The Last of Us Part IIis an incredibly special game to me, as it is to so many people. I hardly need to explain why it is so exceptional as a piece of art - you need only look at the vast critical-acclaim and hundreds of accolades the game has garnered - but allow me to do so anyway.The Last of Us Part II, even more so than its predecessor, so meticulously weaves the strands of every development discipline to create an end product that is intoxicatingly gripping.
For me,The Last of UsPart IIisn’t simply one of the greatest games of all-time. It’s one, if not the, best narrative experience I’ve had across any medium. The story and combat work together to draw - and thrive - off your complicity. As such, you become both the wronged and the aggressor, identifying with the highs and lows of two very different sides of the same story. Every other facet, from sound design to performance, serves this one purpose resulting in an end product that is easily one of the most emotionally-affecting games out there.
Take a look at our video preview ofThe Last of Us Part II Remastered’s No Return mode below.
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I had the opportunity to sit down withNaughty Dog’s Matthew Gallant who served as game director onThe Last of Us Part II Remasteredand lead systems designer on the original release to chat about how No Return felt like a natural progression for the studio, alongside what it was like to revisit such a precious yet divisive project. “We started planning forThe Last of Us Part II Remasterednot long afterPart Ishipped, around the fall of 2022,” Matthew began. “We wanted to offer something more than just the next-gen upgrade.”
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Naturally, those looking for a next-gen upgrade won’t be disappointed. “We’re thrilled to offer players the definitive way to playThe Last of Us Part IIwith everything maxed out as far as we could take it on the new hardware,” Matthew explained, which includes the addition of improved haptic feedback thanks to the DualSense controller. There’s far more toRemasteredthough than just a shiny new lick of paint.
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“No Return speaks very much to people who enjoy the combat and are looking for some new challenges and excitement there, but we also have the lost levels and the director’s commentary, and I think a different subset of players will be interested in learning more about the making of the game and the ideas that got left on the cutting room floor,” Matthew added. There’s a new Guitar Freeplay mode too. “We just thought it would be fun to offer a really rich selection of features and ideas that would appeal to different people.”
Arguably, the star ofThe Last of Us Part II Remasteredis without a doubt the aforementioned No Return. The roguelike mode sees players face off against waves of enemies in a series of rounds with the goal of reaching a final boss. Having been hands-on with the mode, I appreciate that it suits all playstyles, regardless of whether you prefer to take a stealth-based or more aggressive approach to combat, something I expressed to Matthew.
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“What you’re saying there was really something we were pursuing with this mode. We wanted to make this a mode where the richness and the diversity ofThe Last of Us Part II’s combat systems really got to shine - where we were showcasing the stealth, the melee, the gunplay so that players could, you know, not only utilise [their typical] playstyle but also actually, in some situations, try a strategy that they were less comfortable with,” he explained.
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I confessed I typically took a stealth approach. “You’re a stealth fighter, I’m the same,” he began. “I really like playing as Lev because he starts with a bow and kind of very naturally builds into a stealth playstyle. But sometimes you’re playing as Lev and then on the first [encounter], you get a shotgun or you get the momentum upgrade or something and you go, ‘Oh, this isn’t a stealth run anymore, I’m gonna try something really different’. You’re forced to build the character in a different way because of the opportunities you get.”
It’s true. I too leant towards Lev, knowing his bow would help me keep a low profile. In ‘hunt’ rounds though, your enemies are immediately alerted to your position, closing in on you in a matter of seconds. Such an encounter can quickly force you into becoming a melee player. “It’s also the fun of being uncomfortable. Those situations where you think, ‘Oh, I’m not usually a random player, but here I’m going to be either because I’m forced to or because I had some interesting opportunity to develop that way,’” Matthew said.
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“We’ve seen this in other roguelike games where you can master the game, but then you change characters and it feels like a totally different game because they have a different skill set. We had two main goals with the characters that we chose. We wanted to reflect a broad range of the playstyles, but we also really wanted to resonate with the characters’ identity from the main story. We didn’t want to give them just a random ability that didn’t make any sense.”
For some characters that is simple. Lev typically uses a bow, Tommy has his sniper rifle. Yara posed a unique challenge. Matthew explained, “Other characters we had to be more creative with. Yara’s trait is that she always has Lev as an NPC companion. […] Having that pairing is just a really fun and different way to play the mode and Yara actually has upgrades where you can increase Lev’s lethality as a buddy.”
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He continued, “Dina is the crafting character. You see that in the main story when she fixes the radio. […] I’m really thrilled with where we landed with all these characters. I think they all provide really interesting trade offs and opportunities and identities. And I’m hoping that players who get very comfortable with one way of playing the game will play a different character and then all of a sudden find themselves, say, doing a run and gun as Manny.”
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It isn’t simply the character selection that’ll alter the feeling of a particular run. No Return also introduces mods which affect an encounter’s difficulty rating, raising it or lowering it depending on whether they provide an advantage to you or the enemy. I asked Matthew about the process of finding out which mods worked against which didn’t: “It was a little bit of just open-ended exploration. A lot of what was fun about making this game was that you could just try things. You could settle on a mod idea, prototype it, throw it in the mix, and just see if it works. We certainly had some ideas that didn’t pan out.”
One of the more difficult mods I came across during my time with the game increased enemy health. “On the surface, you’re like, ‘Oh, increased enemy health? Whatever,’ but what that actually means is that melee kills, all of a sudden, become a lot harder. Body shots are a lot less effective. Suddenly, you really need that instant headshot kill. A very small tweak like that can completely alter your strategy.”
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Throughout the mode, you’ll revisit familiar locations although one has a new twist: “We were fortunate in that we had a wealth of combat encounters fromThe Last of Part II[…] but we allowed one retrofit of a level and that was Jackson. It was really interesting to design this space differently for combat. We had to think about sight lines and paths and clearing,” because as fans will know, Jackson isn’t a locale we fight in in the main game.
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The Last of Us as a franchise wholeheartedly fuelled my love of gaming, and it’s funny that it led me here to this. I’m sure I’m not the only one whose life it’s transformed, I expressed to Matthew.
“I’ve been very fortunate to attend fan events and to hear from players who share your perspective. This game meant a lot to them, and the story meant a lot to them. For some players, the accessibility meant a lot to them. It meant a lot to us too, and it continues to now. It’s really exciting to revisitThe Last of Us Part IIonce again.”
The Last of Us Part II Remasteredlaunches on 19 January 2024 on PlayStation 5.
Topics:The Last Of Us,The Last Of Us Part 2,Naughty Dog,PlayStation,PlayStation 5,Interview
