The Last of Us series review

The Last of Us was one of the greatest games I’ve ever had a chance to play, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it one of the finest masterpieces in the history of the entertainment industry, ditching the usual survival game formula of glorifying gameplay over anything else, and mixing The poignant drama, carefully written characters, well-crafted scenario, and brutal yet satisfying gameplay reflect the reality of this brutal world and the dangers that threaten its survivors. It achieves the same success, but the viewer will feel as if something is missing.

The Last of Us is a true tribute to the original game, reintroducing Naughty Dog’s heart-warming story to a new, wider audience. Meanwhile, to ensure players’ attraction, the series not only re-presents some of the events in a game-changing way, but also dives into the past of some of the characters. And to show the aspect that has always been absent from us in the game, and we only got to know it through some brief dialogues and messages scattered in this devastated world. The events of the series begin from the same starting point of the game. We are in 2003 this time, not 2013. Humans thought that the eras of epidemics had passed. And that they are immune to any pandemic. At this time, a strange fungus known as “Cordyceps” has grown in oblivion of everyone and mutated until it became out of control, settling in human bodies and turning infected people into hostile, unconscious organisms that decimated any living being in their range, and with infection An estimated 60% of the world’s population, chaos made its way to every state and city, burglaries and thefts spread in search of resources, the rest of the United States turned into what looked like a completely destroyed war zone lacking the most basic necessities of life, and everyone who survived that incident lost someone dear p Les, including the protagonist “Jules”.

Twenty years later, with human civilization destroyed and only crumbs left, the survivors live in what can be described as totalitarian quarantine zones akin to concentration camps, with some independent settlements imposing their own laws on their inhabitants, and rangers who leave their ruined homes behind in search of supplies. And drugs to survive another day, Joel’s life has been bleak in Boston, one of several quarantine zones run by the authority of a group called FEDRA, which tries to protect the survivors from the monsters surrounding the city.

Joel keeps himself busy with the constant smuggling and obtaining supplies, and during one of the operations, fate brings him together with Marilyn, the leader of the Fireflies, who asks for his help in return for a large shipment of supplies on the condition that he travels across the United States with a teenage girl who is a genetic miracle and the only hope left to save humanity from extinction, and away About it being an almost impossible journey across an entire continent controlled by infected people and bandits, Joel is still unable to move on with his life and forget what happened to his daughter Sarah years ago, and therefore, the presence of a teenager almost the same age will bring back painful memories in his mind that he tried to forget for decades, hence The Last of Us builds its gripping plot through stunning and compelling development of personal relationships and events that combine brutality with heartwarming moments.

The most notable change in the series, which anyone will feel immediately, is the absence of gameplay. Those brutal moments that are abundant when Joel sneaks in to eliminate a group of people or surprise and eliminate clickers by stealth are present shyly in the artwork and glorify violence less, and therefore, the series throws It weighs heavily on the dramatic relationships, feelings that develop over time, and the conflicts between the different groups, which is well presented in most episodes, but it’s not as satisfying or convincing as it was in the game, and watching Joel choke someone to death in order to protect Ellie wouldn’t provide the same feeling. of the game when he stabbed a group of bandits and emptied his gun magazine in the head of one of them before burning the survivors, and although reducing the pace of violence may serve the artwork in reaching a larger audience, it negatively affected many scenes and tried to compensate for that by During the continuous dialogues that help Ellie and Joel to consolidate their relationship, but at some point I felt that what situations they went through together were not sufficient or convincing for the relationship to develop at this pace, unlike the time it took the game to convince you Every step and every decision made and the consequences of it.

It was good that the series did not try to rely on a completely different story from the original game in its plot, or convey the same story without any change. Rather, the artwork presents a mixture of the two elements, by presenting the same events while delving more into the motives and past of each character in a way that did We see it in the game, such as the beginning of the spread of the epidemic and its place of origin, and the mysterious relationships between some people and their past together, which is referred to in passing in the game itself, however, there were stories that were presented on a large scale, but they are very weak in drama and do not constitute a turning point in the main plot to be completed. Focusing on it in this way, especially since the series ignored more influential moments from my point of view, such as the time Joel spent defending Tommy and committing heinous acts that he mentioned himself in the game as well as in the series, or the beginning of Ellie’s relationship with the Fireflies group, which were dealt with briefly and I would have preferred to focus on In a larger way, and many other stories that were more worthy of attention compared to some of the stories that the series focused on, or the situations whose plot has been changed.

The series will continuously make you feel as if you are still watching the game, where nature invaded every inch and the main roads were overgrown with trees that did not find anything to prevent them from spreading to hide the features of a great civilization that ended irrevocably, the cars that their owners left in the middle of the road and rushed to save themselves, shops and theaters And public gardens that turned into cemeteries and dens embracing the injured, and residential complexes and homes that reflect the culture of the population and the level of luxury that people reached before the situation worsened and things turned upside down and they lost all of this overnight, and the visual effects provided a feeling similar to the game in the design of public roads and skyscrapers. The collapsing clouds, and even the injured models who have become more realistic in movement and reactions compared to the game, and perhaps this is the only advantage in which the series excels over the original title, but those moments are somewhat few compared to what I encountered over more than 20 hours in the exclusivity of the PlayStation.

Pedro Pascal superbly plays Joel, a seasoned survivor who is able to do whatever it takes to survive even outrageous acts he cannot accept himself, reliving memories of fatherhood through his constant orders to Ellie to keep her out of danger, Pascal’s performance is natural and convincing All the while, he can express years of pain, hope, and fear in one look. While I feel the opposite about Bella Ramsey as Ellie, Bella excels in some situations, such as constantly nagging Joel and continuing to tell terrible jokes, but then loses control in moments. Others and go too far, Ellie may be annoying and ask many questions, but she is not rude and repulsive, and her relationship with Jules did not develop so quickly, but rather grew based on many influential situations that transformed the matter from a mere relationship between a smuggler and a shipment to a father and his daughter, which may not happen The blame is all on “Bella” in this part, but she presented the role in an acceptable way that could have been better, which will reflect on the events themselves more accurately. The rest of the work team was up to the aspirations, whether Melanie Lynskey, who presented a completely new character wonderfully, despite the events associated with This character took too much time, while Anna Torv presented her own version of “Tess”, which is no less brilliant than the original character. The best performance, in my view, went to Merle Dandridge, and perhaps the reason is that she presented the same character in the original game, which made Marilyn’s on-screen appearance is more convincing than any other secondary character, including Joel’s brother Tommy.