The Last of Us is an action, adventure, and survival
horror game franchise created by
Naughty Dog
and
Sony Interactive Entertainment.
The arc of the game brings Joel, who has made his way in life
simply as a survivor, back to an emotionally full human, and sets up
Ellie
to mature from a girl into a young adult. Eventually, they form a
father-daughter relationship, which turns in the final hours of the game
thanks to a strikingly ambivalent but endlessly debatable conclusion.
When originally launched in 2013, the relationship between its story and
how its emotional arc was communicated through gameplay was a significant
element in many major reviews.