Summary
The Last of Usseries means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. While some fans are happy to enjoyThe Last of Uspurely for its stealth gameplay and intense set pieces, other fans care more about the complex emotional themes at the series' core, and both parties are absolutely valid.The Last of Ushas so many different facets that allow fans to take away whatever experience they want from the series. But while certain themes and elements ofThe Last of Uscan be easily avoided, its strong association with the horror genre can’t be.
There have been countless excellent horror games over the last few decades, andThe Last of Usand its sequel are widely regarded as some of the best out there. Aiming for true realism,The Last of Ushas some of the most viscerally brutal horror sequences in gaming, with a ton of gore and realistic sound design. Paired with its weighty combat and incredibly dark tone,The Last of Us' moment-to-moment gameplaycan be truly savage, and a first-person spin-off could take the horror one big step further.
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A First-Person Last of Us Spinoff Could Be An All-New Type of Horror
Though it definitely has its downtime and moments of levity,The Last of Usfeatures horror elements from start to finish. The vast majority of eachLast of Usgame is spent in incredibly intense situations, whether it’s sneaking around an environment trying to stealth-takedown human enemies that are actively hunting the player, trying to hide from Clickers, or attempting to desperatelyflee from Bloaters and Stalkers. AllThe Last of Us' gameplay encounters are designed to corner the player and evoke a feeling of overwhelming fear.
But whileThe Last of Usis already pretty terrifying enough, there’s one change that could make it even more horrifying, and that’sa first-person mode. It’s a well-known fact that putting a horror game in first-person makes it objectively scarier. Rather than have a general awareness of their environment, a first-person mode forces players to keep their cone of vision forward, focusing on what threats lie ahead. And rather than have a layer of separation between the player and their character, players are forced to look through their eyes and come face-to-face with the game’s enemies.
A great example of this theory in practice is the recentResident Evilgames. Whilethe recentResident Evilremakesare definitely scary experiences, there’s a level of separation there that does lessen the impact of certain moments as players aren’t forced to get up close and personal with them. InResident Evil 7andVillage, however, players are forced into a first-person perspective, and suddenly even moving around a corner becomes a daunting task as players can’t readily see what’s behind it.Resident Evil Villageeventually received a third-person mode and, by all accounts, it’s much less scary than experiencing the game’s combat encounters in the original first-person format.
ALast of Usfirst-person spin-off would inherently be the most terrifying entry in the series. An average Clicker encounter would go from something intense and difficult in third-person, to something nigh-on impossible in first-person, with players having to really use their ears and not just their eyes to locate the Clicker and move around them silently. If aLast of Usfirst-person spin-offwanted to take things to the extreme, then it could even add a VR mode, putting the action directly in the player’s face.
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