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- HBO Max's highly-anticipated live-action adaptation of the hit video game series, The Last of Us, is rapidly approaching, causing fans immense excitement as they await the retelling of the post-apocalyptic drama. As the original game once again enters the public view, there are certain easy-to-miss facts that only die-hard fans know about the franchise.
With an HBO television series in the works that's set to release sometime in 2023 and millions of video game copies sold according to Sony, it’s safe to say that the majority of The Last of Us fans know everything there is to know about the game's world.
That said, there are still a few details— some of which can be easy to miss or difficult to find— that only die-hard fans will be aware of, like info about the composers, revealing news about some voice actors, and hidden tips and features that will make gameplay more fun and easy.
Updated on December 7th, 2022 by Jordan Iacobucci:
HBO Max's highly-anticipated live-action adaptation of the hit video game series, The Last of Us, is rapidly approaching, causing fans immense excitement as they await the retelling of the post-apocalyptic drama. As the original game once again enters the public view, there are certain easy-to-miss facts that only die-hard fans know about the franchise.
Factions Multiplayer
Die-hard fans are aware that The Last of Us includes a multiplayer mode that consists of Survivor, Supply Raid, and Interrogation. Multiplayer mode can be found in the main menu when players open up the game. Under Story Mode, multiplayer is marked as Factions.
What makes Factions unique to other games like Call of Duty or Battlefield is the small number of players in a game. This size creates an intimacy with a gamer’s teammates and requires each and every player to communicate and strategize with one another to achieve victory. In addition, it challenges the player further. A gamer could have mastered every aspect of Story Mode but once they set foot into Factions, they become humbled really quickly.
Gustavo Santaolalla’s Creative Freedom
In a behind-the-scenes video of The Last of Us made by PlayStation, die-hard fans learned that the developers gave complete creative freedom to the composer, Gustavo Santaolalla, who created the music for Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel and Biutiful.
What makes Santaolalla's work in The Last of Us unique is that he created the music solely based on the story and themes the developers shared with him. This freedom meant he experimented with a variety of instruments he's never used before. For example, to create a tense and dark ambiance, he used a de-tuned guitar. In addition, for some tracks, instead of recording in a professional studio, he recorded in a bathroom or a kitchen.
Jak & Daxter And Uncharted Easter Eggs
Die-hard fans know that within the chapters where the player meets Sam and Henry in the first video game, there are two Easter eggs that can be found in the toy store. On a shelf in that store resides two board games of Naughty’s Dog’s previous works, Jak & Daxter and Uncharted.
What makes these particular Easter eggs so much fun is that it both connects The Last of Us to the Naughty Dog brand but in a strange way makes the game feel more realistic. Instead of these games being connected by a shared fictional universe, Naughty Dog's other games are still games in TLoU's world, implying that it is a version of our own reality rather than fiction.
Nathan Drake Is In The First Game
In a PlayStation interview with Nolan North for a behind-the-scenes video about The Last of Us, most die-hard fans became surprised when they learned that he provided the voice for David, a friendly survivor Ellie encounters who turns out to be a manipulative antagonist.
What made Nolan North's appearance in the video game so surprising to fans was that it was completely different from the characters he portrayed in other works. North has played Superboy, a brash and impulsive teen from Young Justice, and Nathan Drake, a charming, humorous treasure hunter from the Uncharted series. Both roles were heroes, and North's voice acting sounded somewhat similar. His performance as David was different. North played the villain and is praised as one of the best characters of The Last of Us.
The Outbreak Was Inspired By A Real Fungi
In Grounded: The Making of The Last of Us, die-hard fans learned that the developers based the Outbreak on a BBC documentary that showed an ant colony infected by a fungus known as Cordyceps that targeted the brain.
What makes The Last of Us's infection unique from other post-apocalyptic worlds are the creatures. Gamers are all too familiar with zombies. They know how they look, how they behave, and how to fight them. The infected known as Stalkers, on the other hand, are a whole different story. Facing Stalkers is like playing a deadly game of hide and seek, while facing a bloater from The Last of Us Part II is like playing a terrifying game of tag where being 'it' means certain death.
Running Is An Option
Through trial and error, die-hard fans learned that they don't always have to rely on stealth or open combat to get through a tough combat zone in both installments of The Last of Us. With no stamina bar like in Dark Souls, players can run away and move on to the next chapter.
Running primarily eases gameplay in the Survivor and Grounded difficulty where the player has less ammo and the enemy NPCs are smarter and more aggressive. Some fans have found success by running past an entire combat zone while others have found success by running and hiding. Nevertheless, there are combat zones where the player will have to make a stand. In those instances, combine all three tactics: run, hide, and fight.
There Might Not Have Been A Sequel
In Grounded: The Making of The Last of Us, die-hard fans learned that Neil Druckmann had no intention of creating a sequel unless the team had a great idea. Druckmann further stated that the game was envisioned as a standalone experience with a definitive ending.
Nevertheless, Druckmann did just that, and apparently thought that the unexpected story of The Last of Us Part 2 was one worth telling. He certainly did something different and shook the world when Joel was killed off in the sequel, making The Last of Us a game series some say went too far.
The Sequel Has Two Composers
By taking a closer look at the composers on Spotify, die-hard fans learned that The Last of Us Part 2 was composed by Gustavo Santaolalla and Mac Quayle. Santaolalla created the emotional tracks while Quayle created the tense instrumentals.
The importance of the two composers is that they gave the game two different tones. For example, with Santaolalla's track, "Beyond Desolation", played at the end of the game with the use of a ronroco— an instrument like the Argentinian charango and Spanish guitar— the player feels no different than Ellie did: hopeless. Nevertheless, rumors have it that both composers might work on the HBO adaption, making The Last of Us one of the most anticipated TV shows of 2023.
Ashley Johnson Was Taught Not To Sing ‘Well’
Through a comment thread on YouTube of a performance by Johnson for The Last of Us Part II, die-hard fans learned that the developers told Johnson she sang well. Too well. Thus, Johnson learned to tone down her singing skills.
Johnson's learning to not sing 'well' matters because it shows how much of a professional she is. She took the developer's feedback to heart and wasn't afraid to put aside her talent for singing in order to make the character feel more authentic.
Ashley Johnson Was In The Avengers
In one of the deleted scenes of The Avengers, die-hard fans learned that Ashley Johnson had a small role. She played a waitress caught up in the Battle of New York, witnessing the destruction and horror caused not just by the villains, but the heroes.
It is no great surprise to see Johnson on the big screen, as she has been a working actor for years now. But it is interesting to see the voice of Ellie tackle such a massive franchise, just as it's interesting to see Johnson play a role that is so drastically different from the video game protagonist.
The Importance Of Giraffes
Giraffes are a recurring theme in both The Last of Us games, with Ellie being particularly fascinated with the majestic creatures. While many fans may know that the motif of giraffes recurs throughout the franchise, not all players may realize the underlying meaning that the creatures represent.
The appearance of giraffes in the first game brings a sense of childlike wonderment to its characters, particularly Ellie, while also breaking the tension between herself and Joel. Representing a kind of innocence that is all too often destroyed by a post-apocalyptic world, the giraffes restore a bit of humanity to its world-weary characters.
Motion Capture Performances
The Last of Us is particularly well known for its lifelike characters, both in terms of writing and design. However, not all players may realize that an extra element was added to the production of the game to ensure that certain character interactions felt especially lifelike: many of the movements and cutscenes in the game were actually performed with actors using motion capture technology.
The use of motion capture allowed for the characters' realistic movements in the game and, though the animation of faces was not always human-accurate, the technology did allow for the game to inch closer toward realistic portrayals of human emotions therein. The second game followed in this vein, with its improved graphics looking even better than the first.
Uncharted Nearly Spoiled The Game's Development
The Last of Us follows in the footsteps of Naughty Dog's other major video game franchise, Uncharted, which is often thought of as one of the production company's best series ever. However, Uncharted 3, which came out months before the zombie game, very nearly spoiled the development of The Last of Us with a hidden Easter egg.
An erroneous Easter egg in the game contained a reference to scientists discovering a zombie-like spore, perfectly describing the premise of The Last of Us. Thankfully, fans didn't connect the dots before an official announcement (via Polygon) could be made.
Ellie's Likeness Debate
It wasn't long after the announcement of The Last of Us that fans began to see the similarities between Ellie's character design and real-life actor Elliot Page. Though the character is played by Ashley Johnson, fans couldn't help but wonder if the role was initially intended for Page, who spoke up about the ordeal.
Page wasn't particularly happy about Ellie's design, going so far as to call Naughty Dog out for ripping off his likeness (via Game Rant). It didn't help that Page was currently starring in a different video game, Beyond: Two Souls, with this controversy taking some attention away from this project.
Game Of Thrones Connections
The Last of Us is finally getting a live-action adaptation, which is set to debut on HBO Max in January 2023 with a 9-episode season that will explore the story of the first game. However, not all casual fans might realize that the upcoming series has several surprising connections to another hit HBO series, Game of Thrones.
Joel Miller and Ellie Williams, the two protagonists of the video game franchise, are played in the series by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, respectively. Pascal appeared in the fourth season of Game of Thrones as Prince Oberyn Martell of Dorne, while Ramsey starred in the last several seasons of the series as Lady Lyanna Mormont. Moreover, when the video game was initially set to become a live-action movie, Maisie Williams very nearly played the role of Ellie, though this project never made it to production.