The human being is endowed with conscience: if in the etymological meaning it is knowing how to perceive individual experiences, in common language it is instead seen as the moral evaluation of one's actions. The video game, especially when dealing with heavy topics such as murder, it has various ways to lighten the burden of conscience: we killed dozens of demons, super villains of all kinds and, even in games like GTA V, helpless humans who were to blame for being in our way. In all this, however, the reaction of gamers has always been different, subjective but never as divisive as it happens for some titles (such as The Last of Us) and, in case, also in the media next door, the film.
Video games and conscience
There are many ways to disguise more or less morally questionable choices: Grand Theft Auto punishes us with police and wanted stars to make us understand how being bad leads to terrible consequences, while titles that have integrated karma management always highlight that, at the expense of a stronger power (Star Wars docet), evil has consequences (Darth Sidious / Palpatine shows him in the face). Regardless, however, the general experience is always muffled: in fact, by removing some real dynamics, the video game manages (with a sort of trick) to make everything less heavy. Killing enemies in the distance on Call of Duty, not spilling blood during a kill or simply replacing sounds with something different are little ploys that designers use to avoid making every game a pacifist treatise, yet sometimes aim for the realism becomes necessary, as in The Last of Us Part 2 or, even better, in the first chapter.
In The Last of Us, especially in the early stages of the game, we find a couple of really touching scenes: unforgettable among all that of the death of Joel's daughter. The guard, who has received an order from his superiors and who sees himself terribly shaken, is the first thrill that the player receives: if the first infected are terrifying and the people on the street in panic can make the heart beat faster, what begins to make us understand what this journey will be like is precisely that sentence of the soldier "But she is a child". That soldier will soon die at the hands of Tommy, Joel's brother, but already in that case we understand how that killing is not right. As many others will not be in the course of the game, until that fateful finale, the climax of a story with little history and very human.
An excruciating yelp
In the video released yesterday during the State of Play, among the many things that struck me about the production, there was that strong conscientious component: every kill Ellie did I felt on my skin. Were it a soldier, a religious or a dog, the way in which life was taken from those people weighed on me right away. The Last of Us Part 2 does indeed boast of this burden, and it does it so well that probably many of you in this new game will avoid several battles. I had never thought about it (and I never would have done it except in certain games), but if we imagined for a moment that that game world is actually a real world, with its own families, customs and whatnot, then really killing a guard - even if intent on killing us - would be heartbreaking. In fact, the fate of that poor girl is very bad, focused on playing Hotline Miami on a PSVita, who will die at Ellie's hand with a knife in her throat (and gushes of blood that will blow off that poor girl as life fades from her eyes).
Another really heavy moment among the many seen yesterday was that of the dog: Sure, anyone would never want to kill a dog (unless it's a zombie in Resident Evil). In fact, if we analyze a well-known film like John Wick, no wound, bullet or even the death from illness of John's wife can bring us as close to his murderous and vindictive point of view as the death of the dog, the real focal moment that makes become the viewer thirsty for revenge as much as the protagonist. Here, now in The Last of Us Part 2 you will be killing them: obviously it is an exaggeration, we always talk about a game and it, simulating a reality where being discovered leads to death, obviously puts you in front of critical choices of this guy. But the yelps are another story altogether.
In yesterday's video scene, Ellie throws a Molotov cocktail at a dog and its master-guard, causing them to burn to death. Ellie leaves without seeing, perhaps to avoid the show, but immediately there is a yelp so shrill and full of pain that I already know it will make me sick. Of course, we are not talking about injured animals for the sake of the show, how much more of a simulation made of mere pixels (luckily video games are not reality), and complaining about it would be a bit like yelling at Spielberg in front of the triceratops.
The choice to be a survivor
A video game, be it a fantastic adventure or a survival horror with all the trimmings, it is an experience to live in a virtual way: brings with it many media and many techniques, it is constantly evolving and seems to know how to amaze year after year, despite several development studies only trying to replicate the successes of others. The Last of Us Part 2 puts you in the shoes of a survivor, a girl who has lost everything, who has been betrayed by her surrogate father, who then found love and eventually sets out on a journey of justice; try to think about what you would do in that case. It is not so interesting to know the result of this answer: whether you are capable of anything or worthy of being morally candid, even just the idea that this production already makes people talk - and reflect - in this way is something magical and unique. . More than the graphics sector, the gameplay or the plot, the concept of being anxious about committing a murder in the game is fantastic, and I am convinced that continuing into the next generation we will have many experiences of this mold. Discover Arthur's disease in Red Dead Redemption 2 and become more human, run down a corridor not caring about collectibles because pressing music makes us understand that time passes or even launch into the battlefield taking a moment to breathe (despite not being you those who are painstakingly dodging bullets) are actions that we would do in reality, and that a video game may or may not make us live. It all comes down to the experience, and if The Last of Us Part 2 managed to put me in this mood with just 20 minutes of video, then it has already won.
