When Naughty Dog released Uncharted 2: Among Thieves in 2009, the video game industry was awash with praise. After rising to prominence with the Crash Bandicoot series in the mid-90s, the Santa Monica-based studio had been delivering action title after action title for over decade. Each new release saw the studio grow and mature in some fashion – and Uncharted 2, with its blockbuster-like production values, appeared to be the culmination of this maturity. It was the apex of everything the studio had learned about how to engage players since its inception, rolled into one swashbuckling package. Few could have predicted that four years later, Naughty Dog would surpass itself yet again, and rise to a whole new tier of stardom with The Last of Us. An action-adventure game flush with supernatural horrors, The Last of Us followed survivors Joel and Ellie on a harrowing journey across a post-apocalyptic America ravaged by fungal zombies. Its world was a sight to behold, and its combat encounters left many dizzy with excitement. Yet when all was said and done, players were captivated most by Joel and Ellie, with the nuances of their relationship transfixing almost all who dared to join them on their journey. From the outside, the game seemed so masterfully constructed, that it was hard to imagine Naughty Dog had so much as broken a sweat developing it. In reality, however, shifting from Uncharted to The Last of Us had been a painstaking, difficult process – one that forced its chief visionaries to accept failure for years, and second-guess themselves on a continual basis. This is the history of The Last of Us.