The guidelines for Polygon's Games of the Year selection process prevented me and my colleagues from voting for The Last of Us: Left Behind.
I say that as one explanation for why The Last of Us: Left Behind did not appear in our top 10 games of the year list. The particular regulation that forbade us from voting for Left Behind stipulates that game of the year choices must be "full games" or expansions — not smaller downloadable add-ons.
Left Behind's DLC status may render it ineligible for traditional game-of-the-year lists, but it's one of the finest gaming experiences I had in 2014.
[Warning: The following contains spoilers for The Last of Us and The Last of Us: Left Behind.]
A risky move
Naughty Dog already delivered the best story of 2013 with The Last of Us, so players were justifiably apprehensive of the studio adding to the game with a story expansion. As a perfectly self-contained tale, The Last of Us didn't seem to need any additional story. And focusing on backstory, as Left Behind did with its exploration of Ellie's past, runs the risk of producing something that is, by its nature, less interesting than the main game.
The task ahead of Naughty Dog was challenging indeed. Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley, the two creative leads on The Last of Us, told Polygon that what they initially came up with for Left Behind wasn't working. Only after a few false starts were they able to hit the right notes in telling the present-day story of Ellie's frantic search for medical supplies to treat Joel, and the flashback story of Ellie's last hours with her best friend, Riley.
Naughty Dog pulled it off.
In fleshing out Ellie's backstory, Naughty Dog illuminates her motivations and worldview. We come to understand the origins of Ellie's dogged devotion to the people who are close to her, and her drive to make it to the Fireflies so she can contribute to the production of a potential remedy for the brain infection that led to an apocalyptic pandemic.
Three weeks before Ellie meets Joel, Riley is the most important person in her life. By the time Ellie and Joel reach the University of Eastern Colorado, having survived together for a monthslong journey across the U.S., she and Joel have come to care for each other. Riley and Joel both tell Ellie the same thing about survival: that we survive together. But the way they express that sentiment casts them as two sides of the same coin — whereas Joel has a more selfish take on survival, Riley's message to Ellie is that we fight to survive so we can spend our limited time on Earth with the people who matter to us.
Friends forever
In this way, Left Behind serves as a terrific side story to The Last of Us. But taken on its own merits, it's even more impressive. What made The Last of Us special was its humanity, and Left Behind follows in that spirit by focusing on something we rarely see in mainstream, big-budget games: a relationship between two teenage girls.
Most of the Ellie-and-Riley half of Left Behind is devoid of combat. Instead, it places us in Ellie's shoes, allowing us to watch and participate in typical teenage activities like horsing around, whether with bricks, water guns or Halloween masks. (There's also the beautiful arcade sequence, which is perhaps my favorite gaming moment of 2014.) Of course, Riley and Ellie's adventures are colored by the post-pandemic world around them — the only one they've ever known — and the omnipresent specter of the infected.
More notably, we wonder along with Ellie about why Riley has brought them to the mall. We already know that Riley doesn't make it to the events of The Last of Us. But her revelation that she's running off with the Fireflies casts a greater pall over the proceedings with the harsh reality that she and Ellie don't have much time left together. The news also kicks off a fight, the kind of argument that's characteristic of two adolescents grappling with their past, their circumstances and their emotions. They're figuring out their relationship as they go: Are they friends, or something more?
This human story is Left Behind's greatest achievement. It's another grim, heartbreaking tale told in this bleak world, but like Ellie, our lives are enriched by having experienced the special bond she shared with Riley.
Short and sweet
Naughty Dog accomplished all of that in a space of two to three hours. I don't believe Left Behind would have benefited from a longer running time; it is exactly as long as it needs to be. Yet simply because it functions as an add-on that requires The Last of Us to play, it doesn't count when it comes to "games" people might nominate as the best experiences of the year.
Left Behind certainly ties into and enriches The Last of Us, but also stands on its own. Would we be thinking about Left Behind in game-of-the-year discussions if Sony had released a stand-alone version of the expansion, like Ubisoft did this year with last December's Freedom Cry campaign for Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag?
With all games being available digitally these days, traditional classifications like "add-on" are going out the window. When relatively brief experiences can be as thrilling, moving and outstanding as The Last of Us: Left Behind, those semantic distinctions don't seem relevant at all.
This piece is part of Polygon's 2014 in Review series. Throughout December we'll be exploring the games, people and events that shaped gaming in the past year. You can check out more 2014 in Review stories in our StoryStream.