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'Days Gone' And 'The Last Of Us Part II': What Keeps Drawing Us To These Games?

It's the emotional connection that tends to draw us in — it's the fact that these stories portray real-seeming people, real-seeming characters.

By Dustin MurphyPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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Courtesy of Naughty Dog

When looking at #videogames, we try to find ways to connect to the world, the characters and the story elements. We wanted to be (and stay) pulled in. Whether it's trekking through collapsing cityscapes or watching characters take off down the road on the back of a motorcycle, we look for a way to become a part of it and to connect emotionally.

Whether it was the Uncharted Series or the opening moments when we witnessed Joel from The Last of Us clinging to his dying daughter's body, it's the emotional connection that tends to draw us in — it's the fact that these stories portray real-seeming people, real-seeming characters, ones who could be our brother, our sister, our mother, our father, our best friend or other people that we hold dear. But what makes us these two upcoming titles so special?

When playing The Last of Us, we get to take on the respective roles of Joel and Ellie, a pair of survivors who have been put in the most awkward of positions. They are two people who have been placed in a peculiar world where everything came to a screeching halt and fell victim to the cordyceps outbreak that hit humanity and sent it almost into extinction. What the game does to bring us in is give us a character we can relate to in the aspect of a family man who works the odd hours-type job so he can spend time with his daughter and give her the life she deserves.

Within minutes, we get a very real look at how our families might act if given the chance. Joel grabbed his daughter, grabbed a weapon to protect her, and even attempted to evacuate in order to take her to safety. Even during his attempt to escape, tragedy strikes, and we are given the first glimpse of an emotional impact that hits us harder than we expect: the death of Joel's daughter.

We even found ourselves going through it within the #DaysGone trailer (above). We are once more given an apocalypse, one that main protagonist Deacon St. John has been thrust into against his will, again experiencing the loss of a loved one: his lad. Aside from the open road, she was what he lived for.

We see the struggle for both Joel and Ellie, and also our new protagonist Deacon. All of them aren't your war-battered veterans or heroes that have prepared for such an incident.

They Could Easily Be Real People

The Last of Us | Courtesy of Naughty Dog

Looking at Ellie, Joel, Deacon or anyone else within these games, we can relate to them. On an emotional level, we understand the message they convey through their pain, their happiness and those moments where they find themselves completely content with the way things are after the collapse. Many of us quite possibly know someone like Deacon who prefers the open road, the feel of the wind against his face, and the feeling of having someone to come home to. It was the life Deacon knew, the one he loved, and one that Joel himself also knew in many familiar ways.

For Joel, he worked the tough jobs he needed in order to spend time with his daughter. The little lady in his life that made his world spin. The one person that he would die to protect if needed be. It's that very kind of father-daughter bond that he would once more find with Ellie.

His relationship with Ellie turns from him escorting a reckless teen to safety, to helping save humanity, while giving her a place to call home. This is what helps us relate to these characters in unbelievable ways and has left us yearning for more in games. It's why we're so excited for another adventure — through a world that could quite easily happen to us — when Days Gone and The Last of Us Part II launch for the #PlayStation4 sometime in the future.

In the end, we are all human and want to connect with something human, no matter how fictional the story is.

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About the Creator

Dustin Murphy

A video games journalist and Content Creator. He has been featured on sites such as AppTrigger and MoviePilot. He's the president and editor-in-chief of the independent news publisher Blast Away the Game Review.

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