I remember back in early 2013 being very excited for The Last of Us. At the time, we were at the tail end of a high water mark for zombie media. The then-upcoming game felt like it would be exceptionally polished, but I wasn’t expecting to be blown away. But in the end, it exceeded nearly all expectations for me.

Last year casting news about TV adaptation of The Last of Us came out, making the whole prospect much more real. In January of this year, it began releasing. Immediately, I noticed how this felt different than other video game adaptations.¹ I would chat with coworkers who were watching it each week who had never played either game.

Not being an HBO or Max subscriber, I only got around to it recently when I borrowed the Blu-rays from the San Francisco library. Having now seen the whole show, I feel obligated to compare and contrast the game and show. Let’s do it episode-by-episode since it gives a chance to talk about details in a structured way.

Episode 1: When You’re Lost in the Darkness

A striking choice in the game is first giving you control of Joel’s daughter, Sarah. You control Sarah throughout most of the game’s first sequence, set during the cordyceps apocalypse coming to their home. Watching this sequence in the show, it’s clear they favor her as the POV character, but the emotional connection is just not on the same level as in the game. It still works overall, but it shows the power of the medium of a video game.

The rest of the episode, set 20 years after the apocalypse in the Boston Quaratine Zone, his many of the same beats as the game. An interesting difference is that Joel has an external motivation for interacting with the Fireflies, which is that he needs a means to find his missing brother, Tommy. This change is a small one, but helps give enough motivation to Joel to continue moving forward in the plot. It’s also interesting that the game didn’t feel a need for Joel to need this impetus. I don’t think this is a good thing, just a fact that in a game a player may be more motivated by the next mechanical reward rather than a narrative one, in this case leading to and underdeveloped narrative.

Episode 2: Infected

This episode opens in Jakarta, Indonesia, a location never visited in the game. It takes a moment to do some worldbuilding, showing the origins of the cordyceps infection. It also sets the mood by having a mycologist advise the government to bomb the city to prevent the spread. I like this addition overall as it helps build up the horror of the infected.

The main plot parts of this episode play out almost identically to the game, to little difference. One detail I liked was something added when Tess reveals she was bitten. Instead of having an implied death offscreen, she’s seen being “kissed” by an infected, the cilia of the fungus going into her mouth. It’s an off-putting moment which again heightens the tension of the setting well.

Episode 3: Long, Long Time

This episode is the biggest depature of the whole series, and basically entirely for the better. The Lincoln level of the game is mechanically fun (including a moment of being trapped upside-down and having to defend against zombies), creates a great sense of atmosphere, and hints at an interesting backstory for Bill. This episode takes that hint of a backstory and expands it to a full-fledged explicitly gay love story in the time of cordyceps. It’s great from start to finish and shows what kinds of stories make sense to tell in TV vs. video games. The game’s level is fun; the episode is excellent.

Also, stunt casting Nick Offerman as Bill is inspired and I’m glad they were able to pull it off.

Episode 4: Please Hold my Hand

Honestly there’s not a lot here. It’s mostly setup and teasing for the next episode, so I’ll just go straight to that.

Episode 5: Endure and Survive

The beats of Henry and Sam’s story are changed a good bit from the game. In the game they are just random survivors, existing as a parallel between Joel and Ellie; in the show, they are targets of a manhunt. The choice to make Sam deaf is a good one, increasing our emotional connection to him and Henry. The addition of Kathleen as an antagonist is good overall, instead of faceless raiders from the original part in the game. One gripe I have is that I wish we could have been shown and not told more of Kathleen’s backstory. Overall though, I think that these two episodes make solid improvements on the story.

Episode 6: Kiri

The plot of this episode is largely unchanged from the game. There is one good new detail which is that due to the fact that Tommy’s disappearance was set up in the first episode, there’s an actual reason for Joel and Ellie to be here, instead of them finding Tommy being random like in the game. One new detail that was interesting was introducing Joel’s panic attacks. I feel like this felt kinda arbitrary since he’s been in extremely stressful situations throughout the show, but this is the first we’re seeing of this. I suppose that, plus his initial attempt to get Tommy to take his place is meant to show his caring for Ellie. It could have been set up better, though.

Episode 7: Left Behind

This episode marks a slight shift in the sequencing of how events are depicted in the game, in that the Left Behind DLC is probably experienced after the main campaign for most. Slotting it in here makes sense so as to not take any narrative weight away from the ending. There’s a lot of changing of the details, but all of them serve the same end as the DLC’s story. One detail of note Ellie and Riley playing Mortal Kombat II together is set up in the second episode, which makes the reveal all the more fun. The DLC has a fun ludonarrative moment which is rightly left out of the show: the water gun fight between Ellie and Riley. Once again, however, it is a moment that shows one of the strengths of the video game medium.

Episode 8: When We Are in Need

In terms of sheer plot, this episode is identical to the events in the game. However, there’s many differences worth remarking upon. First, in the game, this marks the moment when Ellie becomes a playable character; this deepens the emotional connection to the character and allows to experience her relative disempowerment–emotionally harkening back to the intro playing as Sarah–which is something video games are uniquely good at. Since the show can’t evoke that in the same way, it frames Ellie as less skilled that Joel by holding his rifle less than confidently. I found this somewhat disappointing given that in the game she’s shown to have learned to use a bow and arrow in the interim between this level and the last.

A smallish detail that was added is in addition to David trying to recruit Ellie to his cannibal cult, he also is sexually attracted her and eventually tried to rape her. I feel like even in a horror-adjacent show like this, this is a bridge too far. I just feel like it’s not given the narrative weight that would be necessary to do it justice, so I’d rather they left it out.

Episode 9: Look for the Light

This episode opens with a brand new scene: we see Ellie’s mother–played by Ashley Johnson, the voice actor of Ellie in the game–who gets bit by a zombie while giving birth to Ellie. I don’t really like this addition as I prefer Ellie’s situation being a random fluke. However, I do like that Ashley Johnson got an opportunity to be in the show. I was also struck by how much she and Bella Ramsey look alike.

The rest of the episode plays out pretty much exactly like the final parts of the game. I think that the inherent drama hits approximately as well. However, being in control of Joel for this moment definitely heightens the emotional moments in a way that TV just can’t do. The final dialogue of Joel confirming his lie to Ellie still hits like gangbusters.

The Whole Thing

Overall, the show is really good. Is it the best TV I’ve ever seen? Definitely not. But it’s solid and is almost certainly the best video game adaptation to date. Granted, the game suits itself to TV partially because it’s so obviously trying to replicate movies and TV’s plot structure. That being said, it’s clear that certain moments are hightened by being able to play the characters and taking advantage of the emotional connection inherent to that.

I do legitimately think that The Last of Us has one of the best game stories that I have played. So that begs the question if “best video game story” turns into “pretty good tv story”, what does that say about our standards for video game stories. I’ve had many a discussion about this with people about this topic and I don’t think it’s super cut and dry. There’s definitely room for improvement, but I think that the “text” of games is more than just the story. The story can be good on its own, but how inhabiting characters, engaging with the mechanics of the game, and how those feed into each other tonally and thematically all affect the impression of the game. As a result, you can’t completely divorce the “story” from the experience of the game.

This show is definitely a case study in what it means to adapt from one medium to another. I hope it means that we can expect more adaptations of legitimately good stories from video games onto the screen.