Is Joel Really The Villain In The Last Of Us?

2. Moral Choices Through Gameplay

What's interesting however, is how the developers make the player complicit in Joel's final act of "villainy".

After spending the entire game bonding with Ellie, you want to save her, and you don't think twice about blowing through the Fireflies as you would any other enemies. However, there's one pivotal moment that subtly gets players thinking about the morality of the situation. When you burst into Ellie's operating room you're attacked by one of the surgeons and Joel brutally kills him with a knife. Behind this person are other surgeons also in the room - all unarmed - and without a prompt, if you want to, you're free to kill them too.

It's a defining moment, as a lot of players don't even question murdering the remaining doctors on their first run through. Hell, I know for certain that our own Scott Tailford pulled out a flamethrower and burnt them all to a crisp (and I'd do it again, dammit - Ed.). Although you've killed plenty of goons throughout, they were also actively trying to kill you as well, but this situation is different.

You'll probably gun them down as that's what Joel would do, but you won't feel good about it. While the player thinks twice, the character doesn't, and the small playable moment perfectly reveals that the two entities aren't quite as in-sync as they appeared.

It's a moment which couldn't have happened in any other medium but a video game, thanks to its reliance on interactivity - something the developers realised rather late in production. Initially this entire sequence was going to be a cutscene, but was changed thanks to a push from Peter Field, one of the designers, who argued it would be far more illuminating for players to be in control of the moment.

Neil Druckmann has since explained the need for gameplay over cinematics in sequences like this, arguing that:

If you play as Joel, to play as this morally ambiguous character and have to commit those acts yourself, I think it gives you a different perspective if you’re more removed, watching it or reading it.

To commit these acts yourself you better appreciate the weight of them, and it uniquely offers the opportunity for a touch of dissonance between the player and the character.

It's at this point you either go with his actions, or take a step back and think "that wasn't very cool", but no matter how you interpret the moment, it's the interactive nature of the scene that gets you thinking about the horror of the situation.

So, is Joel the villain?