The Last of Us

[KatieHal]

Earlier tonight I finally looked into a trailer for a game I'd vaguely heard about called "The Last of Us". And it looks awesome! (Clips definitely contain violence, and I think some swearing, so FYI)

http://youtu.be/qLGxubfC1Ik

http://youtu.be/fvPbILroeG8

Looks beautiful and exciting. I love post-apocalyptic stories, so this looks really exciting story-wise to me. I'm so glad we have a PS3!

Anyone else been keeping up with this one?

[Fierce Deity]

I'd love to see how Naughty Dog pulls off this game. I've been a fan of theirs ever since Crash Bandicoot. And I'd like to think I grew up with their games as they progressively got more and more mature as I got older. I don't know what to expect from this game, but I'm hoping they release some gameplay soon, cause it looks like it'll be something else. I also have to admit how glad I am that I have a PS3. Otherwise, I'd be missing out some pretty great titles.

[darthkiwi]

The character interaction, the postapocalyptic setting and the fact that it's lush and verdant - as though nature has taken the world back from mankind - all intrigue me. I'll be interested to see how this plays out.

But I couldn't help thinking... another zombie game? Reeeeally?

[Blackthorne]

But I couldn't help thinking... another zombie game? Reeeeally?

EXACTLY.

Oh, another post-apocalypse tale.... in an empty, trashed city where nature is slowly starting to reclaim?  Do tell.

I mean, it looks good, but the premise is wearing thin these days.


Bt

[KatieHal]

I can't argue with that. For me, though, I think post-apocalyptic settings are like potato chips, I just can't ever have just one. I'm not entirely sure why, but I just love that set-up as a general rule. It's an easy way to get me intrigued!

Some people just don't do it right, though. I do appreciate about this one that the zombies are a new flavor thereof, at least--people taken over by a fungus that now controls them (and has mutated them, yuck!). Apparently inspired by the fungus that does this to ants, it can just take over their brains and make them do what it wants.

And yeah, as stated, does not hurt that it looks gorgeous.

[Fierce Deity]

A fungus that takes over a human's mind? Sounds more like a video game adaptation of The Happening than another zombie game. Won't M. Night Shyamalan be pleased. 

[KatieHal]

Hehe, on its surface, yeah, it kinda does. I never saw that movie, but I know the plot and yeah, ugh.

But this is based on a real fungus that actually does this to ants called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis. It infects the host, consumes soft tissue, assumes control and directs the ant's body where it wants to go to enable the fungus to reproduce. Apparently this thing can wipe out entire colonies; and part of the process does indeed involve the fungus growing out of the ant's head and body. It's creepy and fascinating. Easy to see how it could inspire a human zombie idea for fiction like this!

The Happening, on the other hand, is just stupid.

[darthkiwi]

I thought that was the general inspiration for all modern-science-zombies? That humans are infected with a disease/parasite that takes control of the brain and manipulates the host, leading to uncharacteristic behaviour?

As opposed to gothic-supernatural-zombies, which have their origins in voodoo (I think) and obviously have nothing to do with that.

I'm not against apocalypse scenarios at all. I think you could do some really interesting things with that setup. The Road was an interesting film (I know it was a book first but unfortunately I haven't got round to reading it yet) and made you think about the actual implications of that sort of setting.

You could also do a post-apocalyptic scenario after the fall of the Roman Empire, because - hey - the Empire was a world of sorts, and its destruction led to a massive technological/cultural collapse. You could make a narrative which focuses on the political ramifications of a destroyed society. Do they try to emulate the lost civilisation, or do they disdain it as dangerous and impure? Do the ancient statues in the crumbling city become ghostly figures in the new literature, or are they worshipped as fallen gods? Do the people find a copy of Thomas More's "Utopia" and start to build what they think of as the perfect society, or do they find a copy of a religious text, or a book by Nietzsche?

Heck, today I found myself reading The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler. TERRIFYING book. It posits that all cultures (Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece/Rome, our own Western/American culture) rise out of what he calls the "Spring" of an uncultured mass with no national identity, bond into nations and cities, peak when their values and their military potency is at their height, and then decline once those values start to slip, once art has exhausted itself, and once science and rational sentiment ousts spiritualism. In Spengler's view, these events have happened, in the same order (though with different manifestations of that) in Greece/Rome, Egypt, Arabia (from 0 BC/AD to about 1000 AD) and China, and in the West we're currently entering the "Winter" stage.

So hey, make a game about the decline of the West as it's destroyed either by Islamic fundamentalism or China. Do some historical research. Show the fall of New York and Washington, but rather than pulling back like Homefront or CoD do to show you that, yeah, whatever, America rocks!, just have America *die*. Leave tatters of American people dispossessed and forced to eke out a living in the rubble of what was once their home, and have the invaders become the dominant world power. If you paid attention to the cultural details and to the way the story was told, that could be really interesting.

You could do all this, and probably more. So why more zombies?!

[Fierce Deity]

The Happening, on the other hand, is just stupid.

Agreed.

But this is based on a real fungus that actually does this to ants called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis. It infects the host, consumes soft tissue, assumes control and directs the ant's body where it wants to go to enable the fungus to reproduce. Apparently this thing can wipe out entire colonies; and part of the process does indeed involve the fungus growing out of the ant's head and body. It's creepy and fascinating. Easy to see how it could inspire a human zombie idea for fiction like this!

That is pretty fascinating, and it makes you wonder if the fungus could evolve to combat bigger hosts. 

[KatieHal]

Well, given their zombies look like this...



I think they're stressing the whole 'fungal' angle a lot more than most. I think most zombie tales, nowadays, is to vaguely say it's a virus of some kind but leave it otherwise extremely vague. Usually, I think, it's something manmade.

I love The Walking Dead comic for how it approaches a lot of the angles you're talking about. The whole idea of how we survive and as what kind of people and what kind of civilization is central to the series and it's really interesting to see it develop over time and in different ways at different times.

I also recently read and very much am enjoying the Newsflesh trilogy (Feed, Deadline, and coming this month, Blackout). Excellent world-building of a "post-Rising" world that still has to deal with reestablishing civilization and the living dead still being around and an issue--and that everyone is already infected and will turn when they die, regardless of everything.

Hmm, this book by Spengler sounds interesting, I'll have to check that out.

Zombies make a nice, easy enemy--a good target. I think in all the really good post-apoc stories go on to show that the real problem isn't the living dead, it's the living.

[Fierce Deity]

So hey, make a game about the decline of the West as it's destroyed either by Islamic fundamentalism or China. Do some historical research. Show the fall of New York and Washington, but rather than pulling back like Homefront or CoD do to show you that, yeah, whatever, America rocks!, just have America *die*. Leave tatters of American people dispossessed and forced to eke out a living in the rubble of what was once their home, and have the invaders become the dominant world power. If you paid attention to the cultural details and to the way the story was told, that could be really interesting.

Isn't that what Fallout 3 was all about? The U.S. government fell to Chinese communism, and was replaced by an A.I. program that commanded a legion called the Enclave, and there were different factions that were made on their own principles to fight the Enclave off. As far as a political downfall in video games, I think Fallout really builds on a lot of the scares that affected people when they thought that America was going to "die". Also, as far as I can tell, the closest thing to zombies in Fallout are the mutants who are just humans that were altered from the radiation poisoning.

[Blackthorne]

Its always either zombies or vampires!

The Omega Man, anybody?  1971 - Chuck Heston hammin' up the screen?

Heh, we've been fascinated by the collapse of modern society for almost 50 years now.  I think it might be more interesting to show the collapse of society, say, 250 years from new.  A futuristic-post apocalypse thriller where you fight off monsters, but who's the monster - the survivors or the beasts yada yada arm-chair psychology half-ass philisophy yada yada.....


Bt

[MusicallyInspired]

Left 4 Dead and The Walking Dead (not the game) are the only good zombie things to ever happen in media.

Ever.

[darthkiwi]

Katie: well, it's good to see they're going for the fungus/virus thing a bit more. But they are still just... zombies. That just doesn't excite me; it seems a bit lazy.

Fierce Deity: yes, that's a good point actually. Fallout 1 and 3 (I never played 2 but heard good things) were more politically conscious and, to my mind, therefore more interesting than a lot of post apocalyptic things out there. I kind of wish the politics had dominated them a bit more, though; the hollowness of American consumerism was kind of implied by the ruined cities and adverts, but as far as I can remember not much was made of it.

Blackthorne: yes, you're quite right. In fact, your plot sounds a lot like I am Legend (the book). The original plot was that it followed the last man on earth as he tried to keep the zombies/vampires at bay outside his house. The thing is, when he's finally captured he realises that it's useless to keep resisting, since this new species is the inheritor of the earth. To them, *they* are normal and *he* has become a monster, ie. the "Legend" of the title, the same way that vampires/zombies were monsters/legends to humanity.

I wish somebody would make a *good* film of that book. The Will Smith one was alright in places but completely missed the point of the novel.

[Delling]

Blackthorne: yes, you're quite right. In fact, your plot sounds a lot like I am Legend (the book). The original plot was that it followed the last man on earth as he tried to keep the zombies/vampires at bay outside his house. The thing is, when he's finally captured he realises that it's useless to keep resisting, since this new species is the inheritor of the earth. To them, *they* are normal and *he* has become a monster, ie. the "Legend" of the title, the same way that vampires/zombies were monsters/legends to humanity.

I wish somebody would make a *good* film of that book. The Will Smith one was alright in places but completely missed the point of the novel.

That seems to be  a trend with that book... tho' there is the older Vincent Price movie.

[KatieHal]

I was fine with just about all of the Will Smith "I Am Legend" movie except for the end of the theatrical release. The novella as it is wouldn't work well if adapted directly. 

[Blackthorne]

Yeah, Kiwi, I'm a Richard Matheson fan from way-back.

Totally agree, Katie - the end of the theatrical version of I Am Legend stunk.  Stunk like a big ball of Limburger cheese. 


Bt

[KatieHal]

I wish they'd gone with the other ending, the one you can see on the DVD. Still not a perfect match to the book, but much much better.

Hm...according to this article, there's some kind of sequel-maybe-prequel that's going to happen that actually goes forward from the DVD alternate ending, rather than the theatrical one.

[MikPal]

There is also the Asylum version I am Omega starring the Crying Freeman himself.

[Blackthorne]

Ugh.  My friend works for Asylum.  They're the worst!


Bt