If The Last of Us Part 1 and The Last of Us Part 2 have proven anything, it’s that an exquisite taste for fashion wasn’t devoured by a ravenous taste for human flesh on Outbreak Day. Refusing to slum it in sweatpants and a hooded sweatshirt, Joel spends his days before The Last of Us Part 1’s events smuggling and surviving both inside and outside of Boston’s quarantine zone, where he is first seen wearing a green plaid button-down. Joel later swaps green plaid for red plaid by the time he and Ellie arrive in Jackson, Wyoming, and it’s not long before the weather becomes a bit brisker, necessitating a brown jacket over a denim shirt.
Joel continues to dress exceptionally well for a 56-year-old in The Last of Us Part 2, but an understated fashion sense is not exclusive to him. Indeed, dressing well is evidently a common denominator shared among nearly every character with henleys and cargo pants becoming ubiquitous base layer canvases. Of course, with even more military forces present and human enemy factions armed to the teeth, it doesn’t quite make sense why characters aren’t better equipped. Thankfully, the Rattlers propose a solution to this query that may have been sitting under Naughty Dog’s nose this whole time.
A Show-Only Moment from The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 2 Can Actually Be Pulled Off In-Game
The Last of Us' Season 2 Episode 2 features a battle in Jackson that can be achieved in Part 2's No Return, albeit at a tenth of the scope.
The Last of Us’ Wardrobe is More Style Than Substance
Joel and Ellie wearing streetwear in The Last of Us’ combat isn’t a worthwhile nitpick on its own. Still, considering the people they’ve come across and how they barely made it out alive on numerous occasions, a piece of protective gear doesn’t seem like it would be inconvenient.
Even Abby, who is affiliated with The Last of Us Part 2’s Washington Liberation Front faction as a trained soldier, sticks to a bomber jacket and cargo pants when she could easily get her hands on a bulletproof vest. In canon, The Last of Us’ protagonists do take bad beatings and sustain injuries that should have killed or debilitated them; Ellie managing to keep Joel alive after he’s impaled on rebar is nothing short of a Christmas miracle, for example, and Ellie being punctured by a spike jutting out from a tree and simply sewing it up hours later without it affecting gameplay seems unrealistic.
In non-canonical gameplay, players are being shot at constantly, and all the playable protagonist needs to do to mend that wound is wrap a bandage around their arm, which isn’t realistic but is perfectly immersive given that there’s an animation occurring as the character treats their injury. The Last of Us Part 2 does debut damage over time via arrows, where players struck by a Seraphite arrow suffer prolonged damage until they manually remove it.
The Last of Us Part 2’s Rattlers Make a Notable Fashion Statement
Few enemies in The Last of Us are profoundly affected by what they wear, but even a clicker that happens to be wearing a vest is harder to take down with body shots. The WLF faction does wear tactical gear, at least more so than Joel and his Carhartt, but it’s The Last of Us Part 2’s Rattlers whose armor is particularly bothersome.
The Rattlers faction features an enemy type who dons a helmet, as does the Rattler Captain boss in The Last of Us Part 2’s roguelike mode, No Return, that can be a nuisance in any encounter since players can’t headshot him cleanly like they might with any other enemy type. Bricks, bottles, and stun bombs can be a boon in a pinch when it comes to Rattlers as players can stun a helmet enemy, grab them, and kill them easily enough, but a future Last of Us game could learn from their copious armor and headgear by allowing the player to equip such items as well.
To be fair, The Last of Us’ Factions multiplayer mode does feature purchasable armor in the form of helmets and vests that decrease damage taken to the head and body, but no such feature has been implemented in The Last of Us’ single-player campaigns.
It would go a long way in elevating gunplay if players could don riot gear or a bulletproof vest and potentially take more ballistic damage while wearing equipment with varying levels of durability. The Last of Us’ expendable melee weapons already have durability meters, for instance, and translating durability from weapons to gear could make shootouts and equipment loadout preparations a terrific evolution for the series.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 89 /100 Critics Rec: 90%
- Released
- January 19, 2024
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
- Developer(s)
- Naughty Dog
- Publisher(s)
- Sony Interactive Entertainment
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Proprietary Engine
- Franchise
- The Last of Us
- PC Release Date
- April 3, 2025
- PS5 Release Date
- January 19, 2024
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
- PS Plus Availability
- N/A
