5 Things HBO's 'The Last Of Us' Did Better Than The Game
Image Source: GameRant
WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE LAST OF US SHOW AND GAME
There is always a major risk involved when making a beloved property into a movie or television show, especially for something as popular as The Last of Us. Widely regarded as one of the greatest video games of all time, the 2023 HBO show had lofty expectations to live up to. It hit some of the marks while completely missing others. On a few occasions, it did things better than the game did. We are here to look at five things the show did better than the game. This is not a knock on the game, by the way. The two are different mediums and can go in different directions with aspects that the other one cannot.
5. Tess’s Death
Image source: CinemaBlend
One of the main inciting events of the game is the death of Joel’s long-time partner, Tess. At first, Ellie is just a package to be delivered, but that changes for Tess when she finds out that Ellie is immune to the Cordyceps infection. Instead of merely surviving, she wants to make an actual impact in the world. As a result, she sacrifices herself to give Joel and Ellie time to escape and make it to the Fireflies.
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Now, in the game, they were going to meet the Fireflies at the capitol building, but when they arrive, they find out that all the Fireflies are dead as a result of a FEDRA raid. As they’re trying to figure out what happened, FEDRA returns…just because. There is nothing that triggers their return to the capitol. They just do it because of story reasons.
The show adds the nifty detail that the fungus has sort of a hive mind. So when the group steps on some of it, the zombies know that there are potential victims at the capitol, triggering an attack. This makes a lot more sense than “FEDRA shows up just because.”
Tess’s sacrifice is also handled better in the show. The cinematography of the scene beautifully leads up to her blowing the building up. The “kiss” from the fungus is really, really icky, though.
4. Ellie And Sam’s Relationship
Image source: Huffpost
It makes sense that we do not see the relationship between Ellie and Sam in the game. After all, the majority of the game is played from Joel’s perspective. The show has no such restrictions, and we get to see a deeper connection between the two. Now that she doesn’t need to put up an emotional shield like when she is around adults, we get to see her as the young child that she is. Bella Ramsay’s performance further helps create a more well-rounded Ellie.
The highlight is definitely when Ellie finds out that Sam has been bitten, and she cuts herself to try to cure Sam with her blood. This shows how she does not fully understand the nature of the virus nor how her blood works to cure someone. It is all the more tragic when it predictably does not work to cure Sam and she wakes up to find that her first real friend since Riley has turned into one of the monsters. It is heartwrenching to see her standing at Sam’s grave as she comes to terms that there is nothing she could have done to save him.
Both Ellie and Sam finally get to be kids for what may be the first time in their lives, and it ends in tragedy.
3. Introduction Of Bloaters
Image Source: Twinfinite
The most frustrating and terrifying enemy in the game is the mass of fungi and rage that are the Bloaters. (At least until the Rat King, but that will be Season 2). Every time you encounter one, you know it is going to be a rough fight avoiding both its swinging arms and the balls of spores that it throws at you.
Game pro tip: The nail bombs are probably the best weapon against them.
In the game, the Bloater makes its first entrance in the school gymnasium with Bill. We know right away that this monster is a force to be reckoned with, and it is one of the more difficult fights in the game up to that point. It ends up being a formidable enemy that sends chills down your spine throughout the rest of the game. Somehow, the show does even better.
A few episodes follow Sam and Henry as they try to escape the wrath of Kathleen, the leader of the rebel group who took over the Kansas City QZ. She finally has the group surrounded with a tanker truck chasing after them. Joel’s well-placed sniper shot takes out the driver, and the truck crashes into a house. Kathleen has her grand villainous speech only to be interrupted by the creaking sound of the massive truck sinking into the basement. There is a moment of silence before hundreds upon hundreds of common infected and clickers start pouring through the hole in the ground and attacking everybody. The rebels do their best to fight back, but they become overwhelmed by the gigantic wall of infected. As you are trying to wrap your head around the turn of events, the final nail in the coffin lumbers its way out of the ground: a bloater. A massive one. The show’s bloater looks like it could dispatch the bloaters in the game easily. Things have already gone to hell, but now things seem truly hopeless.
In the game, the bloater is introduced in the same way that another game might introduce a final boss. It is effective, but not as effective as the show does it. You are already terrified watching the mass of infected attacking, but it gets turned up to eleven when the bloater appears. It is too bad that they didn’t have the budget to have a scene with another one.
2. The Cordyceps Spores
Image Source: Adam Littledale
The fungal spores make sense as an idea, but the execution in the game is lacking. They’re shown as being hyper-contagious, and breathing even a small amount can cause you to become infected. By the time the characters notice the spores, it should already be too late for everyone but Ellie.
The show solves the problem by getting rid of the spores altogether. Sure, they did it because they paid for Pedro Pascal, and they were not going to cover his face with a gas mask the whole time. The different storytelling medium also allowed the show to spend more time on the fact that flour was the main trigger for the pandemic back in the beginning, something that was only alluded to in the game.
1. Portraying The Major Organizations Of The Last Of Us
Image Source: Nerdist
There are not actually “good guys” in The Last of Us. Joel and Tess have done terrible things both in the name of survival and general profit. While they have lofty ideals, the Fireflies do not shy away from violence and sacrifice. A lesser game might have made them the straight heroic organization, but we are shown that their label as a terrorist organization is not too farfetched. Outside of the clear villains such as the raiders and the group of cannibals, the biggest looming shadow is the government organization FEDRA. It is rarely portrayed as anything but the fascist wing of the government that only exists to keep a few in power.
The show actually addresses a lot of that.
David is still a villain for sure, but he has an entire community to take care of, and his right-hand man (played by Joel’s original actor Troy Baker), isn’t just his lackey but has deep reservations about what has to be done to protect and feed the town. The scavengers and raiders are still a danger, but it is clear that they are just trying to survive the only way they know how. The show also does a better job of bringing both the Fireflies and FEDRA into a more morally gray zone. Both sides have done terrible things to each other and to the rest of the survivors. At the same time, we see moments of humanity in both of them. None of the antagonists that Joel and Ellie meet are villainous SPECTRE-esque organizations. They just choose the side that they thought would best help them survive. It might just be the nature of television vs. video games, but we get a deeper understanding of everyone involved.
Overall, HBO’s The Last of Us is met with highly positive reviews from both the critics and the audience. There will of course always be detractors, but the show did a lot better than most people thought it would. In some instances, they did better.
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