The Last of Us Part I | A great opportunity for those who have not played it

Joel and Ellie. We could also avoid mentioning the title of the game and you would still understand that we are talking about the successful PlayStation exclusive, The Last of Us. Well yes, because the Naughty Dog video game has left its mark thanks to its protagonists, now part of Pop Culture.

Given the recent conclusion of the HBO television series and the imminent release of the PC version, we decided to return to the subject by telling you in part what Joel and Ellie left on the small screen but above all because, despite the their story is now known by many people, the release of The Last of Us on PC is an opportunity not to be missed.



--> Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey

What did the TV series leave us?

And let's start from the television series, which has been able to break every record over the weeks and deliver the story of The Last of Us even to an audience of non-gamers. We are talking about a television adaptation that has succeeded where many others have failed: keeping the atmosphere of the video game, the general spirit and, to a large extent, also the plot intact. A form of respect for the original product that has left us surprised, accustomed (badly) to transpositions on the small and large screen which, except for the name, usually completely transform the products, making them unrecognizable in the eyes of enthusiasts.

However, the operation was not as simple as some might think, also considering the already solid script of the video game, because Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, the minds behind this adaptation, have also experimented: sometimes they have improved the original work, other times - in a somewhat romantic way - simply paid homage to a video game now loved by more than 20 million people, and on still other occasions they have given vent to creativity and introduced completely new elements.

--> A work of this caliber would never have been made possible without the presence of HBO and the figures involved, of absolute value and relevance and very suitable for the requests of the show. If you think about it, Craig Mazin had already demonstrated his abilities to the world with a television series that recounts the political and social problems in the management of a disaster, in that nuclear case (Chernobyl); Neil Druckmann is the father of The Last of Us, or the one who created the video game, together with the exceptional Bruce Straley; and finally HBO, probably the best possible network to adapt a work of this kind, given the triumphant historian, the budget it usually makes available and the creative freedoms it offers. In short, the perfect recipe.

But what did The Last of Us TV series leave us? First, great entertainment, interesting for both new and long-time fans. And trust me, it's not a little; with this value, in fact, we could even stop. However, we have gone even further, leaving a message to all those who from now on want to try their hand at such an enterprise: have respect for the original creature, involve the most suitable figures, also weigh some risks and you will see that the results they will come. Reading it seems like a trivial and obvious little lesson, yet no one before The Last of Us had ever dared to reach certain levels.



Joel and Ellie

The Last of Us , why you have to play it

--> We said it at the beginning: it's almost impossible you don't know the story of Joel and Ellie at all, and considering the enormous response received from the TV series, it's even more unlikely. In any case, people of more casual gamers, you who may have discovered The Last of Us only on the small screen, listen to us: although you have already greatly appreciated the stories of these two characters, our invitation - especially now that it is a PC version – is to also try the video game ; above all, to understand how the two media differ from each other and how all this also has enormous feedback on the methods of narration. We will give you a good smattering in the following paragraphs, in the hope of arousing your interest. But first, let us take a pebble out of our shoes.

One thing that has really annoyed us in recent months has been seeing the success of The Last of Us television series being belittled by a circle of people who are convinced that everything simply derives from the fact that, already the videogame, presented a very cinematic narrative and made almost no use of the narrative methods allowed exclusively by the video game medium - because it is interactive -, unlike the sequel, Part 2. This statement, and we say it after having played the video game in question several times , is completely wrong . We all agree on the obvious improvements of The Last of Us Part 2, which is even more aware of being a video game and masterfully uses user interaction for the purpose of the story. However, Part 1, albeit to a lesser extent, does the same, and we'll try to show you how.

We can only start from the beginning, from a moment in which the video game chooses to equalize the scarce amount of information by putting us directly in the shoes of a character, so as to immediately establish a strong connection. Yes, we are talking about Sarah, Joel's daughter, who the writers of the TV series have chosen to put more in the foreground precisely because they cannot count on the interaction offered by the video game. Furthermore, another typical element of titles with a strong narrative component is exploration, an invaluable source of information. In fact, looking around, even just scrutinizing the antidepressant medicines on Joel's bedside table, it is already possible to understand quite a few aspects of the character of the characters. Exemplary is then the scene of the escape by car, a moment in which the video game chooses to take away from the user its peculiar element, that is to say the interaction, rendering the users impotent in the face of the disasters of the Cordyceps.

How not to mention the relationship between Joel and Ellie, which in the videogame grows above all during the more exploratory and action-packed moments: especially setting the difficulty higher, it will happen several times to see Ellie save our skin during the scuffles with enemies, roll a brick allowing us to act and conserve bullets, and so on. Even more important, however, are the moments of relative calm, moments in which it is possible to observe Ellie swinging on the edge of a sidewalk, but also all the moments in which we will see her perform in amusing monologues or dialogues that make us understand how little she knows the world that surrounds it.

Finally, and here we will be even more vague to avoid spoilers, one of the final sequences in which we are called, in first person, controller in hand, to carry out a massacre is exceptional; situation which, moreover, will set in motion all the events of Part 2, therefore caused by the player's actions, even before those of Joel.



Joel

A remake that finally makes sense

You will certainly remember it: the announcement of the remake of The Last of Us infuriated the audience quite a bit : eighty euros for a technical sector updated to today's standards and some playful improvements here and there, were absolutely not enough to appease spirits. The imminent release on PC, however, means that the remake of The Last of Us finally makes sense. If you think about it, delivering a 2013 game to the PC world, however beautiful, would have been unattractive, especially for all that part of the user who is unable to contextualize video games to their release period, when they play them. In this way, however, the operation becomes much more attractive and the price more justified. In addition, when Part 2 arrives, the sense of continuity between the two experiences, from the menus to the general aesthetics and in the faces of the characters, will be so strong that you will experience both experiences as if they were a single great trip.

Still on the subject of faces and characters, not to be underestimated, especially in 2023, is also the rediscovered realism and the abandonment of certain canons of beauty: faces, now, are much more "normal" and common , and they don't at all give the idea of ​​having been created to please gamers; their features are necessary for the story, nothing more.

In short, in conclusion, The Last of Us Part 1 (our review of the PS5 version) on PC is an unmissable opportunity for fans of the TV series but also for those who, perhaps, have played only once a video game in question and would now like to rediscover it under a graphic design equal, and in some cases even superior, to that of The Last of Us Part 2.