The Last of Us was a unique experience in terms of narrative and game mechanics, but it was actually one of its main characters, Ellie, the common thread for success. I dare say that she is the real star, not for his role in the plot, but because of its features: from your personality and character to their rebellious attitude, her innocence, curiosity and fascination for a world unknown.
After all the experiences that are experienced in history, and concluded that this was not to be captivated with its lovely, has no emotion. Left Behind is a new opportunity to investigate the life of Ellie. It is a campaign that lasts approximately 2 hours and allowed to explore their past and present. In plot terms, the DLC has 2 objectives: the first is to delve into his past to find out why Riley, her best friend, was so important in his life and why he felt so melancholy when recalled one conversation he had with Joel. The second is linked to the main campaign, it explains how the severe wound healed Joel suffered at the University of Eastern Colorado.
The way Naughty Dog presents and resolves both situations is simple but ingenious. The story actually always happens under the objective of saving a dying slowly Joel and Ellie sheltered inside a mall. The interesting thing is that the environment is the same where she experienced the most important moments of your life with Riley, so, for flashbacks, and without conscious protagonist of them, the DLC allows you to visit this place in the past to experience purely narrative and constantly back to the present for a marked survival in combat.
While Ellie tries to save the life of Joel, the game mechanics of the main campaign will remain active, including the crafting system and detect enemies through walls (less on Survivor difficulty). No new weapons, but return the bow, pistol and shotgun and ammunition as much resources to improvise weapons, although somewhat limited, hardly deplete completely. Ellie always be alone in a version of the mall hit by a snowstorm that is filtered on site due to corrosion and destruction suffered over the years. Under this appearance, along with the background music to accentuate the suspense and the idea of controlling a girl who might not have the strength to defend runners, survivors and psychopaths clickers, creating at times a gloomy and dark atmosphere.
Again you can use stealth to avoid rooms full of enemies, but Left Behind whole sections where there are presented both as human infected at the same time, so, as a mitigating difficult situations and save resources, you can throw a brick or a glass bottle in order to cause both variants of enemies kill each other, or at least reduce the number of members and minimize clashes.
All this happens in this, again, but when the flashbacks back to the past, the magic of Left Behind begins to shine. Here are the narrative and the presence of Riley as the companion of the premises by Ellie about. As such, there is no fighting, are just 2 girls who, for one night, forget that they must survive an apocalypse and burst into a less deplorable version of the mall to play. Most of the time walk through the halls of the abandoned property, converse to share what they have experienced in the 45 days we were not, and in some places, they carry out various activities reflected in various minigames.
For example, throw bricks through the windows of a couple of cars to see who breaks first, they play hide and seek while soar with water guns and use your imagination to play in arcades broken. Some activities and certain dialogues are interactive buttons, in specific cases, it is possible to decide how far to take the interaction with them to delve into the story of the two protagonists.
There are many moments of this kind during the time when both coexist, funny moments, but with a strong emotional charge gradually strengthen their relationship, to the point where the player finally starts to understand why Ellie likes to tell jokes why Angel loves comics Knives, shows why a great fascination for the arcades and, of course, why so markedly sad when talking to Joel about Riley.
Specifically, what makes Left Behind is to invite the player to understand why Ellie is not ready for the tragic ending happens now with Joel Riley, who an important person in his life became so much like his friend. You leave behind once and for all, the past that haunts her to focus on the present and having a second time, you could lose. The DLC may only last a couple of hours, however, it is surprising how accomplished in so short a time to tell a new solid story, although since I knew how to finalize the Naughty Dog announced, allows users to speculate on a plot that has a strange mixture of suspense and joy at once. To be the first downloadable single-player experience in its history, Naughty Dog does an impeccable job again and complements a game that seemed impossible to improve. The downside, if we may call it, is that the study again left us wanting more.
