The Last of Us and Uncharted's worlds have merged together, as players have recently discovered Uncharted: The Board Game in the zombie action-adventure.
As one of the industry's most celebrated developers, Naughty Dog is renowned for designing intricately detailed worlds and is also known for having a meta quality. Recently, one Reddit user encountered an example of said meta in The Last of Us with a reference to the Uncharted series.
The Last of Us is generally a very serious title with heavy underlying themes and a cinematic quality unparalleled by most titles in the gaming industry. However, that apparently doesn't mean that Naughty Dog wasn't willing to have its fun with the title, as Reddit user Red-razor-boi points out with an image of an Uncharted board game in The Last of Us.
In the picture, player character Joel can be seen standing before two Uncharted board game boxes. The image on the board game boxes themselves is from the box art of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception.
Interestingly, the model in-game of the Uncharted board game is identical to an actual board game adaptation of Uncharted. Available via various retailers, the board game, simply titled Uncharted: The Board Game, has players compete to obtain the highest amount of Victory Points, which are gathered through exploring ruins, defeating enemies, and hunting for treasure.
Of course, the board game can't be interacted with in The Last of Us, but it is intriguing to note its presence in the game. If there is an Uncharted board game in The Last of Us, then the universe of The Last of Us must have been conscious of the Uncharted video game series before the outbreak. However, that's probably reading too much into it and this is just a sneaky reference to another one of Naughty Dog's most celebrated series.
Naughty Dog seems to be a developer that is open to self-referencing its games. For example, players get the opportunity to play the original Crash Bandicoot on two occasions in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. It shows that the company is both prideful of its work and likes to give a clever nod to longtime Naughty Dog fans.
The Last of Us: Part II will be releasing on PlayStation 4 on May 29, 2020.
Source: Reddit