Can a Video Game Show Us the Way?

What “The Last of Us: Part II” can teach a divided nation

(Sony)

The following contains spoilers for The Last of Us and The Last of Us: Part II.

After the tremendous success of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us in 2013, work began almost immediately on a sequel. The follow-up to one of the most decorated story-driven video games spent six years in development, so when it finally hit the shelves last summer, the gaming world could not play it fast enough. Like its predecessor, The Last of Us: Part II has won numerous “Game of the Year” titles, and rightfully so. We have never seen a game share the virtues of empathy and compassion with such intricacy and sophistication, and it is the game we need right now.

The first The Last of Us told the story of a smuggler, Joel, tasked with escorting a child across a zombie-ridden United States. The child, Ellie, had been bitten by the undead and had never turned. A doctor on the West Coast believed his team could perform a procedure on her that would allow them to develop a vaccine for the zombie disease. Upon reaching the doctor’s location, Joel learns that the procedure would kill Ellie. Unable to let Ellie go, Joel takes her back while she is under anesthesia and kills anyone who tries to stop their escape.