True enough, Left Behind missed a huge opportunity for emotional impact by cutting the ending short of Ellie watching her friend die from infection while she mysteriously lived on. Many felt it was the perfect end others felt Naughty Dog should have illustrated Riley’s death.
There has been quite a bit of debate about the way Left Behind ended. For me, the highlight in the scene was when Ellie finally breaks down and pleads, “Don’t go.” On par with cinema right there.Īnd then we come to the end. While Alex felt the kiss stemmed more from general excitement that Ellie was reunited with her best friend, he remarks that the scene was impeccable, citing the moment when Ellie asks coyly, “So what do we do now?” right before the Infected arrive as brilliant writing. To me, her presumed attraction to Riley may stem more from, “She’s all I’ve got in this world” than the more commonplace, “I’m just attracted to women.” Maybe Naughty Dog was going for the latter, and I won’t argue they weren’t, but part of the intrigue is the mystery of the motivation behind Ellie’s action. Does this mean Ellie is homosexual? Not necessarily. From the moment the two stole away to the mall, I sensed there might be something more to their friendship.
While Alex opines it seemed more platonic, I detected a romantic vibe during the DLC throughout. Where Alex and I’s impressions differ is in-you guessed it-the kiss between Ellie and Riley. It’s not entirely unexpected, as the prologue sequence with Riley was meant to be based on exploration, but it is an interesting reversal. It should also be noted that, with Riley being in the protector role, all of the combat curiously takes place in the Ellie/Joel story. Meanwhile, Joel is the victim and, in fact, comes perilously close to death when Ellie arrives and saves the day. In the other half of Left Behind, however, we see how Ellie’s experiences with Riley in the mall that night/morning have hardened her.
She holds the gun and she’s the one who is joining the resistance while Ellie is stuck being trained to fight for a military she despises. Even in Left Behind, Ellie is more in the “victim” role with Riley, who, despite being the non-playable character, assumes Joel’s role in being the protector. Far from it, one of the more interesting aspects of Left Behind is the contrast between Ellie’s relationships with Joel and Riley. Ellie’s reversal of roles as it pertains to Joel is one of the DLC’s highlights: in The Last of Us, Ellie is (for most of the game) the tag-along, the defenseless character to Joel’s machismo. That isn’t to say the characterization was bad, though. Related: Uncharted Director Leaves Naughty Dog Naturally, they would be more mature than your present-day teenager, but contrasting Riley with Ellie (as she appears in Left Behind), Riley feels years ahead emotionally. Heck, neither of them really know what it’s like to have parents. They don’t know what it’s like to have your parents drop you off at the movies with your friends. Sure, you can argue she lives in a world of martial law where everything is about living to survive, but you have to remember (as Naughty Dog was so quick to remind us): Ellie (and Riley) grew up in this world. After all, in the end this is a tale about two teenage girls struggling for a reprieve from a horrifying and militaristic world.Īnd speaking of which, one of the more curious aspects of Left Behind is Riley’s maturity. The DLC’s focus on facetious banter is a bit of a departure from the main game’s unyielding sobriety, but even so, it never loses that quality that makes the story so unique and moving. On that note, the exploration in Left Behind was a bit more lucid than in The Last of Us. It held a certain charm while maintaining a despondent air. Simple things like the girls’ antics in the Halloween store or taking pics in the photo booth were effective at conveying that these two characters rarely get to experience what most of us would deem a normal childhood. It served as a potent reminder of why (and how much) we love The Last of Us and the world the developers crafted. For both Alex and I, simply soaking in the atmosphere in all its post-apocalyptic decrepitude was the highlight. Perhaps Naughty Dog‘s claim to fame with Left Behind was the heavy emphasis on exploration-and obvious detraction from combat-and it was an absolute delight. If you don’t want to know what happens in Left Behind, stop reading now! Over the weekend, we posted a spoiler-free review of the DLC, but today Alex and I will be discussing the story in all its spoilerific details. In case you were hibernating last Friday due to the ridiculous cold, you likely know Left Behind, the highly anticipated DLC prequel to The Last of Us, was released.