Spoiler warning: This article discusses plot points from throughout The Last of Us and its sequel.
The Last of Us, the game that left us all in turmoil and heartache. I’ve played it countless amounts of times, though never without the background music. But why would anyone do that?
In a recent post on reddit, user InterestingVoice6792, whose real name is Oscar Sharpe, spoke about his experience playing The Last of Us Part 2 with the music toggled off – and what a change it brought to the overall experience.
Having no music made it feel strange and alien, Sharpe said, but also peaceful in some places. “Riding into Jackson as Joel not hearing ‘Unbroken’ but instead birds, wheat and horse hooves was as beautiful if not more than the first time,” he wrote. “It truly felt like a brand-new experience.”
Having loved the first game myself, I decided to try it out.
When I first began the game, I didn’t feel any difference. Most of the gameplay scenes didn’t have music and any devastating scenes like Sarah’s death were all cutscenes that couldn’t have music turned off.
But then I got to Tommy’s Dam. That’s when it started changing.
At the start of the chapter, Tommy gives Joel a picture of him and Sarah. Usually there is faint melancholic music playing as Joel stares at the picture. But this time, there was deafening silence between the two brothers, making the scene even more devastating. Yet the scene with the Giraffes, which I thought was a sweet little addition to the chaotic world the rest of the game is set in, was made quite sorrowful without the music.