Deep Dive: HBO's The Last of Us vs. The Game - Tidbits, Details, Similarities and Differences

Table of Contents

• Deep Dive: HBO's The Last of Us vs. The Game - Tidbits, Details, Similarities and Differences
• Joel's age and date of birth
• Signs of impeding epidemic
• Movie for Joel
• Joel and Tess' relationship
• Mirror reflection
• Mortal Kombat 2
• Bill and Frank's storyline

Mortal Kombat 2

At the beginning of the third episode, Joel and Ellie visit the Cumberland Farms store because the man wants to recover some gear that he has hidden. Once inside, the girl notices the original Mortal Kombat 2 coin-op slot machine, created by Midway Games in 1993. This alone qualifies for an Easter egg, but fans of the original are able to get much more out of this scene.

In the scene described above, Ellie mentions that she has a friend who knows almost everything about the game, which is interesting in that she probably didn't get a chance to play it. This is, of course, about Riley, a girl present in the plot of the Left Behind expansion to the first TLoU. In the aforementioned expansion, Ellie and Riley go to an arcade and pretend to play a broken slot machine called The Turning. The machine, in turn, may be a reference to the Mortal Kombat series, because it seems that The Turning in this universe was a classic, two-dimensional brawler.

In the remake of The Last of Us, which debuted last year, the developers decided to go one step further. If we look closely at the room where Ellie and Riley talk for the first time, we'll notice that a poster advertising Mortal Kombat 2 hangs above the bed. In the 2014 original, the poster wasn't there, which may mean that Naughty Dog added it to the refreshed version of the game.

What was the purpose of this? It is difficult answer to this question, because although the poster in the girls' room was only added in the remake, the scene with the slot machine in The Last of Us: Part I remained unchanged and the heroines still pretended to be playing The Turning. Everything indicates that this was changed to make it more in tune with the show. In the later episodes of the series, a fairly long segment referring to the plot of the Left Behind expansion is to be present, so it's possible that we will see the Mortal Kombat 2 slot machine for the second time. Who knows, maybe it will even work?

The flashlight

An interesting detail concerns the flashlights used by the characters of the TV show. Contrary to what we've seen in the game, Joel never attaches his flashlight to the straps of his backpack, which means that in the first three episodes of the series, he always carries it in his hand. He has more control over the light stream, but one hand is constantly occupied, which is obviously not ideal in some cases. Interestingly, it looks completely different in the case of Ellie. The girl fastens the flashlight to her backpack relatively quickly, exactly as in the game.

Problems with Robert

Tess is attacked by two young men from Robert's group. In the series, we see these two characters meet and discuss the aggressive duo and the subsequent actions. There, we can also see how much Robert is afraid of Joel. The encounter ends with an explosion caused by the Fireflies. In the game, things take a different turn. Beaten up, Tess comes to Joel, and they discuss the situation with Robert.

The whole thread is different in both productions. In the show, Robert sells someone else a battery that Tess and Joel paid him for. They decide to get to Robert and deal with him, but by the time they arrive, he is already dead. In the game, Robert cheats the heroes with some weapons, after which they reach him and deliver justice at their own hands.