I am a touch obsessed with the game The Last of Us, created by Naughty Dog. The game is made gorgeously. The cut scenes are practically movie quality, and the backgrounds in all scenes are done hyper-realistically. I love this game. It was one of the first games that I purchased after the acquisition of a PlayStation3. Of course, if you have followed my RGC series, I can’t finish a game to save my life. So I watch other people play on YouTube.
To date, I’ve watched three Let’s Play series’ of The Last of Us: Markiplier, StephenPlays, and Cryaotic. I love all of them for different reasons. Mark plays the way I do: screaming the entire time. Stephen plays methodically, which I enjoy because that means I get to see more of the game. And Cry just has the nicest voice to listen to.
You may think that watching the same game played three separate times is excessive, and might get boring. It is not. Sure, I know the way the story goes, and it’s not as surprising when certain plot twists come up, but the storyline is just so good, it’s worth the repeated watch. It’s like re-watching a favourite movie or TV show. The following section contains spoilers. You’ve been warned.
The story follows Joel, a hardened, middle-aged man just trying to get by in a post-apocalyptic world. The beginning of the game shows a younger Joel, his daughter Sarah, and his brother Tommy trying to escape from a “zombie” outbreak. After the initial tutorial stage of the game, in which you play as Sarah and Joel, it cuts to twenty years later. Joel lives in a safe zone, and he and his business partner (and maybe something more?) Tess run a smuggling ring. His life has lost all meaning since the death of his daughter, and he’s just going through the motions.
After trying to shake down a former business partner, Robert, and escaping from his goons and the soldiers that patrol the safe zone, Joel and Tess run into Marlene, a sometimes friend and leader of the rebel group, the Fireflies. Marlene hires Joel and Tess to deliver a package to another group of Fireflies in a different city. That package turns out to be a fourteen-year-old girl: Ellie.
The remainder of the game is Joel attempting to get Ellie to the Fireflies over the course of roughly a year. Grudgingly, he bonds with the girl and begins to think of her as his daughter. It’s really touching, and honestly, I think the game wouldn’t be the same if Joel hadn’t shown any kind of character development in that respect.
I’ll probably finish playing this game someday. Until then, I’ll watch more LPs.