It's been two long years since we last got fresh footage of Intergalactic The Heretic Prophet, and all we really know is that Tati Gabrielle's performance capture sessions wrapped just a few weeks ago. Today, though, Naughty Dog has spoken up twice: through Neil Druckmann, but also through Troy Baker. Enough to reignite the conversation around the game and what it actually is. The actor, who played Joel in The Last of Us and is also involved in Intergalactic, sounded particularly enthusiastic after getting a look at some of the work done by the Californian studio. Neil Druckmann, for his part, warned that the team is working on "the most ambitious game Naughty Dog has ever made". An ambition that might also extend to the structure of the adventure, with the open-world theory starting to gather weight.
Troy Baker is teasing like mad!
Of course, nothing has confirmed yet that Intergalactic will be an open world, but Naughty Dog has already been gradually changing the shape of its games. The Last of Us Part 2 gave us a first taste with far more open environments than in the first instalment. Certain areas of Seattle let you stray from the main path to explore the surroundings, enter various buildings and tackle some objectives with more freedom. The studio had therefore already started working with larger spaces without going all the way to a true open world. With Intergalactic, Naughty Dog could potentially head towards a similar structure, especially since the story takes place on Sempiria, a mysterious planet that could offer a far bigger playground than the environments crossed in the studio's previous productions. For now, there's no way of claiming the game will adopt an open structure, but the change of setting would lend itself perfectly to it.
What's more, during his appearance at Ottawa Comic Con, Troy Baker also explained that he found in Intergalactic certain qualities that defined Naughty Dog's previous games, while also discovering a different approach. "The spirit of Uncharted and The Last of Us is there, but I'm also seeing something new", he said, before adding that the developers had pushed beyond the limits of what the studio had done up to now. The actor was also full of praise for Tati Gabrielle, who plays Jordan A. Mun. He compared her work to that of Ashley Johnson as Ellie and said he couldn't wait for players to see the result. Granted, these are the words of an actor involved in the project, but they do offer an interesting hint as to Naughty Dog's ambitions.
"Naughty Dog's most ambitious game"
Neil Druckmann, meanwhile, confirmed that players will have to be patient a while longer before seeing the studio's next baby, explaining that the team is working "tirelessly" on what he described as the most ambitious game the studio has ever made. He also indicated that the developers are currently piecing the various elements of the project together, while noting that it was still too early to show everything. Naughty Dog will therefore stay quiet on Intergalactic until the end of 2026, which rather undermines the insider rumours claiming Intergalactic will show up at The Game Awards 2026. We'll have to wait until 2027 for the Californian studio to give us a proper look at Jordan A. Mun's adventure.
So for now, the open world remains a theory. But between the large areas already trialled in The Last of Us 2, the change of scale promised by Neil Druckmann and the ambition being flaunted around Intergalactic, the question is well worth asking.
