6/27/2023 0 Comments The last of us part 2 seattle![]() On June 19, however, Naughty Dog will do what no other video game studio or filmmaker has been able to accomplish in the seven years of zombie-related fiction since “The Last of Us” came out - release something better. No, this was a game that - through the raw humanity of its performances, the grace of Neil Druckmann’s writing, the flickering heartache of Gustavo Santaolalla’s guitar score, and the player’s complicit role in pushing Joel to a place just beyond forgiveness - earned favorable comparisons to the likes of “Children of Men” and “The Road.” Its plot borrowed as much from classic post-apocalyptic fiction as its horror and stealth gameplay mechanics did from “Resident Evil” and “Metal Gear Solid” respectively, but the creative vision and technical prowess of Naughty Dog’s team crafted the whole thing together into an experience more emotionally affecting than any zombie movie ever made. This wasn’t just Sephiroth killing Aerith in “Final Fantasy VII,” John Marston meeting his maker at the end of “Red Dead Redemption,” or Mario discovering that the Princess was in another castle. The writing has been spray-painted on the wall since 2016, when game studio Naughty Dog announced that it was developing a sequel to the most revered title of its generation. Set in what’s left of a post-apocalyptic America 20 years after a mutant strain of the parasitic cordyceps fungus jumped species and laid waste to human civilization like a spore of blue mold bruising through a loaf of bread, the action-adventure game asks players to control a bitter man named Joel (Troy Baker) as he reluctantly escorts a defiant 14-year-old girl from Boston to Salt Lake City, where Ellie’s (Ashley Johnson) unique immunity to the plague might be used to make a cure.įrom its unforgettable gut punch of a prologue to the shattering moral ambiguity of its final minutes, “The Last of Us” broke down the emotional barrier that had always limited video games to a frivolous distraction instead of a legitimate narrative form. But no game has ever wrestled with those complications more viscerally than “The Last of Us Part II.” ![]() Built in 2004, it’s an 11-floor glass building featuring an auditorium and public reading/meeting space.As “Death Stranding” illustrated last fall, the relationship between film and interactive storytelling is evolving at warp speed - especially as “cinematic” video games continue to explore the various ways that having a controller in your hands might complicate and transform the way we engage with visual narratives. Although you can’t go inside in the game, you pass by it as you explore the area. Seattle boasts another piece of striking modern architecture downtown, the Central Public Library. Daniels Recital Hall Real life version In-game – Synagogue Seattle in-game Outside of the game, it’s the Daniels Recital Hall, not far from the courthouse. Columbia Centre In gameĭuring gameplay, Ellie and Dina explore a domed building which turns out to be a synagogue, revealing a little more about Dina’s character and history. Opposite is another striking skyscraper, the Columbia Centre. Seattle Municipal Tower In-game – Westlake Bank This is actually the Seattle Municipal Tower, 700 Fifth Avenue. While exploring downtown Seattle, you go into the Westlake Bank (also overrun with infected, but a compulsory part of the game). In-game courthouse Seattle – reality Ruston Coffee is the coffee shop chain in the game Ellie outside the courthouse Overrun by the infected in the game, the courthouse is actually the William Kenzo Nakamura US Courthouse on Fifth Avenue. In the game you – as Ellie – can explore Downtown Seattle on foot and on horseback to pick up collectibles, trigger converstaions and (of course) fight your way past enemies. ![]() ![]() To help me find what I needed, I bought a copy of this amazing map, sold by La Tienda de Kirby on Etsy: it’s an exact replica of the faded city map Ellie uses to navigate her way around the Seattle, complete with Sharpie markings of points of interest. And to earn a few extra nerd points, I’ll post them all in the order you find them in the game. Prior to and after my trip, I took some in-game screenshots of the locations, which I’ll post here alongside my actual Seattle photographs, so you can see how closely the city was replicated in the game.
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