Publisher: Sony Developer: Naughty Dog Format: PlayStation 3 Release: Out Now
The Last of Us was about survival; the daily struggle to simply exist. By contrast, Left Behind, its first and final slice of singleplayer downloadable content, allows its protagonists to live. It’s far from the only difference. We may know the approximate destination of the leads’ journey – such is the nature of the prequel – and yet the journey is full of surprises. Some of the jolts are familiar, as the guttural, unearthly shrieks and clicks of the infected puncture the eerie calm of its ruined locales, but the most startling thing about Left Behind is what it forsakes.
Yes, Ellie carries a gun, but for the first two-thirds of this add-on, she’s unable to use it. Instead, as she absconds from her military duties, encouraged by her recently absent friend Riley, we witness a fresh perspective on postapocalyptica, certainly within the interactive medium; namely, the final, fading moments of innocence. It’s an accelerated adolescence of sorts: the pair’s evident childlike glee at exploring an abandoned mall together soon segues into a mature acceptance that they’ll soon be forced to part. Riley has joined the Fireflies, the anti-establishment group Ellie is being trained to kill, and this represents their final blowout before they must part.
It’s a poignant setup, and yet for the first hour or so, the results are wonderfully playful. Here at last is the levity The Last of Us could have used more of during its campaign. We see Ellie in a different light, not as a hardened survivor but as a teenage girl, with a love for puns and fooling around. She laughs, in a natural unembittered way, telling jokes without the defence mechanism of sarcasm. The friendship between her and Riley feels honest, and while the interactions may at times be inelegant – press triangle for bonus dialogue here – the myriad ways in which the two can bond are a delight to discover. As Ellie dons a werewolf mask you’ll mash buttons to make her roar, while a Hallowe’en-themed take on a Magic 8-Ball has answers to an alarming array of questions, such that it’s a shame when the prompt to pick it up no longer appears. “Am I ever going to get to play a video game?” she asks, the weary resignation in her voice undercut by the faintest note of naïve hope. The chances are dismal, comes the reply. “Fuck you, skull!” is her defiant riposte. This lighthearted, seemingly throwaway, exchange is recalled later, in a spellbinding sequence loaded with almost unbearable pathos.
“Am I ever going to get to play a video game?” asks Ellie at one point, as she and Riley explore an abandoned mall.
It’s a note-perfect performance from Ashley Johnson, and it’s almost matched by newcomer Yaani King as Riley. A little older and wiser than Ellie, she’s been toughened by her experiences in the outside world, and while her voice occasionally betrays the actor’s real age, it’s a strong yet sympathetic portrayal. Through Riley’s eyes we catch our first glimpse at the future we know is in store for Ellie; this may be a standalone story, but it’s one that’s undoubtedly enriched by the player’s knowledge of the campaign’s narrative. In turn, Joel and Ellie’s story is retrospectively lent extra texture and detail by the events of this add-on. Indeed, the action cuts directly from this pivotal episode in Ellie’s journey to a key moment within the original game in ways it would be ungracious to detail.
The action is mostly reserved for the closing stretch, and with a paucity of ammunition and items with which to craft smoke bombs and Molotovs, the focus tilts more towards nervy stealth. You’ll be even more grateful for the moments of light relief after the suffocating dread of these set-pieces, though even here Naughty Dog finds room for a fresh approach, with a surfeit of bricks and bottles allowing you to thin out enemy numbers by luring clickers and stalkers towards human opponents. Rarely has being unarmed felt quite so empowering, as you wait for the bangs and growls to subside before quietly picking off stragglers from the fringes.
Though the last of Left Behind’s combat bowls arguably outstays its welcome, with three or four enemies too many, each instance adds a necessary tension to a narrative that might otherwise have felt insubstantial. With them you’re reminded of exactly how high the stakes really are, and in the context of a side-story that takes in several inventive twists to the game’s core mechanics, from impromptu competitions between the two girls to a breakneck sprint to safety, they represent yet another gear-change, one more satisfying shift in tone and in pace.
Ashley Johnson and Yaani King put in wonderful performances as Ellie and Riley respectively.
Some would argue that The Last of Us’ narrative warranted no further augmentation, that Joel and Ellie’s stories were complete enough, and that its legacy would be better served by a focus on new characters. Others will insist that linear, authored experiences are far from the best way for a game to tell a story. Both these statements are entirely reasonable, and yet Left Behind offers a devastatingly persuasive argument to the contrary, deepening our affection for a character and a world more than should be possible in just two and a half hours. Saying goodbye to such an oppressively bleak world shouldn’t be so difficult, you think. As you near the end, you’ll know – like Ellie and Riley, and perhaps even Neil Druckmann and Naughty Dog – that’s it’s the right time to move on, but at the same time you’ll wish you didn’t have to. It’s over too soon, then, but every moment of this masterful piece of DLC is one to be savoured.
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