Comparing the Last of Us Part 2's No Return and Ghost of Tsushima's Legends
Experience the power and thrill of combat in The Last of Us Part 2's unique post-launch content, Legends Immerse yourself in a world of relentless action and strategic gameplay, where every move counts Unleash your inner warrior and prepare for an unforgettable journey
I was initially puzzled by the decision to include a roguelike mode in The Last of Us Part II Remastered. While the story of Part II delves into the cyclical nature of revenge and grief, the new No Return mode lacks the storytelling of the main game. Instead, it focuses on allowing players to improve their skills in Part II's excellent combat mechanics. This addition seems out of place for a franchise known for its emphasis on storytelling. In an interview with game director Matthew Gallant, I asked why this choice was made.
Gallant explained, "When we considered creating The Last of Us Part II Remastered, we wanted to explore new and exciting features, such as improvements to the game's combat AI. My background and expertise lies within these systems. While the combat in The Last of Us ties into the game's narrative, it is also a highly developed and enjoyable system that offers more potential than we initially realized."
After playing No Return for about three hours, I've noticed that the roguelike structure has a major impact on Part II's gameplay by increasing the stakes. In Part II, death in combat is usually just a minor setback, but with the permadeath modifier enabled, it becomes a major setback, potentially causing you to lose hours of progress. No Return strikes a nice balance, encouraging caution in each fight while keeping each run relatively short. Even when you lose, it's not a frustrating experience that makes you want to stop playing the game altogether.
In terms of structure, No Return allows you to choose your difficulty and character at the start, then throws you into a hub area where you can select your next mission. The path forward sometimes branches, giving you the freedom to choose which type of objective to tackle next. After each mission, you return to the hub to spend your collected resources on new guns, ammo, crafting recipes, and abilities. This pattern continues until you reach the endpoint of a run, where you face off against a boss like an aggressive Bloater or the infamous Rat King. The action unfolds across 19 different maps, some of which can change from run to run.
"Some of those maps will have variations in the layout," Gallant told me. "To give an example: the Hillcrest Houses layout has some variations where sometimes some routes are open, sometimes they're closed--like a garage door is closed [one run], and it's open [the next]. We tried to do that kind of treatment on all our maps, each of which are some of our favorite, most iconic fights. And what I love about that is that I know the [original] maps like the back of my hand. I worked on that Hillcrest Hills level [in Part II] and so I played that level hundreds of times. So, for me, sometimes when I'm running away, I'm like, 'I'm gonna take that alley' but then nope, not this time. This time the alley is closed. That's a really fun, exciting moment. It's that moment where you had a plan, but now that plan is not gonna work. So what are you gonna do now? Those are the moments that just evoke that really exciting feeling--that's when I think [No Return] just feels really great."
Ellie is No Return's all-rounder, able to most easily adapt to any situation from the start. Alongside those 19 maps, each mission sees you contend with a randomly selected enemy faction, each of which is from Part II's main story (like the Infected or WLF soldiers). And in addition to that, each mission is divided into one of four types: Assault, Hunted, Capture, or Holdout. I wish there was a little bit more variety to these mission types as each boils down to surviving ongoing waves of enemies, just in different ways, but the different enemy types within those frameworks and the different playable characters do shake up the experience run-to-run.
Each character in No Return has their own unique specialty, which encourages players to approach the game in different ways. For example, Lev is a stealth-focused character with a bow and arrow and skills for quietly taking out enemies, while Ellie is an all-rounder with a versatile kit. My personal favorites were Abby and Yara. Abby excels at close-range combat and can heal when she defeats an enemy with a melee attack, while Yara can bring along Lev to assist in missions. These diverse characters allow players to experience different approaches to challenging situations. For example, fighting the Rat King is exclusive to Abby's side of the story, providing an opportunity to try a new strategy with Ellie's kit and weapons. Overall, each character offers a unique combat experience and encourages players to approach battles in a distinct way, adding depth to the game.
Dina, the talented crafter of No Return, has the remarkable ability to swiftly create multiple items right from the beginning of a run. The combat-focused nature of No Return brings to mind the gameplay style of Ghost of Tsushima's Legends, offering an experience that caters to players seeking more action without resetting the story. However, unlike Legends, it seems that No Return will not receive extensive updates or expansions in the future. According to Gallant, Part II Remastered stands as the definitive version of the game.
"We have no intentions of adding content to the mode post-launch - the remaster encompasses a wealth of features and provides a complete experience," Gallant explained. "Our focus with The Last of Us Part II Remastered was to enhance every aspect of the game that we hold dear. Therefore, we are implementing next-gen tech upgrades, including improved fidelity in Performance mode and the utilization of PS5 haptics. We aimed to create a comprehensive package with the remaster, as we believe this combination will greatly appeal to all players. Some may desire to experience the most definitive version of the game with DualSense haptics, while others may be interested in the additional levels and director commentary. In the same vein, the combat emphasis in No Return presents another option for a distinct audience. We are aware that there are players who relish replaying our combat encounters or challenging themselves with tasks such as completing a fight without firing a single shot."
Alongside the new content, Part II Remastered adds new accessibility options as well, expanding on the original game's already impressive offering. "In The Last of Us Part I, we did cinematic descriptions for audio descriptions--we did them for The Last of Us Part II Remastered as well and that's really great for blind players to be able to play the game and get the context of what's happening in a scene," Gallant said. "We also brought over the feature that we introduced in Part I: speech to vibrations. That's a feature where we play the spoken dialogue through the DualSense as haptics which helps deaf players feel the delivery of a line, like where the emphasis is in the sentence."
Abby is No Return's close-range bruiser, excelling with melee weapons from the get-go. Even No Return benefits from the accessibility features. "All the accessibility features that work in the main story work in No Return, but it wasn't just like we simply put them in to check a box," Gallant said. "We really made sure that No Return was a very accessible experience to give an example. So like, that feature where you hit a button and [it] navigates you along the golden path of the story--that doesn't really matter in a roguelike. So we changed the system so you can hit the button and it'll navigate you to something and you can swipe down on the touchpad to change what it's navigating you to. So you can navigate to the nearest weapon cache, you can navigate to the enemies, you can--in some modes with objectives like Capture--navigate to the [objective]. We did accessibility testing and brought in consultants to play [No Return] to catch anything else that wasn't working well, and so I think No Return is going to be a really robustly accessible experience."
Overall, I was impressed by the improvements Naughty Dog is making to Part II with this remaster, but none of it truly wowed me. For those who have completed The Last Of Us Part II and are craving more of its gameplay, I believe No Return will satisfy that urge better than replaying the story. And for those who have not yet played Part II, this remaster is the version to experience.
The Last Of Us Part II Remastered is set to be released for PS5 on January 19, 2024.
Editor's P/S
The Last of Us Part 2's new roguelike mode, No Return, is a welcome addition to the game. It adds a new level of challenge and excitement to the already excellent combat mechanics. The permadeath modifier makes each run feel more meaningful, and the branching paths and randomly selected enemy factions keep things fresh.
Overall, No Return is a great addition to The Last of Us Part 2. It's a challenging and rewarding mode that offers a new way to experience the game. I would recommend it to any fan of the game.
