Without a doubt, one of the most popular video games of 2013 has been The Last of Us for the PlayStation 3. This is quite a claim as there are still four months left of the year to go and plenty of video games are still to be released. However, the storyline, characters and the games graphics have made this game a front runner for Game of the Year 2013. If you have not played The Last of Us, Ill give you a quick summary of the plot. Set in 2033, a brain altering plague has consumed 60% of the worlds population. The World Health Organisations attempts to develop a cure have failed and the world has been thrown into chaos. Cities have been placed under martial law, and slowly the residents have been moved to various quarantine areas to ensure their safety by keeping them away from those who have been infected. The game focuses around a smuggler called Joel who is asked by his friend to look after a girl named Ellie, get her out of the infected zone and take her to Fireflies, an anti-government militia group who are one of the few remaining groups still searching for a cure to the plague. Unlike most video games, The Last of Us has an engaging storyline with two main characters that you cant help but want to see succeed. Nine times out of ten, if a game has been successful, there is a high probability that there will be a sequel, and after the success of The Last of Us, we will most likely see a sequel released for the PlayStation 4 in the next few years. So what kind of storyline could The Last of Us 2 have? Well, seeing as the plague has infected the majority of the planet, one possible storyline could focus on how the plague has affected another country, and focus on the main character trying to find a cure. After all, there have been horror movie sequels that focus on how other characters are dealing with the same situation at exactly the same time. If the developers do decide to go down this route, they must be careful as they are in danger of making the sequel too similar to the first game, which I feel is the incorrect way of creating a sequel for a game of this genre. For a game like this, the best thing would be to turn it into a series that uses a set of games to tell a story. For example, there could be a series of three games; we already have the first, the second could focus on what has happened to Joel and Ellie, and the third and final game could be used as a prequel to explain how the plague was created, focusing around a character who is trying to stop the plague from spreading, the game could end at the exact moment the first game starts. We may have already been given a hint to a possible sequel storyline. During the final few moments of the game, and without spoiling the ending as there maybe people who have not yet played this game, we see Ellie question Joel and confide in him her feelings of guilty, we then see them both make their way to a village.
So there you have it, my thoughts as to what kind of storyline a possible The Last of Us sequel could have. Sony has recently registered domains for both The Last of Us 2 and The Last of Us 3. This could mean that they are already in the process of developing two sequels for the game or maybe they have registered these domains as a precautionary measure, which is a very common practise in the video game industry. Either way, the thought of at least two possible sequels to this game is great. There may be some fans who feel that the game should end the way it has, and remain untouched as a sequel could ruin the first games legacy. Personally, I would look forward to a sequel, as long as the story is as engaging and intense as the first game, then I am all for a sequel or two.