The Last of Us (part 1) is a story about nature healing 20 years after an apocalypse. We see this through the lens of Joel and Ellie, who go on a delightful cross-country backpacking trip. I forget the details. The cause of the apocalypse was a “cordyceps” outbreak — the accepted scientific term for a zombie. In the two decades that passed, civilisation collapsed, separating humanity into factions. None of them like each other. They are constantly embroiled in bloodthirsty contest for scraps of food and resources that remain on Earth.
Joel is a middle-aged man, who does not seem pleased at the idea of babysitting a teenage Ellie through this arduous road-trip. But as they say, the strongest bonds are built when you are faced with raging mutant zombies and merciless hunter — humans. Even if you fed the game’s “great graphics” to the zombies, the clever gameplay is immune. The stingy number of resources available to take-down enemies never fail to remind us that the world as we know it has ended. We need to be smart and patient at encounters. The environmental clues left through the scattered letters, is both excellent story-telling and great entertainment simultaneously.
Soon, we see Joel overcome his disapproval of the world to accept strong-willed, courageous, funny, and sometimes foul-mouthed Ellie as a daughter. If you have played a lot of games before, you may understand how tempting it is to skip a cinematic scene with dialogues. TLoU is one of the only games that had me wishing for a rewind button, just so I can hear Joel say “it’s ok, baby girl” to Ellie again.
This is not the first time that I have written about “The Last of Us” in this column, and it is far from the last time I will ever mention it. There are rational reasons to bring it up again. First, to jog your memory in advance of the officially unannounced release of a TLoU 2 Multiplayer game, and a potential remake. If you buy the first game now, you could also play Multiplayer add-on called “Factions”. Second, is to prepare you for the TV show which is currently in-works. My real reason for writing this, however, is to have more people to experience this amazing story. If you don’t have a PlayStation, at the very least, I hope I have convinced you to watch the entire video walkthrough online.