Why Are Clickers So Scary? An In-Depth Look
As a passionate gamer and content creator who regularly analyzes the latest in gaming, I often get asked: why are Clickers so utterly terrifying in The Last of Us franchise? At first glimpse of their fungal faces, it may seem obvious. But their unique blend of disfigured appearance, supernaturally-enhanced senses, and utter lack of humanity combines to create some of the most chilling enemies in video game history.
In this deep dive analysis, we‘ll break down all the elements that come together to make Clickers the stuff of nightmares.
Devolved Faces Reflect An Inhuman Monster
The most viscerally disturbing trait of Clickers are their degraded faces, caused by the cordyceps fungus erupting from their heads after approximately 1 year of infection. Where human eyes, noses, and mouths once resided is now only a mass of fungal overgrowth with indentations hinting at former features. This erasure of humanity in their faces transforms them from what were once people into true inhuman monsters.
When contrasted with earlier stages of the infected like Runners, the gradual dilution of human traits as the fungus advances becomes clear. As the player, seeing this faceless creature emitting scratching sounds immediately sparks a primal fear response. The mental dissonance of "this was once a person" clashes with their current almost extraterrestrial appearance.
Up close, descriptions of Clickers highlight fungal plates and tendrils growing across their faces, sinking into orifices and etched with spores ready to continue spreading the pandemic. It paints a vividly grotesque picture of the last remains of humanity being drained from the infected.
Primal Hunting Through Eerie Clicking
Since Clickers lack eyes or facial features, they evolved to utilize echolocation by emitting clicking sounds to perceive environments and hunt prey. Their hearing becomes so acute that the slightest noises can be detected, making stealth far less reliable than against ordinary infected. This forces the player to move slowly and deliberately rather than quickly fleeing threats. The ominous clicking permeates areas where Clickers lurk, building tension and putting nerves on edge.
Unlike the rabid screaming of Runners or the erratic movements of Stalkers, Clickers produce an unnatural menacing sound reminiscent of insects or aliens. Their ability to precisely echo locate despite visual impairment seems supernatural, allowing them to fill the role of a relentless hunter. One small noise can spell your doom.
This introduces a primal, supernatural threat that strikes at the fear of the unknown. Their precise tracking capabilities despite blindness makes them seem like something not of this world, dangerous in ways that disrupt our basic assumptions.
Savage Fungal-Fuelled Strength
According to in-universe medical logs, Clickers demonstrate extreme physical strength more comparable to wild animals than humans. Cases exist of individual Clickers grappling full squads of armed quarantine soldiers, able to lift bodies overhead and tear through ballistic armor with their bare hands. In close encounters, their brute force is nearly impossible to overcome.
In gameplay, Clickers showcase this devastating strength by killing Joel instantly if they latch on, requiring button mashing or allies shooting them to stand a chance. Even with full health, just a few hits bring quick death. While tactics exist to weaken Clickers using fire or shotgun blasts before a fatal blow, entering their reach carries colossal risk due to their raw power.
This imbues Clickers with an excellent damage-sponge archetype for challenging boss battles, while making each encounter terrifyingly dangerous. It also emphasizes a post-apocalyptic world where fungal mutations produce threats defying human limits. Their abnormal capabilities push Clickers deeply into supernatural terror territory.
No Mercy, No Reason, Only Violence
Unlike hostile human survivors who can potentially be bargained with or deterred, Clickers operate on lethal instinct alone. Driven only by a need to propagate the cordyceps infection, they show no emotion, thought, or restraint when ripping apart victims. Previous personalities of those infected are erased, replaced fully by violent impulse.
Some semblance of self or morality may have persisted in early Runner stages, but Clickers have lost all vestiges of humanity. They embody utter indifference to human life and suffering. Where bandits may leave loot on bodies, Clickers shred and devour indiscriminately. This complete lack of empathy or restraint makes them intensely intimidating antagonists.
With Clickers, there is no question of fight or flight – either you evade them entirely via stealth, traps and cover or quickly end up another mangled corpse to spread more fungal spores. Reasoning or restraint in their attacks simply don‘t exist, just endless brutal slaughter.
Grim Representation Of The Pandemic‘s Future
The longer an individual has been infected by cordyceps, the more their mind and body morphs to suit fungal needs rather than human ones. Clickers have been hosts for the contagion for over a year, making them distressing examples of what prolonged exposure can achieve. Physical changes removing sight and adding resilience foreshadow what awaits humanity.
Later stages like the lumbering Bloater demonstrate that even years later, the fungal corruption continues growing across the body. Clickers are battered, lesion ridden vessels covered in growths, serving as transmission vectors. The pandemic‘s march seems inexorable once humans pass into this stage.
Seeing former people twisted into blinded beasts leaves little hope, indicating forced evolution to suit the Cordyceps world. Finding traces of who they once were will become impossible. What might 10 more years of mutation inflict? The Clickers represent a grim middle stage of the losing battle for humanity.
Require Significant Resources To Take Down
Compared to earlier Runner or Stalker stages of infection, Clickers require substantially more resources and ammunition to kill for the average survivor. Their durable fungal plating and lack of obvious critical weak points makes them damage sponges even against firearms. Only high damage weapons like shotguns or explosives can reliably punch through.
Statistics indicate most average Clickers can withstand 2 shotgun blasts at close range before falling. Against conventional small arms like pistols or hunting rifles, non-stop headshots may be needed. However getting close enough for these weapons means entering grabbing range and risking instant death without perfect execution. This makes fighting Clickers intensely resource-draining and dangerous.
Outlasting and outgunning their offence is essential. Other tactics like luring them into environmental traps also mitigate risks otherwise bound to come from direct confrontation. Ideally, avoiding their echolocation range entirely avoids calamity, but the world of The Last of Us rarely allows for such clean escapes.
In conclusion, when unravelling why Clickers evoke such visceral terror, we find several key factors. The erasure of human traits in twisted fungal faces, otherworldly clicking to hunt prey, brute strength rivalling apex predators, non-existent mercy or morality, their embodiment of the infection‘s progress, and the resources required to kill all mix into profoundly intimidating antagonists. Alone, each trait breeds fear – combined, Clickers manifest utter nightmare fuel. They fully achieve their purpose: striking chilling horror that truly lasts.
