The Last of Us



The Last of Us is a 2013 video game from Naughty Dog. The game is set After the End, thanks to a deadly, parasitic insect fungus mutating and spreading to humans. Society has collapsed as a result, with most of the surviving populace either living in walled-off sections that are fiercely guarded, or scavenging in the outside world, where they are not afraid to kill to get any valuable supplies.

The game follows two survivors, Joel, a rough scavenger who does jobs smuggling weapons and drugs while braving the hostiles beyond the sealed sections, and Ellie, his teenage female companion who is wise beyond her years but has no knowledge of the world before the fall of society. Together the two make their way across the post apocalyptic United States doing everything they can to survive.


 * Action Survivor: Mostly Ellie, though Joel has elements of it under his higher willingness to kill.
 * Aluminum Christmas Trees: The effects of a fungal infections causing those infected to go insane is actually true. A fungi, known as Ergot, has been blamed for causing similar symptoms, even blamed for many witchcraft accusations.
 * Another, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, actually infects ants and turns them into zombies that follow the fungus' survival imperatives, not their own.
 * After the End: The game's setting, with "the end" being when a fungal infection broke out.
 * Artificial Brilliance: Judging from the E3 demo, scavengers have reactions recorded for various situations. They are able to inform their comrades if Joel is spotted, recognize the sound of an empty clip, and take cover when fired at. Ellie also demonstrates this by taking cover on her own and distracting enemies when Joel is in a pinch, and when Joel gets hurt a bit by an attack, she asks, "Does it hurt?" "It's nothing."
 * Bottomless Magazines: Extremely averted. You're going to be lucky to get a small number of bullets at any given time.
 * Casual Danger Dialogue: Ellie is pretty much desensitized to the violence of post-apocalyptic life. In the debut trailer, hearing Joel fighting a man to the death elicits a concerned-but-not-shocked "oh, man!" from her, and when Joel asks if she's okay, she quips, "Better than that guy." Though she doesn't seem to be completely desensitized: In the gameplay trailer when Joel lights a guy on fire with a Molotov cocktail she lets out a horror-stricken "Holy shit, Joel!" as he comes back into the room she's in.
 * Cluster F-Bomb: The 2012 E3 gameplay has the scavengers cussing out the wazoo. If you saw it on TV, they practically had to hold down the bleep button though most of the video.
 * Comic Book Fantasy Casting: Ellie looks a lot like Ellen Page.
 * Or did, at least, before the game designers changed her appearance.
 * Daylight Horror: Beautiful outdoor locations, filled with enemy scavengers and crazed fungal mutants.
 * Dialog During Gameplay: A striking amount so far, both story-related and situational. Some of the dialog arises out of specific situations that occur during gameplay (getting hurt, torching an enemy with a molotov, being pinned down, etc.).
 * Disaster Scavengers: Basically everyone.
 * Enemy Chatter: Enemies can be heard having conversations with each other before you encounter them, and they talk to each other and you during fights.
 * Escort Mission: The negatives associated with this trope are looking heavily averted so far. Ellie is highly competent and will seek cover when enemies are around, and if Joel is pinned down by one, she will do what she can to distract his attacker, including throwing things at him or directly attacking with her own weapons.
 * Intergenerational Friendship: Joel is a grizzled survivor in his 40s, and Ellie is 14. According to the developers, they form a friendship over the course of the adventure (hints of that can be seen in the Dialog During Gameplay).
 * Item Crafting: Joel can make Molotov cocktails using equipment gathered on his journey to use on a moment's notice. Other things in the list shown so far were things like bandages and sugar.
 * Ragnarok Proofing: Nope. As far as we can tell from the trailers, anyway.
 * Real Is Brown: Averted, as per Naughty Dog tradition. Rather than recycle the gray, broken-down look of many post-apocalyptic games, they instead chose to go with Real is Green, with cities and towns being reclaimed by wilderness.
 * Ruins of the Modern Age
 * Scavenger World
 * Scenery Porn
 * Weapon for Intimidation: To save on bullets, just hold someone up and let Ellie stab him in the back! Better make sure they don't figure if out if you're out of bullets, though...
 * Wise Beyond Their Years: The official description for Ellie describes her this way.
 * Zombie Apocalypse: Naughty Dog says the game will feature infected, and it does take place after the infection broke out, but it is not a zombie game (they're actually some sort of berserk fungal mutants).