The Last of Us 2, created by Naughty Dog, is set five years after Ellie Williams and Joel Miller’s venture across the zombie-infested United States. The two have found a home in Jackson, Wyoming surrounded by a flourishing community of survivors. Despite the threat of the infected and other dangerous survivors outside of Jackson, they have found peace and tranquility. The game focuses on two characters: Ellie Williams and Abby Anderson, who both embark on a quest for revenge after a tragic incident changes the trajectory of their lives.
Throughout the game, players control 19-year-old Ellie as she seeks revenge on Abby, a member of the Fireflies, which is a highly-skilled revolutionary militia revolting against FEDRA, the United States government’s military. Abby is a skilled fighter who crosses paths with Ellie and Joel early in the game. However, her black-and-white view of the world is challenged as she pursues vengeance for those she loved.
There are many changes that make the game more interactive and fresh for players beyond the same fights and exchanges. For example, No Return Mode is a stealthy and violent survival mode that allows players to fight as various characters in randomized combat encounters. Between each combat scenario, you return to a Hideout where you can prep and choose your next fight via a path laid out on a corkboard. Players can choose between five scenarios; if you complete all five, it will end in a boss fight ranging from six different bosses. Every encounter has a different mode including Assault, Capture, Holdout, and Hunted.
What makes this mode extremely hard for me is that when you die death is permanent so, you lose all weapons, items, and upgrades collected and restart with a new set of encounters. Furthermore, the enemies can sometimes know of your presence and some are invisible only being seen through their projective shadows. In my opinion, this mode is only completable for aggressive players who focus on combat instead of the story. Since I am not this type of player and honestly, a horrible fighter, this mode is incredibly tough to complete.
In addition, players will have the chance to play three “Lost Levels” or unfinished game segments with developer commentary and a video introduction that never made it to the original game. The first level is called “Jackson Party” where Ellie attends a party, consisting of 7 commentary points provided by Banun Idris, the Lead Game Designer at Naughty Dog. My favorite part of this level is the “Clicker Marco Polo” that Ellie participates in with a group of kids because it emphasizes how peaceful the Jackson community is compared to the world around it.
The second Lost Level, “Seattle Sewers” has 16 commentary points from Pete Ellis, the Design Director at Naughty Dog, and is much further along than “Jackson Party”. As Ellie approaches a Clicker growing onto a pipe, she quickly hallucinates it as Joel, further emphasizing her PTSD. I liked this level the most because even though they switched the hallucination out for a panic attack later on in the game, it still shows how painful everything is for Ellie even as she seeks out vengeance.
The third and final Lost Level is “The Hunt” with five commentary points voiced again, by Banun Idris. In this section, players are hunting a boar in the woods. This eventually concludes with a cutscene where Ellie finishes it off and as a result, triggers her PTSD. The thing I enjoyed most about this level is how the developers showed Ellie’s obsession with violence as she ruthlessly hunts this boar that maybe in her eyes, isn’t a boar at all. We are forced to sympathize with the boar as it fights for survival, revealing what it’s like for enemies of Ellie’s as she’s tracking them. Overall, “Lost Levels” is my favorite addition because it gives me a chance to see what a game looks like months before completion. Even though I wish they would have kept these in the game, it created unnecessary pacing issues. Still, it has an engaging and new environment for returning players like me.
Moreover, there is a new free-play guitar mode for players who enjoy the original game’s guitar scenes. You can play as Ellie, Joel, or Gustavo Santoalalla, the composer of the game series. Players can also exchange the guitar for a banjo, nylon, jazz, rock, or steel resonance guitar. In addition, players can change locations to a movie theater, Ellie’s home in Jackson, a farm, and a music store. To customize, filters and depths are also available. Finally, the last thing that can be fixed are the FX pedals. There are 10 different versions to choose from and each version has its own abilities. Unlike the game itself, it’s a much-needed refresher for players during the game’s violent and aggressive roots.
Naughty Dog has also added brand new photo modes with dynamic framing, gaze direction, tones, intensity, drawing distances, and more. As for the visuals, shadows, lights, textures, and quality, they have definitely been worked on but arguably didn’t need many changes to begin with. All in all, adding No Return Mode, Lost Levels, and more to an already noteworthy game makes Last of Us 2 Remastered the perfect experience for new and returning players alike.