The Last Of Us Part II cements its position as a feelbad game for the ages with one particularly upsetting scene. It’s not staged as a pivotal narrative beat, even as it serves to show just how far Ellie has fallen. It comes as she sneaks up on a young Wolf who, rather than standing guard, is sitting and playing on her PS Vita. With her earphones in and the volume up, she can’t hear Ellie approaching. A tense exchange of dialogue follows, culminating in a struggle which sees us stab the poor girl through her windpipe. We watch her writhe for a few awful seconds, blood gushing from her neck before her light is extinguished.
It’s partly the innocuousness of the setup that makes it so affecting. We’ve encountered dozens of characters in videogames like this - the unsuspecting guard taking a break from their duties who is punished for their slackness by being swiftly dispatched. And though some might argue that the Vita represents an unnecessary example of product placement, it makes this young woman all the more relatable while we’re clutching our DualShock 4 controller. The moment hits harder precisely because in that moment she seems more like one of us than anyone else we encounter.