PIPE DREAMS - The Last of Us: Part 3 is a tantalising possibility
Ride or die.
By Jonathan Garrett
05/02/24
PIPE DREAMS? This is an opportunity for us to dream big, with a wish list of features and ideas for games that haven’t been formally revealed, as well as debating the possibilities of how a series could evolve in the future.
Naughty Dog have just dropped their second full length Grounded documentary, after a substantial delay due to the pandemic. The journey of bringing The Last of Us: Part 2 into existence was fraught with ever shifting milestones, a nebulous release date, and all manner of unplanned roadblocks. It was clearly their most ambitious project to date, and the closing moments of Area 5’s deep dive saw creative director Neil Druckmann tease the possibility that there’s “one more chapter to this story”.
Cue us ramping up our imagination to ultimate power, as we can’t help but speculate on the possibilities of a possible Part 3. Clearly, nothing has been formalised yet, and mention of a Tommy spin off has, as of writing, been shelved. So here we are, dreaming up where they could potentially go with this now highly sought after sequel.
SCALED MULTIPLAYER - After the long sought after Factions 2 standalone release was officially shelved, I can’t help but think an appropriately sized, non live service sequel to Part 1’s original multiplayer would be an ideal next step. There is still a dedicated community (myself included) playing the first 4v4 Factions mode. It doesn’t need to be a seasonal, ever evolving title to find a persistent audience.
ONE PROTAGONIST - The dual stories of Ellie and Abby were brilliantly constructed in Part 2, giving us an opportunity to dig deep with the formers desire for revenge, and humanising the latter’s emotional decision making. However, as a culmination of the trilogy, let this be Ellie’s story. A tale of consequence and redemption.
CUSTOMISABLE COMBAT - There’s already a wide variety of approaches you can take in an average combat encounter within The Last of Us. Stealth, distraction or more aggressive playstyles are all catered for. I’d love to see deeper customisation and choices, where you could perhaps choose to interrogate enemies, use them as bait, select specific melee finishers.
I’m ready to put more arrows into this dude.