If you can temper those expectations and take the tender and thrilling moments of “Left Behind” on their own merits, you’ll probably get your money’s worth.A lot has been said about The Last of Us as a series since Part 2 released, and while I won’t get into the unwarranted controversy that game drew, I will say that, without a doubt, TLOU: Part 2 was one of the best-looking games of last generation. That could partly come from the exceedingly high expectations set by The Last of Us itself, though. That kind of sums up my feelings about “Left Behind” in general I enjoyed what was there well enough, but I wanted more from both the story and the gameplay. It might be greedy to ask for more content from what is only a $15 add-on, but I was still left wanting more. And then… “Left Behind” is done, barely two or three hours after it began (even accounting for frequent failures and restarts). After a couple of skirmishes that feel like tutorials and/or reminders of how the basic game works, players are forced into an epic, multi-floor, multi-part firefight that cranks up the challenge considerably. Unfortunately, the game has very little chance to explore this interesting gameplay modification before things come to a close. The infected provide a useful distraction in these situations, and players will have to consider carefully whether to join the fight or let both groups thin each other out before moving forward. “Left Behind” adds a new twist to these action sequences by sticking the infected and the humans together in the same battles, forcing them to battle each other even as they try to take on Ellie. Sneaking around both the mindless infected and human antagonists is still interesting enough, though a little bit more lonely without the computer-controlled partner that helps bring life to most of The Last of Us. This portion is where almost all of the action of the DLC comes in. AdvertisementĮllie’s quest for medical supplies to use on Joel, on the other hand, feels a bit perfunctory. Their portion of the narrative ends with more of an ellipsis than a period, but it still gives some interesting context to the version of Ellie we saw in The Last of Us. Riley comes back into Ellie’s life after abandoning her for a month and a half, and the heavy allusions to their uncomfortable parting hang over the proceedings like a dangling weight. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of the pathos you’d expect from two headstrong girls working out their feelings of abandonment in a run-down post-apocalyptic world. Jumping back and forth between them makes the DLC feel a bit disjointed, and I can’t help but feel that these stories would have been more satisfying if they were separated and given room to breathe on their own.īy far, the strongest moments in “Left Behind” come when the player gets a chance to revel in Riley and Ellie just being kids together. There are some ham-handed efforts to tie these incredibly disparate narratives together, but neither story really gains anything by being juxtaposed with the other. The other shows more of Ellie’s efforts to find medicine for Joel while he sits unconscious and helpless near the end of the game. The first focuses on Ellie and her friend Riley before the events of the original game. “Left Behind” jumps between two separate narratives. While there are some nice backstory and gameplay moments in this “downloadable chapter,” as the developers are referring to it, “Left Behind” doesn’t really live up to the example set by the original. So I was eager to see how the developers at Naughty Dog were going to expand that narrative with “Left Behind,” the only planned single-player DLC for the game. In naming The Last of Us our second best game of 2013, I said that the game’s narrative could possibly be the most memorable and affecting game narrative I’ve seen in a video game. The developers strongly recommend that you play the original game before going through the DLC, so go play it before you dig into this review. Warning: This review necessarily includes some spoilers about the story from The Last of Us. Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
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