"Initially, the introduction was a jump scare," he says, reflecting on the earliest days of development. Games. I felt that this approach raised the spook-factor to the nth degree.". Future US, Inc. 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, The solution was to get physical, tying three actors together to capture the kinesthetics of the multi-limbed monster. "The first layout was essentially an arena where you're shooting a little bit and then running, and then shooting a little bit and running... and it kind of ended up having this very flat interaction," says Newman, revealing that it wasn't until lead designer Richard Cambier proposed "a Hail Mary last minute change that really elevated the quality of the fight from an eight to a ten. While in theory a Menagerie build would be optimal for the Rat King, his Hero Power won't have as much impact in the late game, nor will new minions stick around long enough to matter, so it's better to transition from whatever you have in the early game rather than to force a Menagerie build. Lucky internet! Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos. That meant Abby's descent into Ground Zero needed to feel organic, not mechanical, and for Jimenez in particular, it demanded a preamble that would continue to mess with player expectations right up to the Rat King's full reveal. Subscribe Subscribed Unsubscribe 17.4K. Receive mail from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors? She mentions the creature to no one, despite its potential importance for humanity's understanding of the infected. When pressed for more pieces of Rat King lore, Margenau and Newman are hesitant to explain the minutiae beyond what's revealed in the game itself. Thank you for signing up to GamesRadar+. As long as a minion with decent stats shows up at the right time, his Hero Power is well worth taking advantage of. Skip to Main Content Skip to Footer. We had to cut that one for time.". Hearthstone is a free-to-play digital strategy card game where you can choose one of nine epic Warcraft heroes to play as. In order to get early access you will need to pre-order 60 packs of the upcoming expansion Descent of Dragons. Anyone who's had the misfortune of fighting the Rat King will tell you that its chosen arena is not a pleasant place to be. So we had to think about what would make this creature something more than just a really tanky clicker that soaks up a lot of bullets?". Perhaps she's shellshocked. The first known sighting of a Rat King dates back to 1576, when "servants in Antwerp, Belgium discovered seven rats with knotted tails tied together". "Visually, it was just a really exciting idea.". ", Similarly, animation director Jeremy Yates had to consider how such an unholy matrimony of flesh and fungus would behave, studying preserved Rat King specimens to conceptualise one in motion: "While we've never seen one alive, I imagine it's a coordinated chaos of movements. This page was last edited on 26 October 2020, at 20:13. Will he be able to keep his Mr. 100 title? We were already pretty far along in production, so it didn't change much, but it did have a very similar vibe," says Yates. With the bones of the Rat King encounter in place, Naughty Dog could begin thinking about how it would introduce this new infected boss to the player, and the best way it could ramp up the fear factor while staying true to The Last of Us' firmly grounded sense of authenticity. A Tale of Kings is not available in gameplay; it is only used to represent the Hero Power when viewing the hero. The Rat King. Please refresh the page and try again. Finally, the Rat King had found its home. ", "Jesse has incredible upper body strength from his parkour athleticism and was able to build in the ravaged dog movement we were looking for. Newman reveals that two other critically acclaimed PlayStation exclusives were the key source of inspiration for this progression of events.