The Last Of Us — A Look Back At The Best Video Game Ever Made.
In June of 2013 — almost exactly 5 years ago, something significant happened; a video game was released that not only outdid most every other high budget, AAA game ever released, but it did something that people previously thought couldn’t be done. It was written so well that it genuinely tugged at your heartstrings. The characters were too real. Flawed, complex, driven by survival, and able to feel real emotions like love and hate.
Okay so why am I writing about a game that came out FIVE years ago? This is quite possibly the most redundant and unnecessary article I will ever write. Does anyone care enough to read this?
Well, I’m writing it for two reasons; one, we have a sequel to look forward to. It’s still a year away but we need to revisit the first game to talk about just how important it is, and why you should look forward to the sequel. And two, I just replayed it again in its entirety (for the first time in years).
The Last Of Us made us think. In a post-apocalyptic world years after a fungal cordyceps virus outbreak takes out more than 60% of the world’s population (and makes the rest into zombie-esque living dead), society breaks down and people are either living in quarantine zones run by Martial Law, or they are out in the dangerous world on their own. We meet a man named Joel who, at the beginning of the outbreak, loses his pre-teen daughter. It’s an absolute heart-wrenching scene. However this is years later, and him and his now-girlfriend Tess are smugglers in the Boston quarantine zone. They meet a girl named Ellie, who is apparently the first human ever discovered who is immune to the cordyceps virus. She was bitten but did not turn, she can come into contact with fungal spores but not get sick. A woman named Marlene who is high up in an organization called The Fireflies wants to get Ellie across the country so they can finally, with the girl’s immunity, work out some type of vaccine and save the entire human race. And off we go.
Over the course of the game, Ellie and Joel become very close, as a father/daughter unit. Joel has a lot of trouble talking about the loss of his daughter, but as the game continues you see those walls start to erode. He also starts to care for Ellie as an adopted daughter of sorts. You spend a year traveling the country, chapters marked by the seasons that pass. You meet people, both good and bad. You see much of a broken-down United States, where infrastructure is long gone, nature is slowly creeping into our manmade cities, and danger is around every corner.
The game is truly significant in every way; it’s outstanding soundtrack, the amazing high budget graphics and flawless gameplay. However probably the most significant aspect of the game is how it chose to end its story, and the questions it asks about ourselves, and what is “right and wrong.”
***SPOILERS***
Hey, it’s a 5-yr old game, but I still gotta say it. This is where we talk about the ending. Joel manages to get Ellie to the Fireflies — not a small feat, considering they started in Boston and ended up through Wyoming, Colorado and into Utah. Marlene is there but informs him that in order to successfully create a vaccine from Ellie’s immunity, she will die in the process. The fungal virus lives in the brain, and that’s what they will need from her. And so here is the question; does Joel allow Ellie to die to save the human race? Or does he rescue her from the Fireflies so she can live? Surprisingly, he chooses the latter. Although most people would choose to save the human race (and with good reason), Joel already lost a daughter. His daughter never got to grow up. Such is the unfairness of the world. He is now fully bonded with Ellie — a very kind soul and good person who, as Marlene even states, would WANT them to proceed with the surgery so the human race can be saved. Joel lies to her and tells her the Fireflies are no longer looking for a cure in order to convince Ellie she is no longer needed. In the last scene, Ellie makes him swear what he’s saying is true, and he does. You can almost see that Ellie still might not believe him, but she says “okay.” Accepts it, and moves on. She trusts Joel.
What was the right answer in Joel’s situation? Sacrifice one exceptional girl to save the human race? Most would say yes, but how is that in any way fair to Ellie? She can no longer live her life because she was somehow born immune? It’s not fair. And “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” most would say, but Joel cannot abide. He already lost one daughter and understandably, his heart cannot take another loss. Would you call that selfish? Or selfless, to save Ellie?
Look, I get it. We’re talking about characters in a video game here. And that’s what The Last Of Us was able to do so effectively that most games still can’t grasp, five years later; write a story fit for a novel or a Hollywood movie that can potentially make you cry and make you care.
This game created a benchmark in the gaming industry that will be hard to live ip to, and it will be talked about twenty, thirty years from now — rightfully so. It’s brilliance will hopefully be out-shadowed by its sequel, The Last Of Us 2, in 2019. And it cannot come soon enough.
|DV.NWMN|
@dirtynouveau
