For many The Last of Us is the closest gaming has come to truly examining the concept of morality and providing an interpretation that is more complex than the black and white of good vs evil. The game presents a world made up of shades of grey and forces the player to examine the human condition in a light that they are not used to seeing in the gaming medium. The ending of the game exemplifies this moral ambiguity like few other moments. After making a dramatic escape from the hospital with Ellie after he found out that she would be killed in an effort to maybe find a cure for the cordyceps, Joel lies to the girl about the events that transpired during the escape. This initial lie shows just how much Joel has come to rely on Ellie as a surrogate daughter, such that he is willing to sacrifice a potential cure for the chance to maintain a personal relationship in a world where that is something that is seldom found. In the closing moments of the game Ellie asks Joel to swear to her that what she had been told about the Fireflies is true. With the simple words I swear Joel completes his deception and the player is left to ponder if the choice he made was truly the right one, or perhaps if there was even a right choice to make.
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