Creator Letter - A Small, Beautiful Game

A Small, Beautiful Game

When working on this mini-mag for The Last of Us: Left Behind, I couldn’t help but feel like there was more I should be saying about this game. I knew this was a mini-mag and therefore going to be a smaller issue by default, but when all I could churn out was one article, I wondered if I could do more. It felt like this game deserved more from me.

So this is the section where I will proceed to gush about my love for this game, and hope I don’t sound like a rambling mess in the process. I think most people who were tuned in to games criticism at the time of Left Behind’s release will know how impactful it was to video game narratives and representation in the gaming industry. The Last of Us had already blown people away and this was an extra helping that made it all the more rich.

This game could have been many things: a forced prequel cash grab, an attempt at representation that falls flat, or simply an unnecessary inclusion to the main story. But thankfully it is none of these things. Left Behind is a beautiful story about friendship, queer love, and what it means to be human. I know that last one sounds pretty generic but I mean that with complete sincerity. After all, this is a universe where an infection turns a person into a being that is subhuman and monstrous. The characters are constantly having to reconcile with their humanity.

I talked about this a bit in the Firewatch issue but it bears repeating: video games are loud. So often they rely on high intense situations but rarely do they take the time to focus on the quiet moments, the moments that are small, average, and beautiful. Though Left Behind is far from a quiet game (Ellie spends a good chunk of time fighting off enemies in the winter timeline with Joel), it seems to value the moments that are outside of heavy combat. Ellie and Riley do a good deal of walking from destination to destination, reading jokes from a joke book, trying on Halloween masks and quoting The Wizard of Oz, and just talking. I appreciate the attention to these small moments, these moments of quiet interaction that reveal layers of these characters slowly and delicately.

My favorite scene of the game is the scene everyone knows - when Ellie and Riley kiss. It isn’t just the kiss itself that I love, but the build up toward it. I love watching the girls dance together, the camera zoomed out as they danced in a desolate mall. I love Ellie’s plea for Riley to stay, and the clear love these girls have for one another. But most of all I love how wholesome the scene is in a game series that doesn’t allow for these moments very often. It is extremely effective. Though it is short, it is some of the highest quality storytelling in the industry and I encourage everyone to play it.

Danielle Karthauser, Creator & Publisher