Honestly, most DLC feels like a cash grab. You get a few extra skins, maybe a repetitive side quest, and a map that looks exactly like the one you just spent sixty hours clearing. But The Last of Us Left Behind is different. It’s weirdly short, yet it somehow manages to carry more emotional weight than entire trilogies. If you played the original 2013 masterpiece, you remember the "winter" chapter where Ellie is hunting a deer in the snow, desperately trying to keep a feverish Joel alive. That gap in the timeline always felt like a mystery.
Then Naughty Dog dropped Left Behind.
It’s a story told in two halves. One part follows Ellie scavenging a derelict mall for medical supplies to patch up Joel’s stomach wound. The other? A flashback to a night she spent with her best friend, Riley Abel, weeks before the main game starts. It’s about love, sure. But it’s also about the crushing reality of growing up in a world that ended before you were even born.
What People Get Wrong About Riley and Ellie
A lot of people think Riley was just a plot device to explain Ellie’s immunity. That’s a massive oversimplification. Riley, a Firefly recruit who went AWOL, represents the only thing Ellie actually wanted: a choice. In the flashback sequence, the two sneak into an abandoned Boston mall.
It’s not some gritty survival horror mission. Not at first.
They’re just kids. They play on a broken merry-go-round. They have a brick-throwing contest to see who can smash car windows faster. They take photos in a booth that doesn't even print the pictures. This is where the writing shines. Most games would make this "escort mission" fluff, but Neil Druckmann and the team at Naughty Dog used these moments to build a tether between the player and the characters. You aren't just watching a cutscene; you’re participating in the last few hours of Ellie’s childhood.
When Riley reveals she’s been assigned to a different city and this is her goodbye, the tension shifts. It’s no longer about the Infected. It’s about the fear of being alone. This is the core theme of the entire franchise, but it’s distilled here into a single, neon-lit evening.
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The Combat Mechanics Actually Changed
Don't let the "walking sim" moments fool you. The gameplay in Left Behind introduced a mechanic that the main game desperately needed: three-way combat.
In the present-day mall segments, Ellie is hunted by David’s men. But the mall is also infested with Clickers and Stalkers. Unlike Joel, who can basically punch a hole through a wall, Ellie is small. She's fragile. You have to play smart.
The smartest thing you can do? Throw a bottle to lure a Clicker toward a group of human hunters.
It’s chaotic. It’s satisfying. Watching a Bloater rip apart the guy who was just trying to snipe you is a highlight of the series. This wasn't just a gimmick; it was a test run for the expanded stealth mechanics we eventually saw in The Last of Us Part II. If you haven't tried kiting enemies into each other, you're playing the game wrong. You've gotta be a bit of a chaotic neutral in these encounters.
The Tragedy of the Photo Booth
The photo booth scene is arguably the most heartbreaking moment in gaming history that doesn't involve a single drop of blood. You choose the poses. You watch the "social media" prompts that feel like relics from our world. It’s a gut punch because we know where this ends. We know Ellie is immune. We know Riley isn't.
Ashley Johnson’s performance here is incredible. She captures that awkward, frantic energy of a teenager who realizes she’s losing her favorite person. When they finally dance to the music from a dusty electronics store, it’s beautiful. And then, the bite happens.
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The game doesn't show the end. It doesn't need to. We’ve already seen the aftermath in the way Ellie carries herself in the main story.
Why Left Behind Matters for the HBO Series
If you’ve watched the HBO adaptation starring Bella Ramsey and Storm Reid, you saw how faithful they stayed to this DLC. Episode 7, "Left Behind," is almost a shot-for-shot remake of the game. That’s because the source material was already cinematic.
The show added a bit more context regarding Riley’s time with the Fireflies and Marlene’s role, but the soul remained the same. It proved that the story wasn’t just about the "zombie" apocalypse. It was about the cost of hope. Even in 2026, looking back at this 2014 release, the pacing is better than most modern AAA titles. It’s lean. No filler.
Technical Details and Re-Releases
If you’re looking to play The Last of Us Left Behind now, you have a few options:
- The Last of Us Part I (PS5/PC): This is the full remake. The graphics are night and day compared to the original. The lighting in the mall is stunning, and the facial animations make the ending hit ten times harder.
- The Last of Us Remastered (PS4): This is the version most people played. It includes the DLC on the disc. It still holds up at 60fps, even if the textures look a bit flat by today's standards.
- Standalone: For a while, Sony sold Left Behind as a separate download.
The PC port had a rough launch—let's be real, it was a mess—but after dozens of patches, it’s finally in a state where you can enjoy the mall’s atmosphere without the game crashing every time a spore appears on screen.
The Actionable Truth: How to Experience This Best
If you’re coming to this for the first time, or maybe replaying it after the show, don't rush. The game tracks "Optional Conversations." Find them.
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Read the notes scattered around the mall. There’s a whole sub-story about the people who lived in the mall right after the outbreak—a group of survivors who tried to build a mini-society. It mirrors what Ellie and Riley are going through.
Pro-Tip for Grounded Difficulty: Save your arrows. In the final fight in the mall atrium, use the environment. There are bricks everywhere. If you try to Rambo your way through the hunters while Joel is bleeding out in the back room, you will die. Over and over. Use the Infected as your personal army.
Checklist for the "Perfect" Run:
- Win the brick-throwing contest (it changes the dialogue).
- Tell all the jokes from the pun book. Seriously, do it. It’s the only time Ellie actually sounds happy.
- Listen to the entire arcade sequence dialogue. Since the machine is broken, Riley "narrates" a fight for Ellie. It’s a masterclass in voice acting.
This isn't just a side story. It’s the spine of Ellie’s character. It explains her survivor's guilt. It explains why she’s so desperate to make her life "mean something" in the final act of the main game. Without Left Behind, Ellie is a mystery. With it, she’s the most human character ever put in a video game.
Next Steps for Players:
If you’ve finished the DLC, go back and replay the "Winter" chapter of the main game immediately. You’ll notice the shift in Ellie’s voice. You’ll see the way she handles the knife differently. Once you understand what she lost in that mall, her fight to save Joel becomes a desperate attempt to not let history repeat itself. You can find the full Remake on the PlayStation Store or Steam—just make sure your GPU can handle the volumetric lighting in the mall, because it's heavy.