the last of us playthrough: aka road trip the game

[queenlua]

Okay I beat it tonight.

Damn that was excellent.

Spoilerific ramblings below the cut. Seriously, don't click on this entry if you haven't beaten The Last of Us. There are some surprises you'll want to save for whenever you play the game yourself (or watch a Let's Play or however you do your gaming, yo).

• I'd be extremely interested in an interview or something with The Last of Us's level designer. I was pretty impressed with how open the environments managed to be, and how they legitimately offered multiple approaches, without ever letting you get totally lost—the lack of quest markers was disorienting at first but I never had major issues navigating.


• I found it a bit aggravating that we don't learn much about the nature of Tommy and Joel's falling-out in the game—I mean, we know it was probably some horrible thing or set of things that Joel did, but I want more damnit. And we're given so little on Joel's past in general, though I do think we get an interesting hint right before Tess's death—she had a line to the effect of, "We're shitty people, Joel, and we've been that way for a while" in response to his "we're survivors" thing —which makes me wonder if he wasn't a shitty person, back when he first met Tess, and what exactly was their deal anyway, and honestly what was he doing for twenty years besides just surviving, because there had to be something in there. Basically there's a giant twenty-year blank in Joel's past that I think is absolutely integral to understanding what the hell made him this kind of terrifying borderline-unhinged really brutal dude, but we just don't have it and it drives me batty. guess what I'm gonna be writing fic about


• The fact that Ellie is goddamn awful at melee combat made the Lakeside Cabin portion pretty sadface for me at times. I'd rush into a bunch of enemies being like AW YEAH LET'S BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF THREE GROWN MEN because that's what Joel would do but uh turns out Ellie's mostly good at struggling and biting and getting hit really hard D:


• ...on the other hand, stealth-killing with Ellie was immensely satisfying. None of this sneaky-stab-while-dragging-into-a-corner-all-subtle-like business, just fucking leaping and clinging to the dude's head and stabbing like a madwoman, because fuck yeah Ellie


• The David boss fight was excellent and also too short. Why weren't there more boss fights in this game, actually? I mean I guess in most scenarios they're kind of unrealistic, and the game seemed to be focusing on realistic combat and all, but—man boss battles really crank up the drama and make shit feel climactic like none other.


• Also I like that Joel didn't come riding in and epically Save the Day. Elie saved herself, 100%.


• lollollol evidently i triggered a glitch in the tunnel leading up to the hospital and that's why there were ZERO INFECTED the whole way aw yeah. (I was kind of confused because Joel was all "stay back Ellie" and "it's okay now, I don't think they can get us over here" and I was like "WHY IS SHE STAYING BACK WHERE ARE THE ENEMIES I'M SO PUZZLED")


• Christ, poor Ellie. I feel terrible for her because of all the shit she's gone through. I feel terrible for her because of the mega-dose of survivor's guilt she's dealing with. I feel terrible for her because, when the lie inevitably comes out, she's going to feel so goddamn hurt and betrayed by literally the only person she can trust, oh also throw abandonment issues in there as well, just lovely. I feel terrible before her because I'm pretty damn sure she suspects the lie already and is just trying really hard to believe it because the alternative if just too awful. Just. Fuck.


• Relatedly, man, there's something kind of creepy about how Joel's blathering about Sarah there at the end. "I think you two would've really liked each other" etc etc like in any other context it would be kind of sweet and a sign of how much Joel's opened up and so on, but after The Massive Lie it's just like "dude... Joel. She's not your daughter. You can't bring back the past. She is going to find out and it's going to be awful hailgehaghgaelihga"


• Speaking of which, that ending. I pinged a non-gamer friend right after finishing the game, and she was all, "Let me guess, Father Figure dies nobly and the girl survives?" No, actually. I told her the ending (she's such a non-gamer it hurts, yo), and she seemed pretty surprised it avoided the Obvious Zombie Setting Ending, and I like that it did that. I don't think the ending was a huge upending of expectations—like, you know something has to go down with the fireflies, after all—but that lie, man.


• Despite all this, Joel's accent remains hot. Damn where can I find me an attractive gentleman with a voice like that.


• Also the ambient guitar stuff in the soundtrack was pretty effective and cool and I liked it.

Comments

[lavendre]

Yay! Glad you liked it so much!

That ending was my favorite thing tbh. Mostly because it doesn't seem like a heroic ending. It felt a lot more villainous. Ellie could have been the solution to creating a cure, but Joel wouldn't agree to it. He killed Marlene, the surgeons, everyone working toward finding a solution that was standing in his way. I think Ellie knew he was lying at the end there, but didn't want to call him on it.

Also if you haven't seen the alternate ending, I think this is pretty relevant right now. :P

[queenlua]

that "alternate" ending

oh my god

i died; that was precious haha

and yeah, pretty much agreed with you on the ending. i wouldn't quite use the word "villainous"—that implies something more calculated/premeditated than what joel was doing, i think—more based on his raw protective instinct / survival-hardened coldness / gut reaction / stuff we've 100% known about him—but harrowing, creepy, unsettling, sickening, definitely.