Undoubtedly a trend for AAA blockbusters in the last decade,The Last of Us Part 2is quite a long game by action-adventure genre standards, clocking in at roughly 25–30 hours on a New Game playthrough with a decent amount of exploration involved. In comparison,The Last of Us Part 1is a fairly tight narrative despite how much protagonists Joel and Ellie endure on a nearly year-long expedition from Massachusetts to Utah and back to Wyoming.The Last of Us Part 2is a much longer game, even if its story takes place over a mere several months between Joel’s death and when Ellie returns to her and Dina’s farmhouse from Santa Barbara (flashbacks not included).
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet’s length won’t be divulged for quite some time, butNeil Druckmann’s Creator to Creator interview with Alex Garlandwas illuminating in that it shed a few key timeline details.Intergalacticreportedly “takes place 2,000 years in an alternate future that deviates in the late-80s,” giving Naughty Dog just about every creative liberty it could want as it lingers around the real-life present day of the same century. WhetherIntergalacticis short or long, though, may depend on if its narrative is more likePart 1orPart 2in its storytelling structure.
The Last of Us Part 1 is the Epitome of ‘Long Story Short’
Part 1is what the first entry inThe Last of Usis now retroactively known as and as such it had the unenviable responsibility of delivering on prerequisite exposition and worldbuilding. This contributes a lot toward how gradual the opening ofPart 1can be, andThe Last of Us’ training wheels arguably aren’t removed until players reach Lincoln and meet Bill before Joel and Ellie are thrust at Pittsburgh’s hunters on their lonesome.
Massachusetts is where players obtain an understanding of how quarantine zones operate under oppressive FEDRA law, and it’s tremendously important to have the context of how perilous it is to sneak out from a QZ, even if it’s Joel and Tess’ job as smugglers to do so regularly.Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophetcould look toThe Last of Us Part 1for how to initially express its lore via environmental storytelling and an inescapably dogged introduction, especially with how rich and subversiveIntergalactic’s brand of science fiction may be.
Exposition forprotagonist Jordan A. Mun’s role as a bounty hunterwould be neat, as well as a history of where her home planet is or the state of civilization during the events ofIntergalactic’s story. However, there may be no backstory necessary for Sempiria if Jordan is as unfamiliar with the planet as players will be when they crash-land there.
The Last of Us Part 2 Tells the Same Story Twice
Druckmann’s comments aboutIntergalacticseem to paint a rough sketch ofIntergalacticand how it could be aiming to differentiate itself from the likes of Naughty Dog’sUnchartedandThe Last of Us. In endeavoring to make a game “about just being lonely,” Druckmann implies there won’t be an ally with Jordan. Likewise, the goal is apparently for players “to be lost in a place that [they’re] really confused about what happened here—who are the people here? What was their history?”
Assuming these are allquestions that will be answered inIntergalactic: The Heretic Prophet’s story, the actual plot of the game may do the heavy lifting in this regard and, if it’s truly as simple as players trying to find a way off of Sempiria, it could lean more towardThe Last of Us Part 1thanThe Last of Us Part 2.
Another reason whyIntergalacticmay not take manystorytelling cues fromThe Last of Us’ sequelis that the latter essentially tells the same story through two characters’ perspectives, which consequently doubles its length. Unless there is another playable character that Naughty Dog hasn’t revealed yet,The Heretic Prophetmight not necessitate an adventure ofPart 2’s length. That said, with Naughty Dog games progressively getting bigger, it wouldn’t be surprising to seeIntergalacticmeet or exceedPart 2’s length depending on how much of Sempiria players explore.
