an apocalyptic world after all and there aren’t many survivors left.
3) A Zombie Swarm Mode
This is the least interesting theory I have for “The Last of Us’” multiplayer. It is a co-op zombie swarm mode but it would be fun if done properly. With the use of the environment, players can set traps for swarms to cross over and they can also barricade doors with the use of tables and beds. If there is just one person moving an object to help barricade, it can only be a bedside table or a chair but if all four players work together, they can barricade doors with heavier objects such as a cabinet or a bed. With very few bullets, you have to choose carefully on how to attack these zombies but as each wave ends, you are given the opportunity to search each fallen undead for bullets or health packs. This would be an interesting take on the over saturated “zombie horde” play style.
I personally am excited for whatever Naughty Dog brings out for multiplayer in “The Last of Us.” It does not have to be a generic competitive death match. It can be a way to enhance “The Last of Us” or give the audience a unique multiplayer experience that no one has played before in a video game.
Source: Gaming Examiner
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