Dan
Makhulu Silverback
*HUGE CATASTROPHIC GAME-RUINING SPOILERS AHEAD*
So I finally finished "The Last of Us", and it's been one of the best gaming experiences I've enjoyed in years.
But aside from all the gameplay and technical elements that impressed me, it was the narrative that really pushed the game to exceptional status, and in particular, the unexpected ending.
My take?
I can see it being seen a few different ways, but the most obvious is that the game's central theme is about man's will to survive. Joel mentions this many times through the story, and in the end, for him survival means not losing another "daughter", and in turn allowing Ellie her own survival. We're thus misdirected for much of the story, being led to believe that we're striving to keep all of mankind alive, but it ultimately comes back down to the survival of "the last of us".
Interestingly, I can also see it having more of a horror twist to it, with Joel regressing back to an almost uncontrollable instinct for self-preservation, and thus he effectively kidnaps Ellie (likely unconsciously, at least up until the end) as he increasingly projects his feelings for Sarah onto her. We can see the "monster" he eventually becomes when he takes the photo of his daughter from Ellie at the end and doesn't have the same adverse emotional reaction he did when he first saw the picture; Ellie is Sarah now, and that's all that matters.
For those who've seen it through to completion, what did you think? How did you interpret the big finale, and would you have done it differently?
So I finally finished "The Last of Us", and it's been one of the best gaming experiences I've enjoyed in years.
But aside from all the gameplay and technical elements that impressed me, it was the narrative that really pushed the game to exceptional status, and in particular, the unexpected ending.
My take?
I can see it being seen a few different ways, but the most obvious is that the game's central theme is about man's will to survive. Joel mentions this many times through the story, and in the end, for him survival means not losing another "daughter", and in turn allowing Ellie her own survival. We're thus misdirected for much of the story, being led to believe that we're striving to keep all of mankind alive, but it ultimately comes back down to the survival of "the last of us".
Interestingly, I can also see it having more of a horror twist to it, with Joel regressing back to an almost uncontrollable instinct for self-preservation, and thus he effectively kidnaps Ellie (likely unconsciously, at least up until the end) as he increasingly projects his feelings for Sarah onto her. We can see the "monster" he eventually becomes when he takes the photo of his daughter from Ellie at the end and doesn't have the same adverse emotional reaction he did when he first saw the picture; Ellie is Sarah now, and that's all that matters.
For those who've seen it through to completion, what did you think? How did you interpret the big finale, and would you have done it differently?
