CCDP10003 Assignment 2 Final PDF

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Video games final assignment which I achieved close to full marks...

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CCDP10003: Video Games Remaking Reality Assignment 2 Name : Amrit Muralidharan Student Id : 982988

The last of Us (Remastered) Introduction 

Having an affinity towards being placed in nerve-racking situations, the word danger is a

common word in my vocabulary. The thought of being in a zombie apocalypse has always lingered in my mind. Sure, in this current era of globalisation we are already living in a dog-eat-dog world but has it ever crossed your mind how intense it must be to survive in a war-torn world where food and medical supplies are rationed and where you could possibly lose your life in the blink of an eye to a gruesome, brain devouring zombie lurking in the bushes. All of my qualms were resolved when I was put in the shoes of Joel in The Last of Us. What makes this game all the more captivating is how it is nowhere similar to traditional zombie based games such as Left 4 Dead or The Walking Dead.

Storyline The story dates back to the year 2013, near Austin, Texas where Joel, a single father lives with his daughter Sarah. Joel comes home late after work where he finds Sarah sound asleep on the couch. Before being tucked in, Sarah gifts her father a watch for his birthday. Little does Joel know that this watch is the only thing that he has to keep the memories of his daughter alive. Several hours later, Sarah is woken up to a phone call by Joel’s brother, Tommy who is looking

for him before the line gets disconnected. She finds a newspaper article dated September 23rd, 2013 which discusses a 300% spike in patients at a hospital in Texas due to an infectious disease in the bathroom. This is followed by her witnessing an explosion in the city from her window which prompts her to leave Joel’s bedroom and head downstairs. A ravaged looking Joel with his body drenched in blood suddenly bursts into the house murmuring about how something bad has happened. Just as he is about to grab his revolver, their neighbour Jimmy Cooper breaks through the glass and begins to attack the pair, giving Joel no choice but to shoot him dead. Tommy arrives at Joel’s home and drives them away to safety. Throughout the journey, the brothers discuss about how there is an infectious outbreak across the country causing people to lose their minds and behave like animals. The outbreak wreaks havoc across the city as there are police roadblocks in every corner and numerous helicopters hovering in the sky. Suddenly, a truck crashes into their car. The three of them escape the wreckage and begin their journey on foot where they are attacked by the infected along the way. A nearby military soldier spots the infected and kills them prompting them to think that he is on their side. The soldier reluctantly opens fire causing Sarah to be fatally wounded despite Joel’s failed attempt to shield her. Just as he is about to execute Joel, Tommy rushes to the scene and shoots the soldier in the head. The scene ends with Sarah gasping for her last breath as she dies in her father’s arms, making this one of the most heart-wrenching scenes in the game.

Photo 1.1 shows a grieving Joel who is still trying to digest the loss of Sarah

The year is 2033. Boston is a ghost town where survivors of the Cordyceps Brain Infection  (CBI) live in guarded quarantine zones and independent settlements. Joel and his partner Tess

work as smugglers and are conned by Robert, a black-market dealer who has not given them their shipment of guns as promised. He sends two men to kill the pair only for the tables to turn leading to Tess blowing his brains out. Just before she annihilates him, Robert reveals that he made a deal to trade the stolen weapons cache with the Fireflies. The Fireflies are a rebel militant organisation, revolutionaries who are revolting against the military who are believed to have lost their way led by Marlene. An injured Marlene offers the pair weapons and ammunition in return for smuggling Ellie, a 14 year old orphan across to the Boston Capitol building. As they leave the quarantine zone, the trio are approached by a female soldier who is stabbed by Ellie upon scanning. Joel believes that Marlene had set them up when he discovers that Ellie has been infected. Despite being bitten 3 weeks ago, she shows no symptoms of being infected even though the infection traditionally takes 2 days to spread. This suggests that Ellie is immune to the disease.

The trio encounter various forms of the infected such as Runners and Clickers before finally arriving at the Capitol building where the Fireflies who are waiting for them have been eradicated. The story takes another twist as Tess reveals that she has been bitten and selflessly sacrifices herself to stall the military in order for Joel and Ellie to escape. Joel hatches a plan to meet his brother Tommy, a former Firefly in Jackson, Wyoming. Assisted by Bill, a survivor who owes Joel a favour, the three of them go in search of a car for their journey. Driving into Pennsylvania, the pair are ambushed by hunters, a group of extremely aggressive and organised killers who aim to strip survivors of their food and supplies. In their attempt to escape, they encounter Henry and his younger brother Sam who accompany them to the radio tower. Joel and Henry are elated to see the kids getting along and being positive despite all the turmoil around them. Sadly, Sam, who hides his infection from the rest of the group attacks Ellie the next morning only to be shot dead by Henry who ends up commiting suicide out of guilt. Joel and Ellie find it hard to digest the tragic loss of their friends as they arrive during the fall in Jackson County. They find Tommy and his wife Maria at the wall of a hydroelectric dam. Joel asks Tommy to take care of Ellie and let her stay at his settlement. Upon hearing this, Ellie is deeply saddened and runs away. Joel changes his mind and decides to take Ellie to a Fireflies lab at the University of Eastern Colorado when she says “ Everyone I’ve ever cared for has either died or left me”. Joel’s character begins developing a father-daughter relationship after sharing that sentimental moment with Elli. The lab is abandoned and the pair find a voice-recording stating the new whereabouts of the Fireflies. Bandits attack the pair causing Joel to be fatally wounded. Winter is here. Ironically, Joel’s injury has now meant that Ellie shoulders the burden of responsibility. She does everything in her power to nurse Joel back to health as they take refuge

in the mountains. Whilst hunting for food, Ellie comes into contact with David and James, scavengers who offer to trade Ellie’s hunted deer for antibiotics. Initially, Ellie trusts David as they battle it out against a hostile group of infected. Eventually, Ellie learns that David is a cannibal and it was his men that shot Joel at the university. In an attempt to kill Ellie, David is outsmarted and is hacked to death by her with his own machete. Joel embraces Ellie who is traumatised by her recent encounter.

Joel and Ellie arrive in Salt Lake City in the spring. Joel realises that Ellie has not been herself

as of late, which suggests that she is still scarred from the series of events during winter. She warms up after seeing a herd of giraffes, which symbolizes hope and triumph in this game.The bus that they are walking on collapses causing Ellie to fall into a pool of water and nearly drown. Without hesitation, Joel performs CPR on the unconscious Ellie before he is knocked out by a member of the military. When Joel wakes up, he finds himself in the company of Marlene at the hospital. She reassures Joel that Ellie is fine and is preparing to undergo surgery. Joel soon realises that the removal of the fungus will result in Ellie’s demise and the story takes a dramatic U-turn as Joel decides to kill everyone in his path including Marlene to save Ellie. He lies to Ellie stating that there are others like her and humanity has given up on its search for a cure. The game ends with Joel taking Ellie to Tommy’s settlement where Ellie questions Joel about the truth in his recent comments about the Fireflies only for Joel to lie to her again so that she does not suffer from survivor’s guilt.

Characterisation Joel Miller Joel is the protagonist in The Last of Us (Remastered). At the start of the game, Joel is perceived to be a gruff and heartless man, in his forties who has lost all sense of compassion due to the death of his beloved daughter, Sarah. The Cordycepys Brain Infection outbreak has caused Joel to forgo his job as carpenter reverting to the black market world. Joel worked as a smuggler and was also a hunter who killed the innocent for their food and medical supplies. He does not exactly fit the typical persona of a hero as he has done just as much bad than good, which can be seen when he tells Ellie that he has been on both sides. Initially, Joel and Ellie do not get along with each other whereby Joel only considers her as cargo in exchange for ammunition. The character is almost emotionally impenetrable. Joel

always opts to bottle up his emotions, choosing not to answer or diverting questions directed to the death of his daughter, Tess, Sam and Henry. Joel begins to break out of his curmudgeon persona when Ellie tells him she has lost everything and she is all that he has. I cried my eyes out when Joel and Ellie embraced each other as he uttered the words “ Don’t worry Babygirl, I’ve got you” after Ellie hacks David to death to protect herself. Joel is faced with the moral problem of letting Ellie die for the greater good of humanity or saving her so that she can lead a normal life. His deep affection for her can be seen when he risks his life by choosing the latter, killing everyone in his path including Marlene. It is evident that he has accepted the death of his daughter and is not willing to lose Ellie, who he treats as his own. Joel even goes to the extent of lying to Ellie that Fireflies had a false agenda and that they have given up on a cure so that she does not have to experience survivor’s guilt.

Photo 1.2 depicts Joel carrying Ellie out of the Fireflies hospital

Ellie Ellie is the deuteragonist of this game. She is a fourteen year old girl who has been orphaned and was put in the care of Marlene. Ellie comes off as annoying at first to Joel who merely considers her as “baggage”. Ellie’s importance is only realised when they find out that she is immune to the Cordyceps infection and that her mutation could be reverse engineered into a vaccine. She tries to break Joel’s hard, emotional exterior by initiating small talk throughout their journey. As mentioned previously, Joel only begins to soften up when she tells him that he is the only thing that she has. It can be witnessed that she holds Joel very dearly in her heart when she single handedly fights off the bandits at the University of Eastern Colorado as Joel is brutally

injured. The teenager even goes to the extent of hunting for food in the winter to keep Joel well fed in an attempt to nurse him back to full health. She has great admiration for Joel and views him as the father figure that she never had.

Other Characters Aside from Joel and Ellie, the story also briefly touches on the lives of other characters such Tess, Bill, Henry, Sam and Tommy. Tommy is Joel’s brother and Tess was his smuggling partner indicating that they were more attached to Joel than the rest of the characters. Bill was just someone that owed Joel a favour during his previous line of work whilst Henry and Sam were a pair of survivors they had met in an attempt to escape the Hunters.

Enemies The Infected I strongly believe this non-conventional approach of a zombie apocalypse was a stroke of genius from Naughty Dog. Cordyceps is a type of parasitic fungi that spreads spores which infiltrate the body of an ant causing it to lose its motor and neural control. The fungus destroys the ant from the inside before the spores begin to sprout. A similar concept is used in The Last of Us whereby a mutated form of Cordyceps which originated from primates has spread to humans. The infected humans undergo 4 stages of mutation.

Photo 1.3 is a photo of the Cordyceps fungus spore that has taken over an ant

During the first stage which is one to two days, the host loses its brain function and humanity, becoming a Runner. In a month’s time, the infection reaches the second stage as the fungal growth grows over the visual cortex of the host hindering its eyesight. The host is now known as a Stalker. A year of infection later, the Stalker becomes a Clicker. In this third stage, the Clicker develops echolocation to compensate for its loss of sight due to the fungal growth on its eyes. Finally, if the Clicker survives over a decade, it becomes a bloater. A bloater is the strongest out of the four stages and can rip a survivor’s jaw with its sheer strength and throw mycotoxin spores. The armoured plates on this hideous looking creature make it almost impossible to beat, requiring players to use fire-based weapons such as flamethrowers in order to destroy it. I was also very impressed by the requirement of using different strategies to deal with different forms of the infected.The utilization of a scientific based approach is utterly terrifying and suggests that this post-apocalyptic outcome might actually be possible in the world that we live in.

Photo 1.4 shows a battle between the protagonist and a swarm of Runners

Humans Unlike the infected, human enemies are much easier to deal with as they can be dispatched without the use of bullets. These enemies range from bandits all the way to highly skilled Hunters, who usually act as decoys before one of their members ambush the survivors and strip them off their possessions. We also encounter the military who are equipped with guns and can call for backup when attacked. Finally, there are the vicious cannibals led by David who are uncivilised and would do anything to get their hands on human meat.

Gameplay The game is played from a third-person point of view where the player controls the protagonist Joel from an over-the-shoulder camera angle. The player is also able to control Sarah at the start of the game as well as Ellie throughout the winter stage of the game. However, throughout most parts of the game Sarah, Ellie and the rest of the characters are controlled by artificial intelligence (AI). The other key feature of the AI is that they are able to assist us throughout combat. For instance, Ellie is able to melee enemies or throw objects to stun them. The Artificial Intelligence also works against our favour. Human enemies are able to take cover or call for backup when we are stunned or out of ammunition.

The player has a plethora of weapons to choose from in combat ranging from long-range guns such as rifles all the way to short-range weapons such as pistols. What makes this game unlike any other survival game is its immersion. Being put in the shoes of Joel, the post-apocalyptic world means that weapons are scarce. Having a clear strategy is what differentiates a good player from a great one and life from death. Hence, there are several ways to solve a problem. For instance, ammo could be conserved when dealing with runners by just meleeing or throwing bricks instead of shooting them. Another approach would be through the use of the dynamic cover system, where the player utilises the stealth of the character by hiding and crouching behind obstacles to avoid being caught by the infected. This is also aided by the Listening Mode feature which enables players to locate the position of their enemies by displaying their outlines through the walls. Therefore, it is evident that resource management is key in overcoming the challenges in this game. Besides, players can also craft new items such as shivs and Molotov cocktails out of collected items. I was extremely impressed by the fact that the durability of your equipment as well as your skills can be honed through the use of training manuals.

The cinematic angles during combat scenes add to the intensity and engagement of the player. This is done through moving the camera closer to the protagonist in order to make the player feel every strike. Furthermore, the game offers a quick time event (QTE) feature that allows the player to initiate a cinematic sequence in which Joel either kills the enemy in a gory manner or fails, inflicting damage back onto the character. This is highly dependent on the players ability to match their hand coordination with the movements displayed on the screen within a 1-2 second interval. The QTE feature makes it all the more challenging for the player as he/she has to match his/her speed to the AI’s.

Photo 1.5 QTE feature during combat

During non-combat situations, the camera is free where the player can rotate the view and experience the beauty of the picturesque surroundings such as the herd of giraffes.The game’s 60FPS framerate highlights the intricacy of these details. The sentimental soundtrack offered by Gustavo Santaolalla definitely gives you goosebumps and makes you shed a tear or two. The player is also able to contemplate and reflect on how much humanity has fallen through his surroundings. Despite all the anguish suffered by humanity, it is worth noting that nature still prevails as we see vegetation growing out of abandoned buildings and motor vehicles. Moreover, players are able to solve puzzles, use ladders to reach higher areas and read comics that have been scavenged.

Photo 1.6 Sarah and Joel share a moment together to appreciate the beauty of nature before they embark on their next mission

Critique There are always two sides to a coin. Firstly, it seems rather illogical how Joel is able to fit so many weapons and health kits into such a small sized bag. By the end, Joel is carrying a shotgun, an assault rifle, a flamethrower, a dozen pistols, Molotov cocktails, health kits, books and maps. If all this could even fit into one backpack, it would weigh at least a few hundred kilograms. Given his size and age, it would seem impossible for someone to sling something so heavy across their shoulders. Secondly, it might seem petty to argue about this but given the fact that Joel is human, he possesses some supernatural abilities in the game. This can be seen through the use of the Listen Mode where Joel can see the outline of enemies through walls, making the feauture indifferent to that of Superman’s X-ray vision. Finally, it is observed that Ellie is practically invincible when she is controlled by the AI. Ellie can literally be just right behind Joel who has has just been mauled by the infected without even sustaining a scratch, which is rather impractical in my opinion.

Conclusion In a nutshell, it is of no surprise that The Last of Us has bagged countless accolades for its amazing storyline, immersive gameplay as well as its realistic approach towards the fall of humanity, making it one of the best adventure games of all time. To be honest, it is a cinematic masterpiece, a game that I personally feel was ahead of its time when released, that not only keeps you on the edge of your seats, but also tugs on your heart strings. Never in my life have I been so emotionally moved by a game which has taught me a multitude of valuable lessons, overcoming adversity being the main one. The concept of scarcity exemplified in this gaming marvel has definitely sharpened my resource management and critical thinking skills. Another key element that places this game at the top of the pecking order is how success or failure in a certain mission or in executing an enemy is able to change certain outcomes of the game, making it all the more unpredictable. Therefore, if I have not stressed enough that this is my favourite game of all time, I will anxiously wait for the release of The Last of Us Part 2 next year, where all my doubts in the first part of the series will be resolved....