Neil Druckmann TELLS ALL! Naughty Dog’s ‘Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet’ is a Woke, Religious MESS!

The Neil Druckmann interview can be summed up with this exchange pretty well:

"Who gives a shit?"

"...Exactly"

Naughty Dog’s controversial top...'dog', Neil Druckmann has finally pulled back the curtain on the studio’s next big project, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, and of course, to no one’s surprise, it looks like another heavy-handed narrative-driven game built to push “thought-provoking” woke themes rather than an actual fun video game...

In an interview on Sony's YouTube Channel, given the direction Druckmann has taken Naughty Dog in recent years, this new game’s focus on religion and faith in an alternate future immediately raises plenty of red flags all around—suggesting to me that it will be yet another extremely divisive, bloated, and pretentious experience that alienates core gamers. Despite the negativity surrounding the release, the current comment section strikes me as... heavily sanitized. Almost as if... They are trying to hide actual concerns.

A Timeline Deviating From Reality—And Common Sense

So here's the long and short of what to expect: The game's set to take place around the year 2000, but ...not on our timeline. Instead, it diverges from the 1980s, when a new religion apparently emerges that reshapes civilization. This mysterious "faith", centered on the planet Sempiria, seems to be the core of the game’s setting, yet details remain vague beyond the fact that no one has had contact with Sempiria for 600 years. Players take on the role of Jordan, a protagonist who crash-lands on the isolated planet with no knowledge of what happened to its people.

While the premise sounds to me like a sci-fi mystery, it’s clear that Naughty Dog’s main focus isn’t on world-building ...but more so, on creating a “deeply personal” experience centered on isolation, reflection, and a critical deconstruction of faith itself.

The Game’s Heavy-Handed Religious Themes

Druckmann’s description of the game should make it abundantly clear to anyone paying attention that the story they're working on is built entirely around faith and religion—two topics he’s never been subtle about handling in his previous works.

Given Naughty Dog’s track record, it’s easy to assume that Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet will try to be yet another attempt to “challenge” religious belief systems, and most likely painting them as dangerous, oppressive, or outdated while pushing a “progressive” narrative in their place. Because, you know... "The Message"!

With a name like The Heretic Prophet, it’s not hard to guess where the story is going. I'd expect a storyline where religion is demonized, the protagonist struggles with identity and belonging, shaves her head to rebel, and the game’s “message” becomes more important than the gameplay itself. The fact that the entire experience being presented here revolves around making players feel “lonely” and questioning the path that led them to where they are only reinforces the idea that this is yet another Druckmann-led “introspective” slog meant to make players feel miserable rather than entertained. Could I be wrong? Of course. But when it comes to modern day Naughty Dog, I wouldn't bet on it.

A Woke Sci-Fi Disaster Waiting to Happen

Everything about Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet screams woke narrative-driven slop. Easy to guess from the teaser trailer they showcased a few months back. A game focused entirely on questioning religion, set in an alternate history ...where faith went “wrong,” and built to make players feel “lost” and “reflective” rather than entertained?

It’s not hard to see where this is going.

This game has all the makings of another overindulgent Naughty Dog disaster—one that will be praised by woke game journalists and all those X/Twitter activist bots... but completely rejected by real, actual gamers.

At this point, Naughty Dog isn’t even trying to hide their agenda. They’ve abandoned the fun, adventurous spirit that once defined them and have fully embraced being a platform for ideological storytelling. If Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is their next big project, then it’s safe to say that Naughty Dog’s decline is far from over. But this isn't even the most troubling aspect of the interview...

Suspicious Comment Section Activity—Artificial Hype?

Adding to the growing list of red flags that I've been witnessing, it appears that Naughty Dog—is engaging in some serious comment section manipulation.

Many of the replies to critical comments are mysteriously disappearing, and scrolling through the entire comment section reveals nothing but strangely enthusiastic, bot-like comments feigning excitement for the game.

Meanwhile, the like-to-dislike ratio tells a very different story—there are a lot of dislikes, far more than the curated toxic-positivity comments would suggest.

There are a LOT of dislikes.

This kind of artificial engagement reeks of some strong desperation, and it wouldn’t be the first time a major studio or publisher tried to manufacture positivity when faced with overwhelming backlash. If the game were truly as exciting as Naughty Dog wants people to believe, they wouldn’t need to curate the conversation like this... But we all know better at this point.

Nope. We Aren’t Falling for It

We want engaging worlds, compelling gameplay, and stories that don’t beat us over the head with ideological "message" nonsense. If this is the "game" that Naughty Dog is banking on, then they might be in for a rude awakening when this so-called “thought-provoking” experience bombs harder than a spaceship crash-landing on Sempiria.... But Time will certainly tell. I'm very curious to see where this goes.

~Smash