The Last of Us Sound Design
The Last of Us Sound Design
The Last of Us Sound Design
Sony Computer Entertainment published The Last of Us on June 14, 2013 for the
PlayStation 3. The three-year development, led by studio Naughty Dog. In the game,
players assume control of Joel, tasked with escorting the young Ellie across a post-
version, The Last of Us Remastered, was released for the PlayStation 4 in July
increased draw distance, an upgraded combat mechanic, and higher frame rate.
The Last of Us is played from a third-person perspective; players can use firearms
and improvised weapons, as well as use stealth to defend against enemies and
sense of hearing and spatial awareness. Weapons can also be upgraded using
To create the sound of the Clickers, in a later stage of the Infection, the team found
inspiration from a report on the journalism show 20/20, about blind children using
clicking noises to communicate. To create the sound, they hired voice actors to
perform their renditions. When voice actress Misty Lee provided her own rendition,
Phillip Kovats and senior sound designer Derrick Espino agreed that it was what they
wanted. Kovats then proceeded to emulated the sound that then featured in the
game.
Tara Carville Sound Design in Contemporary Media
Clickers the main enemy in the game are blind, they are attracted to sound. So if a
player makes sound such as attacking an enemy loudly close to them, or shooting a
gun they will attack however they can also be distracted and forced into another
Clickers do not click the same way as in previous beta demos where it would sound
more like constant tapping of the tongue. In the final and released game version, the
The general sound of infected varies as each stage of the Clickers' (infected) has
distinct sounds that allows the player to prepare before moving on in the gameplay.
Sound is used to immerse the player into the games environment and the gameplay
characters travel on different terrain. The game environment is also filled with small
items; such as glass, bottles, bricks that can be thrown and create further sound in
The dialogue throughout The Last of Us is very consistent, the accents are all
relatively normal theres none that feels distinctively out of place and thus gives the
impression that all these people live together in the same world and scenario.
The compound location in the game is highly populated compared to most of the
other locations as it is a base of sorts, and this is made evident through background
dialogue heard from NPCs, this also gives the player an insight to their situations
and helps with world building. It shows that these people have been living for twenty
years under the post apocalyptic circumstances and their emotions/reactions are
The dialogue helps the player build relationships between the characters, while also
giving impression of certain characters who have known each other for some time,
such as the main character Joel and another character Tess. This is clear by the
difference in dialogue between them and others. The dialogue is familiar and
comfortable, while we as the players get to witness Joel and Ellie building a
relationship throughout the game, such as Joel not understanding initially when Ellie
is joking.
The music for The Last of Us was composed by Gustavo Santaolalla. For The Last
of Us, he used a detuned guitar, producing deep noise. To produce unique tunes,
Sound design rather than game-play makes 'The Last of Us' stand out. Unlike the
endless shooting and waves of enemies demanded by the genre, Naughty Dog
followed through on their less is more idea with sparse audio and a stripped back
soundtrack.
The sound in The Last of Us is vital to the game as it helps to build atmosphere and
to immerse the players into the post-apocalyptic world that the developers have
made. Without the sound, there are several aspects of the game that wouldnt work
such as the Clickers and a majority of the gameplay would be very unfair without
their very distinctive audio cues. Even though the soundtrack of The Last of Us is