Hello, gamers and bloggers of Game Informer! Due to recent technical difficulties on the website (my last two posts were deleted when I tried to post them), I'm changing the way I write these blogs. So you may notice that the format is different. Anyway, let's get started.
The Last of Us was an interesting game that I chose to write about. Pinpointing exactly what blew my mind was difficult, considering my reason for other posts. The mind-blowing thing about Dark Souls was difficulty. The mind-blowing thing about both Bioshock: Infinite and Fallout 3 was the atmosphere. Minecraft's reason was its simplicity. Most of my other posts had qualities that I never saw in The Last of Us, yet I knew that something blew me away.
Then I realized something. In all of these examples, the quality that I chose was either created by or influenced other parts of the game. The atmosphere is a combination of all the game's qualities while Dark Souls' difficulty influences everything in the game (and ultimately its atmosphere). I picked these qualities because they involved everything else in the game in some way.
So now, my task was somewhat easier. What in The Last of Us has some involvement in all of the other parts of the game? I immediately thought, "The storyline." And there's my topic.
This is how I feel about the game. Why? The storyline. The Last of Us has one of the best storylines I've ever seen. But then we get to another question. What makes this storyline any better or any more unique than any other good storyline? It's actually quite simple. The storyline is made better by the other parts of the video game.
By now, you're probably thinking, "Huh...?" Look at Ellie's face in the above meme. It's been a while, but I'm sure she felt some certain way (sadness, it looks like (ha, Yoda)) in this part of the storyline that made her look like that. Again, you're probably thinking"Huh...?" (maybe because I'm babbling). In other words, the visuals (graphics) in the video game conveyed the sense of sadness (maybe confusion?) with the facial animation. The emotion of that particular moment in the storyline is then conveyed through another part of the game, the graphics.
Let's look at another example. We all know that The Last of Us sports some gory violence. In most games, the sound of a cracking skull would be meant for our sadistic enjoyment. In The Last of Us, however, even the squishy noises of a flattened brain have a bigger purpose. I, admittedly, am not a very moral player. I don't care what I do in a virtual world. But The Last of Us carries a much deeper meaning than you may think. Survival is brutal. This grim theme played in my mind as I flattened that person's skull, and I was nearly nauseated by my acts. We see Ellie and Joel fighting this same battle throughout the game. There's no doubt that killing in a video game is exhilarating. This is why games like Hitman and Bulletstorm were made, to challenge us on our creativity in killing people. But The Last of Us is different, and it shows us in part through those squishy noises (the sound/gameplay).
Now, let's consider another scenario. Ellie has lived in this apocalyptic hell all her life. She has no real knowledge of the world before that. In one part of the game, she gets confused when seeing an ice cream truck. Joel explains, and she thinks it's crazy. Ice cream trucks are pretty common for us. It'd be crazy for us to question the idea of selling ice cream out of a truck, right? But she thinks it's strange. A truck that sells ice cream? We survive! Ain't nobody got time for that! This scenario (and a few others) add more layers to an already complex story through the dialogue of the characters.
Aside from the storyline's dependency on the other parts of the game, The Last of Us is a storytelling masterpiece. It will be talked about with the ranks of games like the Bioshock series, System Shock 2, and the Half-Life series for a long time. It's a roller coaster of emotions and themes, all played through the friendship and, eventually, the love of two relatable and fantastic characters. I still ponder the meanings behind certain moments (particularly the ending) in a search for the deeper layers of the game.
Games like these make me wonder whether or not the layers and themes were intentional or not. Did the developers go into creating this storyline and these characters in an attempt communicate the horror of survival and the depth of love? I have a question to close on that. Which is better: it being intentional or unintentional?
Well, that's it for this week. I will be writing another post next week. Comment on whatever you want, recommend games that blew your mind, and respectively share your opinions. And as always, thanks for reading!