The Last of Us and the Evolution of Naughty Dog

 

The year is 1984. Jason Rubin and Andy Gavin, two high school Students from Santa Monica, California, decided to start making video games, founding Jam Software. Their first project was a skiing game made for the Apple II - Coded in just one weekend and sold for $250. Five years later with several games under their belt - made for the Atari ST, Amiga and PC - the two decided to rebrand and drop their relationship with their previous publisher Boudville; and so Naughty Dog was born.

 

Fast forward to 1994, and The production of Crash Bandicoot was under way. The company had grown significantly and after fourteen months the game was shown to Sony Computer Entertainment, who soon signed on to be publisher. The public first saw the game at E3 in 1996, and it went on to be one of the highest selling game titles for the Playstation with over 6.8 million copies.

 

After two more Crash games and A spin-off Crash team Racing, The company’s next endeavour was Jak and Daxter, A trilogy of games and yet another racing spin-off which met similar success to the Crash series. In 2007, Naughty Dog started development of the uncharted series, A third person cinematic experience which has sold over 16.9 million copies world wide.

 

After the success of the Uncharted, in 2011 Naughty Dog announced a new game. A third person post-apocalyptic shooter/survival game with cinematic and technical capabilities that surpass anything anyone had seen on a console to date. A game they dubbed The Last of Us.

 

The last of us is the story of Joel, A fifty-something survival expert and Ellie, A thirteen Year
old girl who grew up in the apocalypse. You see their relationship grow as they travel across
the USA in the year 2033. Although the surroundings of overgrown cityscapes, dense forests
and snow covered mountains are visually stunning, the world is also inhabited by bandits,
backstabbers and terrifying creatures. Much is also to be said for the Multiplayer gameplay in
the Last of Us, offering up an unmatched intense experience which see’s the player battling
against opponents to gather resources for a virtual community.

 

The game has been described as a masterpiece both graphically and technically with A
beautiful yet cruel story to tell. With over 231 awards including BAFTA Game’s Best Game
award, The Last of us is an unmissable epic experience which will send the player on a journey of survival, Growth and trust which will not disappoint.