In The Last of Us, a variant of the Cordyceps fungus has found a way to infect humans, transforming them into ravenous killing machines. Once infected, the host goes through four different stages of mutation. Those caught in the first stage are referred to as Runners, because they’re agile and violent, like the infected in 28 Days Later.
It takes about a week for a host to reach the second stage of infection, and when they do they’re dubbed Stalkers. Stalkers are as agile and aggressive as the Runners, though their sight is somewhat impaired by the Cordyceps’ continued growth. Because of this, they’ve begun developing the echolocation abilities of the third class, called Clickers. At this point, the host is completely blind, forcing it to rely entirely on echolocation locate prey and navigate environments. They’re also crazy strong, so getting within grabbing distance of one is always a terrible idea.
The fourth stage can take years to develop, but when it does, the result is referred to as a Bloater. They’re the slowest moving of the bunch, but the fungus that covers their entire body doubles as a layer of armor plating, making them extremely difficult to put down.
Now, if you’re wondering why I went into all that, it’s so I could adequately prepare you for this, the fifth and final stage of infection which, sadly, didn’t make it into the game. The image you see below, in all its grotesque glory — seriously, it looks like concept art for The Thing, or maybe a particularly nasty new variant of Necromorph — is the work of One Pixel Brush, a studio that specializes in producing some of the best concept art you’ll likely ever see.
You might not recognize the name, but there’s a good chance you’ve played at least one of the many games they’ve had a hand in creating, including The Last of Us, Uncharted, Halo 4, and Ryse, among others. They’ve worked on games that span a variety of genres, but looking at this beautiful creature, I’d say their home is horror.
This isn’t new by any means, but I stumbled upon it while I was making my nightly run around the Internet and realized I never covered it here back when it was originally making its rounds about the Interwebs. I would have loved to see this guy realized in-game. Who know, maybe it will make an appearance in that possible The Last of Us sequel?