On January 15, 2023, the first episode of The Last of Us aired for the world to watch. The TV show is based on the game created in 2013 that follows Joel after an outbreak of a mutant fungus. It starts with the beginning of the outbreak and then jumps forward 20 years. By now, Joel is in a quarantine zone and working as a smuggler with his friend, Tess. When they get scammed, they make a deal with the leader of the rebel group, the Fireflies, to smuggle a teenage girl in exchange for what they were scammed out of. The rest of the show follows Joel and the teenage girl, Ellie, as they travel the country to try and get her to the Fireflies. 

HBO’s take on the game was created by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, who wrote and co-directed the game. The music for the show was composed by Gustavo Santaollala, who composed the game, and David Fleming. The show stars Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie and has nine episodes ranging from 40-80 minutes. The game was created in 2013 by Naughty Dog and was published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The directors of the game were Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann. The game was very successful and sold 1.3 million units in its first week and sold 17 million units by April of 2018. 

A big difference between the game and the TV show is the way the virus is transferred. In the video game, there is an airborne version of the virus called spores, but it does not exist in the TV show. Joel and Tess’s reason for leaving the Quarantine Zone is also different between the two. In the game, they leave because of a need to get weapons, which they can get from the Fireflies, while in the show, Joel leaves to look for his brother.

The Last of Us as a show is very good at getting the audience to feel emotions as they are watching the show. It also does a good job of replicating a lot of aspects of the game. Another good thing is that the game and show don’t just focus on the outbreak; they also focus on things like trust and bonding. The Last of Us also has some downsides to the game. The gameplay feels very boring because a large majority of what makes the game good is the narrative. The combat and enemies were not at all interesting and the running of the game on a computer was not very good. 

Overall, I would recommend people to watch the show. It is very well made and reflects the game almost perfectly. It is a good show to binge or spread out and watch over a period of time. The game is also good to play if you play on a console. I would give the show and game together a 9/10.