Though it adopts a fairly straightforward approach, The Last of Us' world-building is some of the most engaging in all of gaming. Through The Last of Us' main story, players are frequently drip-fed pieces of information about the state of the world and how it became like it is. These world-building foundations are then built out properly with the game's many collectible notes, some of which give more personal details on how the state of the world has affected individuals and some of which discuss how the Cordyceps infection has impacted society.
After playing both The Last of Us games, fans will have a pretty good understanding of its post-apocalyptic world and the characters within it, but it still feels like fans are only scratching the surface of The Last of Us' universe. For the most part, The Last of Us is a franchise that's centered around North America, and while that's been a great way to ground its main events and provide an easy point of comparison for fans, it's starting to feel a little restrictive. As such, it would make sense for a potential Last of Us Part 3 to take a page out of Red Dead Redemption's book.
The Last of Us 3 Should Take Players To Unseen Corners of the Infected World
The vast majority of The Last of Us' current canon has only really shown how the Cordyceps infection has affected North America. After the Cordyceps outbreak in 2013 - or 2003 if it's the HBO continuity - citizens across North America were rounded up and put in camps that eventually became known as Quarantine Zones. A government-run military faction known as FEDRA commanded and defended these QZs. As time went on, buildings started to collapse, and foliage began growing across the abandoned country. Many of those living inside the QZs decided they wanted to be free from FEDRA's rule, and these rebellious factions started cropping up across the country, with some being more successful than others.
While all of this is established and shown consistently throughout The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part 2, little else is known about the rest of the world. A newspaper collectible in the first game states that around 60% of the world's population is believed to have died due to the Cordyceps outbreak, but that's about as much official news Naughty Dog has ever given on the matter. HBO's The Last of Us goes a little more in-depth about the Cordyceps' origin, confirming that it came from a South American factory and that it spread via food products that contain flour. But fans never actually get to see how that all impacts the rest of the world.
A hypothetical Last of Us Part 3 should finally take players outside of North America, borrowing a trend seen in the Red Dead Redemption series. During the first Red Dead Redemption, John Marston's reluctant bounty-hunting adventure takes him across the border and into Mexico. And then in Red Dead Redemption 2, following a failed bank heist in Saint Denis, Arthur Morgan and a few other members of the Van Der Linde gang wash up the shores of Guarma, an island in the Caribbean. Though these sections are a little divisive for fans, they do provide an interesting change of pace from the rest of their respective games, offering some unique scenery and giving the player a better idea of the rest of the world at this point in history.
The Last of Us Part 3 should directly borrow this element from Red Dead Redemption and take players on a road trip across the rest of America. Players could start in Mexico, or somewhere in South America, and have to make their way north to Canada, passing through some familiar North American sights along the way. This would give the game a ton of visual variation while also finally giving fans more concrete details on the state of the rest of the world.