The Last of Us Almost Had a Different Ending (Spoilers)

[4RM3D]

Just completed the game and there is something that hasn't been mentioned yet...

I've gone through hell to get Ellie to the Fireflies and when I do finally reach them, I murder everyone. Then what was the point of the journey?

Also, it might have been interesting to have the player choose whether or not to hand Ellie over to the Fireflies. The devs could have easily implemented 2 (or more) endings. Not sure if that would have made the game better though.

 

[Rainboq]

I loved this game, but I think its story is getting WAY too much credit. Most of it seemed pretty cliche to me. The gameplay on the other hand was ecxellent and a departure from mechanics that have long been considered industry norms (hooray for no regenerating health).

The Last of Us may stand the test of time as the first game that the guts to go truly and utterly dark. Whereas other games will bounce back and forth between notes of silly and serious, there are few moments of levity in the game. Rather, it embraces a tone of ever intensifying desolation. Things never get better, they only get worse.

Oh, come on man! Has nobody played a Silent Hill game, a Fatal Frame, Spec Ops: The Line or just about any game out of the survival horror genre? You're giving the Last of Us too much credit for something that has been done before and has been done better

It's in the execution, a story can have a premise that's been done a thousand times and still be interesting (ex: The Walking Dead).

I still don't understand why they had to kill her though. I don't think medicine works that way.

The fungus they needed roots in the brain, so they kinda had to go poking around in there. Chances of her surviving where probably limited at best.

If they're not good enough to do a basic biopsy without killing the patient, they're certainly not anywhere near good enough to whip up a vaccine with a single brain.

They needed to actually get the fungus out of her brain, manually, plus they were working with derelict equipment.

 

[Fabian Redfield]

I wouldn't say the worlds doomed. It is entirely possible, that her mutation with this fungus, can be passed along genetically. And, a cure could never be reverse engineered. Those Firefly's are hacks.

They don't have the skill, or sophisticated enough technology to pull off what is required. If that disease, couldn't have been eradicated by every government in the world, before it reached the state it did, with modern technology, in the timeframe they had.. How on EARTH could they possibly do it, with remnants, of remnants of that said technology?

No, if anything, Joel might have actually saved humanity, through his own selfish reasons. If Ellie goes on, to live an eventful life, and have kids, that are immune. Evolution alone, will allow her future offspring, who are now immune, to be, the survivors of Generations past.

If she can't pass on that immunity. Well, she'll still have that fungus in her brain on her corpse, and the firefly's can do it then. (and that's not even going along the possibility that they will continue their hunt. Through out her life. Perhaps she'll have kids that are immune, and they'll capture her, take her brain out... And fail at creating a cure.)

Finally someone who thinks like me. I am shocked that so few other people thought about this, what if she is the only immune and the Fireflys kill her. They will be killing the new Eve that could be humanities only hope. So much of the game shows the world of man falling back to nature, the Fireflys still think that humanity is all powerful and they can regain control but look everywhere, crumbling cities flocks of wild animals the jungles taking back the world. Let Ellie live and breed and pass on her immmunity. Killing her would be like going around Europe in the middle ages and killing everyone who survived the black death

 

[nathan-dts]

Not really a fan of the ending myself. Made Joel out to be... well...

If you wanted to go truly desolate you take Ellie's brain, not only does it not work, it creates a virus far worst than before but alas they made Joel look like a sociopath, kidnapped the worlds only chance for survival making everything from this point Joel's fault and now Ellie is with someone who is far more dangerous than say Ethan (leader of the cannibals,) not to mention Joel essentially thinks of her as Sarah. The saving grace is that Ellie picks up on it.

I'm just hoping Ellie kills Joel in The Last Of Us 2.

I would've done the exact same thing. Would you let your child die to save the world? Joel's decision was compelling and realistic. The story of a man trying to protect someone that he sees as his daughter.

 

[nathan-dts]

Just completed the game and there is something that hasn't been mentioned yet...

I've gone through hell to get Ellie to the Fireflies and when I do finally reach them, I murder everyone. Then what was the point of the journey?

Also, it might have been interesting to have the player choose whether or not to hand Ellie over to the Fireflies. The devs could have easily implemented 2 (or more) endings. Not sure if that would have made the game better though.

Originally the point is to save humanity, however that becomes secondary to protecting this girl that Joel sees as a daughter. The point is always to keep Ellie safe but the reason why it's the point changes about half way through.

I think if you can choose to let her die, it devalues the relationship. The game was very much flawless, in my eyes.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Dude, this isn't the first game to go full dark.

Spec Ops is a recent title that went all the way dark with everything just getting worse too, you know. And I think Spec Ops was more of a punch to my guts then The Last of Us (Bear in mind I still loved the HELL out of TLOU).

I'm also really glad they went with the more ambiguous ending. Ending it like that hurt a lot, and I loved it for that.

 

[Siege_TF]

The Fireflies aren't good people, you follow on their heels for most of the game through quarantine zones they've 'liberated' (annihilated). On top of this their idea of rewarding their goddamned messiah was to shoot him, only deciding to welsh on the deal they made with him and march him out at gunpoint as a 'gift'. A gift! Of all the indignity! In Joel's shoes I would have massacred them on principle! Screw those assholes, if they got the cure they'd only use it as leverage for their own personal gain while spouting nonsense about how they'd deserve to lord it up for discovering the precious cure that was handed to them on a silver platter!

As for dooming humanity? I don't swallow that, not for a second. Humanity endured for twenty years under the antagonistic tribalism model, and will continue to do so. I know this because there are places in the world RIGHT NOW who follow this model, have followed this model for decades if not centuries, and somehow they've not been able to wipe one another out.

 

[Jon L Rees]

Do any of you have kids! What would you do to protect them. Would you let them cut out your daughters brain. Get real.

 

[Evonisia]

I didn't like the ending, but I do admit that if Ellie had not doubted that lie then it would have been a worse ending.

Still fuck Joel for his decision, and fuck his already damaged mind for getting away with it.