Been wondering about the story for Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us? Storyline details were finally released and wow does it sound like an adventure!
We met the characters and saw part of the world in Spike TV’s Video Game Awards premiere trailer. Ellie – a 14 year old girl – and Joel – a father figure of sorts – embark on a journey in a post-apocalyptic world filled with mutated humans – zombies. The game is based on Cormac McCarthy’s book The Road and on the comic book The Walking Dead. I did track down The Road and man is it depressing! It’s so thickly laden with pain and sadness that I could only get a quarter into it…At least The Last of Us will provide some excitement as well, gunning down zombies for survival. Aside from video game reviewers talking up the story for The Last of Us in recent months, very little has been revealed about the plot.
An incredible story of survival.
There was no question before that The Last of Us would be a highly character and story-driven game, like Naughty Dog’s Unchartered series. The Last of Us occurs 20 years after an apocalyptic event, and sections of the world are divided into quarantine zones for the protection of the uninfected. Although these are safe havens for a time, they too start to disintegrate – supplies are being used up, people are going crazy, the infected penetrate the safe zones, and people are killed for breaking minor rules or scanning positively for the infection.
He's in trouble now!
Ellie knows nothing of the world before (having grown up in an orphanage of the quarantine section), yet Joel is faced with choosing survival over the morality of the previous world. Bruce Straley (director of The Last of Us) says, “What he wouldn’t do in the past is almost a daily occurrence.” Joel performs jobs for the “black market,” which typically consists of smuggling drugs and weapons. He meets Ellie on one of his jobs: he is asked to smuggle her from the quarantine zone, making him a wanted man by the military. He promised a friend that he’d watch over Ellie, and although he initially wants to leave Ellie to another person outside the quarantine area, the two embark on a dangerous adventure in a crumbling world.
Ellie and Joel.
Hauntingly beautiful.
KitGuru says: Why does Ellie need to be smuggled out of the city? What more is waiting for Ellie and Joel outside the quarantine zone? Hopefully we’ll find out later this year, though Naughty Dog has yet to set a release date.
