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Is Naughty Dog definitively the best Sony studio now?

Every game they made since uncharted 1 follows the same exact formula with an increased focus on "feelings" and cutscenes with each new game. If lack of innovation is what makes a studio great, then sure...
This is like saying RDR2 is GTA3 with cowboys.

How can you look at TLOU2 and think of Uncharted 1 i'll never know.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
This is like saying RDR2 is GTA3 with cowboys.

How can you look at TLOU2 and think of Uncharted 1 i'll never know.
Rdr2 and gta 3 is nothing alike.

Gta3 is open world action, Rdr2 is a slow paced horse Simulator.
 
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I think they're the most talented in graphics and animation, not just at Sony but possibly anywhere. But I haven't enjoyed their games that much, basically ever. If they ever work on a new IP with a higher focus on gameplay, they'd be a force to be reckoned with. I've enjoyed the games more from Insomniac, Sucker Punch, Santa Monica, Japan Studio (when they were alive).
 

Ar¢tos

Member
This is like saying RDR2 is GTA3 with cowboys.

How can you look at TLOU2 and think of Uncharted 1 i'll never know.
The formula of Uncharted and TLOU is basically the same, the only difference is the combat. While Uncharted use clown cars in disguise that spew 80 bad guys in waves, TLOU has realistic numbers of enemies so it changed the combat to strategy/stealth + crafting.

Uncharted formula :
1 - Cutscene, some with emotional content, that tells the player where to go next
2 - travel to that place
3 - cutscene
4 - solve puzzle, real puzzle and/or environmental puzzle (how do I get there? puzzle)
5 - cutscene
6 - kill endless waves of enemies
7 - Back to 1

TLOU formula:
1 - Cutscene with tons of emotional content that tells the player where to go next
2 - travel to that place
3 - cutscene with emotional content
4 - solve environmental puzzle (how do I get there? puzzle)
5 - cutscene with emotional content
6 - kill/stealth through enemies
7 - Back to 1
 
The formula of Uncharted and TLOU is basically the same, the only difference is the combat. While Uncharted use clown cars in disguise that spew 80 bad guys in waves, TLOU has realistic numbers of enemies so it changed the combat to strategy/stealth + crafting.

Uncharted formula :
1 - Cutscene, some with emotional content, that tells the player where to go next
2 - travel to that place
3 - cutscene
4 - solve puzzle, real puzzle and/or environmental puzzle (how do I get there? puzzle)
5 - cutscene
6 - kill endless waves of enemies
7 - Back to 1

TLOU formula:
1 - Cutscene with tons of emotional content that tells the player where to go next
2 - travel to that place
3 - cutscene with emotional content
4 - solve environmental puzzle (how do I get there? puzzle)
5 - cutscene with emotional content
6 - kill/stealth through enemies
7 - Back to 1
lmao. Uncharted 1 is basically you traveling to a room that gets locked, and you can only advance after killing waves of enemies. You're forced to play the game one way.

TLOU2 you can literally sneak past everyone and just move on with a few exceptions. Gameplay loop is a lot different, level design is nothing alike as well.

Some of you guys should play games before criticising them, sweet jesus.

Now Uncharted 1 and TLOU2 have the same formula, lmao.
 
I really can’t say at least based on their current output. Insomniac created the impressive Ratchet and Clank and Spider-Man: MM and I think Naughty Dog only really created TLOU Remake for PS5 which unfortunately I haven’t played yet. From a technical standpoint, ND are very difficult to top, but I’m not so sure about now until I see some more offerings from them.
 

Hugare

Member
By far, but they arent my favorite developers or anything like that

SSM disapointed me so much with Ragnarok. Hated a lot of their design choices.

Sucker Punch is great, but lacking in some parts (same for Insomniac)

Guerilla, just no. I hate the Horizon games, Forbidden West even more so. Technical masterpieces, maybe Sony's best studio in terms of tech tho.

I would put Housemarque right at the top right now, 'cause Returnal was so good, but they still have to prove that they can make more at that quality
 

Beechos

Member
Overall yes. My personal favorite sony ip is god of war though. Has santa monica done anything else besides gow?
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
Yes - but I would wait and see with that one. While we know, based on reviews, that TLOU on HBO is a critical success, the same can’t be said for many Netflix video game adaptations. Horizon will need a considerably bigger budget to do the premise justice, and I’m not altogether sure it’ll be what fans want.
Were gonna get 4 minutes of robo dinosaur footage and 600 minutes of talking heads
 

CJ_75

Member
Naughty Dog remains my favorite studio but for now Insomniac is Sony's best studio.
That is first based on their output for new-gen but they also championing game-changing technologies such as Raytracing, VRR and fully harness the power of PS5's SSD. I might be wrong but I believe they were first releasing games in performance RT and also 40fps in VRR. Now many studios, including Sony's, are using it.
Naughty Dog engine provide great results but they are stuck using 1440p as internal resolution.They used that for PS4 Pro but also used it for TLOU Remake for PS5. It need an update.
 
yeah but it's not saying much.

when was the last time they released a game that wasn't TLOU or Uncharted? (if you were wondering it was 2005). I'd like them to try something different and seriously shake up their gameplay.

Every game they've released in the last 17 years has been pretty much the same game copied and pasted with a new story and prettier graphics slapped on it.
 
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Ar¢tos

Member
lmao. Uncharted 1 is basically you traveling to a room that gets locked, and you can only advance after killing waves of enemies. You're forced to play the game one way.

TLOU2 you can literally sneak past everyone and just move on with a few exceptions. Gameplay loop is a lot different, level design is nothing alike as well.

Some of you guys should play games before criticising them, sweet jesus.

Now Uncharted 1 and TLOU2 have the same formula, lmao.
Even if you think the formulas are different, the amount of games using it is too much. IP fatigue is setting in.
We have 6 Uncharted games (1-4,GA,LL stand alone), 8 if you count re-releases. We have 2 TLOU games, 4 if you count re-releases (5 soon with TLOU2 ps5 version), while other Sony studios are moving on to different things (MM Tearway/Dreams, Sucker Punch Infamous/Ghost of Tsushima, Insomniac Ratchet/Spider Man, Guerrilla Killzone/Horizon, SSM GoW/new totally changed GoW), some with sequels, but nowhere near the same amount.

In the end, Sony most stagnant studio is the one that gets a thread saying it is their best studio.
 

envyzeal

Member
1 - Bungie
2 - Insomniac
3 - Naughty Dog
4 - Sucker Punch
5 - Santa Monica

I'll accept any form of hate
 
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The Alien

Banned
Insomniac.

Been knocking it out of the park for ages on a diverse set of games - and quite prolific too. Feel if the chips are ever down or deck stacked against them, they gonna deliver.
 
For me, Insomniac are the better developer with their Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Spider-Man games but it all comes down to personal preference.

Naughty Dog are clearly a talented developer too that make great games but two years into the life of the PS5, we have yet to see anything that really takes advantage of the hardware in the same way as Insomniac's games do with their blazingly fast-loading times and support for multiple resolutions and framerates, with and without ray-tracing. Insomniac basically pioneered the 40 fps / 120 Hz modes that we are slowly seeing in more and more games, including third-party releases such as A Plague's Tale: Requiem.

All Naughty Dog have done is re-re-released The Last of Us Part 1 and ported the Uncharted Legacy Collection over to PS5. We have yet to see any new games from them built from the ground up for the PS5. Neither of their PS4-to-PS5 upgrades have supported ray-tracing either. In all fairness, Naughty Dog's output so far on PS5 has been a bit underwhelming in my opinion.
 
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Holammer

Member
Sony owns a bunch of top tier studios. ND might technically have a leg up on Sucker Punch & Insomniac as the games they make are paint by numbers award bait which the AAA budget enjoyer normies lap up. They no doubt sell more.
I will still go with Insomniac, the underdog. I haven't played much R&C games, but I can respect a studio that takes time and keeps on developing a cherished IP even when Sony no doubt wants more casual fodder.
 
Wow, I can't believe people believe that insomniac and sucker punch is better than ND. The gameplay elements in TLOU2 are next to none! But in my opinion, Insomniac is making the more fun games because of the themes being superheroes, but ND is far superior in game design, physics, and everything.
 
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Ellery

Member
Yeah easily. Some people may have other personal favorites, but looking at it from a somewhat objective perspective it is certainly Naughty Dog that stands above other studios. Not just Sony though.

When you are the best in the business then you also get attacked even harder and people put you under a miscroscope trying to find flaws where they wouldn't even dare to touch other games with their Silver Tongs of Double Standards.

We can joke about it and have a bit of a discussion and pretend about other studios, but in the end everyone knows it is Naughty Dog. Even other studios know it. Including the entirety of Xbox.

Doesn't mean you can't hate on Naughty Dog. You sure can, but then it is your loss.
 
Yeah easily. Some people may have other personal favorites, but looking at it from a somewhat objective perspective it is certainly Naughty Dog that stands above other studios. Not just Sony though.

When you are the best in the business then you also get attacked even harder and people put you under a miscroscope trying to find flaws where they wouldn't even dare to touch other games with their Silver Tongs of Double Standards.

We can joke about it and have a bit of a discussion and pretend about other studios, but in the end everyone knows it is Naughty Dog. Even other studios know it. Including the entirety of Xbox.

Doesn't mean you can't hate on Naughty Dog. You sure can, but then it is your loss.

I also think about it in the sense that if you separate any of sonys first party studios with all their created IP and sold it off, who would be the most valuable.

Surely it would be Naughty Dog with Jak, Uncharted, and The Last of Us
 

phil_t98

#SonyToo
Don’t understand the logic behind attributing movies and TV shows to a video game studio that had nothing to do with either. At least tlou has Neil as showrunner though that’s pretty much where the studio involvement ends. They need to be judged by their video games and games alone.

There was a thread here last year around the same time gow ragnorak was reviewed and most picked ssm over ND. Then the game came out and it was clearly overrated by the critics and all ssm have proven is that they are no naughty dog when it comes to ambitious storytelling and pushing boundaries in both graphics and combat. So yes, ND is their best studio right now. Tlou remake notwithstanding.

it will be the same when Spiderman 2 comes out, will insomniac be the best game studio then.

personally I like insomnics games better
 

Shubh_C63

Member
Lets discuss once Spiderman 2 comes out.

Insomniac has the ability to make easy controls do epic shit. If there aren't Uncharted level set pieces in Spiderman 2 I will be disappointed a bit.
 

DeepSpace5D

Member
I guess it depends on what factors one would favor to determine the best.

One thing I think can be almost universally agreed upon is Naughty Dog has the highest attention to detail of any PlayStation studio.
 
Nope, keep in mind that Naughty Dog still hasn’t found a replacement on the same scale as Amy Hennig. She was able to write narratives and characters that reached a broad demographic while only breaking the political correctness scale of “Women can be badass check out this attractive badass woman”

Neil Duckerman is not on the same level, he likes to be controversial and push boundaries. Which I think is fine, even if I don’t agree with his choices I think he should be allowed to keep making games.

But for Naughty Dog to continue to lead sales there’s gotta be a balance, the far reaching feel good IP along with the IP that makes people uncomfortable and pushes the genre forward. Right now they just have the latter.
 
Nope, keep in mind that Naughty Dog still hasn’t found a replacement on the same scale as Amy Hennig. She was able to write narratives and characters that reached a broad demographic while only breaking the political correctness scale of “Women can be badass check out this attractive badass woman”

Neil Duckerman is not on the same level, he likes to be controversial and push boundaries. Which I think is fine, even if I don’t agree with his choices I think he should be allowed to keep making games.

But for Naughty Dog to continue to lead sales there’s gotta be a balance, the far reaching feel good IP along with the IP that makes people uncomfortable and pushes the genre forward. Right now they just have the latter.

What has Amy Hennig done since leaving Naughty Dog, Forspoken?
 
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Fbh

Member
Meh, not for me.
On the "prestige" side I prefer Santa Monica. They also have the numbers to back it up, GOW 2016 reviewed and sold better than Uncharted 4, Ragnarok reviewed better than TLOU 2 and sold in a week half as much as TLOU2 in 2 years of (with heavy discounts)

Insomniac is also high quality and have been doing a lot to carry the PS5. Kicked off the console with Miles Morales, showed up on year 1 with Ratchet, has one of the biggest (at least announced) exclusives this year with Spider Man 2 and already announced a "new" Ip with Wolverine.

And IMO Guerilla is up there with ND in tech. While ND is still superior in finer details and animation, what Guerilla has done with Decima and the levels of visuals and performance they can achieve in an open world is every bit as impressive IMO.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
RDR2 isn't GTA3 with cowboys.

It's GTA5 with cowboys.
It's better than both.
Cowboy Yeehaw Agenda GIF
 
It's ND for me and don't think it's that close. They are just the total package in everything: creating new IPs, graphics, animation, story telling , gameplay, etc.

Other contenders would be Insomniac, sucker Punch, GG and SSM. Those all tend to have small problems which don't let them be number 1 for me.


Insomniac - output and quality is crazy, however their games just seem to come up ever so short for whatever reason. Like I would rank most of their games 8.5 to 9 out of 10, which I think ND is consistently 9.5 or 10.

Sucker Punch - similar to Insomniac where their games are really good but just tend to miss being great for me. The exception is Ghosts. Oddly enough, that was my game of the year over TLOU2. Just remains to be seen if that was kind of a one hit wonder, if they truly raised the bar.

SSM - only one I think I could make a legit argument that they could be better than ND. Only problem with them is lack of IP. They've been a GoW machine for basically their whole existence.

GG - maybe best graphically but lack major consistency. Killzone 2 was one of the best shooters of the PS3 era, then killzone 3 and shadow fall were just meh ( I do think shadow fall could have been better if it was a launch game, just seemed bare bones). Same with Horizon. Horizon zero dawn was my favorite game on PS4. Then Forbidden west comes out and it's not bad, but once again a sequel for a great game for them went to meh.
 

wvnative

Member
It's insomniac, always has been. Sucker punch would be almost even but infamous second son i didn't like and while I LOVE ghost of tsushima it was lacking in a few areas.

Naughty dog is great but they have too many dips, jak 2, uncharted 3, last of us 2.
 
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It's insomniac, always has been. Sucker punch would be almost even but infamous second son i didn't like and while I LOVE ghost of tsushima it was lacking in a few areas.

Naughty dog is great but they have too many dips, jak 2, uncharted 3, last of us 2.

If uncharted 3 and tlou2 is a dip, then insomniac is even further from the top lol
 

Alebrije

Member
ND is a great studio but for me Santa Monica is No. 1 due to GOW.

Basically they have achieved with GOW what other companies or studiod has not with lots of IPs.
 
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