As has already been touched upon, Naughty Dog made pulling the rug out from under the gamers feet an absolute art form in The Last of Us. At no point in the game is that more evident than in the deaths of Sam and Henry. This pair of brothers team up with Joel and Ellie near the halfway point and the player soon takes a shine to the young team, who have somehow managed to survive in Hunter infested territory.Sam also provides a character of equivalent age for Ellie to bond with and, for the briefest of moments, the two are able to almost be children with each other. Unfortunately during a hectic encounter with a number of infected Sam is scratched by a Clicker. He conceals the injury from the rest of the group and they hole up in a radio tower for the rest of the night. The injury is revealed to the player at this point, acting as a complete sucker punch after the relief of escaping the sniper battle. A newly infected Sam attacks Ellie in the morning, leading to Joel training his gun on the child. Henry intervenes and, through tears, kills his own brother to save Ellie before turning the gun on himself in a truly heart breaking moment.
Lee Price is a writer for 411mania.com and Starburst Magazine, which is published in the UK. He is currently working as a freelance writer. He hopes to one day fund his addiction to video games by writing about video games, and he maintains a sporadically updated blog at leesrandombulls*it.wordpress.com
