This year will mark a decade since The Last of Us’ original release on PlayStation 3. Considered by many to be Naughty Dog’s magnum opus, few subsequent titles to this day have managed to come close to a similar level of impact in the medium, but Not because they haven’t tried. There are genres of all kinds and very different creative visions, each one with its virtues and defects, but to approach the general public it is necessary to differentiate oneself without neglecting the first impression, that confetti for many eyes to look at.
The Last of Us found the key that many blockbusters are still looking for today. It is still a zombie (or infected) game in which to survive an apocalypse and advance based on pure violence, something that was in vogue in 2013, but the crux of the matter was not in the good level design, the careful graphic and artistic section or the preponderant level of animations that historically characterizes the Californian studio. It was in the narrative, and in how it was treated. In how a world of science fiction felt tremendously real thanks to the integration of its characters, ones that you firmly believed in. And this is not something usual in the video game industry, used to prioritizing instead of integrating. Accustomed to not understanding the pause.
I can’t think of a better way to present this idea than starting directly from the end of The Last of Us, one that wouldn’t work without the harrowing journey and having spent several hours with Joel and Ellie, their misadventures, their lights and their shadows. And the shadow of the outcome of the story of the first video game is enormous. A monstrous lie to turn off the lights with a fade to black that never said more with so little. Naughty Dog had made many of us empathize with the most inhumane act of all. We just accept it, like Ellie did.
Such an unusual closure was so well received by gamers that multitudes of triple-A title developers sought to stir the guts of their audiences in a similar way in subsequent years. Yes, we had already had devastating endings and surprising ways of narrating before: what happens in the first Red Dead Redemption enervates you inside, BioShock Infinite empowers its two main characters at the very least and Telltale Games has already anticipated the harshness that we would see in The Last of Us a year earlier with the first season of The Walking Dead.
That relationship and that outcome, almost premonitory, helped him win the GOTY 2012 award at the then-called Video Game Awards.. But I’m not talking about which ending we liked or impacted us the most, I’m talking about the level of influence in the middle, and PlayStation itself gives us the best example.
Better said: Naughty Dog gives us the best example. I am no longer referring to The Last of Us: Part II, which was obviously going to continue with a similar narrative style as it was a sequel to the first title, but rather I traveled to 2016, specifically at the end of the franchise that propelled them towards cinematic adventures. . Those who have played Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End after the initial trilogy will have seen better than anyone the maturation process that the studio has experienced over the last decade, to the point of seeing how the initial conception of a saga clashed with the new narrative approach with which the creatives were more comfortable.
Neil Druckmann took the reins and, between chases, jokes, shooting festivals and explosions, in the fourth numbered installment of Uncharted we saw a Nathan Drake with many more edges, far from the prototype of a man of action in the most emotional moments of the game. There are pauses for introspection and the presence of real problems, really, among so many implausible situations.
The silences and the human
But, as I say, the influence of The Last of Us has almost completely capitalized on PlayStation. Reliving 2018’s God of War, I realize that Kratos’ sea change and Atreus’ appearance are no fluke. Likewise, the camera is brought closer to the characters with a goal, and the parent-child relationship is seasoned with nuances, doubts, truths, and clashes.
In Ragnarok all this continues and, although I missed a greater courage in the closing, Santa Monica learned that silences could say more than words. We are talking about a story of invented gods, supernatural elements and impossible scenes; and, even so, those characters are shown to be more human than gods.
We’ve seen a lot more of this in other major PlayStation blockbusters: aside from its ties to the work of Naughty Dog, Days Gone ‘s secret ending also sows a seed and leaves you with an uncomfortable unknown, and even Ghost of Tsushima proposes a bittersweet outcome. However, the influence of The Last of Us is also very present away from Sony.
I can’t imagine Amicia and Hugo’s journey in A Plague Tale: Innocence without drinking from what Naughty Dog achieved in its day, and the success of their storytelling has allowed Asobo Studio to create a franchise much better suited to triple-A development. , having a sequel on the market at this point with A Plague Tale: Requiem.
I would even go so far as to say that Rockstar also took a different approach to Arthur Morgan’s story in Red Dead Redemption 2 because it was undergoing a process as a studio similar to Naughty Dog’s, at least in terms of maturity in conception. The one that is considered by many a masterpiece was not liked by many others for taking the narrative over a slow fire and the importance of the company of the protagonist very seriously..
In Red Dead Redemption 2, stopping is just as important as moving forward, and the game is filled with moments of introspection that eventually unleash harder beats. Like Joel, traumatic experiences take Arthur Morgan down paths that do not exactly make him a good person, but what ends up motivating his actions is the feeling of affection and humanity, the fact of giving meaning to a life already punished for good.
There are many aspects of The Last of Us that have marked the present and future of this industry. I am not going to dwell on how it has opened the doors to diversity, naturalizing that we are something more than simple stereotypes and majorities, on how it has known how to deal with violence without losing fun in its gameplay or on how it has not given a damn what you would do in the situations in which it puts you (this is the story of these characters, and that’s how we tell it to you).
I prefer to mention how its cultural influence has transcended video games, thanks not only to a narrative that dazzled everyone who took control of it in its day, but also to a strong focus and cinematographic treatment that make the work something more. adaptable and manageable for other audiovisual media.
To test the HBO series, an immeasurable success for the platform for which those responsible have only had to transfer, with the same care as Naughty Dog, a story already known to the narration inherent to television. They have achieved it by altering very few elements and returning to that ending that left millions of players with their hearts in their fists ten years ago, and that is still present today. That end of the trip condensed in a word and a look; one that said so much. Fade to black and… over.
