The Last of Us' flamethrower is powerful because Naughty Dog ran out of time

Creative director Neil Druckmann explains the flamethrower balance in The Last of Us, and how it was actually underpowered until Naughty Dog ran out of time for balancing.

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For the most part, The Last of Us is meticulously balanced to keep resources scarce and build tension. Some of that tension goes away when you find the flamethrower, which toasts zombies with relative ease. Why include such a powerful weapon? Apparently, Naughty Dog ran out of time.

"That [flamethrower] was something that went in late," creative director Neil Druckmann told VentureBeat. "It felt right in regards to improvisational weapons in the world, having someone craft a weapon like that and Joel finding it. That felt okay. When we were trying to tune it against the enemies, for the longest time it was underpowered against the enemies, through several playtests. We were running out of time, so at that point we just said, 'All right, let’s make it powerful.' That's what we ended up with."

Druckmann doesn't seem to regret the decision, though, since the reaction has been partly positive. "When you get that weapon, you've been struggling for a long time, and all of a sudden you have this flamethrower. There's a sense of relief for a lot players," he said. "'Finally, I’ve got something I can use.' But we've heard different kinds of feedback about the flamethrower."

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 9, 2013 2:00 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, The Last of Us' flamethrower is powerful because Naughty Dog ran out of time.

    Creative director Neil Druckmann explains the flamethrower balance in The Last of Us, and how it was actually underpowered until Naughty Dog ran out of time for balancing.

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      August 9, 2013 2:06 PM

      The only thing worse than not having a flamethrower is having an underpowered flamethrower. And any flamethrower that isn't powerful is underpowered almost by definition. They're short ranged, profoundly unsubtle, and while you can argue for most enemies being made not-combat-effective quickly, they can still run around screaming (or equivalent) for a while.

      If you can't make your flamethrower powerful, don't put a flamethrower in your game.

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      August 9, 2013 2:08 PM

      Return to castle wolfenstein still has one of the best flame-throwers ever.

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        August 9, 2013 2:38 PM

        it was so much fun. jsut a blast to burn people who deserved it

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      August 9, 2013 2:08 PM

      [deleted]

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      August 9, 2013 2:10 PM

      [deleted]

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      August 9, 2013 2:15 PM

      I couldn't bring myself to use it on humans and only used it on the infected.

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      August 9, 2013 2:20 PM

      That sounds like the pistol from Halo 1. Same thing happened.

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      August 9, 2013 2:23 PM

      Interesting. I've played the game several times now and have yet to use the flamethrower.

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      August 9, 2013 2:28 PM

      I never used the flamethrower because I was always worried about running out of ammo in case of some massive rush of infected.

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        August 9, 2013 2:42 PM

        Yeah, that's the thing about really powerful weapons in games: Unless ammo is really plentiful, they are often somewhat self-regulating. People will either use them a lot and use up the ammo, taking them out of the picture for significant periods of time, or people will hoard them for "special occasions", again, taking them out of the picture for significant periods of time.

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      August 9, 2013 2:38 PM

      KINGPIN: best flamethrower ever

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        August 9, 2013 2:51 PM

        RTCW would like a word with you.

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          August 9, 2013 3:08 PM

          same makers I believe (or close to that)

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          August 9, 2013 3:38 PM

          actually unreal 2

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            August 9, 2013 9:36 PM

            Oh, did Unreal 2 have a flamethrower? I kind of blacked out on playing that game. What a pretty ball of 'meh' that was.

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              August 10, 2013 12:08 AM

              Late in the game it has a pretty awesome mission with the ship falling apart around you. But yeah, it... wasn't that great.

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        August 9, 2013 9:36 PM

        Kingpin was a much better game than most people give it credit for. I'm totally giving it a re-play in the future.

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          August 9, 2013 10:10 PM

          One of the greatest of all time

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          August 9, 2013 10:23 PM

          100% with you on that. Same guys that made Redneck Rampage and RTCW, as stated earlier.

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          August 9, 2013 11:54 PM

          needs a kickstarter remake

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          August 10, 2013 12:10 AM

          It's up on GOG for your playing pleasure.

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      August 9, 2013 3:10 PM

      I used the flame thrower in what I'll call one of the last tunnel combat sequences and it made it resoundingly simple. Just run forward and roast.

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      August 9, 2013 3:39 PM

      [deleted]

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      August 9, 2013 9:39 PM

      I just realized I never even tried the flamethrower in TLoU

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