Spoilers ahead for The Last of Us Part 2 and The Last of Us Season 2.
In addition to a painful, distressing death, Season 2 Episode 2 of The Last of Us gave audiences quite a spectacle when thousands of infected came rushing down the city of Jackson. Here, Tommy went toe-to-toe with a bloater. The show, for a brief while, ended up looking very reminiscent of HBO’s previous big hit, Game of Throne s, and how it portrayed enormous battles.
The bloater itself was huge, terrifying, and hard to take down, turning this brand-new scene for the show into a standout for HBO's adaptation. Now, it’s safe to assume that another spectacle may be worth anticipating if The Last of Us ends up featuring the Rat King at some point in the show, whether that's during this current season or the next.
Why a Rat King Fight in HBO's The Last of Us Just Got a Lot More Promising
The Last of Us' bloater fight hopefully wasn't just a visual flex, but instead a tease and a subtle proof of concept. It confirmed that The Last of Us showrunners aren’t just capable of handling large-scale infected action, and that they’re committed to delivering it with weight and spectacle. The execution of the bloater's grotesque design, screen presence, and chaos (being the lone infected who could smash a hole into the town's defenses), mirrored its in-game threat level almost one-to-one.
That sets a precedent, and with that precedent comes expectation: if HBO is willing to go that far for a pivotal infected moment in the show's second episode, it could be setting the stage for something even more ambitious. One of the most infamous and scary enemies in The Last of Us Part 2, the Rat King was already cinematic in design. A grotesque fusion of multiple infected types with erratic movements and a second phase where a stalker separates from its mass, the Rat King makes for a claustrophobic and unique encounter in Part 2.
Translating Main Infected Types Seemed Difficult Until Now
Translating a fully fleshed-out bloater, let alone a Rat King, to screen always seemed like a tall order until now. The bloater sequence demonstrated that HBO isn’t cutting corners when it comes to creature effects, practical makeup, or high-end CGI. If they approach The Last of Us Part 2's Rat King with the same technical aggression and plot tension, it won’t just be accurate but also easily lure in any game fan who wasn’t necessarily following the show up until this point.
How HBO Can Turn Game Mechanics Into TV Format’s Prestige Horror
The Rat King isn’t just one of The Last of Us' hardest bosses, but a testament to how well Part 2 layers suspense and drama into its build-up.
For The Last of Us TV series to translate this whole scene effectively, it has to replace interactivity with pure tension, using cinematography, sound design, and spatial pacing to simulate that same sense of dread. The Rat King doesn’t need to replicate player experience one-to-one, and there's a possibility that neither Season 2 nor Season 3 actually adapts the Rat King, opting for something else entirely. Only time will tell what HBO has chosen for its adaptation, which, in many ways, is incredibly lenient with what it has chosen to faithfully depict from the games.
The Last of Us Part 2
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 93 /100 Critics Rec: 95%
- Released
- June 19, 2020
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
- Developer(s)
- Naughty Dog
- Publisher(s)
- Sony
- Engine
- Proprietary
- Franchise
- The Last of Us
WHERE TO PLAY
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
- How Long To Beat
- 24 Hours
