Naughty Dog's post-apocalyptic adventure The Last of Us will have some sort of multiplayer component, though the developer has confirmed that it will not be playable co-operatively.
The game's main campaign will be single-player only, The Last of Us' creative director Neil Druckmann told Gaming Examiner. With that being said, Druckmann did indicate plans to incorporate multiplayer into the game.
"We are supporting multiplayer with The Last of Us," Druckmann said. "We're not ready to talk about the details of how multiplayer will be implemented, however we can say that it is not co-op within the main campaign."
Back in February, game director Bruce Straley teased an "awesome" online component although he admitted that they were working on a bunch of ideas. Like most shooters, we'll likely see some form of competitive death match, but with such a unique environment and concept, maybe we will see a scavenger-type mode. Maybe we'll see some additional side missions of other survivors that will be played cooperatively?
While some may consider the decision to not have the main campaign be co-op a bit odd given the way the game's story is set up: a father-figure/daughter duo on a survival-adventure in a post-apocalyptic world. It's not hard to envision how two players could participate, one as Joel, the other as Ellie.
However, with such a strong emphasis on story, the relationship between the two characters could be lost with co-op play. That's not to mention, in the gameplay demo shown at E3, it looked like Naughty Dog has nailed the AI of Ellie so that she is actually useful in dangerous situations (I mean, the part where she threw the rock was freaking awesome!). I think you lose that crucial dynamic if you have another player controller Ellie.
