The Last of Us is now eight years old but I only recently played it because I usually try to stay away from horror games and have a low tolerance for horror in general. But man, am I glad I borrowed this game and played it.
While it isn’t the scariest game out there, it still gave me chills and cold sweat, especially on the Hotel Basement level. That level is terrifying for some reason, even for someone who played through it 11 times.
But The Last of Us isn’t about the terrifying moments, it’s not about giving you a good scare. It’s a story-rich game, that’ll scare you by making you ask yourself a ton of “what if” questions. The biggest what-if question you’ll ask yourself is what if you have to make a choice similar to the game’s ending.
I know there are tons of reviews already out since this game is older. There’s even an HBO remake in the works. So I’m not going to dive into the details about the game. I’ll mostly focus on the morals and how this game spits out emotions like there’s no tomorrow.
Of course, like most reviews, this article will contain a lot of spoilers. So if you’re here waiting for a recommendation on whether to play it or not: Just grab a copy and play it. It does deal with a lot of gore, violence, self-harm, suicide, and murder so if those are potentially triggering for you, you might want to skip it. Otherwise, if you can handle those things, play the game because it truly is a masterpiece.
Why The Last of Us Is a Masterpiece
The Story Is a Huge Emotional Rollercoaster
Let’s start with the beginning of the game, where we see the initial outbreak. You start as Sarah, Joel’s daughter, and begin with a wholesome interaction between the two, as Joel receives a gift watch from Sarah.
Shortly after that, you notice explosions. Your neighbors are attacking Joel, and you start running away from your home. Then, Joel and Sarah get shot by the military, leading to Sarah’s death.
I know that description doesn’t convey how much of a panic inducer that whole scene is, but you can watch the whole thing with the embedded video above. That first 15 minutes of the game will immediately catch your attention.
It screams at you that this is not just a normal zombie game. This is a zombie game that’ll make the players feel a lot of pain, and it does so by getting you to be compassionate towards the characters first, then making something bad happen to them (with the exception of Joel and Ellie who survive the increasingly horrific sequence of events).
Remember Sam and Henry? Those are the brothers that you’ll encounter and travel with for a short time while you’re playing the Pittsburgh chapter. There’s a part where Henry forbids Sam from taking a toy robot (probably him wishing for a better childhood).
I mean, it’s just a toy, but you feel bad for him. Luckily, our gal Ellie took the toy for him, and they had a talk about their fears and what happens after death. It really is one of the best and saddest scenes in the game. It shows their innocence as kids. The moment Ellie gives Sam the toy, is also the moment where it’s revealed that Sam was bitten, and what happens next is all messed up.
This is the whole scene if you want to watch it again, but please don’t if you haven’t played the game yet:
Still don’t believe me? There’s also David who you first encounter as a kind survivor, but is later revealed to be a cannibal rapist. And of course, there’s Tess who seems like a great woman but dies early in the game.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but this game gets people hooked by inducing this emotional rollercoaster with the characters that Joel and Ellie meet. It also explains why Joel is so stoic about all the people he lost.
After 20 years of trusting and losing people, of course, he would be toughened up from the day his daughter died. But even he is a rollercoaster with his moods switching rapidly between ruthless killer and empathetic father figure to Ellie.
Realistic Game Mechanics
To convey a realistic story, you need realistic game mechanics to go with it. The biggest game mechanic that you might’ve noticed is how scarce the resources are. You’re lucky if you ever fill your ammo capacity to the max. If you run out of bullets, then you need to fight with your fists, melee weapons, and even throwables like bottles and bricks.
The game challenges you to make the most out of the resources and actions you have available. You can sneak up and choke enemies. You can hold them hostage. Shooting them with different weapons will range from satisfying to gross. Here’s a great display of utilizing everything that The Last of Us will give you:
Crafting in this game is also realistic because it happens without pausing the game. The crafting itself also takes a bit of time, forcing you to find a spot to hide for a decent stretch of time just to craft a med-kit. If you don’t hide well enough while you do, you risk getting killed by enemies while crafting.
When you take all these game mechanics together, it really adds to the message that you’re in a post-apocalyptic world, and you will easily die if you’re not watching your back.
Phenomenal Sound Design and Graphics
I wrote about The Last of Us HBO remake a few days ago, and I described the game as having a dark and gloomy world. But, it’s also fascinating when the game occasionally chooses to show us its beautiful world. I guess it’s part of the emotional rollercoaster I was rambling about earlier.
One example is the part where Ellie and Joel go through a cordyceps-infested subway which is dark, creepy, and full of zombies spewing out cordyceps spores. Right after that, they walk through calm and peaceful woods.
Overall, the art and graphics just make the game feel so alive. That’s all thanks to the talented team behind the game and to the game’s art director Erick Pangilinan, a fellow Filipino who made us Filipino gamers proud!
Alright, the game looks pretty, scary, and realistic all at the same time, but that isn’t the only reason why The Last of Us world feels so immersive and alive. The game also has great sound design.
3D sound imaging is utilized throughout. Gunshots are extremely loud, and you can pinpoint where characters and enemies are coming from. This feature works great with the game’s Listen Mode mechanic.
Finally, the game features Gustavo Santaolalla’s original music, which is nothing short of dreadful when it’s played at the right moments. Take a listen to the game’s theme song played by Gustavo Santaolalla himself:
Yeah, overall, zombie games or even survival games, in general, don’t typically have a lot of emotion and drama in them. But, even if The Last of Us weren’t a story-driven game, I think you would still feel some emotion just with the great graphics and music alone.
The Ending’s Moral Ambiguity
The ending of The Last of Us is a huge “what the hell” moment for a lot of people, but it can go two ways: You can consider it a good thing or a bad thing.
The game’s main goal is getting Ellie (a human immune to the cordyceps infection) to a research facility where they can attempt to develop a vaccine by studying Ellie’s immunity. What we don’t know until near the end, however, is that they need to take Ellie’s brain to formulate a vaccine, which will, of course, kill her.
Once he grasped the situation, Joel rescued Ellie and killed everyone who got in his way — destroying all hopes of getting a cure or vaccine as he did so.
Many of us might have thought that this was incredibly selfish of Joel to save Ellie instead of sacrificing her for a vaccine or cure that would save thousands if not millions of people. But I don’t think you can blame him for his decision. He sees the world as something rotten, something that might need to stay dead.
After all, the world didn’t do a ton of good to Joel. He lost so many people already that it’s understandable why he wouldn’t want anyone else close to him to die — especially Ellie who essentially acted as his surrogate daughter.
Marlene and the Fireflies also didn’t give him much of a choice. They basically said that Ellie will die in the process and he needs to leave right away. No goodbye words. Not even a last talk with Ellie to ask her if she really wants this. Remember: Ellie didn’t even know that she was in the hospital at the time because she had been knocked out by the soldiers they saw when they arrived.
Just because we can understand Joel’s motives doesn’t mean that what he did is good. After all, even if he lost Ellie, he would still have his brother. More to the point: What is one human life when that can save thousands to millions?
It was also hard on Marlene since she was friends with Ellie’s mother who had asked Marlene to keep Ellie safe. She was willing to betray that promise to give the world hope of a cure.
If you think about it, Joel is essentially projecting Sarah — his dead daugther — onto Ellie. Saving her is a way of making up for failing to protect Sarah. He even starts calling Ellie “baby girl” while saving her. That’s what he calls Sarah at the beginning of the game.
Here’s the opening scene on The Last of Us Part 2 where Joel tells Tommy what happened at the Firefly Hospital:
I think he knows what he did, and he seems numb to what happened. He’s calmly cleaning a guitar while telling the story for Pete’s sake!
In the end, it’s always hard to choose between someone you care for and the greater good. It might even be easier to sacrifice your own life for the life of many rather than sacrificing your loved one. In a post-apocalyptic world, you need to find something to live for in order to endure the horror. For Joel, it isn’t the hope of restoring the world. It’s Ellie and the illusion that Sarah is somehow living on through her.
I’m not saying that what he did was right. The truth is, Joel and Ellie are the bad guys in this story. But you can definitely sympathize with the difficulty of the decision they were confronted with.
What if you had to make that same decision? Would you give up your loved ones for the sake of the world?