Left Behind Analysis

Left Behind was released on Valentine’s Day in 2014, 9 months after the initial release of The Last of Us, it follows two stories, cross cut at random intervals, the main plot is a prequel to the initial story, showing Ellie reunited with her best friend Riley as the two sneak into a mall to have one last adventure before Riley is shipped off the next morning, as the two spend the night together, their true feelings begin to show when their time is cut short when they are attacked by infected and Riley is killed. While the second story takes place in-between the Autumn and Winter sections of the initial game while Joel is mortally wounded and Ellie searches through a nearby mall, hoping to find the medicine to help him. The two stories, though not sharing any story based similarities aside from both being set inside malls, do have a lot in common thematically. In the original game, Ellie says that her greatest fear is to end up alone and it’s expanded upon here, showing the two people in her life that she cares about and how one is taken away from her and how she fights to keep the other.

The idea of us as the audience growing to care about Riley is a difficult one seeing as she has a pre-determined faith, we know that she’ll be dead by the end of the DLC. Yet Naughty Dog managed to make us care for her because Ellie cares for her, the relationship between the two of them is believable and genuine thanks to some fantastic writing from Neil Druckmann and amazing performances between Ashley Johnson and Yaani King. Because we empathise with Ellie we understand how much she cared for Riley and thus we know how much pain she must be going through at the thought of losing Joel too, again, even though we already know his fate. But it goes further than a sense of empathy, when Ellie is looking for medicine it is the only time in the whole game when she is truly alone, even in the winter section where she has to fight against cannibals, unbeknownst to her, Joel is coming to save her, here, there is no one but her, that sense of solitude really sets in.

I hold one major belief in whether or not a DLC can be considered good, that being whether or not it adds to the story and characters, and Left Behind brings it in a way I never would have seen coming. Ellie is the greatest videogame character of all time in my opinion, she’s the one that feels the most real due to mix between realistic writing and again, an amazing performance by Ashley Johnson, this is easily the most diverse and greatest acting job I’ve seen in a single role, I don’t see someone acting like a 14 year old girl, I see a 14 year old girl. Of course a fair amount of that praise also goes to the animators, adding the smallest amount of detail to her expressions and body language to make her movements feel completely natural, and through facial expressions alone you can read a lot into her character. What Left Behind does for her is show her in a new light by having her interact with someone her own age, her best friend, letting her be her silly, goofy and boldly expressive self with someone equally silly, goofy and boldly expressive. But of course there is more to it than that, the now famous kiss between the two characters, which actually does very little in terms of Ellie’s character development, with or without the kiss, she’s still the same person as is her relationship with Riley, nor does it add any new subtext or context for the main story in the game, for her personally it is a cute and honest moment of passion between two girls who love each other.

The real importance of this moment is actually much more substantial for gaming as a whole. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, women in the gaming community have been under a lot of flak recently, whether they be the characters in the game, the developers or the players. The most common argument amongst this controversy is the unrealistic standards of women in videogames, yet Ellie has received unanimous praise for being a great female character, and this moment only adds to that. Think long and hard about how many protagonists in a videogame that you’ve played are gay? Excluding games like Mass Effect where you chose your characters sexuality, but ones where you are required to play as a gay person? Now if you were able to think of a substantial number, how many of those characters were women?

What we here is a unique and ground-breaking moment in feminism and gaming and whether you want it to be or not, it is in fact a big deal, and I predict that decades from now when gaming culture can be more equal and developed (fingers crossed) this will be looked back on as a defining moment in all of gaming. And what makes it all the better is that it wasn’t an out of nowhere twist that was trying to trick its audience by saying “ohhh fooled you! You were playing as a lesbian the whole time!” but rather leave subtle hints around the game to put the thought in your head, so once the moment came, the reaction wasn’t of shock, but of success, as most people’s reactions were that of a “I knew it!” scenario.

So while a lot of this DLC certainly adds to the characters and themes of The Last of Us, does it do anything story-wise? Well that’s a rather subjective answer. The Last of Us has a very open ending that leaves itself up to interpretation, does Ellie know Joel was lying to her? If she does why did she go along with it? What does this mean for Joel? What does this mean for Ellie? What does this mean for humanity? Etc, etc. So whether or not this game ties into the main game depends on your interpretation of the ending, for me personally I feel like this game adds to the theory of Ellie seeing through Joel’s lie, and gives a plausible reason for why she complies with him.

As discussed, the major theme of this story is that of loneliness, Ellie loses Riley and nearly loses Joel. So think about the final statement Riley says to Ellie “We fight, for every second we get to spend together, whether it’s two minutes or two days, we don’t give that up” (this speech being intercut with her saving Joel) then tie that in with the final statement Joel gives to Ellie at the end of the main game “I’ve struggled for a long time with surviving, but no matter what, you keep finding something to fight for”. Both Riley and Joel share a similar philosophy of fighting to survive, not just for yourself, but for someone you can care about. A philosophy that Riley taught Ellie and Joel has re-enforced, giving Ellie the view that the life of the people you love is more important than your own. Ellie seems to have very little care of her own life, more than willing to sacrifice herself to the Fireflies in an almost euthanasia-esque manner. In the end, her going along with Joel now feels more for his benefit than her own, as if her sole value lies in making the people she loves feel better. Depressing I know, but also rather brilliant on Naughty Dog’s part.

Finally there is the gameplay, where the DLC is sadly lacking in this part when it comes to innovation. The original game already had pitch perfect gameplay so I didn’t go in expecting many changes, the only real major change is the inclusion is the hunters and infected being able to fight each other which is a nice inclusion. That and pointless tree branch options that add or change nothing about the game and seem especially pointless when the initial game never had any kind of tree branch. But with that being said, this game was never about the gameplay and it’s not what I remember. I remember Ellie & Riley goofing off in a costume shop, I remember them mocking the P.A. ladies voice, I remember them reading horrible puns together, I remember their conversations and I remember why I cared so much about these two in the first place.

Left Behind is the most intelligent and well-crafted piece of DLC that I have ever played, it’s use of themes and characters make it stand out above the rest and this 2 hour experience still holds more meaning than 7 instalments of a first person shooter could ever hope to. But does it beat the entertainment and satisfaction of Mass Effect 3’s Citadel DLC? Find out soon.