A Nation Torn Apart
Two decades after the Cordyceps fungus evolves to infect humans, killing millions in the process, we are thrust into the world of The Last of Us. Civilians are corralled into quarantine zones ruled under strict martial law where if you are revealed to be infected you are immediately executed. The weight of the infection bears heavy on any survivors that remain as they are seemingly lost in a world surrounded by a sense of decaying beauty and overwhelming fear that each day could be their last. Desperation and struggle are key elements that emphasize a strong importance in bridging our sense of immersion into the game world.
The scariest notion resting beneath the decaying nation is what will become of the last of us once the world collapses? What horrors will we be faced with once the lives we’ve lived before have been shattered, and what will those growing up in this new world become? Sure, these questions have been explored for a long time, but they’re ones that we continually become infatuated with. The Last of Us is attempting to answer these very questions by manifesting an entirely new world that begs for your to step inside and become immersed in the beauty of a depopulated world. Naughty Dog’s work on the environments can easily be compared to the landscape painted by the cinematography in 2007’s, I Am Legend.
Testaments of mankind’s abilities are crumbling around you as nature’s lush greenery reclaims rightful ownership of the land. City streets have become overgrown with greenery, stagnant water pools in crumbled streets while underground tunnels have flooded completely. The melancholy feeling evoked by witnessing the world in ruin impressively creates this sense of beauty. It allows you to become immersed in a seemingly abandoned world where remnants of society can be viewed for what they are, impressive feats of mankind. Unfortunately, you won’t be the only person alive to admire them, and the world of The Last of Us presents survival through the same lens as much post-apocalytpic fiction does, desperation.
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