Emotional Game Moments Contest My Entry

So I will start with a little background. I was born in 82 so I have seen gaming go a long way for me it start on the atari paying pit fall and pac man. The last game I played was the new Zelda on the switch and man looking back how far we have come. Games when I was young where just fun. As a teenager they got competitive man those Quake matches back in the day were pretty epic. In college it was Counter Strike all the time and I got pretty good. A level that was a bit annoying cause I couldn't play with the best but got banned for cheating if I played with scrubs. I started with FF3 and have played all of them. Those have always been the games with the best stories. FF7 had a lot in it before it was cool to break your heart in a game. For this post I am going to share a game most of us have played. Knowing I have not played the second one yet so my memory is just of the first.

Pretty sure you might know Joel and Ellie from "The Last of Us" if you don't spoilers ahead.

This game by far when I played it was on the first game that I just didn't want to stop playing but not cause the game play was great even though it was. But because I had to know what was going to happen next. This game takes place in a post apocalyptic world full of the infected. It is a bit of a twist on the normal zombie story as it happens from a fungus. So you are not un-dead but sick with something that makes you act like a zombie. It can spread either with contact with the fungus or contact with someone. The game pulls at your heart a bit right from the start as you see Ellie and another young friend out and about and they get infected. Right away you think great I get to see kids dying to this. Even as Ellie turns out not to get sick you have to deal with her friend dying while she lives. Ellie has a feeling of guilt even wondering why she is so special. Joel comes in and is tasked by a group to get Ellie out of the city to a doctor that might be able to cure this whole mess. Joel is not happy about it and doesn't really want to be a part of helping a kid. As the stories goes he gets stuck with her just long enough to care. This story has been done before but it is a very emotional journey they go on. By the end of the game the two have been through hell and as close as any people can be. Each saving the other countless times each helping the other deal with losses they face. You think you are about to see the happy ending they saved the world right. Queue the doctors figuring out why Ellie doesn't get sick. It isn't something simple it is growth on her brain. It isn't hurting her it is protecting her from getting sick but to figure out how it does it they need to get it out. Joel learns of this and the plan is to take it out and Ellie will surly die. It is the one live to save many toss right in front of you. It just about makes you want to toss the game away all that and now she dies. But Joel act like you and saves her and takes her away leaving mankind to it's fate as he won't give up her life. He hides this fact from her and I am sure that is a big part of the second game. Going over this all again makes me thing it is time to play that next one. For sure this game is one of the most emotional games I have played. It sticks with you for a while after you play it. Another thing that helps is the horror action parts of the games already have you on edge so you are for sure more primed to just feel that punch to the gut when the bad moments happen.

I am sure I am not alone in the feeling about this game. I hope to read a few of these today to see what else people bring up.

Thanks to @Enjar this was a fun post to write.