HBO’s The Last of Us has been highly regarded as a video game adaptation and its own series. Of course, being an adaptation it will always have comparisons made to the source material to assess what was done better, similarly, or worse. Few episodes have been as faithful as the pilot was, though key story beats between Joel and Ellie are still intact throughout. However, now that The Last of Us’ first season is on the cusp of conclusion, it is clear that a decision was made early to not include nearly as many infected or human enemies as there are in the game. While this works for HBO, Amazon's God of War can't do the same.
Many more video game adaptations have been announced since from multiple different streaming services, such as Peacock’s Twisted Metal or Netflix’s Horizon series. Amazon Prime is set to develop a God of War series, rounding out yet another first party PlayStation exclusive, and there is a huge caveat to it that will need to be considered. HBO has been able to beat around the bush when it comes to action sequences or special effects for the most part, mainly due to the nature of The Last of Us, but Amazon’s God of War cannot shy away from big-budget CGI or action in its own show.
How HBO’s The Last of Us Dodges CGI and Fight Scenes
HBO’s The Last of Us represents a dystopian fungal apocalypse, but aside from dilapidated cities and ruinous buildings with fungi growing along throughout them, the environment is largely grounded and not fantastical. This gives the series some leeway in terms of where to film it, especially in its latter wintertime episodes. There is obviously still CGI used to show locations and their draw distances, but it is still nowhere near the kind of spectacle that a God of War show would need.
Moreover, The Last of Us has gotten away with not including many of the numerous combat encounters players normally wade through in the game. The infected were changed to a hive mind in the show, which means that seemingly even more would need to be on-screen at any given time due to their connective mob mentality. Fans of the show exclusively will be none the wiser, but certain encounters are made much more anticlimactic because of their lack of a gameplay-centric design.
There are far more instances of combat in the game. That was made obvious in The Last of Us’ University of Eastern Colorado scene, where one man attacks and stabs Joel with the broken end of a baseball bat. In the game, Joel and Ellie make their way through a handful of enemies, and Joel’s impalement comes from rebar he lands on after falling from a balcony while grappling with an enemy.
God of War is a Much More Action-Oriented Spectacle
God of War is much more fantastical than The Last of Us, and that inherently will demand much grander vistas. It is still unclear whether Amazon’s show plans to adapt the entirety of Kratos’ narrative and start with his Greek origins, which it will certainly need to touch upon to contextualize Kratos’ demeanor and place in Norse mythology.
Even if it begins with the Norse mythology and offers illustrative flashbacks from the past, the only times that God of War can get away with having full episodes that are not jam-packed with special effects are when Kratos and Atreus are at home in their remote cabin in the snow-blanketed wilderness. God of War does not have many human enemy types that Amazon can rely upon for ease of production, and almost all of its environments are enormous landscapes with unique architecture.
Because God of War’s earlier installments are wall-to-wall hack-and-slash romps, it would be ludicrously misrepresentative to not have spectacular fight scenes with Kratos’ Blades flailing around as hordes of enemies swarm him. If Amazon plans to only adapt God of War’s Norse saga, it could have a bit more leeway with how much combat is needed. Nonetheless, God of War would deserve the same amount of effects and CGI as seen in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power in order to sufficiently represent Midgard and all the Nine Realms.This adaptation could be more representative of actual gameplay than HBO’s The Last of Us is.
A live-action God of War series is in development for Amazon Prime.