If you have any connection at all to video gaming — even if you just know someone who's a gamer — chances are, you've heard of The Last of Us.
Naughty Dog's award winning tour-de-force is a triumph of game design, visual fidelity, and most of all, storytelling. No aspect of the game has been celebrated more than its hauntingly powerful story.
The Last of Us tells of a fungal virus that turns ordinary people into vicious, mindless creatures, and many years later society has fallen apart while survivors live in quarantine zones and struggle to evade the infected.
One survivor, Joel, is tasked with smuggling a teenage girl who's infected but somehow immune to the virus across the post-apocalyptic United States.
A movie is already on the way from producer Sam Raimi and possibly starring Game of Thrones' Maisie Williams. But for those who want to experience The Last of Us' story without having to play through it, you now have that option.
Grant Voegtle, a college student studying game design, has taken it upon himself to put together playthrough videos of The Last of Us that allow YouTubers to watch it like a movie. These aren't your everyday playthroughs, though. Voegtle removed the game's HUD, cut out (or down) the biggest battles, and focused on the characters and the drama. He took the time to play through some segments of the game dozens of times to experiment with camera angles, get the action choreography just right, and according to TheVerge, he even edited scenes to emphasize the symbolism and themes at play.
He's structured his "Cinematic Playthrough" with sophisticated filming and editing techniques to play as episodes of a TV series. There are seven episodes planned in all, and to date six have been released. They range in length from half an hour up to 57 minutes,
It's an incredible venture and makes for viewing every bit as compelling as the best TV or movies have to offer right now. For the proper impact, we recommend firing up the YouTube app on your PlayStation or Xbox and watching the series on your flatscreen.
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