Naughty Dog's smash hit survival game,filipinobro and sis sex video The Last of Us, has enjoyed the prestige TV treatment from HBO, and critics are raving.
Chernobyldirector Craig Mazin and The Last of Uscreator Neil Druckmann have successfully translated the action-adventure game into a deeply moving, stunt-packed, superbly scripted, and powerfully performed television show. Fans of the game will be especially thrilled to see how HBO's The Last of Usmasterfully weaves in the game's signature mechanics, from the dreaded flashlight and listening modes to collectibles and the use of third-person perspective.
SEE ALSO: 'The Last of Us' review: Yes, it's just as great as you hoped it would beWatching the series, gamers might be so swept into this familiar hellscape that they could swear a small PlayStation icon just appeared on the screen to fight off an enemy or push open a door. (It doesn't, but it feelslike it could). Essentially, it's more than the story that's been adapted. Howyou play the game is mirrored in the direction and performances of this infectious series.
Here are just a few ways The Last of Useffectively translates some of the game's most significant and memorable gameplay elements to television.
The Last of Us keeps us close with a third-person POV.
Being an action-adventure game adaptation, third-person perspective is deployed in several moments across the show.
In both the game and the TV series,The Last of Usbegins from the perspective of Sarah (Nico Parker), the teen daughter of Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal). The debut episode of the show, which clocks in at an hour and 20 minutes, expands on the first 15 minutes of the game. Whether you're controlling the character or following actor Nico Parker, you're drawn into the world of pre-apocalypse America, primarily through Sarah's experience. This makes the first episode and opening sequence — full of shocking downturns and scares — even harder for the viewer to handle, as we're literally right by her side.
You begin "The Last of Us" game as Sarah (Nico Parker). Credit: Shane Harvey / HBO In both the game and show, the camera sits in the backseat of Joel's truck as he, Sarah, and Tommy careen through their neighbourhood in Austin, Texas, past newly Infected residents and burning houses, and into the city of San Marcos, as chaos erupts around them. The series uses this backseat filming technique several times across the episodes, including in episode 4 when Ellie and Joel find themselves behind a blocked highway and diverted through the dangerous streets of Kansas City, making the viewer feel like they're along for the ride.
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The Last of Uswouldn't be a proper adaptation of a third-person action-adventure game without a nod to third-person view mode. Think of the final sequence of Doomwith the BFG, or several suspenseful sequences following Tom Holland dangling from various things in theUnchartedfilm. HBO's adaptation of The Last of Usdeploys this game mechanic to stick close to characters like Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Joel as much as possible, bringing the viewer into their world of terror and narrow escapes.
One of the most moving scenes of "The Last of Us" and you're in control. Credit: Liane Hentscher/HBO Several scenes directly recreate the game's third-person perspective to heighten key action sequences. In episode 5 in particular, the stressful scene when Joel needs to make his way up to the sniper in the tower outside Kansas City is taken directly from the game, including the shooting sequence in which Joel covers Ellie, Henry, and Sam from above. In the season finale, one of the most famous sequences in the game, Joel's shooting rampage through the Fireflies' hospital base in Salt Lake City, we follow Pascal through the halls as systematically as the game's first person shooter mode — and then follow him out as he carries Ellie in his arms. Anyone who played the game knows the emotional weight of this sequence, in which you frantically try to avoid Fireflies in the dark halls while getting Ellie out of there.
The Last of Us deploys the game's signature listening mode.
Noooooooooooooooooooooope. Credit: Liane Hentscher/HBO As a stealth game, The Last of Usgives players the ability to switch to listening mode, when Joel and Ellie can use their heightened senses to locate enemies, whether Infected or people. Unfortunately, the Infected known as Clickers can also do this, using echolocation to find anything that utters so much as a whisper in the darkness.
When active in the game, listening mode sounds like noise cancellation, with the game's sound designer Derrick Espino using a muffling technique that reduces background and surrounding noises. In the game, this is especially useful for avoiding hard-to-beat creatures like Clickers, which are introduced into the series in a severely stressful episode 2. In this sequence, as Ellie, Joel, and Tess (Anna Torv) navigate the museum, the show's sound design is instantly reminiscent of listening mode, with everything but the dreaded sound of the Clickers audible. It's superbly well done.
The show even has its own flashlight mode.
Nope. Absolutely not. Credit: Liane Hentscher/HBO One of the more effectively terrifying modes of tension-building in The Last of Usis the use of flashlights as the sole source of light to illuminate foreboding dark spaces. In both game and show, Joel, Ellie, and Tess use flashlights to explore many a darkened hallway, and this limited scope of vision delivers solid scares. It's a classic horror game technique, as Kotaku notes, first effectively wielded in 1999's Silent Hill, then in games like Half-Life 2 and Resident Evil: Revelations 2, long before The Last of Usfigured out its own version.
Building tension in the darkness with the ability to only see a few meters ahead, our heroes (and the viewer/player) have no idea of what may be lurking around them. In episode 1, when Tess unexpectedly encounters an Infected sprouting fungi all over the wall, the moment is pretty damn alarming, even (or especially) for gamers who grew to dread coming across such an ominous visual — or worse! — while playing. In episode 2, the use of flashlights to illuminate the Clickers is outright terrifying. In episode 4, when Joel and Ellie climb 45 flights of stairs in the Kansas City QZ, or episode 5, when they traverse the abandoned tunnels under the city, they have only flashlights to lead the way. In episode 6, when Ellie and Riley are exploring the abandoned buildings near the mall, flashlight mode reveals an unwelcome dead body in a hall.
It's just always a terrifying jumpscare when someone whips out a torch.
The Last of Us makes movement and action mechanics count.
Stay out of sight. Credit: Liane Hentscher/HBO The game involves a hell of a lot of heaving open hidden entrances, crawling under crumbling debris, scrambling up makeshift ramparts, and boosting each other to shaky platforms. In the game, Joel, Tess, and Ellie work together to access different parts of the decrepit locations they're navigating. Ellie wiggles into smaller crevices to unlock doors. Elsewhere, Joel uses his height to boost her to higher platforms.
The scene in episode 2 when Tess, Joel, and Ellie wade into the flooded hotel lobby, searching for a way to the other side feels like a sequence you're ready to play. In the game, the characters enjoy a few of these non-Infected moments between investigating dank buildings, finding planks and ladders to get across platforms. There's a fun moment the same episode that acknowledges these moments of respite, when Ellie easily crosses a plank between towering buildings having survived the Clickers in the museum. In episode 4, Ellie needs to crawl into a small space to let Joel into the building after their encounter with Brian and the Hunters in Kansas City, which is a constant mechanic of the game.
The hotel lobby scene is taken straight from the game. Credit: Liane Hentscher/HBO Using every possible part of your environment for cover is a key mechanic in The Last of Us. Crouching is a major part of the game in order to protect yourself from gunfire or remain hidden. The series mirrors these sequences with plenty of instances of Joel, Ellie, and Tess crouching behind vehicles and crates to their advantage. Back in episode 1, Tess, Ellie, and Joel scramble through a makeshift tunnel in order to escape the Boston Quarantine Zone, stealthing past concrete boulders before they're unfortunately spotted. In episode 2, crouching saves Joel and Ellie from the Clickers, and in episode 4, Joel and Ellie crouch behind cars and trucks to avoid impending gunfire from Hunters in Kansas City. The same happens in the stand-off with the sniper, Hunters, and infected in episode 5 with Joel, Sam, Henry, and Ellie using every car to their advantage.
Keep low: This is a scene taken straight from the game. Credit: Liane Hentscher/HBO Probably the most nerve-wracking stealth sequence beyond any scene with a Clicker is Ellie's battle with David in the lodge kitchen in episode 8, a scene which mirrors the game perfectly. Ellie needs to crouch and crawl her way around the burning room, hiding behind counters and booths while David monologues his creepiest shit. Ramsey is exceptional in this scene, bringing back memories of Johnson's equally desperate performance in the game.
One of the best representations of game mechanics in the sereis. Credit: Liane Hentscher/HBO The Last of Us Easter eggs include a "spotted" sound effect, enemy voice prompts, and health kits.
It's a moment so brief you just might miss it, but there's a fun sound effect reference in the series that gamers will enjoy.
In episode 1, when Joel, Ellie, and Tess are spotted by the guard just outside the QZ, there's a sound effect that mirrors one heard in the game. It's the sound of being seen by an enemy in both The Last of Us Part Iand II, when your stealth mode is broken and you're in for a fight. Episode 4 uses a similarly subtle mechanic when Joel and Ellie are ambushed by Hunters in Kansas City by rolling out the game's "last chance!" and "let's see you motherfucker!" enemy voice prompts — an actor in this scene even deploys the same running style as human enemies in the game.
Joel (Pedro Pascal) is spotted by a FEDRA officer outside the Boston QZ. Credit: Liane Hentscher/HBO Another small Easter egg appears when Joel injures his hand injury in episode 1. It's a nice reference to health kits, the game's mechanic for healing. In the video game, your character can patch themselves up with the kits and restore their health. When doing so in the game, Joel makes a motion each time of bandaging his hand. In the series, Joel's first injury comes from punching a man to death. Yes, he'll need to bandage that.
The Last of Us pays tribute to the game's environmental storytelling.
In The Last of Usgame, you never meet a fleetingly referenced character called Ish but players of the game may remember his tragic tale that played out not in dialogue or cutscenes, but through Naughty Dog's superb environmental storytelling.
In episode 5, while Joel (Pedro Pascal), Henry (Lamar Johnson), Sam (Keivonn Woodard), and Ellie escaping Kathleen's militia in Kansas City through its underground tunnels, they come across an abandoned kindergarten. Joel examines a hand-drawn picture of two people holding large guns, labelled Danny and Ish. The two figures are captioned, "Our protectors."
The moment captured in "The Last of Us" episode 5 trailer. Credit: YouTube / HBO The same drawing can be found in the game beneath Pittsburgh (the show changed the location to Kansas City) in the remains of a long-abandoned settlement. In the game, you piece together what happened to Ish and the residents through objects and notes you find in various locations.
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"In the game, you have this mechanic where you walk around, you can find these notes, and read them," explained The Last of Uscreator Neil Druckmann on HBO's podcast. "They told you the whole backstory of this guy, Ish, and how he started this community and recruited other people. You can find this whole story of the height of how they survived here and their ultimate downfall.
"We just couldn’t tell this story in the show. There was just no way to do it. But we wanted to honour that this place existed."
The Last of Us expands the importance of collectibles.
Collectibles in The Last of Usgame aren't survival necessities, they're just fun things to earn and will achieve you trophies. But in the show, Druckmann and Mazin expand the importance of these joys in the characters' bleak reality, allowing you to connect more with Ellie in particular.
For one, Ellie's jokes. They're a collectible in the game that rewards you with the incredibly named "That's All I Got" trophy, and can be heard simply by standing idly with Ellie between objectives; after a few minutes, a bored Ellie will pull out her joke book, No Pun Intended: Volume Too by Will Livingston, and drop some cheese. In episode 4, Ellie tries to get a rise out of Joel (Pedro Pascal) multiple times with some Livingstone, eventually succeeding despite his best attempts. Livingstone's joke book does more for Ellie than provide light reading, it allows her to be a kid for once, and create a much-needed release and bonding means for her and Joel.
Sam (Keivonn Woodard) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) choose "Savage Starlight" #6 over sleep. Credit: Liane Hentscher/HBO Another game collectible, Ellie's beloved Savage Starlight comics, become a major focus of episode 5, as Ellie and Sam bond over their shared love of the sci-fi series. In the abandoned kindergarten beneath Kansas City, Sam discovers Savage Starlight#6 "Accretion", which can be found in the game in a hotel lobby bar in Pittsburgh. For Ellie and Sam in the show, the comics bring them back to their actual selves as kids, and provide pure, juvenille escapism in their destitute reality. In the game, finding all 14 of them will earn you the aptly named "Endure and Survive" trophy, which is also the title of episode 5 and the unofficial motto of the new foursome.
The Last of Us pays perfect homage to the game's photobooth scene.
The photobooth awaits for Ellie and Riley. Credit: Liane Hentscher/HBO It's not just a passive scene for gamers, this one. The Last of Usepisode 7 takes teen protagonist Ellie (Bella Ramsey) back to one fateful night in which her best friend Riley (Storm Reid) surprises her with a tour through an abandoned-but-powered mall. After the pair ride the carousel, she takes Ellie over to a working photo booth where an adorably nervous sequence occurs.
The scene is taken from The Last of Us' downloadable content (DLC) Left Behind, the spinoff released by Naughty Dog in 2014 that is the basis of the narrative in episode 7: Ellie's backstory with Riley. In the game, Ellie and Riley come across a photo booth in the mall as part of a sequence that uses the game's regular mechanics and actions but uses them for what is essentially a date.
"We took these mechanics that were used for violence when you played as Joel in the full game, and then for this extra chapter, we subverted those mechanics to get you to connect with Riley and be on this sort of date, running away together," The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann told the HBO podcast. The studio spent a huge amount of resources on developing this emotionally intimate character moment, the type of impactful scene that Druckmann said Naughty Dog values as much as major action sequences.
"We had this idea of like, ‘Oh, what if they went in this photo booth?’ Because this is a thing you do in a mall with your friends, you take pictures together. It would be a moment that would make it interactive, you could choose what poses you want to do. So there’s a little bit of agency for the player there as far as shaping how that experience goes."
*Season 1 of The Last of Us is now streaming on HBO Max.
*This section is adapted from another Mashable articleon the same topic.
Topics Gaming HBO The Last of Us