While the single player will most likely be the reason to even play the game, we can’t ignore that The Last of Us will have multiplayer. To some that in itself is troubling. For a game that seems primarily focused on Single-player, multiplayer is a thought that is sitting in the back of many buyers’ heads. So, what exactly does Naughty Dog need to do to get our attention?
I remember when Uncharted 2 was announced: fans of the series went crazy until they heard that multiplayer was being added. This gave many fans doubt that Naughty Dog would be able to deliver a multiplayer experience, given that they have always been a SP-oriented developer ever since the PlayStation 1 generation. Of course, when the game came out, all doubts quickly turned into joy as many could agree that the multiplayer was well done and didn’t feel like a “tacked on ” feature as many thought it would be. This alone, for me, and given their track record of developing games, has given me high hopes as to what Naughty Dog will have in store for us in The Last of Us.
Now, none of the ideas below are confirmed – just some thoughts that could make the multiplayer unique.
No Uncharted Clone Please!
This is probably what everyone is expecting to see. From the looks of the gameplay, there’s enough in the single player to say that it plays completely different from Uncharted. However, trying to imagine it as a competitive multiplayer experience, the only thought that comes to mind is that it looks like a re-skinned Uncharted. This is clearly something we don’t want. If we wanted to play Uncharted we would play it. The gameplay will no doubt be similar, but it’s what the game modes, level designs, and the focus on how weapons will be handled that’ll help differentiate this MP from Uncharted.
Let us play as the Clickers
A friend of mine brought an interesting idea to me. What if The Last of Us multiplayer wasn’t about humans vs. humans? What if it was about Human vs. Clickers/Infected? This idea would bring the multiplayer closer to the single player experience, but of course, many would wonder how this would even work. Well, lets take a look at last week’s leak for the Team Boosters shall we?:
- Team Bows: You and your teammates each start with a Bow and 5 arrows.
- Team Rifles: You and your teammates each start with a Rifle and 5 bullets.
- Team Shotguns: You and your teammates each start with a Shotgun and 5 shells.
- Team Health Kits: You and your teammates each start with a Health Kit.
- Team Revolvers: You and your teammates each start with a Revolver and 5 bullets.
- Team 9mm’s: You and your teammates each start with a 9mm Pistol and 5 bullets.
- Team Bombs: You and your teammates each start with a Bomb.
- Team Smoke Bombs: You and your teammates each start with a Smoke Bomb.
- Team Molotovs: You and your teammates each start with a Molotov.
If these are indeed true, doesn’t it seem rather odd that they would give us only 5 ammunition for any given weapon listed above? This suggest that the multiplayer will focus around stealth, preservation, and melee attacks. So, this gave me a thought that perhaps we do get to play as the Clickers, given the low amount of ammo that the humans get, meaning that clickers will have an equal chance of getting kills just as they do.
So, how would the clickers/infected play? Well it’s pretty simple: they are blind and the only way of detecting a human enemies is through sounds. Of course this wouldn’t be fair if the environments were invisible too. But, it’d make sense the only thing that clickers would not be able to see are the human players. The world itself may even look different through a clicker/infected player, but the layouts are still very recognizable. They would also have perks, such as one that allows them to explode upon death and infect nearby enemies, which would kill them, or boost the defense/attack of allies. Given that humans can heal with med kits, infected should be able to heal a portion of health through killing and devouring bodies.
Make the maps dark, with flash lights as the only source of light.
Don’t you just hate it when a game gives you the ability to use the flashlight in multiplayer and the only real use for it is to blind the enemy. Even in Battlefield 3 multiplayer, in the dark maps, flashlights weren’t really needed since everything could still be seen perfectly. Now imagine if it was this dark while playing The Last of Us multiplayer.
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Game Modes
Destroy The Hive
Think of it like capture the point, except it’s just one capture. One team plays as the humans (the attackers) and the other as the Clickers/Infected (defenders). The goal of the attacker side is to destroy the defenders hive before the timer runs out. They would do this by setting designated areas from within the hive on fire.
Co-op/Hoard/Survival mode
I guess the only way to truly give us a multiplayer that isn’t going to feel dumb or out-of-place is to give us some sort survival mode. Survival modes are always fun in my opinion and giving us different levels that are diverse and such can make the mode even more fun. I can see it also playing out like Call of Duty’s Zombie Mode except in third person, which would be great. You and 2-3 other teammates fight back-to-back in a corner as swarms of infected break through your barricade. You’re ultimate goal is to survive as long as possible or escape to the designated area in time.
Co-op story
I believe this has already been confirmed to not be in the game, as in we won’t be able to play the standard single player with another partner, but what if they gave us other characters to follow for co-op? Like in Far Cry 3, give us a unique co-op story that’ll strike our hearts, or at least make us care about the characters. Everyone has always wanted them to expand on their SP portion with DLC, but of course it never happened with past Uncharted titles. It would be great to get some co-op episodic content.
Team-Death Match with a twist
No multiplayer would be complete without this mode and personally I wouldn’t mind if it was human vs. human with limited ammo and more emphasis on teamwork. What would make this even more great is that while the teams are battling it out, at a certain point in the match, infected AI invade the game, either forcing both teams to work together or using the opportunity to wipe the other team out.
Stock Mode
I don’t know about you guys, but I enjoy game modes from Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, and other titles that only give us a limited number of respawns. No doubt that this would help promote the idea that survival plays an important role in multiplayer.
Of course all this is just wishful thinking and most likely won’t happen in the actual game. I know you guys are looking forward to the single-player portion of the game, but besides from just saying the normal “Why do developers always have to add MP to a SP centered game,” why not give us you’re thoughts about what you would like to see in the multiplayer?