While most of the emphasis on The Last Of Us has so far been squarely aimed at the game’s single player, the game does come with a multiplayer section – and we’ve been dipping in and out of it for the last few days in-between bouts of the main story mode. Multiplayer is called ‘Factions’ and is split into two game types, which we’ll come back to shortly.
[drop]The premise is that The Last Of Us’ multiplayer involves the player choosing to join one of two teams – two groups of humans taken from the singleplayer portion of the game.We’ll not spoil anything in terms of names, but chances are if you’ve been keeping an eye on the game recently you’ll have some idea of who we’re referring to.
Whichever you choose, you can then begin to customise your character in terms of appearance (with various options for hats, masks, helmets and gestures – most of which will need unlocking rather than being available from the start) and you can also design an emblem, although you’re really pulling from pre-made shapes rather than creating your own.
More interesting are the load-outs – there are four default ones (assault, sniper, support and stealth) and four custom slots. Each has a small and large weapon (for example, the stealth class has a silenced 9mm pistol and a bow) and there are also additional bolt-on skills, like Covert Training 2, which lets you crouch-walk without showing up on an opponent’s Listen Mode tracking.
Factions
Choose one of two clans
Each match represents a day, try to survive 12 weeks
There are two game types
There are seven maps
Plenty of customisation options and load-out tweaks to keep things interesting
Yep, Listen Mode is in, although unlike the single player in Factions it’s limited to a few seconds at a time before it recharges. Generally keeping still will mean you’re not visible to others, but the skill mentioned above at least lets you move undetected, albeit slowly.
Other skills available from the off include the ability to craft items (something the single player game is heavily focused on) in half the time, the sniper’s deadly Sharpshooter 3 (less scope sway and regenerating health for headshots) and the ability to know when you’ve been ‘marked’. There are also one-use boosters, but you’ll need to grow your clan population before you can use those.
When you select a clan, you’ll get a handful of survivors too. The aim is to play matches over a series of days and weeks (each match represents a day) and get enough supplies out on the battlefield to slowly grow your survivor count. Pretty much everything you do in a battle is translated into supplies, including crafting and healing.
Both game types allow up to four players per team, eight players maximum.
Factions is an interesting diversion. It’s clear that the bulk of The Last Of Us in is in the single player (more on that on Wednesday) but this isn’t necessarily something you should just skip over. It’s presented well, looks just as good as the single player mode and controls the same, so there’s little in the way of a learning curve.
We didn’t get enough time to properly evaluate the multiplayer beyond a functional check and a few quick tests – these things are always much better once the game is out and the player count is much higher – but there has been a lot of people asking about what multiplayer is all about, so hopefully this will help to answer the questions.
Stay tuned for more on The Last Of Us.
General Frags
Question; Is it fun?
Ryuhza
“We didn’t get enough time to properly evaluate the multiplayer beyond a functional check and a few quick tests – these things are always much better once the game is out and the player count is much higher “
championsyedm
“The Last Of Us” Buy From Amazon
http://thelastofuss.blogspot.com
Bilbo_bobbins
Just sounds totally confusing to be honest. If I can’t just jump into it without being in a clan etc then there is no point for me. Sounds very Uncharted like too.
MrJimmy
it does, doesn’t it? Alex, is it?
That’s no bad thing. Bagsy the lime green bomb!
Alex C
No clans as such are needed, no. You just pick one of two groups.
Bilbo_bobbins
ah ok sorry, missunderstood. I liked Uncharted MP but did find it frustrating at times with being placed against a team of super soldiers while I’m on a team of Level 1’s.
carson321
Tomb Raider reminds me of this, the team balancing is just non-existant!
stage1
Thanks for the the article but I won’t read it because I don’t want anything spoiled, no matter how minor. Looking forward to next friday!
Eldave0
Tacked on MP (complete with trophies). Yay… :-|
blarty
I can understand the ‘tacked on MP’ point of view if this wasn’t a new IP – I understood it with Mass Effect 3 and Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, for instance – but for new IPs, I just think it’s a needlessly asinine standpoint to take; by that notion no game ever should have multiplayer portions because some believe that in every case it always takes away from a single player experience, which lends the question why have online gaming at all, why even bother with PSN on any level… friends lists, trophies etc.
yiddo
I kind of half agree with you, but in the case of something like Assassins Creed – the multiplayer was quite a good and unique addition. I also don’t think it took away from the SP experience as they had a seperate team working on the MP entirely. So this whole notion of ‘takes away from the SP’ is false most of the time. They normally have other teams handling the MP, or sometimes they even outsource it.
blarty
I also thought that the take on MP in AC Brotherhood was good… more points (on the scoreboard, not just bonuses) for how you kill rather than just the number of kills you make, I was more alluding to the consternation that kind of came with the mp announcement in AC.
Eldave0
I suppose, but LoU was designed with being a single player game in mind (this is Naughty Dog after all). Wasting time and resources, not to mention shoveling DLC down our throats, is pointless and something that has been done far too many times this gen.
Ryuhza
No time was wasted with Multiplayer. It was intended from the start, and they’ve had a separate dedicated team working on it the whole time.
DLC expansions are great for people who like a game and want more of it, even when developers don’t have the time or budget to fit it all in for release. If you don’t want DLC, don’t buy it, it’s not being shoved down your throat.
Kennykazey
Uncharted 3 had really fun multiplayer in the beginning, but when all the microtransaction-ish DLC and somewhat expensive maps showed up, I moved out.
yiddo
Uncharted 3 is a good multiplayer game, but it has become a fuckfest due to them experimenting with different business models for it. It had everything to be honest. An online pass, a season pass, lots of micro transactions. They then applied a free to play model, but everything was cut up into its own segment and it was very, very barebones at best – more so than other F2P experiences.
Saying that, I still think it’s the PS3s best third person MP experience.
Bilbo_bobbins
looks good and the maps are cool. It was just a messy experience for me in all.
Ryuhza
Balance was a little messy, certain guns were simply useless, while others (M9) were too efficient. There was a reason the M9 was only spawned in two places on each Uncharted 2 map.
Jim Hargreaves
Sounds fantastic. Happy they didn’t just slap on a reskinned version of Uncharted’s multiplayer. It’s great, but Naughty Dog has always had the potential to think outside the box.
E8_BALL_
Regenerating helth from headshots, naturally.
Apart from that it sounds cool. A persistent online world, was pushing the bounds of optimism.
yiddo
Fair play, they’re trying to do something more unique and interesting.
Sad Panda
To be honest, the demo has really put me off this game, it just doesn’t do it for me.
Might pick it up for a tenner but not full price, considering its naughty dog I’m very disappointed. The controls feel wrong and the character being left of centre was disorienting. I felt like I was playing a poor Uncharted mixed with Enslaved type game.
Ryuhza
It’s far more survival horror than anything. Think Resident Evil 4 rather than Uncharted.
yiddo
Controls can be altered though. At least they would be in the final game, I don’t know about the demo as I haven’t played it.
Character being left of centre is usually the norm, but as with Uncharted you will probably be able to switch shoulders (if that’s what you meant).
So both of those problems should be checked off in the final game.
MOVE
‘the hell – no co-op?
Ryuhza
Thus far.
Alex C
No. No co-op.
crow-proxy
Which is a fucking shame. That’s the only kind of multiplayer I’ve been hearing people wanting. If they were going to do online they shouldn’t have given us a watered down death match style gameplay. Especially since they said their online was going to be groundbreaking~
Bah!