If You Have Not Played The Last of Us, Then You Should Make Yourself Throw Up to Get Out of Work and Play it Now.
Watch the trailer for Last of Us Part II, here.
This one goes out to all of you video game nerds out there. Paris Game Week (or PGW as those of us who can’t pronounce Paris call it), just happened- and it’s left us with some pretty exceptional new/first looks at some games coming out.
Of these games, it’s my opinion that the trailer for Last of Us 2 absolutely steals the show. To be fair, it’s pretty hard to imagine a Last of Us game being shown at any event and not garnering the most interest. If you have any inkling of curiosity towards video games, as in if you play any game at all, ever, then you MUST play Last of Us. It is what I consider to be the best game of all time, hands down.
The story takes place in the United States two decades after the outbreak of a deadly infection that has turned the majority of the population into fungal zombies, and scattered the survivors into groups of scavengers and murderers that will do anything to survive. You follow Joel (your protagonist for 95% of the game) and Ellie (a young girl placed in his care) as they trek across the country in hope of a brighter future.
The game effectively combines themes from the Walking Dead, Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”, Children of Men, 28 Days Later, and basically all of the best post-apocalyptic books and movies. One fan even turned the game into a 7 Part Cinematic Miniseries, and there have been talks of turning it into a movie since the game came out in 2013. Most games that focus purely on telling an amazing story don’t get much credit outside of the hardcore gaming community because they’re not as flashy, or don’t seem as exciting as big market games. Last of Us, however, is an exception. The game excels not only because of the hard-hitting and emotional story behind it, but because it builds a challenging action game off of really impressive mechanics and gameplay. Last of Us is three parts action-survival game, two parts RPG, and one part hit that guy with a brick because you ran out of ammunition and don’t have time to go digging in your backpack for your next weapon.
The game has so many different pieces that combine to make it an unbelievably memorable experience on a mechanical level, but it’s really those elements combined with a terrifically written and well paced story that puts Last of Us in the “am I playing a video game or experiencing a movie” territory. If you have a console, or if you know someone with a console, buy this game and try it- because it is truly a unique and powerful experience.
NEEDLESS TO SAY: the trailer for the second game looks like it will not disappoint. We get more of the gritty, no-holds barred action, we’ll see the return of Ellie and Joel, and we’ll get to experience a new (and apparently somehow darker) story. I know that the game has a new director (which in any other game I wouldn’t really worry about, but with Last of Us I worry a bit more), and I’ve heard rumors of new mechanics/gameplay- but the first one was so good that until I experience otherwise, I put my full trust in the Naughty Dog studio to produce another Game of the Year Decade.
Don’t do it for me. Do it for you. Experience a touching story that will tear you down, lift you up, haunt you, and stay on your mind for months. Go ahead, finally tell your friends that you’re into video games.
P.S. Because I’m so obsessed with the Last of Us, I didn’t really have time to dive into my PGW honorable mention of: Shadow Of Tsushima, a game that I haven’t heard ANYTHING about, but whose The Last Samurai-esque trailer knocked my socks off. I’m excited to learn more about, and see if the hype is well earned.
P.P.S. I’m learning that this trailer is becoming controversial because of its depiction of violence, and I will say this: this is an extremely violent video game, there's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. The first one was violent, the second one will be too. But I don’t think it’s fair to criticize or accuse Naughty Dog for “using violence to sell their video game”. In fact, I think if any video game accomplishes featuring brutal violence without glorifying it, then it is The Last of Us. Don’t lump this game in with the Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty series, because it’s a completely different beast. I would wait on criticizing a game for how it’s advertised until you’ve played it; and just like I would hesitate before bringing a 7 year old to Gladiator, I would hesitate before plunking that same kid down in front of an action-adventure survival horror game that explores what happens to humanity when the world falls apart.
