8 Iconic Moments From Each Era Of Games
3. Sarah's Death - The Last of Us
The Last of Us is quite arguably the game of the PS360 era, and Naughty Dog ensured they had players locked in from its deeply visceral, utterly heart-rending prologue sequence.
Kicking off in 2013 as the Cordyceps fungus ravages the United States, the game's 15-minute opening section depicts the early stages of the outbreak in nerve-rattlingly chaotic fashion.
But far from a mere action-packed rollercoaster ride, the efforts of protagonist Joel and his family to flee the mayhem have a devastating climax - Joel's young daughter Sarah is shot by a twitchy soldier and dies in her father's arms.
It was a mesmerising statement of intent from Naughty Dog, furthering their mission to deliver peerlessly cinematic and richly emotional storytelling, which in this case laid the foundation for Joel's arc throughout the rest of the game and its sequel.
Without such a punchy opening, there's no guarantee that The Last of Us would've sunk its hooks in players quite how it did. Hell, it proved iconic and note-perfect enough that the recent TV adaptation translated it to the screen incredibly faithfully.