The Last Of Us Review: exploring morality and the value of humanity over sacrifice (major spoilers)

First off, if you have a PS3, this is probably the best game on the system (perhaps until Beyond: Two Souls comes out. I think it'll be up there). Secondly, as tight and amazing as the gameplay is, I really wanted to talk about the story more.

Many have argued that the cure-for-humanity-is-a-person-immune trope is tiring. I would have to wonder though why we don't say this about damsels in distress, or the lone hero trope. It's a plot device that Naughty Dog has used in an engaging way. The game is about two people, Joel and Ellie. Joel, through a series of events has to escort Ellie, a 14 year old girl who's immune to a deadly infection that has wiped out sixty percent of the world, across the country in hopes of finding a cure.

 Joel as a character is already pretty developed. He's been hardened by 20 years of trying to survive the outbreak. The way his brutality plays out in the gameplay is fantastic. Little things like Ellie's responses of, "Jesus Joel..." when you beat someone to death or a quiet whisper from her of, "Holy shit,"
really make the player's actions carry more weight.

This comes out very clear in a piece of dialogue between Joel and Ellie about killing people:

Ellie: What if they had families?
Joel: Everyone's got a family.

More so, it's interesting to see how Ellie, once out of the military patrolled city becomes just as hardened as Joel. Where she once was shocked by Joel's actions, she starts killing herself and starts walking past people Joel has killed and saying things like, "You piece of shit" and "Motherfucker." She still gets scared though, she still cries, she still wants to be up under Joel all the time. It's realistic as she becomes a bit of a daddy's girl in this world.

Ellie was born into this post-apocalyptic world. It's all that she knows. This is fleshed out in many different ways like her asking Joel if everyone owned a boat or if ice cream trucks were a real thing. Little things like this, storytellers in general tend to step over.

I read in a forum a comment that the game is about loving someone so much, you'd give the whole world for them. Throughout the game, you begin to love Ellie as much as Joel does. It's no longer an escort mission. She's becoming the daughter that died at the beginning of the game. One of the most powerful scenes for me is when Joel touches his watch as he's about tell Ellie that she gave him a reason to survive in the end. When he finds her, holds her and calls her "baby girl" at the end of winter, it really makes you grow attached to these characters. And this is what good characters do! They draw you in.

Let the record show that Joel is by no means a good man. This becomes evident as you progress through the game. Much like the father in The Road, Joel's whole world becomes Ellie. And he does whatever it takes to keep her safe. Whatever it takes. Almost everyone you meet throughout the game either tries to kill you, is infected or dies. And this Joel has experienced over the span of twenty years. And along comes Ellie, not much older perhaps than Joel's daughter, Sarah, when she was shot at the beginning of the outbreak by military.

The backdrop to this is also made by Gustavo Santaolalla's amazing soundtrack. If you like instrumental music, go buy this even if you've never played the game.


The Last of Us has such a compelling story about the value of humanity. At the end of the game, Joel's decision makes sense. After all the people you've come across in the game, you may very well also come to the conclusion that humanity is not worth saving, is not worth giving up the one person that you now care about. In a way, it shows that value of the individual, not with choice, but with subjective affection, something we all have, for many of us would probably do the same thing. It abandons the notion that you sacrifice your desires or the one for the many or greater good. Unlike The Road, there actually seems to be hope for the world, even if a cure isn't found as they make their way back to his brother Tommy's town. This is important to realize when analyzing the end of the game. Joel's giving Ellie a chance to live a new life in a fortified town with caring people, food, horses, electricity. It's not the father figure keeping his child alive because of this underlying will to go on.

Marlene was desparate. And perhaps a cure could've been found. Perhaps. There was no guarantee. If you grabbed the recording on the circulation desk in the hospital, you'll know that there were others immune. Ellie, however was different because she was a carrier, having the infection in her without it doing anything. Maybe you found yourself doing this, justifying Joel's actions because they were yours. You want to feel as if you did the right thing, that there was never a cure and that it wouldn't matter twenty years later with cannibalistic bandits and brutal military everywhere. The vaccine wouldn't cure those infected. They would still be out there. Clickers everywhere. And there is barely enough food in this world, let alone the resources to manufacture and distribute a cure worldwide. I suppose I could go on and on. Because I want to be on Joel's side. I want to believe that saving Ellie was the right thing.

10/10