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Trailer Review: The Last Guy

Posted by Derrick Sanskrit

Zombies are so fashionable these days. They're the new ninjas, who were in turn the new pirates, who themselves were the new monkeys. But consumers are fickle, and as such zombies will soon be passé. Always trendsetters, Sony's Japan Studio are one step ahead with a new game in which alien zombies are destroying the world. Awesome.

Of course, the gimmick to this game that most people seem to be interested in is that the environment is built from hi-res satellite images via Google Earth. Also awesome.

Add to this cocktail gameplay that simultaneously resembles retro classics Snake and Pac-Man and say hello to the triple threat Playstation Network game that is The Last Guy (awesome title).



You play as the titular last guy after an alien zombie attack. You must then run around the satellite map of town to gather other survivors (so you're not the last guy?) and run them to safe zones while avoiding more alien zombies.

From this trailer, The Last Guy looks to be an addictive and compelling arcade-style game, best suited for short casual play sessions, much like many of their other PSN games. The unique and modern presentation is certainly interesting. Considering the low asking price (only five American dollars when it launches in Japan) and my love for similarly quirky Japan Studio PSN titles Locoroco Cocoreccho! and Echochrome, I look forward to downloading The Last Guy just as soon as I can.

Related articles:
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In Defense of In-Game Advertising


+ DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT
Posted Jul 24 2008, 06:15 PM
Filed under: , , , ,

Comments

Roto13 said:

I like the idea. I like the idea a LOT. The gameplay, however, doesn't look like anything particularly exciting to me. I'll probably buy it, anyway, since it'll be so cheap and it's such a cool concept. Maybe it'll be one of those games that's incredibly boring to watch but a lot of fun to play. It happens a lot with arcade-style games.

I have a dream of a game that uses the landscape data from Google Earth to generate fully 3D replicas of entire cities to play around in. Textures could be randomly assigned from a pre designed set at first. Gamers could then design more accurate textures and upload them to a server for the public to use. It'd be the greatest use of community created content any game has ever seen. Suck it, Little Big Planet!

On an unrelated note, I'd love to be able to receive email notifications when new comments are posted. :P This is quickly becoming my new favourite gaming news blog. (I subscribe to dozens of them.)

July 24, 2008 7:04 PM

corky said:

That idea about landscape date from Google Earth is phenomenal. I really enjoy your posts, Roto13.

July 25, 2008 5:25 AM

jamobey said:

Instead of having random textures, you could actually use a raster image (high-altitude photos from planes) or satellite imagery as a overlay.  I used to work at a computer mapping company, and I've seen this done.  The vertical surfaces look kind of wonky, because you're stretching an overhead image to cover them, but you can cover huge areas with their actual images.

I've always thought an MMORPG (possibly about zombies?) would work really well like this, and I think you could make a killing on the advertising.  You could contract with vendors to geocode their actual locations in the game, and then all the players would essentially be learning the locations of all the local stores while playing.

July 25, 2008 10:05 AM

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John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Hooksexup, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia's prized possession is a certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

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Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.


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Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

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