The Last of Us is well known for being dark and gritty. Both the story and combat are intense experiences that keep the player on the edge of their seat until the next encounter. With that said, the original The Last of Us multiplayer mode, titled Factions, took away some tense combat in favor of a more relaxed environment. Factions did well as a nice change of pace from the main game, but since Naughty Dog announced that the next The Last of Us multiplayer adventure will be its own standalone title, it would benefit from creating a more gripping experience.
Multiplayer modes in story-driven games often find it difficult to maintain the theme and structure of the story while also providing a worthwhile multiplayer experience. Naughty Dog is definitely creating a challenge for itself by promising a multiplayer game set in The Last of Us’ world that is story driven. In order to capture the tense and unforgiving nature of the previous titles, Naughty Dog may want to look into adopting features from other successful, hardcore multiplayer games, such as Escape From Tarkov.
What Makes Escape From Tarkov So Intense
Escape From Tarkov is a unique blend of realistic FPS and survival. The game has gained quite the following in recent years because of its challenging mechanics, tense firefights, and addictive loot system. The main draw of Escape From Tarkov is how it combines different elements from popular multiplayer games and implements them in a way that entices players to continue to explore the world and challenge other players, even if it means risking all the gear they have accrued.
The combat in Escape From Tarkov is hyper-realistic, which comes with both positive and negative effects. Players do not have a HUD or any sort of aim assist, aside from the sights on their weapons, and must navigate the world of enemy players while also being careful not to hurt teammates, as friendly fire is always on. Every shot counts in Escape From Tarkov because ammunition, weapons, and healing items are scarce resources, and each part of a character's body can be damaged individually and must be healed with specific healing items, so there is no miracle cure that automatically heals a player fully.
The scarcity of resources and player vulnerability makes strategy and planning a priority in Escape From Tarkov, especially when survivability is made even more difficult by requiring players to maintain food and water levels, similar to other survival games such as Rust. Not only do players have to keep an eye out for enemies, but they must also ensure they are staying fed and hydrated, or else they could succumb to a natural death.
The main goal in Escape From Tarkov is for players to accumulate a stockpile of resources and escape each raid with their life. If players are able to successfully escape, they keep their loot for the next raid and effectively have an advantage over other players. Since enemies are always looming around each corner waiting to hunt down players and take their loot, the game is full of adrenaline and a constant sense of dread, but that reason why Escape From Tarkov is such an intense and thrilling experience.
What The Last of Us Multiplayer Can Learn from Escape From Tarkov
Because Escape From Tarkov is solely a multiplayer game, it does not have to expand upon a story or create any sort of connections, which grants it much more freedom to create its own unique experience. However, since The Last of Us is so heavily story-focused, it needs to walk the line between staying true to its roots and creating a compelling multiplayer experience. Fortunately, much of The Last of Us’ story focuses on scarce resources and survivability, and Escape From Tarkov has laid down a blueprint that Naughty Dog could follow.
The new The Last of Us multiplayer game will likely share some similarities with the previous Factions game mode, but it could also raise the stakes and create a more realistic challenge. Previous iterations of The Last of Us had players searching for pieces of scrap to improve weapons, create tools or armor, and effectively gain an advantage over the enemy. Escape From Tarkov also encourages scavenging and hoarding materials, but makes it more worthwhile by having each item mean something -- possibly the difference between life and death in the next firefight. The Last of Us should make its scrap and looting system more closely resemble a survival game, in which each piece of equipment or scrap found is crucial.
Escape From Tarkov is not a battle royale, but it does play similarly to one. The combat in battle royales is intense and fast-paced because it usually means one of the parties involved is going to lose the match, and Escape From Tarkov mirrors this intensity by making players vulnerable and using a large space in which firefights could be sparse, but each encounter is quick and deadly. The main game of The Last of Us follows a similar formula, with enemies usually spread out and moving tactically between areas of cover so players never know when the next attack may be. The multiplayer could therefore create spaced-out, tense firefights that may take a while to begin, but once they start, it becomes a heated skirmish where one well-placed shot could determine the victor.
Though it is unlikely The Last of Us multiplayer would adopt survival features such as food and water intake, the game could create an extra layer of danger through other means that are more on par with previous games. Because The Last of Us has players going against human and infected enemies, the multiplayer could include a type of PvE that has players facing off against each other while also attempting to either evade or eliminate the infected. The hunger and thirst levels in Escape From Tarkov act as an unsuspecting danger in the background that could eliminate a player if they are not cautious, and the infected in The Last of Us multiplayer could provide a similar threat.
Escape From Tarkov is the definitive culmination of realism in both survival and FPS games, and it has created a unique experience that ultimately presents itself as a very intense and exciting experience. The Last of Us has curated some of the most gripping and heart-stopping storylines and third-person combat in modern gaming, but its multiplayer rendition has lost some charm. With that said, it makes absolute sense for The Last of Us to adopt features from a gritty multiplayer title such as Escape From Tarkov and introduce them in its new multiplayer game to create a more realistic and extreme challenge.
A The Last of Us multiplayer game is in development.