Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us Part II.
yet The last of us Season 1 ignores the scariest infected variant of the games, season 2 needs to bring the creepiest type of zombie franchise. The biggest complaint about HBO The last of us Was that it didn’t have nearly as many encounters with the infected as the games. The TV adaptation was always going to have fewer infected encounters, due to the nature of the medium, but it reduced the presence of the infected so much that they didn’t feel like the ever-present threat they were in the games, to the point that A cure was less necessary.
Still, when the infected appeared in season 1, the producers featured a wide range of infected variants. A runner attacked Ali’s mother Anna while she was giving birth; A clicker came after Joel, Ellie and Tess in the museum, just like in the game; And a bubble emerges when Catelyn’s army is ravaged by a horde. But it’s One more key infected variant of the games that is missing from the TV show. Co-showrunner Craig Mazin has promised more infected in The last of us Season 2, and it should finally bring the missing zombie type.
The Last of Us Season 2 needs to introduce stalkers
Stalkers are arguably the last of us’ scariest infected variant
Season 1 didn’t have any stalkers, but they are arguably the scariest type of infected in the games. If The last of us Season 2 will make good on its promise to include more infected and ramp up the zombie terror, and it needs to finally introduce Stalker. Although stalkers were featured in a couple of encounters in the first game—mainly in the hotel basement in Pittsburgh and in the sewers on the way out of Pittsburgh— They were featured much more prominently in the second game, so season 2 is the perfect place to introduce them.
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There are a lot of encounters in The Last of Us Part II That revolves around stalkers. When Ali is making her way to the hospital through a newspaper office, she is surrounded by the terrifying creatures. When Abby and Lev make their chosen descent through the infested hotel, a bunch of stalkers that have grown into the walls jump out at them. As Ellie traverses the suburbs of Santa Barbara on her way to find Abby in the final stretch of the game, she is chased by stalkers. The game provides a lot of opportunities for the TV adaptation to feature stalkersRatcheting the terror in the process.
What makes stalkers so terrifying
Stalkers make any strategy for defeating the infected completely useless
Stalkers are by far the most terrifying type of infected in The last of us Games. Whereas runners stand hunched over, minding their own business, and clickers are blind, stalkers are acutely aware of the player. They hide behind cover, watching the player get closer and closer, ready to pounce. They lurk in the shadows and cannot be seen in listen mode, making them infinitely harder to track down. And when they’re tracked down, unless there’s a loaded shotgun handy, they’re hard to kill.
Stalkers make every typical strategy to take down the infected completely useless. The strategy is usually to sneak up behind the infected and stealth-kill them. However, stalkers turn the tables and sneak up behind the player. It’s as if the stalkers have their own listening mode that they use to find the player. In many ways, they are the worst of both worlds; They have the speed and agility of a runner, but they’ve also been infected long enough to grow the crusty suit of armor that makes Clicker so hard to kill..
Why stalkers are perfect for The Last of Us TV adaptation
Stokers are great for jump scares
Stokers are ideal for The last of us‘ TV adaptation, because They would be just as effective in a TV show as in the games. For most infected types, the fun of the encounter diminishes when the controller is taken out of the equation. Watching TV Joel sneak up behind a clicker and stealth-kill it with a shiv wouldn’t be as much fun as actually doing the sneaking and stealth-killing in the game. Likewise, watching TV Joel fire round after round in a blooper wouldn’t be as much fun as actually doing it yourself as a player.
Since they hide around corners and sneak up behind the player, [stalkers are] Great for jump scares…
But stalkers would be just as effective in The last of us TV show how they are in the games. Since they hide around corners and sneak up behind the player, they’re great for jump scares, so their impact won’t be diminished in the transition from gameplay to TV. A good jump scare is just as scary whether it’s in a video game or a TV show, and Stalkers have proven to be more than capable of delivering on that front.