Creator Letter: A Masterpiece in Gaming Narrative

Creator Letter, A Masterpiece in Gaming Narrative

I only just played The Last of Us for the first time at the start of 2020. It is a game I’ve heard people rave about for years so you could say my expectations were pretty high. And to be honest, I didn’t finish the game feeling as elated as I expected. My immediate reaction to the ending of this game was, “that was solid,” but I didn’t feel wowed or as if I’d just played the pinnacle of video game storytelling.

To be honest, The Last of Us isn’t necessarily doing anything all that new in terms of storytelling. Many of the tropes being used are commonplace in other mediums such as literature or film - the ambiguous ending, the multilayered protagonist with questionable morals, etc. My gut reaction was to agree with the assessment that this is a good game, but I didn’t feel overly certain about this outlook.

In many ways, my mindset has not changed. The Last of Us is good but not as revolutionary as people claim. However, I now have to put an asterisk at the end of this statement. The Last of Us actually is revolutionary for its contribution to what a narrative can look like in a video game.

I write about this in more depth within the issue, but it bears repeating. While The Last of Us isn’t widely different when compared to other stories in games in the action genre, it is the way it uses tropes of the action genre that make it stand out. The story contains subtleties that are absent from other games. The more I play the game, the more I see this.

I think this is why the game feels so revolutionary to so many people. It achieved a level of storytelling that most other games within the genre fail to accomplish. The Last of Us is never just one thing but multiple things at once. It isn’t straightforward and isn’t easy to digest.

A friend told me the more he plays the game, the more it falls apart. For me, it is the opposite. The more I play this game, the more it blooms.

Perhaps this is not the best game to play while in the real world we are also living through a global pandemic (albeit not on the same level as this game but still). There is little hope offered by a game that is essentially about a zombie apocalypse...and it certainly doesn’t quell my anxiety. But despite this, the game offers me a good story that makes me think more deeply about the world, the people around me, and myself. For someone who eats, sleeps, and breathes story, that is enough for me.

This issue is the biggest yet and packed with a diverse range of content. I hope my fellow writers and I do this game justice. Thank you for reading.

Danielle Karthauser, Creator & Publisher