So, you’ve been watching The Final of Us on HBO and are occupied with moving into the bigger franchise? Whereas it does appear fairly easy, there’s a little bit of exterior media price trying out to get the total sense of the sequence. Right here’s a rundown on find out how to get the total Final of Us expertise.
The Final of Us: American Desires
Earlier than the primary The Final of Us sport launched in 2013, there was a sequence of prequel comics known as American Desires printed that very same 12 months. The four-issue e book follows Ellie earlier than she met Joel and focuses on her relationship with Riley, a buddy you’ve heard passing point out of within the first episode of the HBO present. The comedian doesn’t fairly wrap up their story, as Riley will make one other look within the first sport’s Left Behind DLC, however it’s a good tone setter for Ellie’s view of the sequence’ world. It’s not required studying, nevertheless it’s price your time.
What’s the easiest way to play the primary The Final of Us?
There are a number of methods to play the unique sport, together with some cheaper methods your pockets may discover preferable. The very best model of the primary sport is final 12 months’s The Final of Us Half I PlayStation 5 remake. It’s the prettiest model, it fixes some gameplay issues to make fight extra in step with The Final of Us Half II, and it comes bundled with essentially the most content material (with one evident exception being its lack of the unique sport’s multiplayer mode). Nevertheless, it’s $70, requires a PS5 you may not have, and there are cheaper methods to play the sport which might be nearly pretty much as good.
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Probably the most available model of the primary The Final of Us sport is the PlayStation 4 port known as The Final of Us Remastered. It’s solely $20 on the PlayStation Retailer, pre-owned copies can possible be discovered for somewhat bit cheaper, and it consists of the a lot beloved multiplayer mode known as Factions, which you gained’t discover on the PS5 remake. The sport can be accessible as a part of the PlayStation Plus Premium membership, which is able to price you $15 a month. So if you wish to save a pair bucks whereas not proudly owning the sport itself, that’s one other path to go.
Should you someway nonetheless have a PlayStation 3 sitting round in 2023, the unique PS3 model can be an possibility. The best means could be to discover a disc copy on-line, as making an attempt to purchase something on the PS3 retailer is a ache as Sony has made it close to not possible to easily make a transaction on the factor. Now, the one manner to purchase video games and content material by means of the PS3’s digital retailer is thru bodily reward playing cards, as you’ll be able to not use your bank card to purchase straight. It’s an possibility, nevertheless it’s a problem. By the way in which, whereas the RPCS3 PS3 emulator for Home windows is superb, it doesn’t but run The Final of Us.
The Left Behind DLC
After you’ve performed the unique sport, the following step is to play its DLC, Left Behind. The roughly three-hour expertise focuses fully on Ellie, and features a prequel story about her and Riley. Whereas these segments happen earlier than the principle sport, it’s meant to be performed after you’ve seen credit on Joel and Ellie’s journey. In order tempting because it could be to see extra about the place Ellie got here from, Left Behind isn’t structured to be performed first.
The DLC comes packaged in with each The Final of Us Half I and The Final of Us Remastered, however you can too buy it as a standalone package deal on PS3 and PS4 (the latter is playable on PS5) for $10.
The Final of Us Half II
After you’ve seen Joel and Ellie’s story throughout, it’s time to leap into the sequel. As of this writing, The Final of Us Half II has solely been launched as soon as, on the PS4. Nevertheless, for those who run it on PS5, you’ll be capable of play it at 60 frames per second, and the framerate enhance does quite a bit to make its intensive fight replace actually shine. However both manner, that is the final cease for the mainline story of The Final of Us, and will keep that manner if Naughty Canine decides to not make a 3rd sport. It doesn’t finish on a definitive observe, so there’s hypothetically extra story to inform, nevertheless it does finish on a considerate one that might be a high-quality sufficient place to depart the story.
Extracurricular The Final of Us content material
The Final of Us: Grounded
Should you’re in any respect within the making of the unique sport, there’s a reasonably nice documentary known as The Final of Us: Grounded that comes bundled with the remaster and remake however can be available on streaming platforms like YouTube. It’s a little bit of a puff piece, nevertheless it does have loads of fascinating behind-the-scenes footage and segments of Naughty Canine devs speaking in regards to the conception and growth of the primary sport. Should you like The Final of Us, it’s price carving out the virtually 90 minutes to look at Grounded.
The Official The Final of Us Podcast
For those who favor their behind-the-scenes look to be in audio kind, there’s an official podcast on the event of each video games accessible on most platforms. The Official The Final of Us Podcast is hosted by Christian Spicer and options interviews with members of the event group and actors like Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker.
The Final of Us: One Night time Reside
Again when The Final of Us: Remastered launched in 2014, Naughty Canine arrange a stage occasion known as The Final of Us: One Night time Reside the place the sport actors recreated scenes on stage, together with Baker as Joel, Johnson as Ellie, Merle Dandridge as Marlene, and the late Annie Wersching as Tess. The occasion features a few choose scenes, so it’s not the total sport’s story performed out for you on stage, however it’s a neat factor to see all these actors performing these scenes with out it being lined within the sport’s animation. It’s streaming without spending a dime on YouTube.
Ongoing/upcoming The Final of Us content material
HBO’s The Final of Us Podcast
Troy Baker is at present internet hosting a weekly podcast that recaps new episodes of HBO’s The Final of Us. It’s rolling out after episodes air, so usually (except Episode 5, which is airing early) new episodes will go up on Sundays after the episode is made accessible on HBO Max.
The Final of Us: Escape the Darkish
Themeborne, a tabletop studio based mostly within the UK, is engaged on a The Final of Us-themed tabletop sport known as The Final of Us: Escape the Darkish. The sport is at present projected to launch for Kickstarter backers in December of this 12 months and focuses on survivors within the sequence’ post-apocalyptic universe.
The Final of Us: The Board Sport
Escape the Darkish isn’t the one tabletop expertise set in The Final of Us’ universe within the works, as CMON introduced in 2020 it was engaged on a board sport of its personal. Not a lot is understood about The Final of Us: The Board Sport past its preliminary announcement.
The upcoming multiplayer sport
Throughout The Final of Us Half II’s growth, Naughty Canine made the choice to separate the sport’s story from its deliberate multiplayer mode. Now we’re arising on three years for the reason that sequel launched, and we nonetheless don’t have the multiplayer. That’s as a result of Naughty Canine ended up making it into its personal sport. It’s teased it a number of instances within the years since and plans to point out extra this 12 months.
Within the ten years for the reason that unique sport got here out, The Final of Us has gone from one tight single participant sport to an enormous franchise. Whereas the video games themselves inform a reasonably singular, concise story, the model has change into pretty expansive. So even for those who appreciated the present however have hassle with video video games, issues just like the tabletop video games and American Desires are on the market for many who are extra snug with passive media just like the HBO present. And hey, if you wish to see the whole thing of the video games however aren’t nice at taking part in them, there are all the time Let’s Performs.