Narrative – A Small Look

Narrative in video games isn’t too far off from narrative in movies (and most other forms of media). They center around a singular character (or group of characters) that is typically the crux of the events of the story in some capacity.

Now, that’s extremely derivative and probably the most basic comment ever, so let’s talk specifics.

Narratives in video games are intentionally created in a way that involves the player directly— this is to be expected of an interactive medium such as video games, though. That happens to be the advantage they have over most other forms of media, the interactivity involved. This allows for more immersive games to implement more immersive and detailed narratives— for example, look at The Last of Us by NaughtyDog.

The Last of Us takes the tried and true formula of zombie games and spices it up rather effectively. Rather than having the run and gun style of zombie games at the time it is a third-person shooter with stealth and cover mechanics. Despite these mechanics, the story is where the game shines the brightest. Through the narrative of the game, it tells the story of Joel and Ellie surviving the apocalypse together and becoming closer friends during the course of the story— with Joel seeming to think of her as a surrogate daughter in the late game. This narrative has been lauded since the game’s release as one of the greatest video game narratives of all time for being the most evocative and emotional.

So why is that? The gameplay is alright, but what exemplifies this story over others?

It treads ground that most other games didn’t like to do in the early 2010s. In a time where most game narratives were centered around covert operations and beginning the turn to futuristic warfare, The Last of Us was exploring topics that these games most often didn’t even consider— the most of which are: grief, loss, and family that isn’t related but is still family.

To boil it down to basics: The Last of Us dared to be different in a time that seemed to reward conformity the most— and that risk turned out to be very well founded.