Mushroom Zombies in the Post-Apocalypse

I finally played through and finished the PS4 game, The Last of Us. I played it on Easy because I wanted to get through the story quickly—so I could check out the upcoming HBO series. I have little pride about such things. I don’t have a burning need to be good at video games, I have a need to experience gaming in a way that’s not too frustrating for someone who historically has little time for it.

I am fascinated by video games—it’s a part of my larger media interest; beyond strictly film and TV, I mean. That’s where I started—TV, then movies—developing a passion for the moving image arts. Video games, of course, are among them.

My history with gaming began later than some of my generational cohort. We did not have an Atari 2600, unlike every other family we knew. We did get an Atari 7800 several years later, a system doomed to fail by arriving around the same time as the Nintendo Entertainment System. Which we also did not have.

My original Nintendo memories were made over the summer of 1988, much of which I spent at my girlfriend’s house playing Mario and Zelda. But after the disappointing 7800, I didn’t have my own console until I bought myself a Playstation ten years later. I did occasionally play computer games growing up—text-based adventures and early side-scrollers. And my younger brother was given a Nintendo 64, which I sometimes played.

But I came to gaming later than many and I’ve never been particularly good at it. I played a lot when I first moved to California—Playstation and Dreamcast. But in the near twenty-five years since, I’ve consistently dabbled but only occasionally worked all the way through a game. Most of those were Calls of Duty or Grand Theft Autos. Although, while the latter is my favorite game series, I’m not sure I’ve completed more than one or two of them.

That’s not why I play. I’ve always had the most fun playing for the sheer ridiculous freedom and fantasy of it, not for stats or likes. I don’t do much online gaming, in part because I don’t have the time to get good enough to play against others. I am trying now to play more often and create more opportunities to play with my kids.

But I finally got through The Last of Us, a game that I enjoyed a lot, even on Easy mode. It’s such a lauded title and I’ve heard from friends who played it, but I found it a little underwhelming. Not because of Easy mode. It’s just that it’s really good—for a game.

The Last of Us is know for its story. The game mechanics are superb, the art is gorgeous and the characters are strong. The story is good and the ending is powerful—again, for a game.

One of my big curiosities is when—or whether—we’ll get games that can rival other forms of narrative. Like movies, books, comics. Apart from its being exceptional for its medium, the story of The Last of Us is something we’ve seen before about a hundred thousand times. This in no way makes it unworthy as a game—and the gameplay is where the focus should be, perhaps. But how will the series avoid that sense of being a show based on a video game that was already based on every post-apocalyptic zombie show or movie you’ve ever seen? It’s a kind of generic recursion, almost.

I know, it’s all about money and recognizable IP. I’m going to watch the show. I’ll report back.