The Last of Us (Main Menu & Intro Cut-Scene) & Plants vs
Zombies In The Last of Us, the developers known as Naughty Dog immediately use their extensive knowledge of sound in this video game by applying sounds on their main menu which have incredible meaning behind them and gives a sense of foreboding. [1] This is demonstrated by the music of the main menu and the ambient sound of wind.
On the other hand, PopCap (the creators of Plants vs Zombies) gives the player a sense of foreshadowing as their main menu music plays. [2] Their main menu music isnt cryptic, but because of the pentatonic scales, it sounds ghastly despite it being a smooth track. [3] Similarly, the pentatonic scales used for the main menu music of The Last of Us, provides information that the atmosphere of the game will be murky and deathly despite the music sounding quite calm. On the contrary, due to the music sounding calm, it can lure the player into a calm mood when in actuality the player needs to prepare for an up-beat emotional rollercoaster thats present during the entirety of the game. Another example of how well non-diegetic music is used is when Sarah goes back to sleep; the dialogue between both Joel and Sarah is substituted by soothing, non-dynamic linear music (when Joel carries Sarah upstairs to bed). This game music aesthetic describes how strong the bond is between Joel/father and Sarah/daughter which makes the death of Sarah (later on in the prologue) much more heart-wrenching. After this, the soothing music stops and gets replaced by the ringing of a phone by Sarahs bedside which on the other end is Uncle Tommy who sounds worried before he gets cut off suddenly, creating impactful suspense just before the player plays in Sarahs perspective.
In contrast to this, PopCaps level music is calm, but the waveform of the level music alters as the player reaches flag-points in the level (or is near to completing the level), clarifying that the level music of Plants vs Zombies is tension music. When these situations occur, the levels music increases in decibel level and more instruments play in the background to emphasise how important these moments are, building the tension up so that the player cracks under pressure when an enormous wave of zombies head towards the house.
Also, when it comes to the sounds of the zombies, the pitch of the sounds varies for Gargantuars and Imps to provide information on how tough these zombies are to defeat (although there are other methods such as added items e.g. Bucket-Head Zombies and vehicles e.g. Zambonis), Imps sounding high-pitched because theyre the weakest in the game and Gargantuars grunting low-pitch because theyre the toughest in the game.
Going back to the end of the intro cut-scene in The Last of Us, the last, significant acousmatic, diegetic sound thats heard (before actually playing) is Uncle Tommys voice of panic (when talking on the phone with Sarah). This reiterates that this game will be murky and deathly, not soothing and calm, as told by the main menu music of the game. Not to mention that Uncle Tommys tone of voice indicates that raw feelings and emotions such as panic will be constantly portrayed and felt throughout the game! Like it was mentioned earlier, the sound of wind can be heard as it blows the window curtains in the main menu of The Last of Us. The wind is there as an ambience sound to signify that the world behind the window is about to fade like the quality of the walls that encompass the window it gives the player a sense of urgency since the player will be dumped into a series of tragic events. Whereas, although the events of Plants vs Zombies arent tragic, PopCap uses sound samples such as lightning when bold text e.g. A huge wave of zombies is approaching appears to give the player a sense of urgency (as well) and braces the player for the impending event. In addition to ambience sounds, PopCap uses symbolic leitmotifs e.g. zombies saying brains to warn the player the consequences which will follow if the players plants are defeated and the zombies reach the house, giving the player incentive to ensure that this dreadful possibility is prevented by any means necessary.
Likewise, the sounds of The Last of Us could be viewed as symbolic too
as when the game is started the player is shown Sarah, whos sleeping on the couch and moving about vividly as a clock is ticking. Afterwards, the opening/closing of a door can be heard, followed by footsteps (which appears to be Joel whilst hes talking on his phone). These examples of acousmatic, diegetic sounds (the clock being a non-dynamic diegetic sound) could symbolise the beginning of the end! The clock ticking symbolises that its only a matter of time until the apocalypse begins, and the front door opening/closing of the door with Joel appearing could symbolise the negative effects upcoming for humans - added by Joels concerned voice when hes talking to someone on the phone (even though its not about an apocalypse).
Now, when one of the 4 main game modes (Adventure, Mini-Games,
Puzzle & Survival) in Plants vs Zombies is selected, a zombies hand digs its way out of the ground. This diegetic sound assists the motion being executed, magnifying how alarming the motion is, alerting the player that the game is about to start. Furthermore, the leitmotif of the creepy laugh that follows this amplifies the seriousness of the game, convincing the player to take this game seriously. This also drastically affects how the player perceives the game as it changes the players expression from careless to a more careful state. Unlike PopCap, who have to go to such lengths to affect the players mood due to their game being quite repetitive, Naughty Dog can affect the players mood with sounds much more freely as The Last of Us isnt anywhere as repetitive as Plants vs Zombies. This is exemplified by the objective-internal sound of Sarahs yawn and the diegetic sound of the T.V.
These sounds accurately concoct a feeling of humanity in their game,
immersing the player as reality within fiction can be visualised as the player is watching/playing. This also helps the player to personally relate to their characters, causing reflection and replication of the characters mood & emotion, because of the immersion constructed by sounds such as these.
When it comes to the audio environment, The Last of Us is in-depth as
Naughty Dog strives to support the games realistic audio environment authenticity with its surround sound (amplifying the ability to hear sounds around the characters surroundings) whilst utilising techniques such as occlusion, obstruction and reverberation to achieve realistic sound effects the player/Sarah shouldnt be able to hear the T.V downstairs loud and clear, especially with many solid objects being between Sarah and the T.V. Whereas, Plants vs Zombies has a very simplistic audio environment that doesnt waver and the only thing defining about its audio environment is its surround sound! Finally, as a similarity, both games use interactive sound since when an action occurs (due to a button on a controller being pressed) the same sound occurs with that same action over and over again without changing.
In terms of the legality of their sounds, although only the main menu and intro cut-scene of The Last of Us has been focused on, both this game and Plants vs Zombies wouldnt have used public domain music and sounds for their games. Even though the companies can commercially use them without permission, the developers (and publishers) wouldnt own the property rights those sounds because anyone can access them on sound libraries without permission. Plus, the companies wouldnt be able
to copyright-protect them either. In addition, third-party licensed
music/sounds wouldnt have been used either, otherwise these companies would definitely not get all of the royalties as the profits would have to be shared with the third-party companies who provided those sounds due to ancillary rights.
[4] Because of these reasons, Naughty Dog and PopCap would have [most likely] recorded the sounds for the games using the method of in-studio recording: Almost all of the sounds being heard in the games would be achievable under controllable conditions and the studio team would have access to higher-quality sound equipment, allowing for easier and better results when creating music and sounds for the game. Plus, those sounds would be the companys own intellectual property, thus the company can copyright-protect the audio-visual work done and register it with a copyright office so rewards can be reaped off of copyright infringement. [5] [6] To add, both companies would have used the technique called original recording because the sounds in both of these games can be associated with the objects that are accompanied in real-life.
However, some sounds such as gunfire in The Last of Us and thunder and lightning in Plants vs Zombies cant be achieved in a studio alone.
Therefore, both companies alike mustve used remote recording to
compile these sounds, where PopCap specifically used the technique of field recording to get thunder, rain and lightning samples to place in some of the levels of Plants vs Zombies. Unfortunately, if field recording, PopCap wouldnt have initial control over how e.g. the weather is and what sounds are created from the weather. That means that, for the distinct lightning sound heard when a huge/final wave of zombies approach, this company had to modify the sound of the sample with specialised sound gear to get this specific sound that they hoped for.
In conclusion, solely for The Last of Us, Naughty Dog may have required the help of Foley to re-create whats visualised on the film/game cinematic cut-scenes and mix the sounds carefully the actions being portrayed during the cut-scene.
Bibliography [1] The Last of Us (0:00-3:16 & 4:17-5:20): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HawhjjF5qFc [Accessed 5 Sep. 2016]. [2] Plants vs Zombies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPie0xqd2Rk [Accessed 5 Sep. 2016]. [3] Psychology of Sound Word Document [Accessed 5 Sep. 2016]. [4] https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6qO7NfG9txETjJRNFk4SW1XNkE/view [Accessed 16 Sep. 2016]. [5] Sound Recordings & Soundtracks Word Document [Accessed 16 Sep. 2016]. [6] http://estudy.wiltshire.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=2298625 [Accessed 16 Sep. 2016].
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