The Last of Us: Joel and Ellie Across America

The outbreak night plays out in the Austin suburbs, where Joel flees the chaos with his brother Tommy and his daughter Sarah — until a soldier shoots Sarah and she dies in Joel's arms. It is the wound the whole journey never stops pressing on. The suburbs themselves are an unnamed sprawl, but downtown Austin is anchored by the Texas State Capitol, whose offices and chambers house the Texas Legislature and the Governor.

Location precision: The prologue plays out in unnamed suburbs; the pin marks the Texas State Capitol in downtown Austin.

Visitor guidance: The Capitol sits in downtown Austin; check its visitor page for tour times before going.

Twenty years on, Joel is a smuggler in the Boston quarantine zone with his partner Tess. Rebel leader Marlene promises to double their weapons cache if they smuggle fourteen-year-old Ellie to Fireflies hiding in the Massachusetts State House. The Fireflies there are already dead, Tess — bitten on the way in — holds off pursuing soldiers so the pair can escape, and Joel agrees to get Ellie to his brother Tommy. The real State House still governs Massachusetts from Beacon Hill.

Visitor guidance: The State House is in Boston's Beacon Hill; public tours run on weekdays.

Joel and Ellie reach Lincoln, Massachusetts, home of Bill — a smuggler and survivalist whose booby-trapped town is one of the game's most memorable detours. With Bill's help they get a working vehicle and can finally drive west. The game names only the town, so the pin marks Minute Man National Historical Park, which commemorates the opening battle of the Revolutionary War across Lexington, Lincoln and Concord.

Location precision: The game names only Bill's town; the pin marks Minute Man park, which covers Lincoln.

Visitor guidance: The park's visitor centre is in Lincoln; trails link the battle sites.

Driving into Pittsburgh, Joel and Ellie are ambushed by bandits and their car is wrecked, stranding them in hunter territory. From here they have to cross the city on foot. The ambush site is unnamed, so the pin marks the Fort Pitt Museum, which stands where the Monongahela and Allegheny meet to form the Ohio.

Location precision: The ambush site is unnamed; the pin marks the Fort Pitt Museum at the city's river point.

Visitor guidance: The museum stands in Point State Park at downtown Pittsburgh's river point.

In the fall the pair reach Jackson, Wyoming, where Tommy has built a fortified settlement near a hydroelectric dam with his wife Maria — the first working community the pair have seen since Boston. The settlement's exact site is fictional, so the pin marks the real town's heart: George Washington Memorial Park, the Town Square famous for its elk-antler arches gathered from the nearby National Elk Refuge.

Location precision: Tommy's settlement is placed near a dam outside town; the pin marks Jackson's Town Square.

Visitor guidance: Town Square is in the centre of Jackson; the arches are lit at night.

Tommy points them to a Firefly enclave at the University of Eastern Colorado — but when they get there the campus is empty and the Fireflies have moved on to a hospital in Salt Lake City. The UEC itself is invented; the pin marks the University of Colorado Boulder, a real public research university, only to put the stop on the map.

Location precision: The University of Eastern Colorado is fictional; the pin marks CU Boulder, a real Colorado campus, for orientation only.

Visitor guidance: CU Boulder's campus is in Boulder, Colorado; start at the visitor centre.

In the spring they reach Salt Lake City, where the Fireflies take Ellie for surgery: a vaccine means removing part of her infected brain, which will kill her. Joel storms the operating room, kills the lead surgeon, carries Ellie out — and later lies to her that the Fireflies had found other immune people but could not make a cure. The hospital is fictional, so the pin marks the Utah State Capitol complex on Capitol Hill, overlooking downtown.

Location precision: The hospital is fictional; the pin marks the State Capitol complex above downtown Salt Lake City.

Visitor guidance: The Capitol sits on Capitol Hill above downtown; tours run on weekdays.