After several years of being told that Naughty Dog has a new IP up their sleeves and months of hype on the part of Studio Head Neil Druckmann, the studio has finally unveiled Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet at the Video Game Awards this Thursday. This Is Naughty Dog’s first new IP since their critically acclaimed series The Last of Us premiered in 2013, 11 years ago.
The teaser trailer features a cinematic of the game’s lead character Jordan A. Mun, a bounty hunter portrayed by Tati Gabrielle perhaps best known for her role in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Additionally, Silicon Valley star Kumail Nanjiani will portray her target, Colin Graves, with his face being featured in the trailer. The game takes cues from animes such as Akira and Cowboy Bebop and will feature a soundtrack composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
The plot is set thousands of years in the future and concerns Jordan on the hunt for her target Colin eventually arriving on the planet of Sempiria where she crash lands and ends up stranded. This planet having gone dark hundreds of years prior will have to rely on her skills and a future tech sword to find her mark and escape with her life.
While Naughty Dog continues to be a high-caliber developer of AAA games for Sony, this is an odd direction given how this narrative genre has become very common in Gaming. Stranded: Alien Dawn and Scars Above would be two more recent titles that come to mind using the stranded trope, with the PlayStation 5 having its own first-party IP in Returnal that also has that theme. Hopefully, Naughty Dog can bring their own twist to it to set it apart.
The oddest part of the trailer was the product placement. While the Sony brand CD player was expected, given they own the studio, Jordans’ spacecraft was clearly a Porsche, and her shoes clearly Adidas. Given the year of layoffs, we just experienced in the industry and the increased scrutiny on inflated budgets this feels like a calculated move, even if odd. With 4 years of development time so far I expect Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet to be another title with a large budget that needs offsetting.
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