Sony has released the first of a series of videos in which Naughty Dog developers talk about the process of creating The Last of Us. This first video is called “Hush”, and gives us a more detailed explanation of the Infected, with plenty of shots of the creepy fungal-infected ex-humans in action.
The very first thing we're told is that these were always supposed to be “NOT zombies”, and with the recent barrage of zombies in games – though that has brought us some awesome titles like The Walking Dead – it's nice to see a developer decide to go in a different direction. Apparently, these Infected are actually based on something the developers saw in a BBC show called Planet Earth, presumably some kind of malevolent fungus. What, they wondered, would happen if a fungus took over human beings?
And so we get the Infected. Their look comes from some artist throwing various images of diseases and fungal infections on the model of a human being, and the result is grotesque. In the game, they're pretty scary. We get to see Joel creeping along in the dark, as these creatures meander around in the background making clicking noises for echolocation, like bats.
These, then, are the reason that in the dystopian future in which this game is set, people like Ellie are living in quarantine zones. So why is Joel instructed to take Ellie from one of these safe zones to escort her elsewhere? Given the danger, it has to be important. I guess we'll find out when the game launches for PS3 on June 14th.
