Heading into my preview of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, memories of the original release weighed heavy on me. When The Last of Us Part 2 was released in June 2020, the world went through a pivotal moment in human history. Video games and movies were being viewed differently as we were still at the beginning of the pandemic.
During this time, the world was dealing with so much strife and sorrow that when I played through The Last of Us Part 2, it was emotionally beating me to a pulp. It was a lot to take on but, in a way, made me feel even more connected to the roller coaster ride of a story both Ellie and Abby had.
I have had a rough time going back into The Last of Us Part 2 because it reminds me of a more turbulent period in my life, and the emotional toll required was too much for me to handle at the time. After Sony invited CGM out to preview The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered’s No Return mode, I was overcome with how much the story and characters meant to me. It has made me eager to dive back in and check out the new lost chapters, but more importantly, No Return is an excellent showpiece for just how dynamic and fluent the combat in The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is.
“After Sony invited CGM out to preview The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered’s No Return mode, I was overcome with how much the story and characters meant to me.”
We were given roughly three hours to play in the new No Return mode for The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered. It started out simple enough: out of the ten characters, five to each “side.” Ellie, Dina, Jesse, Tommy, and Joel were on one side, and Abby, Lev, Yara, Mel, and Manny were on the other. Out of them, you begin with only Ellie and Abby unlocked, but unlocking characters is as simple as beating encounters with other characters. Before the end of the preview session, I had already unlocked roughly half of them.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered’s Game Director, Matthew Gallant, spoke to us about how they chose which characters to use and why, “We wanted to have a really nice roster of characters that drew from both sides, Team Ellie and Team Abby, let’s say. We wanted a balance there. We also wanted to look for characters that were fan favourites and people really loved.”
Each character is true to their style in the base game: Ellie is well-rounded, Abby is more melee-focused, Liv is a stealth-based character, and Tommy is more of a sniper long-distance character. Each character feels unique and built out differently in The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered’s No Return mode. It was great to run around as Dina and Lev, as they are my favourite characters.
Matthew Gallant had a few ideas for his favourite way to play, too, “My natural proclivity is playing stealth, and I love our bow. Even in the original game—Joel with a bow— it’s a great feeling bow with feeling the tension as you’re pulling it back.” He also gave us some insight into his character of choice, “So, Lev is probably my favourite. Another character I really like playing is Yara, and her trait is that she always has Lev as a buddy. The whole run, Lev is just there by your side. Yara has some upgrades that you can upgrade Lev, so it’s like a duo, and I really liked that.”
It was clear from the get-go that this mode had much thought put into it. Between an excellent sense of progression and the wild amount of randomization, No Return will encourage people to play The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered for a very long time.
Gallant explained why they decided to change things up with No Return, “I love the combat and The Last of Us, but for players who really love the combat, you’re pretty limited in what choices you have. You can go back and select those fights, but you’re going to play those fights, and at a certain point, you’re going to memorize and optimize them. So, we took a lot of inspiration from what’s been the Modern Renaissance of the roguelike genre.”
In No Return, you look at a planning board and see the multiple trajectories your run can take. Do you want to go the easier route but ultimately end with fewer upgrades, or do you want to take on the more formidable challenges and get to the final encounter with more of a fighting chance? A certain level of strategy is at play when looking at the planning board because it gives you the type of encounter it is, hunted where the enemies start knowing your position.
You must survive for a certain amount of time or attack where needed to take on waves of enemies. As you progress through No Return in The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, you’ll unlock more modes and even extra objectives that’ll pay off big in the end. One of these unlockable objectives is a dead drop, where you have to deliver some of your supplies to get a chance to unlock a new gun or some more upgrades. The big thing to note in this mode is once you are dead, you lose everything except the progress you made through challenges.
“No Return is an excellent showpiece for just how dynamic and fluent the combat in The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is.”
To shake things up, alongside these extra challenges and encounter types that unlock are mods. These mods vary from helpful, like enemies having less health, to more complicated, like long guns being disabled. I ran into a few that made me change my gameplay entirely because I didn’t look ahead while planning my run. It was frustrating but also helped keep it fresh and fun. I never felt like I died an unfair death. Instead, it was a silly mistake.
For example, as Jesse, I was planting a trip mine just as a Clicker came around the corner. On the plus side, it took the Clicker out, but I was also caught in the blast and died. Gallant explained why they chose to add mods, “For the mods, that design philosophy was really about, I think, throwing the player off balance and then also exploring either incentivizing or disincentivizing a certain way of playing.” He went on to explain why they are so important, “It’s pushing you onto these playstyles that you’re less comfortable with. But that’s actually an opportunity to master something new or to learn something new.”
No Return is filled with amusing and exciting moments that make you change your plan and see exactly how far you can go with the gameplay mechanics. But, at the end of each run, it all culminates in these big climactic boss fights.
The Bloater is the first one you start with, but much like everything else in this mode, more will unlock over time. The most intense one I found was one when the theatre that Ellie’s crew stays in throughout the game is overrun with infected and you have to clear them out. It really puts all your resources to the test, but also, since it’s the last encounter, you can throw everything you have at them.
After about three hours with The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered and speaking with Gallant about the new mechanics, I was curious if this new playstyle would have any implications on designing combat in the future. He noted, “Truthfully, I almost look at it the other way. When we made The Last of Us Part 2, we did such a robust job. That’s what led us to do this. It was because when we made The Last of Us Part 2, we made really, really fun, really great combat systems, and we knew we could do more with it.”
I want to thank both Matthew Gallant and Sony for giving me the opportunity to play the new No Return mode for The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered. It was a great reminder of just how fun the gameplay mechanics in The Last of Us Part 2 are, and I can’t wait to try out the new lost levels that will be included in it.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered will launch on January 19th, 2024, on the PlayStation 5.
