According to the developer, the infected are a “terrible, difficult enemy to deal with”.
Community strategist Arne Meyer from Naughty Dog said: “One of the things we really wanted to focus on is the infected as antagonists. While there are different classes and stuff, they really represent one dimension to the combat. We’re showing off the infected because we really want to show they’re such a terrible, difficult enemy to deal with. It’s is why everyone is being pushed to these extremes.”
The player has to be stealthy and smart in the way he approaches the infected because the game is not a shooter. “The whole point is that it isn’t meant to be a pretty world. It’s supposed to have these very lethal and extreme consequences. What is is like as a human to be pushed to an extreme where the lines between good and bad, the moral lines are blurred? For us it’s so important to really show the brutality within the context but to make it very visceral.”
