[Warning: Mild Spoilers for The Last of Us Part 2 below]
Even though an official release date for controversial the The Last of Us: Part 2 has been since release, a lot rests on having the multiplayer mode make up for what the singe-player story missed.
Before the release of The Last of Us: Part 2, Naughty Dog confirmed that a multiplayer mode is in the works, but they explained it wasn’t possible to launch it with the single-story game due to the size of both projects. “As development began on the evolution of our Factions mode from The Last of Us Part I, the vision of the team grew beyond an additional mode that could be included with our enormous single-player campaign,” Naughty Dog said a statement. “Wanting to both visions, we made the difficult choice that The Last of Us Part II would not include an online mode." Still, with confirmation that multiplayer DLC for The Last of Us 2 will come at some point, it's worth speculating what this could look like.
The original The Last of Us had a multiplayer mode titled ‘Factions,’ which players appreciated since it gave them an opportunity to extend their gameplay beyond the single-player experience. Factions allowed players to choose to align with one of two factions, the Pittsburgh Hunters or the Fireflies. Players aren’t allowed to change their choice until the multiplayer story experience is over. The overall objective is to build one’s clan by reaching the faction’s goals and collecting supplies. It wouldn’t be surprising if Naughty Dog introduced similar concepts in the sequel’s multiplayer mode, but given how different The Last of Us: Part 2 was from its predecessor, there’s a precedent that they may do something completely different.
What Naughty Dog Should Do With TLOU2’s Multiplayer Mode
It would be easy enough for Naughty Dog to recreate something similar to The Last of Us 2. To shake things up, they could replace the first game’s factions with the new ones introduced in the sequel – namely, the WLF and Seraphites/Scars. However, an issue with this would be that it doesn’t give a lot of opportunities to incorporate Jackson County – Ellie and Joel’s home – into the multiplayer model. The Last of Us 2 has been strongly divisive since it splits the player’s time between Ellie and Abby, Joel’s killer. If the game was to only focus on WLF and the Scars, it may repeat the mistake of focusing too much on Abby’s storyline. Even if Abby isn’t mentioned in the story, it would still risk being repetitive and forgetting what fans loved so much in the original – Ellie and Joel.
Naughty Dog has an opportunity to make up for what it arguably did wrong in the sequel by giving too much attention to Abby and her interactions with WLF and the Scars. Many fans were disappointed there was so little play time and cutscenes featuring Joel, so multiplayer mode could explore the period of time between the first and second game when Joel and Ellie settle into Jackson County. It could go into details about the inner workings of the settlements and its inhabitants, which is one thing players expected the sequel to do. If the developers wanted to make The Last of Us 2’s multiplayer mode similar to that of the first game, Jackson County could be one of the factions to choose from, and really any of the foes that have been encountered in the games would be believable threats to the settlement.
There’s a lot of room for Naughty Dog to make The Last of Us: Part 2’s multiplayer mode exceed expectations, but with no release date in sight, fans of the franchise will have to sit tight for the time being.
