[spoiler free for the first game]
The Last of Us is one of the first console games I had ever played. I was probably one of the latest to the game, as I played it not too long ago; painstakingly making my way through it, as emotionally harrowing as it was.
Now, if you are not a video game enthusiast, don’t worry neither am I. The number of games I have played is very, very limited so I don’t have a veteran’s expertise in playing games whatsoever. But I decided to play this game for its story. Whether you like playing games or not, The Last of Us, in my opinion, is one of the best stories I have ever seen come to life.
The premise of the first game is fairly simple. In a post-apocalyptic world consumed by a monster-creating fungus, a middle-aged man called Joel is dealt the task of transporting a young girl, Ellie, who is the supposed cure, across the country into the hands of a militia group called the Fireflies so they can make the cure. We are all familiar with stories of dystopian worlds and the trope of “The Chosen One”. The reason it works so well in the case of The Last of Us is the fact that, well, it’s a game. And that makes all the difference. There is a lot of great analysis on the game already all over the Internet, so I am not going to reiterate it, but rather express why the story drew me in, and why it still owns real estate in my mind months later.
When we watch movies about dystopia, it automatically creates a barrier between the viewer and the characters because their world is very different from ours. We can get emotional and root for them, but the intensity of our empathy is still quite restricted. This all changes when you’re holding a controller in your hands, forced to kill zombies in an abandoned subway, your heart racing as you hope no one hears your footsteps. You live the fear, and you feel for the character because their fate is literally in your hands. The Last of Us makes us play as these extremely human and flawed characters, whether we agree with their choices or not, making us feel real guilt when we’re playing and it confronts us with very raw emotions.
Video games allow worlds to be fully fleshed out. You can see a whole range of scenery and landscape, adding a huge amount of depth to the story-telling experience. There is far more time for character development, as characters can converse and display character traits even if you’re just moving a ladder around trying to get into a building. Added cinematography and hi-tech motion capture have almost made video games feel like playing out a movie with your own hands.
Video games are the future of immersion. It is a world with a lot of room left for exploration, with many opportunities to create compelling and moving stories. It is amazing to see how far the perception of video games has come, as more and more people respect it as a work of art and not just a pass time. We are seeing more and more immersive storytelling, with some games turning to non-linear narratives, where the player chooses what happens in a story. Writers from TV and cinema are beginning to work with game developers, which opens up a lot more doors for what can be done artistically. Hopefully, we see more collaboration and advancement in the video game world. Living a story has never been easier.