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Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet Is The Next, Very Different Naughty Dog Game

Sony's flagship studio is back again with a dazzling game reveal in an original sci-fi universe.

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At The Game Awards, Naughty Dog introduced its next big game, and it's far different than anything it's done before. The game is called Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, and appears to be set in a far-flung but still very grounded science-fiction future.

The cinematic trailer showed the heroic bounty hunter, Jordan A. Mun played by Tatiana Gabrielle, receiving a call from a dispatcher and taking a job to the dangerous planet Sempiria. She dismisses concerns about people going there and never returning as superstition, and casts caution to the wind. We then see her taking off in her Porsche spaceship, and confronting a hulking robotic menace. Though the game didn't show combat or other gameplay footage, host Geoff Keighley noted it was all rendered in-engine.

In a separate post from Naughty Dog published alongside the debut, the studio revealed that it has been working on this project since 2020. The post notes that Jordan does in fact become stranded on Sempiria, and her story involves her attempts to be the first to escape the cursed planet in more than 600 years. The game is being scored by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and it sure looks like Kumail Nanjiani will be in it.

This marks Naughty Dog's first game since 2020's The Last of Us Part II. Since then, however, things have remained hectic for the studio, even outside of this project. In 2023, The Last of Us premiered on HBO as a live-action adaptation of the first game. The second season is scheduled to debut in 2025 and is said to adapt some, but not all, of the video game sequel's story, with a future season expected to further the story from there.

Originally, Naughty Dog was working on a multiplayer spin-off based on The Last of Us' Factions mode. The Last of Us Online was going to be a PvP game that would move the single-player's atmosphere and gritty combat into a multiplayer experience with live-service elements. The game was canceled two years ago and Naughty Dog said it would be staying focused on single-player games.

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Tiwill44

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Naughty Dog is cooked.

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MoogleStar

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@Tiwill44: TLOU 2 says no. No matter how many losers tried to tarnish it without even playing a second of it.

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Silentchief

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@mooglestar: it still never sold half of what the first one did. Say what you want but they lost half their audience.

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Zalos

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@silentchief: To be honest, money aside, they're probably happy to have lost that audience. I know I would be.

I'd know I can actually respect the emotional intelligence of the players buying my games from now on.

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Elderlord99

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Edited By Elderlord99

@zalos: lol I hope their happy when their unemployed. This is exactly why people could care less about people that work in the game industry. When they are replaced by AI and development teams from China they will have nobody but themselves to blame because of that very same attitude.

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blindbsnake

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@silentchief: "they lost half their audience"

Lost some, won others... many remained... Will see...

Time was a plus against the enthusiastic initial hate... so...

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MoogleStar

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@silentchief: Didn't sell as well but still a hugely critically acclaimed game. One I liked even more than the first. To each their own. ND ain't cooked.

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Silentchief

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@mooglestar: this game will be a commercial flop. It looks like the campaign for Concord.

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PCPS4XB

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@silentchief: more like you want it to fail....

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mogan

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mogan  Moderator

@Tiwill44: Why? That looked interesting.

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mrbojangles25

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@Tiwill44: awww, why you say that?

Please have a better reason than "cuz bald woman bad" 😋🤣

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blindbsnake

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@mrbojangles25: "Please have a better reason than "cuz bald woman bad" 😋🤣"

I think you expect too much from these guys...

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Silentchief

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Edited By Silentchief

@mrbojangles25: If you honestly don't think a large portion of the gaming demographic isn't going to see her as the main character and instantly write the game off? You haven't been paying attention.

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mrbojangles25

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@silentchief: I didn't say that. I do fully expect many to whine about it, as these anti-woke folks love to whine and moan about silly things that should be a mild annoyance at most.

I was just sort of stating the fact it is really silly that they do 🤣

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Silentchief

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Edited By Silentchief

@mrbojangles25: not wanting to buy a game is a mild annoyance in the grand scheme of things and that's exactly what's going to happen here. The good news is I think this will be what gets Druckman out of ND and possibly out of gaming.

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Zalos

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@silentchief: No way, my dude. Neil is here to stay. He has directed masterpieces that got the studio endless accolades and success.

He is widely respected, even working on the adaptation of TLoU that has also been a huge success.

You are literally trying to bring into existence your little personal fantasy. I'm sorry, but that's not going to happen. Probably better off just avoiding ND games from now on if they get your panties in a bunch so much.

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Tiwill44

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Edited By Tiwill44

@mrbojangles25: The writing in that trailer was agonizing, and trying to shame people for not liking a character design won't help your case. A lot of people will be laid off after this game comes out.

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mrbojangles25

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@Tiwill44: Fair enough.

Just keep in mind that this is a video game, and even the best-written video games tend to be very mediocre in terms of the writing relative to other media (shows, movies, books, comics, etc).

And I'm not shaming anyone for disliking a character design, I'm just shaming shamers 😋

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Silentchief

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@mrbojangles25: RDR2 brought most other media to shame honestly. This is the same insufferable girl boss we have gotten over and over again the past 10 years.

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blindbsnake

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@silentchief: Nah... People could use the same logic to talk about RDR2 using the other side of the spectrum... but, let's face it, people with most insecurities lies on the side who have problems with different characters...

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Tiwill44

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@mrbojangles25: I mean, I don't agree with that at all. What a strange thing to say about my favorite medium. Writing is writing, and there is fundamentally more you can do with games because of their interactive nature.

What you're effectively saying is "it's fine if this sucks because all game stories suck anyway". I find it hard to accept that you believe that if you choose to hang out on a gaming website.

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mogan

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@Tiwill44: What about that writing was so bad?

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Tiwill44

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@mogan: The main character has an insufferable attitude, but besides that, the writing fails to engage the viewer in any meaningful way. Which emotion are we supposed to feel after watching this? All I feel is apathy.

Take these two sets of lines for example:
A: "Superstitions."
B: "Superstitions are the crazy rumors about what happened on that planet."
A: "You worry too much."
B: "No no no, I worry just the right amount."
A: *Sluuuuuurp.*

What kind of writing is that? It's not progressing anything or making me care about anything. All it's telling me is that this character is full of themselves.

Another way to answer your question would be to flip it and ask you what was good about the writing. Compare this trailer to the original Last of Us announcement trailer for PS3, the difference in writing quality is obvious.

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mogan

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Edited By mogan  Moderator

@Tiwill44: I don’t know, I think that writing expressed that the character was confident (probably overconfident), she was going to a dangerous place that was also mysterious, and that the game will have a little humor. That's what I'd expect in a first trailer that's trying to set a tone and establish a hook.

Like I said in my other post, I really hate the smirking badass trope, but Naughty Dog have a strong history of writing good characters, so I won’t judge this whole game based on one trailer that only maybe showed a little bit of that.

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blindbsnake

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@mogan: You see possibilities, even if those possibilities can be wrong. They only see problems because they need to see problems, even if there are none...

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Daidochus

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Edited By Daidochus

@mogan: Naughty Dog have a strong history of writing good characters

Abby

But on a more serious note. Talking about ND history, no one is left of the old ND who made those characters. Ammy and Bruce long left.

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blindbsnake

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@daidochus: And Abby is a problem of bad writing why? Because you don't like her... LOLOL

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mogan

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@daidochus: Well, if whoever IS at Naughty Dog start making bad games, with poorly written characters, I'll stop giving them the benefit of the doubt. Until then, I think this trailer looks promising.

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Tiwill44

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@mogan: I don't personally trust studios or even individual developers blindly just because of their past record, unless I have something tangible to hold on to. But there's nothing here that screams "Naughty Dog quality".

If the main character I'm playing as is not endearing in their own reveal trailer and the trailer doesn't have any hooks, why would I expect the final game to be any different?

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Zalos

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Edited By Zalos

@Tiwill44: People like you are the reason the saying "don't judge a book by its cover" was invented.

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Tiwill44

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@zalos: That saying makes sense for books because they only consist of text, so a bad cover art is not necessarily indicative of the quality of the writing inside the book. This is a video game trailer showing the characters and tone that will be present in the final game. So, yes, I will judge the game by its trailer.

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PCPS4XB

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@Tiwill44: hardly any gameplay was shown to show if there was quality or not.

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mogan

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Edited By mogan  Moderator

@Tiwill44: There's a difference between not writing off a game after one trailer and blindly trusting that it will be great.

If you want to hate this game already, you do you. I don't agree that this trailer was bad and think you're jumping to conclusions; but that's my opinion.

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LucasRezende9

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@Tiwill44: Saying that the character "has an insufferable attitude" from such a short trailer is pushing it a lot. Plus what deep and complex writing were you expecting on a first trailer for a new IP? This was clearly made just to give an idea of what the game is about. People these days are too quick to write things off Jesus. But you do you mate.

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Tiwill44

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@lucasrezende9: They paid a lot of money for everyone to look at their game as the last trailer of the show. This was their biggest shot at selling this game, and this is how they chose to use it. There is no benefit of the doubt here, what you see is what they wanted to show. They are proud of this trailer.

Again, watch the first trailers for Uncharted 2 or The Last of Us on PS3 and you'll see just how cooked the current Naughty Dog is as a studio.

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LucasRezende9

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Edited By LucasRezende9

@Tiwill44: Maybe you'll be right and the game will suck. I personally consider every single Naughty Dog I played (and I played most of them) ranging from good to great. I can only speak for myself, and I am intrigued by the trailer and want to see more (I like retro futuristic stuff), especially in regards to gameplay. Did I fall in love with this protagonist? No. But I wouldn't have expected to do so over one trailer. Considering their track record I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

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