DLC #178 - The Last of Us - Left Behind

It took a while, but we finally got round to some Single Player expansion content for the Last of Us. After my experiences with this game, here are some things I hoped I wouldn't see;

Collectibles, Optional Conversations, Missable trophies. We get all 3 here.

For this reason, I didn't play through Left Behind blind. I just didn't really want to play an expansion multiple times, for a game that took me almost 4 playthroughs to Platinum. That isn't a testament against the quality of the game, I just feel like I've exhausted it by this point.

Left Behind serves the purpose of adding some backstory and character development to Ellie, after your brief cameo with her during the main game. It isn't a very long experience, and you can tie everything up, including all 10 trophies, within a couple of hours.

You run the majority of the episode alongside Riley, Ellie's friend, who is also actually a Firefly, playing off a very clear conflict of interest dynamic between the two. There are arguments between them, but also obvious indications they are still great friends. If you were playing through this episode without any context, you'd be forgiven for believing that you were actually playing through some sort of demonstration of the game. 

The episode looks like it merges 2 different parts of the wider story together, and you play them out in parallel to one another. For the most part, you stroll through an abandoned mall at a leisurely pace, exploring the various corners of it, portraying the innocence of a couple of kids just having a bit of fun and games. The other part is direct from the main story, taken from the moment in the game where Joel is desperate for medial support after piercing his body through a stake, and Ellie is attempting to find some first aid to assist. This is where the odd combat encounter is thrown in, just to briefly remind you of the reality of what the Last of Us has always been - A survival horror game. Combat only makes up around 20% of the episode, where the rest is focused on just exploration, which is where it gives me the vibe of feeling like a demonstration. It was short, sharp and to the point, which is exactly what I wanted, and I felt the way it told 2 different stories from within the same environment to be very well executed.

There are 10 trophies added, and these can all be achieved within the roughly 2 hours you'll spend playing through the episode. You can earn 4 difficulty-related stackable trophies if you beat the episode on Survivor difficulty, which is already available from the outset, so there is no need to play through to unlock it like you had to do with the main game. The low emphasis on combat also helps here.

There are a series of missable trophies for the variety of interactions you have with Riley, whereby you have to win a series of different games, else you'll need to replay the episode should you lose. The same goes for the collectibles and optional conversations, which again, have trophies attached to them. I was at a point with this game whereby I didn't want to take any risks of missing something silly, so referenced a guide throughout as I went along. I never spoil anything here, but despite it's briefness, the episode does reveal a fairly significant link back to a major plot point within the main game.

Left Behind didn't exactly bring the game to new levels, but it was a nice punctuation to what was one of my favourite games within the Playstation 4 era. I'll look forward to Part II.