The Last of Us 2 is one of the best horror games of all time. Its core themes of death, despair, and survival amid a zombie apocalypse keep tension and terror levels high throughout, but it's also an intelligent game – one that keeps you guessing from start to finish. Three years later, I'm sure you hardly need me telling you this. But as The Last of Us Part 3 rumors circled earlier this week, I was transported back to a time of real-world uncertainty, of slaughtering scores of in-game infected, and of legging it down dark corridors with the abominable Rat King snapping at my quivering heels.
Like most fans of Naughty Dog's blockbuster survival horror series – one that's since made hugely successful cross-media strides into television – I played The Last of Us 2 at launch, during the height of lockdown measures levied by the global pandemic. At such a confusing and unsettling time in reality, that trip to the bowels of a Seattle hospital to face-off against the most fearsome Cordyceps-infected beast yet was lauded as one of the game's most disturbing and spine-chilling sequences.
