Decoding the Last of Us: The Remnants of Humanity

"How far would I go for love?

This profound question drives the visceral storytelling of The Last of Us. Love is the central theme for people like us. We find it in literature, cinema, TV series, the most extravagant reality shows and, in this case, video games.

After disrupting the adventure game formula with the acclaimed Uncharted series, Naughty Dog changed its recipe in 2013 with The Last of Us, embracing the post-apocalyptic genre. Seven years later, The Last of Us Part II offered a more radical and divisive experience, but still focused on people, their motivations and their flaws.

With the book Decoding The Last of Us: The Remnants of Humanity, author Nicolas Deneschau invites us to grasp all the complexity behind the design of these titles, as well as the meticulousness of their authors and development teams. He analyses the many ways The Last of Us can be read and considers the important role the diptych played in the transformation of the blockbuster video game.

An omnivore who gorges himself on kaiju eiga, black and white sci-fi films and pirate novels, Nicolas Deneschau is still trying to find his rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle. He went through the cinema via Cinegenre.net before he put his pen to paper on the Merlanfrit website and now works with Third Editions.