The Last of Us: Left Behind (2014)

As I replayed The Last of Us: Left Behind, The Last of Us Part II comes out in less than a week. While I've tried to avoid too many reviews, the consensus negative opinion seems to be it will be a game that abhors violence, while asking you to engage in constant violence. I discussed what this upcoming game would be with my friend, and I said I almost wished that there was a nonlethal mode, akin to what the Metal Gear Solid franchise has often done, if that is indeed what the story will be. In the end, we both agreed that we wouldn't mind at all if The Last of Us Part II was simply Joel and Ellie walking around and talking. Whose favorite part of The Last of Us is the killing and not the quieter, more impactful moments?

The Last of Us: Left Behind has always seemed to me an experiment of what Naughty Dog could do with this franchise going forward, which is similarly how I feel about why they made Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Of course the most obvious test here is to see if players would go for an all-Ellie story, but I think Left Behind is also testing just how essential the violence is to the overall game.

Left Behind tells two different stories, both of which are tied together loosely - both take place in a mall, both are about people Ellie doesn't want to lose. One story sort of acts as a midquel to The Last of Us, showing Ellie dragging Joel to safety, then struggling to find medical equipment to keep him alive. This story is full of monsters and men trying to kill Ellie. There's plenty of opportunities for combat for those who need that fix, and there's even some nice additions, like people able to strategize so that clickers can attack other humans to alleviate some of the combat for yourself.

But here's the thing: I completely forgot this part of the story occurred in this game. We learn nothing about these characters that we didn't already know, and while it does fill in a small gap for this story, it's ultimately inessential. I'm not sure, but I have to imagine this was a segment of the original game, before Naughty Dog realized that it wasn't necessary for the story they were telling.

The other is a lovely story, about Ellie and her best friend Riley. This segment has no violence, only some running away near the end and a sequence that isn't in the player's control. Instead, the game is almost entirely comprised of those wonderful little moments that made The Last of Us so great. Ellie and Riley have a squirt-gun fight, or play a video game that no longer works, or take photos together. It's all building this bond these two have and it's so much more impactful than shooting enemies. It's also just a wonderful inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters in video games that is all too rare, telling a sweet love story that is so atypical of what most video games want to focus on.

The reason I don't think the first half of this story I mentioned isn't particularly memorable is because it doesn't have those moments of the second half. The Last of Us worked because it combined those two, and by segmenting them off into separate stories, it only hurts the story that is all action and little heart.

I don't know what The Last of Us Part II has in store for me later this week, but I can't help but wish it was a little more of the Ellie and Riley story, and less of the forgettable violence.