LOOK FOR THE LIGHT
~: HALL OF FAME :~
Also for: -
Before replaying The Last of Us I thought I had forgotten most of
it, and only remembered the strong parts. This turned out not to be true. I
basically had the entire game memorized. Even the smallest enemy encounter
felt familiar, because this game consists almost exclusively of memorable
parts. The Last of Us mixes dramatic cutscenes, delicate story exploration and
horror gameplay into a singular narrative gut-punch. That sense of filler
content from my first playthrough came from distorted memories of taking
breaks to refuel my courage or deal with some heavy emotional stuff.
How did the developers Naughty Dog achieve this landmark experience?
The obvious answer would be through stellar directing, writing, acting and
animation, but there are more subtle details that are just as important.
Unnerving sound design (including a surprisingly somber soundtrack) and a
great sense of pace binds it all together into a horrifying, yet beautiful
story. Anyone still doubting the maturity and power of video games could be
forever silenced by playing a few minutes of The Last of Us.
Prior to its release, games tended to make the shifts between cutscene and
gameplay clearly break off from the other. The cuts often felt heavy-handed
and sometimes even intrusive, especially those ahead of tough boss fights you
had to retry numerous times. Or else they felt like a reward, like you'd
accomplished something and could lean back and relax for a moment.
The Last of Us circumvents that. Within the framework of its four distinct
chapters, it is seamlessly told, making cutscenes feel like extensions of
gameplay and vice versa. They support and elevate each other to raise the
tension to almost unbearable levels.
If a thrilling gameplay sequence ends with you jumping through a window, the
following cutscene immediately starts with you landing on the other side of
that window. From a narrative standpoint that extra animation is not
necessary, but the unbroken chain of action makes the urgency carry over into
the new section. The implication is that the danger has not subsided. You
could regain control at any moment.
And Naughty Dog have found a perfect formula for their expertise - the linear
action-adventure. Gameplay comes in segments, much like movie scenes, taking
place in small multiplayer-like maps where you can tackle the situation in a
number of ways. Much like a traditional level structure, once you leave one
scene behind you cannot return. But that doesn't matter, you're just glad to
have escaped with your life. When adding survival horror to the mix, you get
one deeply personal journey in the role of overworked, single father Joel
Miller (a breakthrough role for Troy Baker).
STORY AND SETTING
In the heartwrenching prologue you get to witness first-hand the outbreak of a
disease caused by a Cordyceps fungal infection of the brain. This parasite,
inspired by a real-world fungus that affects insects, spreads rapidly and
turns people into raging, deformed beasts attacking anyone in sight. In the
ensuing chaos, tragedy strikes just as the prologue fades to black, leaving
Joel with an emotional scar that lingers all the way through the game and
informs his later actions.
The opening credits play out, and afterwards twenty years have passed. The
infection still ravages the world. All communications and central government
have ceased to exist. People are isolated in enclaves. Whole city blocks are
no-go zones, because they could be beset by the fungi. Any human inhaling
their spores turns into a beast within a few agonizing hours. The only
way to possibly survive such areas is by wearing a gas mask and avoid the
crazed infected.
Society is down to martial law, enforced by the tyrannical FEDRA, and the few
that still live are herded into highly guarded quarantine zones. Whoever shows
symptoms is tested and, if proven infected, immediately executed. Out in the
wilderness, exiles and refugees band together in camps and shoot you on sight
to get their hands on whatever resources you may conceal in your backpack.
Joel works as a smuggler alongside his partner, Tess (Annie Wersching),
in a quarantine zone, risking life and limb to get people provisions. It's a
high-risk, high-reward kind of job. Living this way for such a long time has
made him jaded and thick-skinned. He is stuck in an emotional lockdown,
totally sealed from human emphatetic connection in favor of a survivalist
mindset. He kills without remorse, takes whatever he needs and has made a long
list of enemies. Judging by the upcoming story, Tess is even worse off.
After a fateful chain of events the pair gets an unusual assignment. They must
smuggle a fourteen year-old girl halfway across the U.S. to the base of
operations of the Fireflies, a group of outlaws resisting FEDRA. Although the
Fireflies' methods are equally questionable, at least their goals are
altruistic: the restoration of humanity. The girl to be smuggled is named
Ellie (Ashley Johnson), and she is one of the most iconic video game
characters to date; a tough and smart, but also immature and inexperienced kid
growing up in a world totally different from our own. Although the contractor
won't let you in on why just yet, getting her to the Fireflies could actually
save humankind.
The road to the Fireflies is long and arduous, and the ensuing story resembles
a road movie playing out over a year. It's divided into four distinct
chapters, one for each season. In mood and structure it resembles Cormac McCarthy's modern classic The Road, albeit with "Infected" thrown into
the mix. It is equally dark and jarring, but not depressingly so thanks to the
uplifting relationship forming between Joel and Ellie. The brief acquaintances
they make along the road also alleviate some of their burdens. The
well-written dialogue goes out of its way to sound natural and unforced, which
makes the experience relatable, in spite of the extreme circumstances.
COMBAT AND MACGYVERISM
Unfortunately, most people you encounter would rather kill than befriend you.
Since the game doesn't ever let go of its realistic approach, combat often
turns into a nerve wracking mess - in a good way. In the role of middle-aged
Joel you run with the speed and grace of an ox, with aiming skills to match.
Meanwhile, the enemy far outnumber you, mindlessly patrolling the area they
inhabit. This makes the game more focused on stealth and survival mechanics.
The monsters come only in a few different variations, and the human enemies
are all basically the same, but that is more than enough. The true horror is
the combined force of them. The fast-paced Runners give you little time to
aim, and will keep you busy in melee while the slow and blind Clickers, guided
by the sounds of battle, close in for an instantaneously killing bite. The
game is very gory, never shying away from the effects of a shotgun wound to
the head, or a big Bloater tearing your skull apart. But I applaud the
decision to be graphic. Depicting death in any other manner in such a
realistic game would have felt dishonest.
You start out with only a handgun and a strong right hook. Although you soon
find more, like a rifle or shotgun, that only gets you so far. Ammo is scarce
and you can only carry one or two extra clips. What provisional melee weapons
you find (planks, axes, machetes, etc.) break within a few hits. With
Joel's astute hearing skills you can pinpoint enemy movement behind walls.
Stealth kills are handy but risky because the strangling takes some time to
pull off.
However, like the 1980:s TV-series hero MacGyver, you can learn to
create makeshift weaponry out of materials like alcohol, rags and sugar. This
turns combat into a dynamic puzzle of planning, screwing up and improvising.
How about throwing a molotov cocktail into a bush, luring three blind infected
into the inferno? Much to your horror this also alerts the handful of enemies
that you missed right behind you. This forces you to reassess the situation,
and maybe craft a smoke bomb on the fly to escape. The level design also
helps. Areas are big enough for you to hide in, lay out traps and orchestrate
an attack - or an escape if you so desire. Most times your only objective is
to reach the exit alive, which is a nice break from forced slaughter.
EXPLORATION AND THEME
But heading straight for the exit stings a little, because you feel the urge
to explore. As you rummage through old offices, rotting cabins and dank sewers
looking for resources, you find private documents, detailing the lore of the
world. To me, such things have become essential, because no other medium can
compare to video games in terms of world building and exploration. And in The
Last of Us, the world is haunted by memories of happier times.
Withered billboards, posters, furnishing and vehicles are being swallowed by
nature. The cities are turning green, and wild dogs and other animals roam the
streets. It is as beautiful as it is scary in all its unrelenting glory. And
often the way forward is barred because of the decay. In these very
lightweight puzzle sections, you must find some way around, or through, or a
generator to power up an automatic gate.
For me, this is where the game starts to grow. You follow a meticulous pattern
of story, horror, action and exploration. With great narrative
efficiency, The Last of Us conveys both the facts and feelings of the world
and what makes life worth living, and how Joel and Ellie relate to their
discoveries. The pair help each other out constantly, and sometimes even save
each other's lives. They learn to trust each other and the calm moments exist
to test the waters between them. Ever so slowly, the journey manipulates their
views of their place in the world.
And we mustn't forget those rare moments of real bonding, like the giraffe
scene, or the horrifying drama at the end of chapter one (the one titled
"Summer"). Often, the characters speak in a way that dances around a subject
matter. I've never encountered this outside of a Naughty Dog game. The
narrative team knows that things left unsaid can reveal a lot about a
character. This is especially true of Joel, whose journey rekindles that human
spirit he lost so long ago.
Another great narrative feat unique to Naughty Dog is knowing exactly when to
cut. Ending each chapter with an exceptionally strong scene, they immediately
follow with a fade to black and make a drastic jump in time and place to start
off the next chapter. This leaves us in the dark, making us wonder what
exactly happened in the time that passed.
This peaks exactly halfway through the journey. First, consider the horror at
the end of the prologue. A similar shock concludes the "Summer" chapter. Now,
consider how these events affects the way we perceive the end of the "Fall"
chapter that follows. And the way that "Winter" begins... It must be one of
the most harrowing, yet brilliant cuts in the history of narrative fiction.
The Last of Us sacrifices writing, gameplay or whatever stands in the way of
the desired effect. It's a tough ride to endure, but through the mercy of
cutting away at the right moments, The Last of Us ends in triumph.
Even on a second playthrough, I feel that dread inside, as if the characters
on the screen are based on real-life people. I think that is the true strength
of The Last of Us. It is a fairly simple road movie about believable, lifelike
personalities in a dreadful world that might not deserve salvation. Joel and
Ellie are flawed and not always likeable, but they are always relatable and
complicated, and we grow to love them all the more because of it.
More intriguing still is the implied question that concludes the entire
experience. Is "Love" always a desirable thing, at any cost? In The Last of
Us, the matter is complicated, and the answer might not boil down to a
resounding "yes". Love might leave you vulnerable. It might make you do
dangerous, irrational things. In this case, it might have doomed the world. But speaking for Joel, after all he's suffered I
think he could not bear to go back into a world without it, especially not
after all he's seen. I think he just followed the Fireflies' hopeful message:
"When lost in the darkness, look for the light."
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