Since this is my first post in a LONG time, I feel like I
should give a little bit of backstory on myself before I make my post about The
Last Of Us. I am a soon to be father of
my first Son. His name is Thanos
Alyxander Macon. He’ll be here in
roughly 1 month (march 13th 2015 is his due date). With that being said, I feel like my entire
thought process on basically everything has shifted from a single bachelor into
a loving Husband and Father. This blog
is going to be mostly posts about my thought process on being the best dad I
can be, and my thoughts throughout the rest of the time this blog is
active. I’m going to post about things
that Lauren and I are doing, I’m going to continue to post reviews on what I feel
like posting about, and sometimes I’m just going to rant for no reason
what-so-ever.
Now that all of the introduction is out of the way, let’s
talk about The Last Of Us! For those of
you who have not played this game, this post is going to contain spoilers. Don’t read past the following tag if you
intend on playing the game and don’t want any of the story ruined for you. (including the ending).
***SPOILER WARNING***
This game was intense.
I have never felt as strong of a reaction as I did with the beginning of
this game. During the opening Scene, you
are playing as the main characters Daughter, Sarah. Some kind of event happens and there is a
massive panic that ensues. As you are
trying to get as far away as possible, you seem mass chaos through the
streets. The events that follow pulled
at my heart strings so much that I actually had to put down the controller and
walk away for a little bit before I continued.
Here’s a clip of the entire intro sequence:
The first time I played through the first part of the game,
I was still living in AL and lauren and I were just starting our relationship
together. Even then it was a tough intro
to get through. I had no real idea what
it would feel like to lose a child at that point, but I could definitely feel
the anger, the sadness, the frustration.
All of the emotions that were put into that scene. It was a very powerful setup for the events
that follow later in the game.
The second time I played through the intro, even knowing
what was coming, it was still extremely tough for me to want to continue
playing. Knowing that Thane is almost
here, I kept thinking what I would have done if that had been and him in a
catastrophic event like that. All I felt
was overwhelming sadness and pure rage.
I couldn’t even imagine what would go through my mind in that moment if
I lost my son.
Throughout the rest of the game I found myself pushing for
Joel to save Elle at all costs. I didn’t
much care what else was going on or who was harmed throughout the process, I
just wanted to make sure that Elle lived through the game. This is what made the ending for me so much
more real. You don’t actually get to
make any real decisions in this game, Unlike The Walking Dead, or Mass
Effect. But I felt myself sympathizing
with all of Joel’s decisions more so than I have before with any other game I have
played. The ending was exceptional. The final sequence has you in a hospital
(after you’ve basically travelled the entire continent looking for a place to
cure the disease) and Elle has been prepped for surgery. The infection is in her brain, and in order
for them to understand how it hasn’t killed her, they are planning on
harvesting her brain in order to create an antidote for it. I was furious (as was Joel). I had killed so many people trying to get to
this point because I felt like she was destined to save the world. I figured all they’d do is run some tests and
take her blood to create a cure and then we would be on our way to live a nice
quiet life (happily ever after, as is the case in most games). However you find
out that after all of this time they plan on killing her in order to save the
rest of the dying world.
I found myself angry.
After all that you go through to get to this point, being shot, being
impaled, almost being infected numerous times, potentially being cannibalized. Everything that you go through ultimately is
going to end with her being killed for a “chance” at a cure. Nope.
Joel snaps. And that’s when you
take over playing him. You go through
the entire hospital to find Elle, killing everyone in your path. Once you grab her you take off running and
try your damnedest to escape. As you
make it into the parking deck, you’re confronted by the girl who sends you on
this errand from the very beginning. She
holds you at gunpoint and pleads that “one life isn’t worth damning the rest of
the world.” At this point, you have no
control over the game you’re just watching the final sequences. I wanted so bad for joel to take Elle. He does.
He shoots the marlene in the gut and takes one of the few cars left that
are functioning. Puts Elle in the back
and turns around. He approaches marlene
while she’s laying on the ground. She
pleads “let me live. Don’t let it end
this way, Joel!” Joel responds with “ I
can’t do that marlene. I can’t have you
coming after her.” And shoots her in the head.
The final sequence has Joel and Elle walking through the
forest back to Tommy’s town. Elle stops
you and asks what happened. (she was
sedated, so she doesn’t know.) Joel flat
out lies to her. “the fireflies were
gone. It was over-run with infected and
scavengers.” Elle responds “tell me that’s
the truth, Joel. Tell me all the
fireflies had gone and I’ll believe you.”
Joel pauses and thinks for a minute, and then says “it’s true.” Elle replies with “Ok.” And the screen fades
to black.
I don’t know how I would have responded in that situation,
because we don’t live in any kind of post- apocalyptic world, But I do know
that I would do anything to protect my son and my family. This is why I was torn about the ending. Lying to Elle at the end to ensure that she
doesn’t pursue the fireflies anymore was a surprise. I don’t know if I would have done anything
different in that situation, and ultimately I felt like the ending hit home
with me as a result. Being unsure of how
I would proceed because I know what would have been right, versus what would
have been right specifically for my family, It just makes it interesting to
think about. Well done, Naughty
Dog. I can’t wait for another. J
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