I finished The Last of Us last week. It was a delight of a game. No, I take that last statement back, it was a delight of a narrative and the game was fine. Let me explain, and I will try to mark spoilers as such but I cannot promise anything so read at you own risk. The Last of Us has great characters, amazing characters. The end of the world plant-zombie apocalypse plot is honestly a little too cliched and the stealth, third person action game play is solid even if combat gets a little old by the end of the game. But both the cliched plot and the good, albeit redundant, game play doesn't even matter because Naughty Dog (the team that developed the game) created some of the best characters that I have ever played. The voice actors do a great job, the script feels natural, and the characters' facial animations are amazing.
But it's not enough to have great character, they have to, you know, interact. And Joel and Ellie's relationship is heart and soul of The Last of Us. That's not to say that Joel and Ellie are the only two great characters in the game, there are a handful of meaningful minor characters. Some of the best moments of the game are because of the minor characters, but I have to stay focused here.
So in the spirit of staying focused I want to talk about 2 different things:
First, I couldn't play this game for more than an two hours at a time. I normally play games until I have to stop, but I consistently found myself saying, "I need a break." Either I was stressed out from the tough enemy encounters (zombies can insta-kill you) or someone meaningful died (stupid end of the world narratives). The game seemed to be designed to be sectioned-off. The second half of the game almost felt episodic. I was thankful for this because I think the developers wanted players to feel like it's okay to turn the game off and take a break.
Second, the end of the game is amazing. I have to write about it. If you plan to play this game, then do not read on. (SPOILERS AHEAD)
Quick plot run down: Joel is tasked with taking Ellie to a group of people who are trying to stop the zombie apocalypse. She is important because she is immune to the spores the cause the zombie virus. Joel and Ellie start off as troubled acquaintances, adventures ensue, and they grow close--he feels likes she's his daughter close. Now, I want to say that the journey makes the ending because it creates and justifies Joel and Ellie's relationship. But I digress. Joel ultimately finds out that they have to kill Ellie to even try and harvest a cure for the plague. He's forced to choose between Ellie, his surrogate daughter, and the world.
He chooses Ellie.
But this isn't even what makes the ending great. Ellie was prepared to lay down her life. She knew it was a possibility. And when Joel saves her, she is about to be operated on, so she is obviously knocked out. When she wakes, Joel is driving and he tells her that there have been others who were immune and it didn't lead to a cure, which is a lie and Ellie suspects as much. They then get out of the car and walk over a hill back to their safe haven. Joel is finally talking freely about his dead daughter to his new daughter. And they see the town that will be their home. Before heading forward she asks Joel pointblank if what he said was true. What she really not the cure. She asks him to swear. He looks at her, and like a true father, swears that all of his lies were true. The game ends.
No only was Joel willing to sacrifice the world to save Ellie, he was willing to sacrifice their relationship to save her.
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