Naughty Dog’s New Game May Have Horror Elements

Premiere developer Naughty Dog’s latest endeavor, the IP-initiating Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, has seen some of its contributors leave a few clues online indicating the potential for the game to lean in part toward horror. The sub-five-minute announcement trailer for Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet was full of hints and winking Easter eggs for fans to dissect, but the majority of the narrative is still shrouded in mystery.

Gamers have been eagerly awaiting any information on the next project from Naughty Dog, a studio that’s produced several games broadly considered to be among the greatest ever made. Aside from remakes and transmedia adaptations, the studio’s last new game was 2020’s The Last of Us Part 2. Fans of the company were finally let in on the secret at 2024’s Game Awards with the Intergalactic trailer, which teed up a space-faring story replete with killer robots, a premium soundtrack and score, and some very obvious product placement.

Related

Intergalactic Actor Calls Neil Druckmann ‘Video Game God’

An actor from Naughty Dog’s next big project, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, shares kind words about Neil Druckmann following the game’s reveal.

Illustrator and story artist Colin Lorimer (who’s worked with Dark Horse Comics, HBO, and Disney) took to Instagram to talk about his contributions to the upcoming Naughty Dog game. He mentions that he worked on Intergalactic‘s initial board pitch, but the real teaser comes in the tags he chose to accompany the post. They include some of Intergalactic‘s more obvious reference points like Akira and Alien, but more pointedly are the added genre labels “scifi,” “horror,” and “fantasy.” While those are pretty broad terms that could encompass any number of elements in the game, the darkly playful tone of the Intergalactic trailer and the terror-rich legacy behind space exploration media makes the inclusion of some compelling horror elements a highly plausible prediction.

Other Collaborators Point Toward Intergalactic’s Ominous Potential

Neal Druckmann recently shared new Intergalactic details, saying that the game explores the ramifications of putting “your faith in different institutions.” While that doesn’t give much away, the theme of faith-driven fallout, coupled with the reference to an ecstatic religious organization in the game’s trailer, strikes an ominous note. The participation of other artists like Tye Martinez, who specializes in concept art with a macabre edge, and the composer duo of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who certainly know how to make a sinister soundtrack, further indicates a game that indulges in some unsettling elements.

Naughty Dog is also no stranger to effective horror, with The Last of Us deftly combining strong social commentary, rich emotional narrative threads, and novel takes on traditional horror tropes. It’s easy to imagine the company merging retro sci-fi with some truly frightening encounters in a genre-defying feast for players to laser-sword their way through. With scant clues as to the Intergalactic‘s release date, it may be some time before players find out just how scary the game is or isn’t.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Propher follows Jordan A. Mun, a dangerous bounty hunter who ends up stranded on Sempiria – a distant planet whose communication with the outside universe went dark hundreds of years ago. In fact, anyone who’s flown to it hoping to unravel its mysterious past was never heard from again. Jordan will have to use all her skills and wits if she hopes to be the first person in over 600 years to leave its orbit.

Systems

Publisher(s)

Sony Interactive Entertainment