Ellie from ‘The Last of Us’

I am a zombie genre fan, no question. The Walking Dead being the most recent, and most popular, take on a post-apocalypse outbreak really roped me in. While there are decades of movies and video games devoted to this universe I was only mildly interested in them (all due respect to George Romero and Capcom’s Resident Evil franchise). Two things really upped my interest: The aforementioned t.v. series, and zombie obstacle runs. While the latter gave a tangible experience, safe and fun as it is but still an outlet, and excuse, to exercice, the former hooked me emotionally and intellectually. The big difference is the focus on characters and storyline as well as the inherent violence and survival instinct that goes with such an alternate reality.

In many ways, the emphasis on just trying to survive instead of running head-first into a horde of the undead and blowing them to hell makes a world of difference to me. That’s what makes The Last of Us (Naughty Dog) such a wonderful game for me. In many respects it’s a spiritual successor to TWD in that the only real difference are the characters and geographic location. Other than that, you couldn’t tell them apart since the narrative is straight forward and believable; the characters are wonderfully flawed and don’t always make the best decisions.

The reader’s digest summation of the game: Twenty years after a naturally-occuring fungal spore infects people and causes a pandemic, Joel, a 50-something survivor who looks like Nathan Drake in a beard, must bring Ellie, a 14 year old who look suspiciously like Ellen Page and seems to be a cure since she was infected by hasn’t turned, across the country to a laboratory where she can be used to create a vaccine. Along the way, you will encounter all manner of individuals, families, and groups trying to get by without the finer things in life anymore. You will pass through cities, like PIttsburgh, or happen upon large institutions with cities. It’s a brutal, ugly, living-by-daylight violent world. One that I wager is very realstic in its portrayal.

The biggest attraction for me, play-wise, is the lack of pausing in this game to either craft weapons, medicine, or to heal. When you’re in the middle of a firefight, or actively avoiding the undead, you better have your inventory ready to go, otherwise it could cost you a scene restart. Similarly, everything you use has a very limited lifespan, so don’t mess up using it. This emphasis on “what do I need the most right now to make it though” really makes you think before acting.  This means you can avoid firefights to conserve your ammo by choking opponents out sneakily, or blow your wad as much as you want, but find your ammo to run out rather quickly. The harder the difficulty level, the less ammo and raw materials overall you will find so patience and strategy will be much bigger virtues.

Expanding on this, your ability to craft medicine, shivs, and incendiary devices is limited to three. Combining two to three different raw materials can give you two possible options. For example, using cloth and alcohol gets you either medicine or a molotov; scissors and duct tape will provide you with either a shiv for CQC (look it up), or added piercing to a baseball bat for more pain when swinging it into an enemy’s face. And once the item is used, your raw material stock declines until you find more along your journey. Craft wisely, as it could make a scenario much easier if done correctly.

The second big attraction which ultimately decides how I like it are the main characters. There’s a whole lot of other aspects about your weapons and their upgrades, but that’s not my main reason for writing this. Joel lost a daughter during the inital fallout; one of the most amazing and tender introductions I have ever seen in a video game. So, Ellie comes along and he tries his best to be emotionally distant from this tiny ball of fury, which you know won’t last forever. She’s barely a teenager who’s scared and lonely, but eventually gets strong and independent as the story goes on. They grow to truly rely on each other through countless encounters, bad choices, and (yes) child predators. To put a good spin on the game, you control Ellie for some time, killing just as well as Joel or being felled by enemies just as swiftly. It’s a welcome change in what is a predominantly male-oriented game. And she knows how to use a butterfly knife.

I was going to write this up before I finished game, thinking the ending wouldn’t be consequential. I’m glad I waited because it was as humanly flawed an end as I could have hoped for. That’s as much as I’ll say, but it reiterates highly the emphasis on character development Naughty Dog put into this game. No one’s perfect, and that’s fine with me.