Strength of the Medium

Between the ending of HBO's The Last of Us, and this Cold Take at the Escapist, I am reminded of an experience I had with Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Spoilers from here on out. 

I was attempting a no-kill version of Deus Ex, in part because it was more of a challenge, in part because even in games I don't like to kill people I don't have to. This isn't Doom: this is a game about how the cogs in the capitalist machine grind us into dust. 

Murder seems excessive. 

Over the course of the game, you're ferried around by a pilot: Faridah Malik, who you get to have conversations with (or not). I found myself rather fond of Ms. Malik: she was pretty cool! 

And then a mission began where the plane was ambushed and over the course of time, explodes. 

Well. Can't have that. Restart the level. 

Plane explodes. 

I Groundhog Day this event a few more times before checking online to see if this is a scripted event. If it's scripted, let's just move on. This isn't: It is possible to save Faridah! Great! 

Except I'm on a no-kill run and I don't have the equipment to take these attackers on in nonlethal ways. So what do I do? 

...

The end of The Last of Us goes very much like the show does. Joel goes in and murders all the people. I was with them: let's get Ellie.  

Except, when I came to operating room, the doctor complied and unhooked Ellie. I wanted to grab Ellie and leave and the game instead insisted I murder the doctor. 

I didn't want to murder the doctor. 

But it was either that or never finish the game. 

The Last of Us is lessened for me because of this. A game is supposed to give players agency and when it doesn't, there had better be a damn good reason for it. In Bioshock, the lack of agency is a key to the whole plot. In the Fallout series, they take agency away from the player just long enough to convey the necessary information, and they if you want to be a human flamethrower everywhere you go, that's up to you.

In TLOU, it became very clear that I wasn't playing a game: I was playing a movie. And this is, in the end, my issue with all of Naughty Dog's games. For the Uncharted series, that isn't a problem because you're playing a modern swashbuckler. The loveable louse, if you will and when you get in trouble in Uncharted, it's always with people worse than you. 

Well, fuck 'em, right? 

Now you can make any number of arguments about why the doctor should've been killed but the problem is that you are making them, not the game. 

In the TV show, the doctor does the dumbest thing ever: "You can't take her," he says, stepping towards Joel.

Well, that's gonna get you shot. Duh. 

But that isn't how I remember my playthrough going and maybe, just maybe Naughty Dog should remember that they are still making games, not film.