A few decades ago the masses believed video games were a waste of time for lackadaisical youths to pacify themselves while ignoring their responsibilities as both kids and young adults. As more and more people started understanding the benefits of gaming so too did the perception of what a video game is and, most importantly, the benefits gaming can bestow on a person’s life changed. Hi, my name is James Bullock and I am a gamer who has spent the better part of his existence testing the laws of physics, exploring the vastness of a world ruined, and been a champion inside various arenas courtesy of digitized worlds both driven by reality and created through pure unbelievable ingenuity unlike anything seen by human eyes. And as a gamer I’ve discovered something else video games provide: life lessons. Today I examine a game that will go down as one of the greatest PS3 experiences for multiple reasons including its most peaceful moments, “The Last of Us”.
Stop & Smell the Roses
Developer Naughty Dog didn’t find itself in a positive spotlight for over a decade after crafting its first game for an early Apple product. That breakthrough for Naughty Dog came during the early days of Sony’s Playstation console where their platformer “Crash Bandicoot” gave the system a both a must-play game and a mascot. As the years progressed, Naughty Dog expanded beyond prototypical platformers and eventually crafted a franchise that set the standard for action-adventure, narrative driven games on not only the PS3, but also across an entire gaming generation: “Uncharted”.
The rogue story of Nathan Drake as he hunted treasure hidden across the world caught the world by storm and, eventually, made Naughty Dog one of gaming’s most celebrated & influential developers. So when it was announced Naughty Dog was starting another potential game series, gamers were rightfully excited. “The Last of Us”, after several delays, finally hit store shelves & digital retailers in June of 2013 and shook up the world just like “Uncharted” before it; if not more so.
The story of Joel & Ellie as they trek across the United States after a mutant fungus ravaged their homeland (and maybe the world) is an epic one full of betrayals, harrowing moments, and brushes with death that makes both wonder if their journey was worth the struggle – a journey with its destination focusing on Ellie potentially holding the cure to the disease that infected so many and turned them into flesh-eating plants.
Ellie & Joel’s interactions with survivalist groups like the Fireflies headed by a woman who actually helped Ellie during a time when the young lady was trying to simply find a place to call her own during a horrific time, and even cannibals posing as helping hands lead them to Salt Lake City as the spring season finally arrives again. It is their arrival on the west coast that the pair have a chance to catch their breath and witness the beauty that still exists in a world totally ripped apart by unforeseen circumstances.
Standing side by side, Ellie & Joel see animals most likely once held in a zoo. Giraffes all just walking through the tattered remains of society as Americans knew it all those years ago. This serene moment allowed for the pair who had seen so much murder & violence beforehand to take in the natural beauty before them; beauty that, at times, is hard to appreciate thanks to the hustle & bustle of simply trying to survive & live. While it may be difficult to stop and smell the figurative roses, the only way to appreciate all that is beautiful no matter how big or small is to just stop and take it all in before it passes you by.
Have you learned any major life lessons from playing the “The Last of Us” or any video game for that matter? Leave them in the comments below and, as always, thanks for reading.
