Apocalypse : My new MP mode for The Last Of Us !

We all know that multi-player as well as single player DLC for The Last of Us is coming soon and all wise gamers have already bought the Season Pass for it. As my last article must have clearly shown you all, I am completely in love with this game and consider it the epitome of good game design. The game is so good that either I am playing it or I am always thinking about it.

          While on one of those daydreaming trips of  mine :) I came up with an idea for a fantastic  MP mode for The Last of Us which could retain the multiplayer flavour we love, but also give us a real feel of surviving the apocalypse while fighting with real people and not AI. How can we have the SP mode's world and add real people instead of the AI and have a "real" survival game? How it would really feel in the apocalyptic future with rare supplies, rival factions and the infected roaming the world !


 The result, ladies and gentlemen, is what I call the : Apocalypse mode ! :) It is not a co-op mode, it is not a horde mode...

...the rules are pretty simple :

Phase 1:

• 2 teams start at their basecamps A and B with limited set of 'tickets' or 'spawns', like say in Battlefield
• The players rush to pick up supplies from different areas on the map just like in Survival or Raid while fending off enemy players.
•  along with supplies, You also get "Parts" or "tickets " from these supply points now. The supplies belong to each player for crafting weapons but these "Parts" have to be deposited back into their base to earn more 'tickets' for your team. If you die while carrying them back, your teammates or the enemy players can pick them up again.
• The supply points are littered all over the map, just like in Raid or Survival and you scuttle between your base and the next supply point to gather tickets and supplies.
• You can have your team to defend you while only one guy does it, or all team members can scuttle off to different supply points to gather as many as they can.
• Do whatever you can , plan to get as much supplies and parts and prevent the other team from delivering the parts to their base to keep their tickets down OR just steal their parts and deliver to your base ! Team work gets rewarded.

Phase 2:

• After a set amount of time OR when all supply points have been looted,  the 'Apocalypse' begins and the infected arrive from two points on the map. Both teams get engaged in surviving the infected wave as well surviving each other.
• No supply points exist now. Use whatever supplies you have left from Phase 1 and loot what you can from dead bodies of the enemy team or the infected.
• Fight the infected, stealth kill them, bomb them, Do whatever you can and but keep an eye out for the enemy team too. Total survival !
• The team which survives till the end of the wave or has more tickets when all the infected have been wiped out, wins the round.
  

   We can have three rounds where in each round the Infected get more and more dangerous.

• First round : invaded by Runners.
• Second round: Runners + Clickers invade the match
• Third Round : Runners, clickers and two Bloaters !!

  Each team can go for either collecting stuff quickly and hiding from the enemy team, saving their tickets and bombs for the infected attack or making the other team weak by killing them off as much as they can and looting their supplies and tickets. But then, during fights, they themselves will also lose supplies required for surviving the Infected ! Multiple strategies are possible keeping each round fresh and unique ! The presence of the Infected and 'real world' rival people makes for the perfect "Apocalypse" survival experience possible in the world of The Last Of Us! :) Whatcha say !

Different Map features like hutments, natural landscape features like drop-offs can add to the survival fun while being pursued by the Infected.  This can be insanely fun :) !  This could be so much more than just a plain co-op mode against the infected or a tower defence stuff that every game seems to have now.

      The rules are simple and so is the implementation and I am really hoping  that instead of a straight up co-op mode, ala Uncharted, Naughty Dog listens and incorporates something like this it into the forthcoming DLC. If you guys have more suggestions on improving this or more maps designs, do put them in the comments!  Do Tweet it, like or G+ it and let ND hear ! ALso, if you haven't already, check out my previous article on the excellence of The Las of Us:

The Last of Us: A Masterclass in Game Design !

C'mon Naughty Dog, let the community design some maps n modes for you :) !