Left Behind was incredible. By far the best DLC I've played.
What I truly loved was the writing which should come as no surprise to anyone. Everything we see from Ellie throughout the main campaign is given an extra dimension and light thanks to Riley. Naughty Dog kept a specific part of the DLC a secret which was a very clever move. Without that part, there would have been far less combat and the impact would not have been the same. Allow me to elaborate.
(Heavy SPOILERS for the main campaign AND Left Behind, follows):
Riley dies. We know this. We did not need to see it other than them going for the cliché feelings. Infact I feel pretty foolish for expecting it since the main ending of The Last of Us was anything but cliché
Instead the relationship between Ellie and Riley seems to be more than just friendship. Dare I say romance?
My view is that Ellie did not seem to have anyone else in her life and Riley did so much for her that Ellie could not really help but feel grateful for.
Riley on the other hand, threw away her firefly pendant and claimed that she did not know why she came back and risked her life just to hang with Ellie in the mall.
I believe it is rather evident that Riley, being the older: had some feelings for Ellie and that Ellie felt something too although how strong they are are still not exactly clear. That is... until you really think about Spring.
This DLC shows that Ellie while trying to save Joel is actually reflecting back upon losing Riley. So by the time of Spring when Ellie is all distant... It could be because she is thinking about Riley. This makes even more sense as she also mentions Riley towards the end when confronting Joel about the lie. You have to admit that Ellie mentioning her best friend out of nowhere in the main campaign was a little strange. Survivors guilt or not.
After Left Behind however, it all adds up to me. It's not about her knowing that they're going to carve her brain (she infact states that she has no clue at one point) nor is it because the hardships she had with David. Although yeah, in many ways: All of these play a role, absolutely! BUT they are not the main aspect of it.
Spring starts with Ellie seeing a deer which reflects back upon her time being left behind and thus reminding her of Riley, her best and only friend.
Other than this, we also saw just how much of Ellie came from Riley. Riley truly influenced her and seeing moments such as the joke book and the general playful side of Ellie made me emotional. And here is the greatest aspect of it all:
It further enforces my own interpretation of the ending. Which is that Ellie is happy that Joel goes to the length he does to protect her. She decides to trust him, despite her knowing that Joel is obviously hiding something hence the reason she even asks him to swear to begin with.
Riley: "We fight."
Ellie: "Fight for what? We're gonna turn into one of those things."
Riley: "There are a million ways we should've died before today."
Riley: "And a million ways we can die before tomorrow. "
Riley: "But we fight. For every second we get to spend with each other. Whether its two minutes; or two days... We dont give that up. I dont wanna give that up."
While Riley says this, it pans over to Ellie looking over Joel and riding into the snow.
Ellie truly loved Joel. We also see this when she grabs the medkit in the chopper and whispers
Ellie: "I'm not letting you go. I'm not letting you go."
From a writing standpoint, Neil Druckmann nailed it. The story is in an absolute world class when compared to video games in general. The storytelling also is in a league of its own along with the performances of the characters. It does not subtract from the main story, it merely adds a great deal to it and further makes Ellie the best character that has been produced by the gaming industry.
The only thing that subtracts this incredible experience from being a masterpiece is that the game design was a bit slow in certain moments. Do not get me wrong, I adore pretty much every moment we got , especially those character bonding parts. However the story they decided to tell was a bit difficult to create an exciting game design around. The inclusion of humans and infected fighting at the same time was a great choice however there were only about three of these encounters and most of them came towards the end where the game ended quickly after it.
Luckily there were some truly unique moments that felt like taken straight from the creativity of many talented indie developers. It was very refreshing to see a company like Naughty Dog take quite the risk in doing that and for what Left Behind was trying to be: It was the right decision. It was for this reason very, very different from The Last of Us.
Combine that along with the quality being so high that you just simply wish it would be longer and you have the only two valid reasons from keeping this DLC from being a masterpiece, in my eyes. So while the main game is one of the best games I have ever played in my life. This DLC will simply have to serve as the best DLC I have played and an incredible experience that is an absolute must for everyone who has finished The Last of Us.
At first, I didn't like the idea of a sequel BUT after finishing this, I think it would be the right step. Once the credits started rolling, I got a serious heart ache, like when I first beat The Last of Us.
Seriously, now, forget about how The Last of Us ended, just think about Joel. Joel was pretty fleshed out throughout the course of the game, we learned he was a contractor, he had a daughter, he was a smuggler, and all that other good stuff. We learned a bit about Ellie, but not nearly as much as Left Behind taught us about her. We learned she doesn't like to be alone (Riley leaving her to go with the Fireflies) and for the most part, expanded on a lot of stuff from The Last of Us.
Now that both Joel, and Ellie, are fleshed out, and we can view them as people, instead of characters, there's no reason why Naughty Dog shouldn't take their story further. Now that I've played Left Behind, I care way too much about Joel and Ellie to just walk away from them. The only thing Naughty Dog can do, is take them forward. We know their likes, their dislikes, their past, their personalities, we know A LOT about them. The only thing to do, is to create their next story. Naughty Dog surprised a lot of us with Left Behind, so there's no reason why they can't wow us with a sequel.
Yeah, I doubt anybody will read this massive post (and I can see why) but I just find typing a nice way to get things off my chest