Why you should play ‘The Last of Us’ games now instead of waiting for season 2 of the HBO adaptation

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The Last of Us on HBO rose to critical acclaim and broke the so-called “video game curse,” but despite everything the show gets right about the beloved 2013 title, there’s a good chance that the next hurdle on the road, coming in the form of The Last of Us Part II’s intricate video game-tailored narrative, will turn the series into a subpar adaptation.

We all loved the 9-episode Last of Us adaptation of our favorite Naughty Dog game from 2013. Pedro Pascal absolutely crushed it as Joel. Bella Ramsey was an exceptional Ellie. Even side characters like Marlene and Tommy all came through with their nuanced performances, and don’t get us started about that tear-jerking third episode featuring Bill and Frank, played by Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett, respectively.

In fact, with the benefit of hindsight, The Last of Us was an exceptional adaptation that not only honored the source material but turned some of the game’s subtler story beats into full-blown heart-rending moments.

And yet, despite all of that, some game fans noted that there was still something missing, something perhaps so subtly inexplicable that made the game stand out long after it came out. And no, it’s not the interactive element of shooting your way through a post-apocalyptic United States wasteland.

The problem is that The Last of Us was written as a video game, and that’s the main reason it worked so well despite the technical limitations of the time. An experience is no less the sum of its parts than it is a compilation of moments, so simply making those moments work in live-action isn’t going to be enough to turn it into a truly timeless phenomenon.

In layman’s terms, The Last of Us works so extremely well in its original state because the minutest