The Last of Us Part 3 Should Floor It, Not Brake

The Last of Us has had five versions (remasters and remakes included) and will now have at least three seasons of an HBO show. Meanwhile, there have only been two actual games in the series. Together, Part 1 and Part 2 of The Last of Us tell a harrowing story about enduring and surviving as well as finding something worth fighting for, which has almost exclusively dealt with death and loss, against the backdrop of a deadly viral outbreak. Now, especially considering what was just shadow-dropped in time to conveniently synchronize with HBO’s second season of The Last of Us, a happy ending may have been dashed entirely.

Unsurprisingly, Naughty Dog and PlayStation recently announced a digital edition bundling Part 1 and Part 2 Remastered with a physical Collector’s Edition arriving in July. Surprisingly, however, this bundle, dubbed The Last of Us Complete, suggests players have already experienced the end to this franchise. So, while the chances of a Last of Us Part 3 seem slimmer every day with contradictory statements and a hot new Naughty Dog IP on the horizon, a third installment, as unlikely as it may be, will hopefully pull no punches if it ever comes to fruition.

The Last of Us’ Story and Characters Stew in Sadness

The Last of Us’ characters enduring unimaginable suffering is, at its core, undeniable and unflinching. This is exacerbated by the nature of the outbreak and the state of society’s collapse two decades later with military oppression in quarantine zones, false hope fermented by rogue Firefly ‘terrorists,’ and fungi-infected terrors lurking in spore-perfumed nests.

It’s thrilling to hear about characters who belong to different groups due to the unique or biased perspectives they naturally have. The Last of Us’ worldbuilding extrapolates a little bit more with each character players learn about, such as Dina being from New Mexico and discussing the Ravens. Likewise, every hardship a character ekes through, whether they’re someone players have grown familiar with or someone whose life is being eavesdropped on via note artifacts, is another ink blot on a tall canvas.

Naughty Dog shouldn’t meaninglessly put characters through cruel or devastating scenarios, but it arguably hasn’t yet. The Last of Us challenges its characters, who are then molded by their choices, and it’s these challenges that make for a gripping narrative and commonly result in melancholy.

Therefore, the events of Part 3 being uplifting and pleasant would be inappropriate. That doesn’t mean there can’t be lovely and warmhearted beats, such as when Ellie performs “Take on Me” for Dina or when Joel takes Ellie to a museum for her birthday, but pure joy in The Last of Us is made doubly poignant because it is backlit by horrific bouts of grief. The town in Jackson and even the Washington Liberation Front’s SoundView Stadium in Seattle are perfectly capable of encapsulating comfortable, leisurely lives, but what lies in wait in The Last of Us’ wilderness is hardly a bedrock for pleasant adventures.

The Last of Us Part 2’s Seraphites are a tremendously complicated cult, for instance, while the WLF certainly has moral grey areas of its own and the infected are perpetually poised to cause ruin in any uninhabited suburb—if anyone could conceive a happy ending for The Last of Us, though, it would definitely be Naughty Dog. Still, Part 3 being more serene than devastating could seem disingenuous to the tone of the franchise if handled poorly.