The Last of Us Remastered [Gameplay #16] - In Limbo [ENDING]
0The ending of The Last of Us hits hard, and it does so by forcefully rejecting the male-centric power fantasies of most other action games. The player's willingness to turn a blind eye to Joel's violent behavior and buy into his expected character arc from traumatized survivor to loving father figure is being called into question throughout the final scenes leading up to the cold-blooded murder of Marlene (which, the game argues, is more of a logical conclusion than a shocking reveal). After Ellie's final ambiguous line, the credits roll and you are left in limbo forever with only yourself to blame for how you got there.
This is terrific storytelling, and it's hard to see how a sequel could ever top that. As it stands, even though the protagonists will apparently carry over to the next game I'm hoping that LoU Part 2 finds new interesting themes to explore instead of just returning to the ideas already explored so successfully in the first game.