Naughty Dog Being Cautious About Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet

Naughty Dog's upcoming sci-fi game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, was announced at The Game Awards 2024, and the gaming community reacted with mixed feelings. Even though there were a lot of back-and-forth remarks about the game's protagonist, Jordan A. Mun, Naughty Dog fans are still waiting to see what the game has to offer. At CES 2025, Neil Druckmann discussed the game, but he just said that it is their new IP before bringing up the idea of an in-person experience similar to The Last of Us while not revealing anything new about the game.

As of now, we know that Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet will be a sci-fi hack-and-slash titled. That threw us off surprise because this game is marketed as a hack-and-slash, comparable to the Devil May Cry series. We know that the protagonist carries her blade and rifle. Like in Uncharted and The Last of Us, it appears we'll be getting much closer to the action of using an electrified sword to take out enemies. There is no doubt that the idea and settings of Intergalactic pique fans' interest, but we'll need to see more of the gameplay and how this hack-and-slash technique feels.

The game's synopsis seemed promising, setting the tone for a solid adventure game. The story takes place in the far future on the planet Sempiria, where the connection with the outside universe fell black hundreds of years ago. Players take on the role of Jordan A. Mun, a violent bounty hunter who becomes stuck in this faraway world. In her quest to become the first human to exit its orbit in more than 600 years, Jordan will need to use all her skills and intelligence.

Even though this reads like a single-player narrative adventure, there might be more than what it seems now. In a PlayStation blog post following the game's reveal, Neil Druckmann stated, "Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is shaping up to be our wildest, most creative story yet". Jordan appears to be pursuing one man, played by K. Nanani, who seems to be her former ally. She used to be a member of the Five Aces gang, but it appears that all of the members betrayed her. This revenge story will most likely require hunting down every one of them, culminating in their commander.

Troy Baker, who played the role of Wyatt in another third-person sci-fi game, Fort Solis, but is mostly known for his role as Joel in The Last of Us and Nathan Drake's brother Sam in the Uncharted series, has also been confirmed to appear in the game. Druckmann stated, "In a heartbeat, I would always work with Troy." This means Baker's position could be a minor one, perhaps another agent-type individual who offers the protagonist more contracts—but we'll have to wait and see. Tati Gabrielle plays the protagonist, Jordan A. Mun, and she leads a stellar cast that includes K. Nanani. She also acted as Jo Braddock in the Uncharted (2022) movie.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is most likely still some years away, with a projected release date between 2026 and 2027. This is because The Last of Us: Factions was using a significant amount of studio resources before the project was officially canceled in 2023. Since Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet appears to be Naughty Dog's next big game, and after that, they'll most likely focus on The Last of Us Part III, which could be the final chapter in the series.