I picked up The Last of Us in the hopes of completing it once again and to ready myself for Part-II. I am hoping I will be finished with Part-I by 19th when Part-II releases.
I have to reach the capitol building and deliver Ellie to the firefly group. Joel seems distant of Ellie and thinks they are wasting their time whereas Tess seems like she has something personal invested in this charade of theirs.
And as we reach the capitol building, we find that Tess is bitten somewhere along the way which explains why Tess is so hell bent on delivering Ellie to the firefly group- to find some hope that she’ll be alright since now they have somebody who is immune to the virus.
Tess says to Joel- there is enough between us that you feel a certain obligation towards me. For some reason on every play through this dialogue hits me every time. TLoU is full of intimate and personal moments like this.
With Tess dead, we plan to visit Bill and find a working car so that we can find tommy (Joel’s brother who is an ex-firefly) who can tell us what to do with Ellie?
Bill being the complicated and thick-skinned guy he is, is quick to say that this is a stupid job and you’ll probably die.
Bill although has a very small part in the game but still the character has been given a lot of personality and distinguishing traits. At times there have been hints that Bill is gay with how he refers to the dead body found in the house to as his partner and the note that Frank leaves for Bill. Ellie also finds a Male Adult magazine at Bill’s place. Although thick-skinned, Bill always seemed like a tough-exterior and soft-interior kind of guy.
You should sleep. Pffttt.... I am not even tired.
And she’s asleep.
This moment between Ellie and Joel in the car is one of the few lighthearted and jovial moment in this bleak world of pain and brutality. From this moment it seems like Joel has begun to start caring about Ellie. He is starting to get comfortable and at the same time vulnerable around Ellie.
And just like that we are again at “enduring and surviving”. We get ambushed and make our rest of the journey via foot.
No child at this age should experience what Ellie is. But this has made her much more mature, sensible and intuitive for her own age. She can hold her own, not be a burden to Joel and actually help Joel along the journey.
If you have played TLoU you remember this part. Yes, this is the infamous hotel basement. I was playing on Survivor difficulty so it was natural that it took several tries to clear this place. You get separated from Ellie while making your way to the bridge out of Pittsburgh and now have to go through this basement filled with infected.
Three tries, each failed attempt meant even more gruesome ways in which Joel dies. But finally, I cleared the basement and met Ellie.
You can see Ellie is afraid and clueless. She knew she had to kill that guy. It was either that guy or Joel.
The look at Joel face it says that this world is too harsh and it gives no shits about who you are. It's just endure and survive, no matter how. Joel is no hero, infact he is just as bad as any of the other bad guys he has killed but at least now he has something to look after.
Joel and Ellie working together, for each other. Joel mentoring Ellie and their relationship is getting stronger and deeper. We are able to get out of the hotel and are now stuck with another group of militia which we have been fighting from since the ambush.
Developers have not done anything to tone down the brutality or the violence in this game. They want to show the apocalypse as realistically as possible. This militia car has been following us from some time and will be a threat a few chapters ahead.
After sneaking away from the armored vehicle for the time being, we manage to get into an apartment but to our surprise we find Henry and his brother Sam. Safety in numbers. Both groups decide to stay together and make for the bridge that will take them out of Pittsburgh.
