It could be argued that playing a video game depicting a dystopian Santa Barbara decimated by a virulent infection and loaded with jump scares may not be the best way to currently unwind. Going to bed sweaty-palmed and palpitating has not proved conducive to restful sleep or soothing distraction from real-life worry. And yet, with its exceptionally well-crafted storytelling and convincing portrayal of a post-apocalyptic Santa Barbara, The Last of Us Part II on PlayStation 4 serves as an arduous but essential experience for any Central Coast gamer with the stomach for horror.
The game is set in 2039, 25 years after a zoonotic infection ravages half of the Earth’s population. With their brains addled by an invasive cordyceps fungus, the enthralled infected are rendered violent zombies, intent on attacking the living to propagate the virus. Society has collapsed, and humanity’s survivors have broken into factions, many of which include characters just as aggressive and ruthless as their undead counterparts.
You play (mostly) as Ellie, a young woman at once miraculously immune to the virus and wholly traumatized by the pandemic’s attendant consequences. Driven by the desire to avenge the murder of a loved one, Ellie navigates a world fraught with peril, traveling from a snowpacked Wyoming countryside to the verdant city streets of Seattle and finally down the coast to a stunningly familiar representation of Santa Barbara.