Game review: The Last of Us: Left Behind for PS4

This is going to be a pretty short review, mainly because The Last of Us: Left Behind isn’t so much a full game as a little tacked on bit of dessert for players wondering about Ellie’s back story. Ellie’s time spent with her best friend is so short and slow paced that the writers chose to use a flashback method to keep the DLC moving between two malls. In one, Ellie is on her own searching for medicine while running from bandits and clickers, and in the other, Ellie is hanging out with Riley, not really doing much of anything until the very end. (Note how I’m avoiding spoiling either the DLC or the full game. Because I love you.)

It’s this method of flashing back and forth that lends the short story a weird kind of pacing where one section is really slow and full of dialogue, and the other is much more intense and reminiscent of the full game. Just like in the full game, the time spent alone with Ellie is done so with extremely sparse supplies and ammo. You either have to make every shot count or be prepared to run away. Or die. Because that can happen a lot, too.

I was glad that Naughty Dog chose to shed light on Ellie’s time with Riley, and I thought their relationship was cute, even though I knew the moment they cranked up the “aaaw” factor, the runners would be showing up shortly thereafter. I find myself wanting more, but also knowing that it isn’t possible. To go further back and explore why Riley left many months before means going back to a time when nothing would be interactive, and that point it would just be a digital movie. While that might be an interesting story, it’s no longer a game, and there’s no point exploring that aspect in a game world.

I give The Last of Us: Left Behind 4 stars. It’s a nice addition to mess around with after playing the full game, but it’s only useful if you reached that final chapter of the main game and wanted to know more about the best friend that Ellie lost.