7 Video Game Character Deaths That Carried Real Weight

While the death of Joel's daughter Sarah was spoiled by the box art for The Last of Us, it was no less impactful. Most games featuring a zombie apocalypse usually thrust the player into the thick of the undead hordes with a small explanation of how the world began the fight with the rotting armies of the dead. It is very rare that we as players get to experience the fall of the world first hand.

When the game starts up, we take control of Sarah instead of Joel with amazing performances from all the actors involved, drawing the player into the relationship between father and daughter with fairly little dialogue. When things begin to happen, however, it's done with an expert sense of pacing. Things seem off at first before slowly ramping up to the family fleeing the infected for their lives.

Sarah may not have had a whole lot of screen time, but her tragic death only served to truly set the stage of the rest of the game. It established early on that Joel had some serious baggage going into the wasteland while also putting every NPC encountered on the chopping block.

Once Ellie is introduced into the story, Joel's reluctance to open up emotionally becomes more and more apparent even as Ellie slowly breaks down those walls.

This all culminates at the climax where Joel simply cannot lose another daughter, even if that means missing out on a potential vaccine for the fungal plague that brought the world to its knees.