There’s a secret in The Last of Us that many of us likely missed and it shows the inspiration behind the post-apocalyptic game from Naughty Dog.
When The Last of Us was originally released in 2013 on PlayStation 3, it instantly became another classic from the Naughty Dog studio placing it alongside the likes of the Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Dexter, and Uncharted series.
Check out The Last of Us Part I trailer below!
“In a ravaged civilisation, where infected and hardened survivors run rampant, Joel, a weary protagonist, is hired to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie out of a military quarantine zone. However, what starts as a small job soon transforms into a brutal cross-country journey,” reads the synopsis of The Last of Us Part I, a remake of the original.
Did you know that the concept of The Last of Us is inspired by a 2008 episode of Planet Earth in which we see the cordyceps fungus infect ants that take control of its host? Let me tell you, it was an eerie episode, to say the least.
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Thankfully for us humanoids, the likelihood of that happening to us (I hope) is practically impossible due to our naturally high body temperature, which would quickly kill the fungus. That being said, it still leaves an intriguing question of “What if?” and that’s a concept that Naughty Dog explored.
I will be venturing into mild spoilers for the opening moments of The Last of Us, so consider this to be your final spoiler warning.
During the prologue of The Last of Us, we see the opening moments of when the Cordyceps virus truly begins to cause havoc turning humans into savage, uncompromising monsters.
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Sarah, the daughter of the protagonist Joel, wakes up to find that the house is empty and her father's whereabouts are currently unknown. At this moment, if you walk into Joel’s bedroom, his TV is on but is playing nothing but static.
However, the YouTube channel GameRiot shows us that if we then leave the room. Exit to the main menu and then restart the checkpoint save, when you re-enter Joel’s room it will show a still image of the aforementioned Planet Earth episode. This, however, will only occur in the original game and not the remake.
The Last of Us Part I remake is out now on PC and PlayStation 5.
Topics: The Last Of Us, Naughty Dog, PC, Real Life, Sony, PlayStation, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5