The Last Of Us scored by Oscar-winner Gustavo Santaolalla

By Johnny Minkley Published 13 December, 2011

Naughty Dog: "We're going for emotion not horror."

Naughty Dog has revealed that double Oscar-winner Gustavo Santaolalla is composing the music for upcoming PS3-exclusive The Last Of Us.

The news came during a presentation at the studio's Santa Monica HQ on Monday, where the full version of the game's main theme - a section of which features at the end of the reveal trailer - was played to press.

"He's awesome," said Neil Druckmann, creative director and writer on The Last Of Us. "He picks and chooses what he works on; he could work on all these big movies. We brought him in here, showed him the game, walked him through the whole story and what we're trying to do, and he said 'I want to be a part of this'."

The Argentine composer won back-to-back Academy Awards for Best Score for his work on Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Babel (2006).

The main theme is acoustic guitar-led, an arpeggiated figure in a minor key over tribal percussion, building to a dissonant climax of fiercely-strummed chords.

"With this music we're trying to get emotion. We're not going for horror," Druckmann explained.

"There's going to be horrific things happening in this game, but that's not the focus of it. The monsters aren't the focus of it, it's the relationship between Joel and Ellie."

Picture of Johnny.

About Johnny Minkley

Johnny Minkley is a veteran games writer and broadcaster, former editor of Eurogamer TV, VP of gaming charity SpecialEffect, and hopeless social media addict.

Read more articles from Johnny by visiting the Johnny Minkley archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (14) Latest comment 5 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • wattsn26 #1 5 months ago

    Awesome. I think this is his first video game soundtract. And I love the Greg Edmonson Uncharted scores

  • Baranga #2 5 months ago

    Olalla!

  • alcides #3 5 months ago

    "The main theme is acoustic guitar-led, an arpeggiated figure in a minor key over tribal percussion, building to a dissonant climax of fiercely-strummed chords."

    Call me a drumbass but I don't get it.

  • wattsn26 #4 5 months ago

    @alcides You're a drumbass you glasshole...

  • peeps #5 5 months ago

    Sounds good, deffo sounding more like the road than I am legend

  • Freakz #6 5 months ago

    Joel is a pedo.. all alone in the world with a young girl ! shame on you :p cant wait to play this i want it now !!

  • NotoriousR #7 5 months ago

    Well the music in the trailer is pretty good. But he's going to have a hard time beating Greg Edmonson. Topping Firefly and Uncharted is a pretty tough score to beat.

  • Lunastra78 #8 5 months ago

    I'm wondering if it has co-op campaign similar to RE5 or if the other person (Joel or Ellie) will be AI controlled. And is the main character Ellie or Joel? Will it be played in third person? Will it feature climbing and jumping like Uncharted and will it be open-world? Will it, at some point in the game, feature an easter-egg in the form of a broken down arcade cabinet of Uncharted Kart Racer?

    These are the questions that keep me awake at night...

  • Scimarad #9 5 months ago

    Well, if this is a game that features fungus erupting out of peoples heads then you're attaining horror whether you were going for it or not...

  • Stratix #10 5 months ago

    Well if they put it like that, sounds like Joel might not last the journey...

  • King_Edward #11 5 months ago

    "The monsters aren't the focus, it's the cut-scenes between Joel and Ellie".

  • Dizzy #12 5 months ago

    > it's the relationship between Joel and Ellie

    So basically more scripted nonsense over gameplay. Thank you COD.

  • Okamiwolf #13 5 months ago

    You can add all the talent you want, but at the end of the day it's still just another whack/shoot the zombie game. We've all played it a hundred times before.

  • Averice #14 5 months ago

    Looks like it'll be single player but you can control either character. Looks like Joel will be the muscle and the shooter, while Elle will be the quick of movement and fits in small holes one. Hopefully something more interesting than that though.