Naughty Dog, celebrated as the creators of such classics as Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter, have enjoyed recent success with the Uncharted series and The Last of Us. There is one thing, particularly prominent in the latter titles, which makes a Naughty Dog game instantly identifiable, and that is its incorporation of puzzles into its environmental design. With The Last Of Us Part II on the way, it seems only right to focus on The Last Of Us, but everything mentioned below is equally applicable to any given Uncharted title. This article will detail how The Last Of Us highlights Naughty Dog’s ability to create significant environments.

Environmental puzzles are not a feature that is unique to Naughty Dog games. Over the years, plenty of developers have designed games that have featured puzzles based on environmental manipulation. However, Naughty Dog does not simply say, “You need to move this box out of the way to progress.” In Naughty Dog titles, the box is just part of the aesthetic. There is no detriment to verisimilitude, because nothing seems out of place. When the player first realizes that Ellie cannot swim in The Last Of Us, it quickly becomes clear that, like many games, the player must solve puzzles in order to help their companion traverse impassable spaces. From Ico‘s Yorda, to Atreus in the most recent God of War, many games base their puzzles on the incapability of an essential character to progress further without s...