How Last Of Us 2 Taught Me About Life, Grief And Friendship More Than Any Book Or Movie

A few hours into the Last Of Us 2 game, Joel sings "If I ever were to lose you, I'll slowly lose myself".

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This cover for 'Future Days' by Pearl Jam sets the tone for an emotionally tumultuous ride where I didn't just make progress in the game, but it changed the way I look at people's journeys through life.

I've been stuck in my house for the last 10 months and almost everything that could've gone wrong, has gone wrong. But that's where Naughty Dog's Last of Us 2 gave me some much needed perspective, wanting to bring out the best in us by making us empathise with those we seemingly 'hate' which is a good virtue to have especially in the tumultuous pandemic-afflicted times we are in right now.

From nostalgia...

But let¡¯s take it back a few years when I had just started getting into gaming and one of the first immersive games I ever played was Last Of Us. As a novice, I was more worried about controls and just making it through zombie attacks alive, but I was soon made to realise that this story is so much more.

The moment I was introduced to Joel and became a part of his and Ellie¡¯s journey, I knew that this game was gonna make me cry like a baby and tug on every single one of my heartstrings. Naughty Dog managed to do just that (no surprises) and with a character-driven game like Last Of Us, it gave us writing, music and emotions unlike any movie or book ever made.

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So, when the sequel was announced, I was ecstatic because the Ellie and Joel shaped hole in my life was finally gonna be filled but if I had learnt anything from those two characters was that nothing in life comes easy because the Last of Us 2 was delayed owing to the pandemic and the horrible 'crunch' culture at Naughty Dog.

After months of delay, a full-on hack into their servers and a ton of leaked footage, the show finally made its way into my console and I was prepared to get lost into the world once again.

Before we go further let me say two things: Firstly, if you haven¡¯t played the game please stop reading this and go play it because there will be SPOILERS.

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Secondly, I loved Joel. Scratch that, I love Joel. Losing his daughter early in the first game, Joel had become extremely guarded and didn't trust anyone else until Ellie. His character made me think back to every supportive father figure I had tried to find in my life and made me hope that I had someone like Joel to guide me through the apocalypse that is our everyday life.

And then, it happens.

To rage and realisation...

Joel is brutally murdered with a golf club by the character you had control over in the previous sequence. It felt dirty. My heart wanted to crawl out of my mouth because I felt like I had helped someone who took away one of my best friends right in front of my eyes. A sudden rush of rage engulfs the player and that is a testament to Naughty Dog's storytelling. I wanted nothing but revenge.

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As Ellie, the player is tasked with hunting down every member of the group that killed Joel. Walking in the shoes of Ellie, I felt the same rage as she did. In Seattle, you find and kill all of Abby¡¯s friends. I was enjoying this murderous rampage because I was blinded by anger just as Ellie was. By the end of day 3, you murder the two friends only to find out that the woman was pregnant. This is where the game breaks you as a human being. I wanted to stop this rampage and so did Ellie.

And then it happens. It's a truly historic moment in gaming as Naughty Dog forces you to play as Abby and live her journey. You realise that there isn't a lot of difference between the two characters - Ellie and Abby. Joel had killed Abby's father (who wanted to kill Ellie in his quest of finding a cure for the virus) and Abby had exacted her revenge. Maybe, the heroes in our personal stories are villains in someone else's.

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This is the moment where your real-life interacts with the game that you are practically living. I can pretty much attest to the fact that when someone you love is taken away from you, no form of reason can begin to explain the pain and grief. Feeling Ellie¡¯s pain after losing Joel made me realise how anger, when mixed with grief, can potentially destroy our lives.

Towards empathy

The Last of Us 2 makes you look into not just how Naughty Dog and Druckmann managed to create characters that feel like a part of our lives but also how every emotion we feel while going through the two games be it joy or friendship or loyalty or even unparalleled anger and grief are what keep us connected to our real lives as well.

While in no definition would I call myself a seasoned gamer but this game made sure that no matter where you stand in your combat abilities, the storyline will define immersive gaming for you. If you at any moment while reading this article thought that, ¡°women gamers are so emotional about everything¡± then you need to take a step back and really look deep into your own emotions because you, my friend are in denial.

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Every single person I have interacted with who has played this game, man, woman or child, pretty much balled their eyes out during the sequel. Any human being would find it completely understandable as to why people feel so strongly about the game. Most of them are let down by the way Joel is killed off, as was I.

Naughty Dog wanted you to feel this hate and then bounce back but a huge part of the community just couldn't look past it. The challenge with Last of Us 2 was not to beat the game on 'grounded' difficulty with your DualShock controllers. The real task here was to fight your rage and empathise (even if you are a man), something that no controller can help you with.

If you can play through Abby¡¯s story and not sympathise with her, then you couldn¡¯t possibly feel Joel¡¯s misery of losing his daughter in the opening act of the first game, and Ellie¡¯s of losing Joel. I completely understand why people were so angry. If I had to say who in this story is the villain, I don¡¯t think I could come up with a definite answer and that is the beauty of this game.

All of this brought together into a neat package of almost 25 hours of gameplay is what Last of Us 2 can potentially go on to win Game of the Year.

The Last of Us Part 2 is proof that video games have become the most superior form of storytelling. There's no other medium that could imagine doing something similar. I hated Naughty Dog for a month after finishing the game and it took me a few weeks to clearly see through Druckmann's intentions. It's a game that goes beyond our consoles. And that's something we definitely need more of for sure.