10 Video Game Moments We Were All Waiting For (That Didn't Happen)

1. Playing As Joel - The Last Of Us: Part II

Last of us remake Joel
Naughty Dog

As soon as The Last of Us: Part II opens, you play as Joel Miller, who served as the hero in the previous entry. When you take control of Ellie shortly after, you assume you'll be swapping between the two characters throughout your playthrough.

To everyone's earth-shattering horror, Joel is beaten to death before you reach the halfway point! To nobody's surprise (seriously, how did Naughty Dog not see this coming?) the gaming community was up in arms over Joel's abrupt demise.

Just to be clear - fans didn't feel betrayed because Joel died. Because of the franchise's depressing narrative, everyone expected him not to make it out alive.

The reason why fans felt betrayed is because Joel was killed off without giving us the chance to explore the game through his eyes. In the first instalment, you played as Joel 80% of the time. In the sequel, you only get five minutes with this character, despite the fact we thought he was the protagonist.

Because Ellie was the lead this time around, we assumed Joel's role would be scaled back a little. However, nobody expected Joel to play such a minor role, especially since he's the character who opens the game!

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Contributor

James Egan has been with Whatculture for five years and prominently works on Horror, Film, and Video Games. He's written over 80 books including 1000 Facts about Horror Movies Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about The Greatest Films Ever Made Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about Video Games Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts About James Bond 1000 Facts About TV Shows