The Last of Us is well-known for its tense action-adventure gameplay, whether players methodically dispatch armed bandits or crouch around hearing-sensitive clickers. Fortunately, a substantial portion of both The Last of Us and its sequel give players beloved characters as NPCs whose AI will help players take down enemies.
Naughty Dog uses NPC assistance to service gameplay and narrative, and the characters create a better bond the more time is spent with one another. This is true of Joel and Ellie in the first game, for example, where Ellie's non-verbal behavior and communication is an important part of how she responds to Joel. This also encourages her to leap onto bandits more often once she is comfortable with him. In a hilarious turn of events, however, a player has shared an instance of an unsuspecting ally in The Last of Us 2.
In The Last of Us 2's Ellie portion, during Seattle Day 3, Ellie traverses the flooded city in a motorboat. Ellie enters into the multi-floored W&B Arcade, which had been ceremoniously decorated for one of its annual Fright Nites. as Ellie falls down onto a lower level, she encounters one of The Last of Us 2's most fearsome enemies. In this sequence, Ellie must battle a bloater and a small mob of runners on a floor full of destructible arcade cabinets. However, Redditor The84th has shared a video where the bloater inadvertently assists the player as a runner approaches.
Ellie is able to strike and stun the runner before it can reach her, but before Ellie is able to strike or dash backward from the encounter, the bloater appears in frame and decks the runner onto the floor. The bloater can be seen turning toward Ellie thereafter, so it is assumed that the bloater's actions were not intended to be friendly. While the bloater is not a dedicated NPC accompanying Ellie on her vengeful journey, The Last of Us 2's AI here is funny nonetheless because it shows that friendly fire exists with enemy hitboxes.
There may not be many instances where this could be repeated in The Last of Us 2. It is fun to see that it is possible to have enemies attack each other, though it would not be advised on a tense run of The Last of Us 2's Grounded Permadeath mode, for example, where a hit like that could spell the end of the player's entire playthrough.
The Last of Us 2 is available now on PS4.
