Team Naughty Dog kicks off 2024 with the launch of The Last of Us Part II Remastered on PlayStation 5, offering players the definitive way to play through Ellie and Abby’s stories.
PlayStation 5 owners have another reason to anticipate the new year, with Naughty Dog announcing the January 2024 release of The Last of Us Part II Remastered. The game promises a slew of new features for enhanced play and a truly vicarious experience of Abby and Ellie’s emotional journeys. Aside from technical enhancements and new content, the game will also showcase new play modes and in-depth BTS reveals. Naughty Dog dropped the announcement with a trailer tease of what’s in store for new and returning players.
The Last of Us Part II Remastered comes with a bevy of new content. The game will also deliver comprehensive behind-the-scenes experiences, such as a playable walkthrough of unfinished, deleted “lost” levels with narrated insights from the development team. Campaign cutscenes also provide deeper context with commentary from game director Neil Druckmann, narrative lead Halley Gross, and voice actors Troy Baker (as Joel Miller), Ashley Johnson (Ellie Williams), and Laura Bailey (Abby Anderson). On top of these additions, the “No Return” survival mode will offer players new challenges in the form of random fight gauntlets.
NPCs Now Playable in Survival Mode
In “No Return,” players pave their own path through a series of randomly generated enemies and locations, surviving long enough to reach the checkpoint bosses. This survival mode rewards players with unlockable characters, which include franchise NPCs now made playable with unique traits. Each run in “No Return” will be unique, customizable, and ranked on a Daily Run global leaderboard. The remastered version will also include an unlockable Speedrun Mode, which will allow players to continually improve on their fastest game playthroughs. Guitar Free Play mode also returns with improved features, new characters, in-game locations, and unlockable instruments. Finally, new Photo Mode options let players capture, enhance and customize in-game stills.
The Last of Us Part II Remastered boasts up to 4K resolution, enhanced graphics across the board, and “Descriptive Audio Speech to Vibrations,” which is an immersive feature that translates character speech into DualSense controller vibrations. A “Washington Liberation Front” edition of the game will be available upon release containing a display case, four enamel pins, a WLF Patch, and 47 “Society of Champions” trading cards. Owners of The Last of Us Part II on the PlayStation 4 can also upgrade to a digital version of The Last of Us Part II Remastered at launch.
The Last of Us Part II Remastered drops as a PlayStation 5 exclusive on Jan.19, 2024. The game will be available for preorders on Dec. 5.
Source: Naughty Dog
