Ashley Johnson remains excellent in her role as Ellie. Thanks largely to her performance (and to the animation and mo-cap wizards at Naughty Dog), I've become utterly convinced by the character. Ellie easily carries Left Behind, as I'm sure she could easily carry a much longer game. As she self-consciously talks to herself and warily questions her friends, I don't hear an actor playing a role, I hear… well, I hear Ellie. Riley's actor Yaani King proves a fine match for Johnson, and their duet over the course of Left Behind illuminates the quiet corners of a friendship with great nuance and humor.

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The entirety of Left Behind has been crafted with an exceptional degree of care and attention to detail, and it's extremely well-paced. Comparatively brief though it may be, the DLC manages to fit more peaks, valleys, and meaningful moments into its brief runtime than most mainstream games can manage in a dozen or more hours. In some ways even more so than The Last of Us itself, Left Behind feels like the work of creators unafraid to challenge themselves and stretch out, to see what new joys and sorrows they can conjure.

There is much more to say about Left Behind. Of course there is. For now: The Last of Us: Left Behind is beautiful. Play it. Take your time. We won't see anything like it for a good long while.

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