Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is already courting controversy.
Given it’s the first Naughty Dog game announced in years that isn’t a remaster, remake or a sequel, it’s kind of shocking thatdoesn’t have more views on YouTube and more buzz online. Then again, the title is a mouthful and not quite as catchy as Both trailers are getting “ratioed” in terms of likes vs dislikes.
The former has 38,000 likes and 51,000 dislikes at the time of this writing. 29k/40k for the latter. And while Naughty Dog had comments turned off the moment the trailer went live—theythis was going to be controversial—Sony’s trailer has comments turned on. They include such gems as:NYT Mini Hints And Answers For Saturday, December 14 What To Watch This Weekend: New Shows And Movies To Stream On Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Apple TV And More“The most surprising thing about this trailer is that Sony left the comments on.”Mostly, it’s the character design for the game’s lead, Jordan A. Mun, who is played by Tati Gabrielle. You’ll recognize Gabrielle from the Netflix seriesConcord, which bombed so hard it was taken offline two weeks after launch. That game’s failure can’t entirely be blamed on “woke” character designs. Uninspired gameplay, derivative characters and plenty other factors went into the tepid response from the gaming community. But it didn’t help. Personally, I very intensely dislike Jordan’s character design, though I’m not sure it’s as simple as saying it’s overly “woke” though she does certainly look a lot like Lev from. I think it’s odd, first of all, that the character is so much less attractive—and lighter skinned—than Gabrielle:The shaved head look is also odd given the “cassette futurism” aesthetic the game has going for it, which I really like a lot. I dig the CRT monitors, the CD player, the vintage red leather jacket, all of it, but the hairdo seems wildly out of place. Of course, a shaved head seriously cuts down on processing power. Hair uses up a lot of resources when it comes to rendering graphics, and a shaved head is just way less workload for the PS5—assuming this launches before the PS6 comes out. Still, I wish we had some customization options here This isn’t a game likewhere you rarely see the character’s face. You’ll spend a lot of time with this character in story scenes. Might as well have the option to fine-tune. Another reason this trailer is controversial is all the product placement for brands like Porsche, Adidas and—to a lesser degree, for obvious reasons—Sony. I’m reminded of playing Hideo Kojima’sand finding myself staring down the barrel of a bevy of Monster energy drinks, just totally ripped out of the game’s otherwise cohesive post-apocalyptic world. InJordan has arrived on Simperia, a mysterious planet cut off from the rest of the galaxy, after voyaging from an alt-Earth where space travel was a major thing by the 1980s. That explains the Pet Shop Boys CD and all the rest, but product placement is always jarring and controversial, even if this was done to anchor the game to an 80s vibe. More troubling to me is the inclusion of recognizable celebrities, which also feels very much like a Hideo Kojima game in recent years, as Kojima has made it clear how much he values celebrity . Game director Neil Druckmann is taking page after page from Kojima, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing. On the bright side, the aesthetic is definitely cool and the in-engine graphics we see in the trailer0 are amazing even if we didn’t get any real gameplay. I love all those CRT monitors in the spaceship. I love that Naughty Dog is taking a leap here, moving away from “real world” stuff and going full sci-fi. I’m also really happy that the tone is a bit less dour than the endlessly bleakeven if I’m worried that “humor” here will basically be annoying, quippy, MCU-esque dialogue. Better still, the soundtrack is being written by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, the team behind the soundtracks ofBut I remain leary of the protagonist beyond just her looks. The “smarmy, know-it-all girlboss” is the new “grizzled white dude” when it comes to tiresome video game character tropes. Maybe that’s not Jordan, but that’s the vibe I get. And like many other gamers, I’m tired of getting preached at, and maybe that won’t happen inbut it’s a valid concern at this point when it comes to AAA Western video games. I don’t mind political themes in games, but modern politics—whether they’re rightwing identity politics or social justice identity politics—just break immersion and make a game feel instantly dated. We shall see.Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.Insults, profanity, incoherent, obscene or inflammatory language or threats of any kindContinuous attempts to re-post comments that have been previously moderated/rejectedAttempts or tactics that put the site security at riskProtect your community.
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Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is a new sci-fi game from Naughty DogJessica has written for online outlets since 2008, and she joined Engadget in 2015 after four years as senior reporter at Joystiq. As Engadget’s primary video game editor, her work spans reviews, interviews with prominent developers, in-depth articles about indie creators, and videos on industry trends.
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