The Last of Us

Spoiler warning: This game is really good and you should definitely play it. I’ll do my best to talk in generalisations, but since this is a discussion of the story, I will have to make some assumptions. You have been warned.

If I were going to call a contender for the 2013 Game of the Year award, it would have to be Last of Us. It’s no technological marvel, and the gameplay is nothing new, but it sets a new standard in storytelling. Well, probably not as high as Torment – little approaches the masterpiece – but for a linear stealth/action game, it sets the bar really high.

Stories are most effective when we can identify with the characters. P likes to say she prefers Boromir over Strider because of his flaws. She finds Aragorn almost inhuman in his heroic perfection, while Boromir is more relatable because of his pride and susceptibility to temptation — and his redemption brings a little hope to the rest of us mere mortals.

And so it is that the characters in The Last of Us remind ourselves of who we are. Joel is an old man with little to live for: his daughter was killed in front of him by people he should have been able to trust, and the world has turned to shit around him. Ellie carries a monumental responsibility on her shoulders, but still has the need to be a bit of a kid and looks for an adult’s guidance and approval.

The world of The Last of Us is well-imagined. It works through the consequences of decades of societal and infrastructure decay following the outbreak of a highly contagious fungal infection. While there is nothing new in this post-apocalyptic setting, I found it thought through and presented well: it silently (well mostly) asks who the real monsters are (the “infected” or the people reverting to barbarism) and shows how beautiful a world where nature reclaims the realms that humans that taken over. The questions the writers are asking should be pretty obvious.

It’s against this beautiful backdrop that some of the most vicious and graphic violence I’ve witnessed in a major-release game is perpetrated. Ammunition is a limited commodity in The Last of Us, so I found myself up close and personal with many of my opponents. Joel’s melee repertoire includes stabbing in the throat, smashing faces in with an axe, and finishing off opponents with a kerb stomp. This is a brutal game, and Joel’s survival technique starts to rub off on his young charge; by the end, Ellie is no stranger to causing grievous bodily harm in some vicious ways herself.

Which brings me back to relatable characters. Out of context, this laundry list of brutalities might put The Last of Us on the same list as Mortal Kombat, but here we’re not revelling in the violence: I felt that sickening crunch every time I caved in another man’s face with a bat, I flinched when Joel tortured those men in the cabin. If you’re not asking, “Was that really necessary?” then you’re probably not old enough to be playing this game.

Then again, if you then don’t follow up with, “Would I maybe have done the same thing?” then you’re probably not quite human. More than once I had to stop the game because it got too strong, and each time I wondered if perhaps I would have done differently from Joel. Or Ellie, because her hardships are magnified by her age.

And when you get to the end of the game, and that almost engimatic closing dialogue, I challenge you to ask yourself the question again: If you were Joel and faced with that decision, would you have done it differently?

I couldn’t have.