The Last of Us Remastered, Released 2014, Developed by Naughty Dog, available on PlayStation.
In what is likely a balmy Texas evening, you run desperately from your house with your daughter in your arms. Your neighbors have lost their wits and humanity and violence has erupted around you. Safety eludes you. Hell, even the National Guard is out to stop you.
The start of the game features the beginning of the zombie apocalypse through the eyes of Joel. Within minutes, he tragically loses his daughter. Then, you’re transported a few decades hence, to a world that has settled for a depressing state of all-too human problems. There are also, of course, lots of zombies.
Fundamentally, the game is about survival and fatherhood. Joel is charged with transporting the young Ellie across the country. She was bitten by an infected, but did not turn. It seems she is immune, and therefore could help find a cure for the virus. Joel lost one daughter and he won’t lose another, which is what, in time, Ellie becomes.
I think about The Last of Us quite a bit. It is so good at making you feel overwhelmed and desperate. It combines scarcity and overwhelming odds, and pairs stealth and desperate combat perfectly.
Prior to this game I hated stealth, or at least thought I did. The Last of Us flips this miserable genre on its head by overwhelmingly prioritizing audio stealth. It challenges the genre by Reconsidering the Standard.
It really highlights for me how often we accept mechanisms that don’t quite make sense. Listen carefully as I make the case for more games to challenge assumptions.
Problems in Sight: Stealth games traditionally focus on visual detection. The player tries to avoid being seen by guards patrolling a room. This concept begins simply, but quickly spirals out of control.
Most simply, you can consider a two dimension environment. The guard can see left or right. You see which way they are looking and avoid that. Designers can complicate this further by having light and dark. Standing in the latter, no matter what, masks you from detection.
The problem is that most top tier games exist in complex, three dimensional spaces. They also try to mimic the real world with their lighting, taking into consideration lamps in a distant office, sun rays bleeding through the window, and a moving flashlight in the hands of a guard.
Furthermore, the point of view supported in a video game is less than what actual humans have in real life. We have peripheral vision, the ability to subtly turn our heads and shift our eyes. The thing we subconsciously do to constantly process our world is abstracted in games.
The rules become complicated. Metal Gear Solid provides a mini map that explicitly displays the cone of vision guards have. Splinter Cell provides a Stealth Meter that is basically a thermometer for how visible you are. While both of these solutions work, they are abstract, break immersion, and substitute a permanent fixture on the screen instead of intuitive behavior and rules.
These meters are attempting to solve for what the player needs to see (like the facing of the guard) but cannot, for whatever reason. What the player needs to understand (like how the guard detects humans in shadows), but cannot ascertain.
These games are trying to solve something that may just be too complex of a cocktail. They are trying to leverage the wrong human sense.
A Sound Idea: Zombies in The Last of Us come about from a fungal virus. The longer a person is infected, the more they evolve. Initially, the infected are basically enraged, violent humans. You know, zombies. But soon, they evolve into a creature that cannot see and navigate using sound. They’re called clickers in game.
Clickers are significantly more powerful. If you shoot them, they’ll drain your supply of bullets. Really, the best way to get to them is to sneak up and stab them quietly.
Let’s dig into the benefits of the sound-first approach. Firstly, you’re given Listen Mode early in the game. When enabled, it distills the visuals of the environment, lets you detect enemies within ear shot, and reminds you that they are also listening. It is immersive and intuitive. Your focus remains in the environment as you observe patterns and plan your approach.
Once you begin that approach, you know that clickers cannot see you. You aren’t overwhelmed by having to cautiously manage your speed (to reduce sound) and avoid sight lines. Yes, the basic zombies can see you, but by mixing the capabilities of the infected, and leaving literal blind spots, the sheer complexity is reduced to something that is still incredibly tense, but manageable.
There are fewer rules. Those that exist are more intuitive. The complexity then stems from the mixing of these entities and their simple rules, not over-burdening a single system with every rule. Halo creates multiple simple enemies, but adds them to an arena in different distributions to create rich, intuitive combat scenarios. Inside and Limbo provide 5 hours of unique puzzles using walking, pulling, and simple climbing.
The Last of Us joins this group. As you lob bricks to herd the infected towards the sound, fire gunshots to draw them into a tripwire, or just approach a crowded room, you do so with a clear understanding of the rules. All hail the new standard.
A quick segue: The thesis for this post has gone through quite a few revisions. But, one thing that struck me is how accommodating we are of other mechanisms that seem bizarre upon just a dab of consideration.
Take the blockbuster first person shooter Call of Duty. Avoiding bullets in the game is almost impossible, which is usually fine as after a few seconds, your character magically heals. This is a standard in most games. Miss the jump and plummet ten stories? Walk it off. Get in a fight with a guy named Ryu and take several uppercuts to the face? You’ll be fine.
I don’t have an alternative proposal for most shooters, but how strange is it that the basic formula for Call of Duty is:
Seconds Outside of Cover X Number based on difficulty setting = Damage Taken
Thematically, it doesn’t make sense for 21st century Marines to dodge bullets like The Matrix. But, then again, it doesn’t really make sense that damage simply fades away with time. Getting shot in war is often just as much randomness or the persistence of an enemy combatant, neither of which are terribly satisfying in a video game.
Perhaps the design must fall victim to the absurdity of what’s being represented. Marshall asserts that as few as 15% of soldiers in combat ever actually fire their weapon, whereas in Call of Duty, the number of combatants firing is mysteriously beyond 100%. The game is simply trying to solve the impossible?
My point is, it doesn’t seem like Call of Duty really examines the way they handle something as fundamental as damage. There is an absurd standard they accept. Sure, with enough layers and twists, the result mostly works. But I wonder if there is something better just out of sight. Or, to stick to my argument, outside of earshot.
The One Cool Thing
The Last of Us invigorates the stealth combat paradigm. Audio based stealth uses fewer senses without taking away from the experience.
This game Reconsiders the Standard set by decades of stealth. It fundamentally recognizes a better way to experience a well worn genre and makes the case that more games should question the assumptions of their predecessors.
Preview for Next Time
We’ve focused quite a bit on violent, action-oriented games so far. Let’s pivot to the fairy tale world of Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, a Japanese roleplaying game that resembles a Miyazaki animated film.
This game combines so many different mechanisms and explores difficult themes, yet can be finished in only 30 hours. It succeeds in so many ways, but there’s one in particular we’ll be discussing on February 25.
Currently Playing
I have far too many stealth combat games in my queue (Dishonored 2, Sniper Elite 4, Hitman 3, Metal Gear Solid V), so I grabbed Chorus on sale to vary my diet. So far, flying is quite fun. Whipping around asteroid belts is snappy and satisfying. I’m intrigued to see how the combat evolves, and whether exploring an open world in a starfighter leads to some neat ideas.
I can say that objectively, being able to drift sideways in a starfighter like I’m racing a Toyota in Tokyo rules.
A Recommendation for Lovers
Valentine’s Day is very nearly upon us. If you do not yet have dinner plans, I fear it’s too late for anything fancier than Taco Bell. Luckily, you can purchase a game digitally to immediately enjoy with your beloved.
Take a look at The Forgotten City. While it isn’t a romantic game per se, the gameplay is slow and amenable to distracted play (smooching, flirting, discussion). It has all the great elements of an escape room or murder mystery or season of television you love. While you likely won’t be able to finish it in a single evening, it won’t take much more than that, and is ideal for a wide range of gaming skill sets. Really, you just need an interest in logic and stories.
Thank you for reading! If you liked what you read, please subscribe and share, but also, let me know what you think. See you in two weeks.
Edited by Joshua Buergel