Naughty Dog Gets Crafty With The Last of Us

In a new developer diary, Naughty Dog showcases the risks and rewards of The Last of Us' crafting and inventory system. Will you shiv your way to safety, or will you engineer a more cautious approach to escaping danger?

Creating player choice has been a pretty big trend during this generation of gaming. Though most titles have assigned decision making to broad, potentially game-changing moments of morality, there have been a few which focus on the smaller moments. The Last of Us incorporates choice into Joel's and Ellie's survival instincts by having the player choose what items to create from scavenged junk in the world.

You could be an offensive mastermind, and craft dirty bombs from a can and some broken scissors, or even a molotov cocktail from some rags and alcohol. However, creating those items means you may not have enough resources to craft a shiv or a med kit. With so few actual items in the world, the value of one item over another must be weighted carefully. To make matters even more interesting, whatever you decide Joel should craft will be created in real time. Prepping for an upcoming skirmish, or being prepared for when things go south, can make all the difference.

Check out the developer diary below for a better look at the creation tools in The Last of Us, and let us know if you'll be picking up the PlayStation 3 exclusive when it releases on June 14th.