The Last of Us open-world game gets the vibe check

An look at what The Last of Us might have looked like as an open-world game has appeared via a fan-made teaser trailer.

Just below, you can check out a post on the subreddit for The Last of Us, which first popped up yesterday on January 26. In the short video, we're guided through a small open-world area set in the world of Naughty Dog's game, as post-apocalyptic streets are lined with the shells of burned out cars and litter, before Joel eventually appears with a shotgun. It's more of a vibe check than a full proof-of-concept, but it's still a well-realised idea.

This small fan-made teaser trailer appears to be set in the early days of the pandemic that would eventually ravage civilization in The Last of Us. We can see body bags strewn across grassy areas, and Joel is all by himself, wandering through the deserted streets which are actually still fairly intact, unlike the world in which Naughty Dog's 2013 game takes place.

In the comments underneath the subreddit post, players are wondering if a Last of Us game would ever work in an open-world setting. Some argue that it would lose all tense of tension, as the scariest moments tend to occur in small, cramped environments, while other argue that parts of The Last of Us 2 are small pockets of an open-world game already.

Either way, the though of an open-world Last of Us game is certainly a tantalizing prospect. Could Naughty Dog's meticulously crafted game series really work in an open-ended world, or would it falter?