The Last of Us left Behind Review

Content Summary

We will examine Left Behind, which was released in 2014 as the DLC of The Last of Us. We will look at the story of the game without giving spoilers.

When we look at Naughty Dog’s games, we see that they are all games played from a third-person camera angle, offering good stories with a working equation. Although some players accuse companies of producing similar games, if you ask me, if there is a working mechanic, it is not bad to improve it with minor improvements and thus tell new stories.

For example, instead of waiting ten years for each GTA, it makes sense to publish another big story set in the same universe every year for the same game with the same mechanics and the same game engine. I think it’s a pretty good marketing strategy, at least until the new game comes out.

Obsidian’s CEO likened making games to making movies. However, he said that while making a game, you have to produce a new camera every time, unlike the movie. The less work this new camera builds gets, the more time there is to tinker with the story and the atmosphere. This increases the likelihood of old-school players to get into the game and experience a good story.

But every business has a tradition. The game industry is also an industry that does everything on its own, every time. Making a big production is a time-consuming process since they are now at the limits of technology. Anyway, let’s come to The Last of Us‘ Left Behind DLC.

Naughty Dog does not spoil the storytelling feature in DLCs, again with a third-person camera angle and the same mechanics. Left Behind DLC of the highly acclaimed The Last of Us, where we experienced the story of Joel and Ellie, is played in almost the same atmosphere and with the same game mechanics as The Last of Us. So it also makes it easier for us to interact with the story.

The DLC actually answers two things about The Last of Us. The first is the history of thirteen-year-old Ellie, which explains how she knows how to use a gun so well and how she got bitten, and the second is what Ellie did to save Joel in the time that passed after Joel was injured.

Story of The Last of Us Left Behind

As you may recall from The Last of Us, in a post-apocalyptic world that started with an epidemic, quarantine zones were first declared to protect people’s health, and then these quarantine areas caused the administration to become authoritarian. So much so that even the treatment studies were abandoned. In the Left Behind DLC, we learn that Ellie was actually among the soldiers trained to maintain order at a young age and was trained for this.

But Ellie’s fate begins to change when her best friend, Riley, disappears and joins a separatist organization called the Fireflies, which is working to restore humanity’s freedom and find a cure. Left Behind DLC tells about the adventures of Riley with Ellie, who came to see Ellie one last time before going to the mission location announced by the Fireflies, and wanted to say goodbye to her.

The story is told in time jumps. We return to the time an Ellie spent with Riley when a Joel was about to die. Left Behind, which is another story as successful as the main story of the game, provides a satisfying two and a half hours in every respect.

One of the promotional images for the Left Behind DLC

The dose of tension is not as high as The Last of Us, as Ellie’s childhood experiences with her beloved friend are told. I like this because it relaxes me. It was a joyful and positive experience to press the trigger not to kill a sick or gang member, but to wet our friend with a water gun.

Apart from that, the environmental design is also incredibly detailed. It is amazing to witness that even the footprints you left in the snow in a game released years ago are erased over time. We were even excited when Rockstar did this with Red Dead Redemption 2 years later. Naughty Dog did this years before Red Dead Redemption 2.

The Last of Us Left Behind General Evaluation

As we mentioned above, I love DLC packs that allow us to play new stories with the same mechanics set in the same universe. The controls and atmosphere we are used to allow us to better focus on the story.

The Left Behind DLC does the same thing. By expanding the magnificent atmosphere and story of The Last of Us, it promises a joyful and sometimes pathetic but impressive experience with a relatively less dose of tension than The Last of Us.

Naughty Dog’s attention to environmental design continues in the same way. Therefore, we recommend that everyone who has played and liked The Last of Us should also play Left Behind.

References

https://reviewsofgame.com/the-last-of-us-review/ 

https://reviewsofgame.com/episodes-from-liberty-city/ 

https://www.naughtydog.com/