Deadlight
Part of what makes Joel so fascinating in The Last of Us is the truth that he’s not at all times an ideal individual. He makes a ton of dangerous decisions, however extra of them are made for the best motive: Ellie. Deadlight is probably greatest thought of as what would occur if Ellie wasn’t there to partially steadiness Joel out (and if The Last of Us have been a 2D platformer).
Like The Last of Us, Deadlight stars a gruff, scarred man with a troubling previous making an attempt to survive a zombie apocalypse. As occasions play out, players be taught simply how haunted the primary character is. If Joel had by no means met Ellie, it’s not a stretch to assume his path might have echoed the one we see play out on this atmospheric indie title.
Dap
Dap is the indie sport consequence of giving Pikmin a horror paint job. In Dap, gamers management a forest spirit, one of the titular dap, that embarks on a quest to save the woods from an evil, corrupting presence.
This sport excels in its presentation. Even although Dap is an isometric title, its sound design and artwork model create a haunting world that feels alien and unwelcoming, however its crowning achievement is its capability to nail the horror of an infection. While Ellie is immune to the cordyceps in The Last of Us, Joel isn’t, in order that’s one character gamers have to fear about. In Dap, although, no one is immune. Every Dap can flip feral as a result of of the corrupting drive, so whereas controlling a full military sounds akin to stuffing Joel’s pockets with ammo, it may possibly simply backfire with one fallacious flip.
The Metro Franchise
At first look, the Metro franchise has extra in frequent with the Fallout sequence since they each characteristic a world the place human civilization moved underground to escape an irradiated floor stuffed with mutants. But Metro video games, particularly the primary two, hit some of the identical emotional and narrative beats as The Last of Us regardless of predating it.
Both The Last of Us and the Metro video games are all about surviving an unforgiving future. Scavenging assets is a should as provides are so scarce that bullets primarily double as foreign money. While the video games’ protagonists are utterly totally different folks, they each have to make dangerous decisions for presumably the best causes. The operative phrase there may be “presumably.”