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Thursday 16 February, 2017
My next binge of The Last of Us was edge-of-the-seat action-packed as I had to avoid militarized groups and make a break out of the city. On the way out, the game introduced two new characters that tagged along, Sam and Henry. The two brothers were friendly and willing to help Ellie and Joel out of the city. Making our way to the final bridge included plenty of dodging and hiding from many patrolling soldiers. My already poor-ability with a controller and non-sneaking tendencies led me to many retries of the various levels since I kept getting caught and triggering every enemy in the level to swarm me. I much prefer combat that doesn’t include sneaking around and silently killing people. Let me rush in gun-hoe with my battle cry.
Frustrations and sneaking aside, the scene where the group breaks onto the bridge was a particular moment of morality. Henry, Sam, and Ellie were able to get through a segment of the barricade while Joel was stuck behind. Henry instantly decided to leave Joel (me) behind, apologizing profusely. He didn’t want to risk his own life along with Sam’s in an attempt to save Joel. Henry decided on utilitarianism. Henry believed that leaving Joel behind would mean the greater good for the group. Ellie, on the other hand, decided to jump down with Joel. She was expressing Kantianism because she believed her outcome would be better with Joel instead of the group as a whole. Ellie was taking in the human element, and decided that the categorical imperative (not leaving behind another human being) was the most ethical choice for her. If the categorical imperative implies that if the universal law of leaving someone behind was in place, then no one would save each other, and that did not sit well with Ellie.
It was cool to see that her choice ended up being a good one, since everyone ended up re-uniting and saved. While it did leave Joel pretty pissed at Henry for leaving him, Henry ended up following Kantianism like Ellie by saving Joel in the river. This session of gaming is making me realize that The Last of Us likes to disprove utilitarianism.
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