series of The Last of Us has proven to be one of the biggest recent hits in HBO history. The premiere of each new episode has almost automatically represented the setting of a new audience record since its start.
Chapter three, as we shared with you in the previous review, represented a major trajectory change with the development of the characters of Bill and Frank.
Such a situation unleashed some harsh criticism among the most orthodox fans of the title for the PlayStation, who wanted to see an adaptation traced to the game’s history.
The truth is that the narrative decisions made advocate greater dramatic depth and better character development, taking advantage of the possibilities offered by the format of a series.
Bill and Frank were incidental characters and the proposed change did not strictly represent a major alteration to the main plot.
But the reality is that what was seen in that third episode was just the prelude to many more changes that we are already beginning to see.
The main differences between the video game and episode 4 of The Last of Us
The chapter in its own way starts with a great homage to the original game, copying almost frame by frame the sequence where Ellie finds Bill’s adult magazine.
But in the same way we see how the formula of the previous episode is repeated a bit, where it starts with an induction rooted in the video game and then begins to build new scenarios, implementing some profound changes along the way.
For example, here shortly after that sequence we get to know the situation with Tommy and his life story in greater (and better) depth. Moving away from the approach of the title for PlayStation, where Joel and his brother were estranged by an unresolved resentment.
The range of abilities of both brothers is made more believable, being military ex-combatants and not a pair of construction workers surviving a zombie apocalypse.
The casual dialogues between Joel and Ellie are picked up here to shape more concrete scenes, such as reading jokes from the joke book.
We also see that the scene on the cassette with the Hank Williams song in the van is respected almost entirely, with some of the context altered, as is the case with that sequence where the protagonist teaches her how to hold a weapon.
Although there is a change of geography about the city where the entire encounter with the group of Los Cazadores takes place, with Kansas City instead of Pittsburgh, the sequence where an outlaw pretends to ask for help to try to attack Ellie and Joel is respected almost in its whole.
The scene where Ellie intervenes to save Joel has a less tense construction in its beginning but much more dramatic in its resolution compared to the one in the game where the boy almost drowned in a puddle.
A new character is added to the story, Kathleen, who gives identity and motive to The Hunters, at the same time that it seems to help give more depth to the characters of Sam and Henry seen at the end of the episode.
In the end, everything indicates that the fifth episode will be an extreme mix between connecting the dots pending from the school scene in Bill’s section in the game and the climatic resolution after the meeting with Sam and Henry.