The Last of Us Part II may not have been able to get its multiplayer version, but Naughty Dog was able to provide something else with the roguelike No Return mode which allowed players to take on unique waves of enemies as different characters from the main game.
With the PC port of TLOU2 incoming, ND reveals that they are also providing some goodies for the No Return mode besides cosmetics.
New Maps and Characters
As per the official Naughty Dog blog, there will be new maps and characters coming to the No Return game mode. Here’s the official post:
Looking at the maps first, four have been added, and they’ve been confirmed to be locations from the main game. Namely:
- Overlook – Set high above the city of Seattle. Players have an encounter with the Seraphites in this location, and it features a lot of verticality.
- School – A location from Ellie’s part of the story. She and Dina take on the WLF in this location.
- Streets – One of the overgrown locations located in the Seattle neighborhood of Hillcrest.
- Nest – A location from Abby’s part of the story where she walks into a building filled with infected.
As far as the new characters go, they don’t appear in Part II but are significant players in Part I, and may have been ported over from the latest remaster of the first game.
Bill is a survivalist from the first game who lives by himself in a town that he’s rigged with all kinds of traps. In No Return, Bill is said to have a Smuggler playstyle and can access custom pump shotguns from dead drops, plus he receives double rewards from drops as well. Bill is great when it comes to dealing with melee attacks, but his size makes it difficult for him to dodge.
As for Marlene, she was introduced as Ellie’s guardian in the first game and a close friend of Ellie’s mother. She’s a member of the Fireflies who meets her end by the closing of Part I’s story. Marlene’s playstyle is called Risk Taker which gives her a custom assault rifle. She can also reroute her No Return path once per run, and she also comes with several All or Nothing gambits.
Part III Not Happening?
With Naughty Dog focusing on the launch of their new IP Intergalactic, game director Neil Druckmann has hinted that maybe The Last of Us Part III won’t be coming.
Though this does seem like a blow to fans, it looks like the HBO series knows where Druckmann wants to take the characters; so if Ellie’s story won’t play out in a game, fans can be assured her arc will be closed in the series. Fingers crossed that Druckmann and showrunner Craig Mazin manage to stick the landing by that time.
Then again, Druckmann has stated before that he already has an idea for where a third game might go, but it will probably be a long time before he visits that property again—depending on how well Heretic Prophet does when it launches.
The free update for The Last of Us Part II Remastered is expected to drop on April 3 for PS5 and PC.