The Last of Us is one of my personal favourite games in the past. And for reasons Sony know, I haven't played the Part II, because I'm still waiting for it to appear in the PC markets. Whenever that might be, which, for reasons, could be after the whole series has gone over to that territory.
It's just the game itself was first that really showed a proper, overgrown mental world. When I say mental I really mean it, because in lots of places it is a nightmare. Not just by the monsters, but by the other monsters that try to go by the name of humans.
That is the reason why this series, or at least this story should be good, because in the original game, the story and the characters were well crafted, flawed antiheroes. They had past, present and the future. Similar way that you can find in the other similar titles like for example biker title Days Gone.
Let's see how Joel and Ellie's story develop on the small screen.
Man, Swede and Hugh back in the 1968 talking about the global pandemia. That is something, especially seeing the "Swede" being his usual notorious dead calm (psycho). All while they are talking about mushrooms, their ailments and positive aspects.
This information was never revealed in the game. It wasn't talked in the dialogue, but they brought up the climate change as a catalyst for the plausible scenario for the Cordyceps mutation. But is it funny that back in the heart of the Cold War era all sorts of crazy things were researched and theories were developed, if not put in the practice, because nobody really thought back then health and safety.
Knowledge was valuable before the internet arrived. And thus the smart, educated men could get into places where the real mad-science could happen. These days it's a bit iffy to get there.
Back in 2003, Joel still had a family and home. Well, as family, he had a daughter that were running the family side of Joel's construction business. In the other words, he was a normal middle-class American with no dreams. Just 9 to 5 to get by. Not talking about the debts and taxes.
It surprised me that they also hinted of the Desert Storm past but talked nothing about 9/11 or Afghanistan, or the fact they were crossing the Saudi border again with the Iraq invasion to hunt for the WMDs. Bush Jr face however managed to find its way to Sarah's classroom.
September 26th, the Coalition had been in the war for five months. Yet, nobody was talking. Nobody either had mobile phones, or had an obsession on them, as it on the present day. Not in the series anyway. Maybe because Nokia's 3310 was still hugely popular back then.
The first thing that freaked me out was when Sarah visited the elderly neighbours, and the gentleman developed the symptoms of Cordycept infection. And I screamed at Sarah to run.
She didn't listen. Couldn't hear or see nothing. Only the dog knew something was wrong with his master.
When Joel came back, Sarah gave him the fixed watch, and it made me cry because I know how much the past means to him. Not that he would ever admit it for being a hard man.
If he had been home instead of rescuing uncle from the county jail, he could probably have been able to rescue his daughter. Stupid, alcoholic uncles.
Beautifully horrifying infected. It was done brilliantly, and the fact is that they showed that the parasite cured the ailments in the weak body. And the elder infected were able to take down the other two, one who by weight would have outclassed the zombie, and he was fast enough to sprint across the lawn.
The story catches the game in the car, with Sarah and Uncle Tomymy. The world is going mad in rabid pace. And what is happening is completely bonkers, because of all the information is suppressed by the authorities. They most certainly weren't going to appear on television, claiming that the "mushroom people" are taking over the world.
It is the world that we have created and accepted, because the secrecy is such a big word amongst the authorities. Thus, it is a perfect tool to suppress information on the public and therefore, creating a perfect condition for the zombie uprises.
I loved that Joel's ruthless instincts were coming through his denial on taking in other passengers. Back then, he wasn't prepared to help anyone, outside his family. Not that it would have helped to have extra passengers when they went into the crazy town and saw planes coming down.
When the car was rolled over his main attention was the daughter. Uncle Tommy could find his own way out of that mess. Which is kind of stupidity on its own, because Tommy could have run around the fire, instead of claiming that he "was going to catch up to them."
Having to carry a broken leg teenager on his arms through infected zone were hard to watch. I guess a lot of you were wishing him to turn and fight, but the thing about the infected is that they are more powerful and faster than the average person. The only real choice he had was to leg it, before the government order came to shoot the injured, and thus Sarah was lost.
It was his hardest day.
Twenty years later after the World As We Knew It went down the toilet. Downtown Boston ain't pretty even though it was got a green cover and everything looks better than in the Walking Dead. Not that it's a great thing, but my mind rests on seeing the greening world and its ruins.
The life inside the Quarantine Zone walls is hard and the rule of the law mostly resembles military authoritarian regime. Twenty years of military rule has driven American people down in the place that is rarely seen in the television outside the genre realms.
Yet time and again, we accept it as the most plausible scenario. It surprised me that they brought up the FireFlies as the government adversary. A resistance group even though it's evident that the economy inside the walls is mostly corrupted and everyone is living in the same sh*t.
Seeing Ellie in chains made me cry. Maybe the emotional reason is that I have fought so hard to keep her alive that it affected my mind. That damn girl and her need to have a voice in the post-apocalyptic America. Man...
I also absolutely loved that she was a teenager with a serious attitude problem straight from the beginning. Joel being close to 56 is going to have full hands with her. And he ain't gonna love the memories that she's going to bring in his mind.
Not in his state of booze, pills and effed up plan on crossing the America. Life is the smelly stuff and then you get used to it. It becomes the norm. So you accept the harsh methods, because all of that civilized world is mostly in ruins outside the Quarantine Walls.
It surprised me that they brought up the FireFlies as the glorious resistance group opposing the mighty military dictatorship, and their need was to smuggle Ellie out of the Boston Quarantine Zone. The harda*ss mf for the job turned out to be Joel after the botched recovery of ruined car battery job.
Marlene's last words for him were, "Don't ef this up. Please."
When Joel asked "what's the deal," with her, she denied everything. Secrecy is still a big deal in the post-apocalyptic US where the mushroom people are alive. So why the authorities patrol outside the walls? Is it for them, or because they need to keep people alive in the QZs as their slaves?
It surprised that Ellie stabbed Joel's biggest whale, and when he pointed the gun on the girl, Joel saw red through his PTSDs. All he could do was to release that regressed anger to turn helmetted man's face to pulp.
I guess they ain't going back to Boston QZ anytime soon.
And then they revealed that Ellie had been bitten. A long while ago. And she ain't turned. So what is she?
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