What does ‘The Last of Us’ need to be successful? Video Game Adaptations and “Loyalty”

Video game adaptations to the screen are becoming more common, although the time when this type of production was released as hot cakes is long gone. However, because they are such close and similar mediums, the producers know they have a guaranteed audience when they bring the playful stories to the cinematic format. Butwhat makes it different from ‘The Last of Us’ from HBO of other similar installments? Well, very little, but significantly different.

Let’s put that into perspective, video game adaptations were in the style of “Pixels”, “Rampage” or “Tomb Raider”, productions that took popular games only to turn them into blockbusters with a popular icon and sell them. Then came the series, which actually did much better, with titles like Netflix’s ‘Arcane’ or ‘Cyberpunk: Edgerunner’, which transformed or added to the message of the original works.

But the adaptation of ‘The Last of Us’ of HBO is different, as the original product from Sony and Naughty Dog was born as a response to a movement within the video game, of wanting to tell stories, just like that. A time where developers were becoming parents and where Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley opted for a sensibility that had rarely been explored.

Not for nothing, in 2013, ‘The Last of Us’ became the best video game of the year for most gamers. In the indie sector, the first steps were already beginning to be taken in another direction, but it was the work of Naughty Dog that established the precedent in Triple AAA that things could be done differently, more heartfelt and with clear objectives to do. hear something for the audience.

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‘The Last of Us’ and its references in cinema

I won’t be the first to point out that the conception of “The Last of Us” has its references in cinema, such as Alfonso Cuarón’s “Children of Men” or John Hillcoat’s “La Carretera”. But I mention this to underline that, in the great works of the video game, now Neil Druckman and Bruce Straley have wanted to bet on giving the player control, to make him experience first-hand emotions rarely explored in interactive art.

Now yes, moving on to the HBO series, ‘The Last of Us’ you need a couple of things to be successful. And this is where the “fidelity” to the original work is born. Is it necessary to be faithful to the video game? clearly not. Craig Mazin, creator of the show and acclaimed “Chernobyl”, has the tools to build an extraordinary story of horror and drama unlike any other modern television.

Joel and Ellie’s story was heartbreaking in its own right in the original play, but beyond trying to “stick true” to the story’s basics, HBO’s “The Last of Us” needs a second thing, and that’s knowing that it’s already there is no player behind the story. Well, a large part of why the video game works is due to the interactivity and responsiveness that allows for control over what happens on the screen.

Not just to feel every bullet that Joel fires, or every life that Ellie takes, but because through their actions, it is the player who feels part of the apocalyptic world and zombies. It’s clear that the basics are covered, the premise is one of the best in the genre, and forgetting that most gamers will be the first to see it, there’s also a whole new audience that will be experiencing these characters’ story for the first time. without knowing anything about this world.

Of course, when I mention the “triumph” of ‘The Last of Us’ I mean in terms of transmitting the same sensations, and in terms of money or audience it will be another yardstick by which it is measured. But, in the end, the series has a dramatic story, showing how far human can go in difficult times, but it will be January 15th when it will be defined if he managed to make us feel like the first time we checked Joel .