For those who played it, the multiplayer mode in The Last of Us — Factions — was a big hit, but despite that, the game’s sequel won’t have an online-based mode at launch. However, developer Naughty Dog has said that they’ll add a multiplayer expansion post-launch, although they didn’t give a timeline for its release.
Neil Druckmann, who is the co-writer of The Last of Us Part II, said that the sequel to the 2013 survival-horror classic is, by far, Naughty Dog’s most ambitious single-player project. Additionally, it looks like they have some big ambitions for their upcoming multiplayer mode, as Vinit Agarwal, who is the lead game designer for The Last of Us Part II, tweeted the following regarding the devs’ plans for the upcoming online-based mode.
A few weeks ago, the official Twitter account for the UK version of PlayStation Magazine put up a poll asking players what they’ll be playing when the PlayStation 5 launches next year, and The Last of Us Part II Online was one of the four options. The list also included the sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn, Killzone Online, and Ghost of Tsushima. So, it’s likely that TLOU Part II’s online mode will launch on the PS5.
As of right now, it’s unclear if The Last of Us Part II’s multiplayer mode will be added to the game’s main application, or if it’ll be a standalone release. Furthermore, if it is a standalone release, it might follow the Red Dead Redemption 2 model, which was a separate, paid release.
Upon release, The Last of Us Part II will be devoid of multiplayer content, but it’ll have quite a bit of single-player content, as it’s been reported that the sequel will be 50-percent bigger than the first game, which means that it’ll take around 35-40 hours to complete. Also, the game will be much more open than Naughty Dog’s 2013 release, as it’ll have more locations to explore.
Originally, The Last of Us Part II was supposed to launch on February 21, but Naughty Dog recently announced that the game has been delayed until May. The announcement came just a few weeks after Sony’s most recent State of Play event, where they revealed the game’s release date.
We probably won’t hear more regarding The Last of Us Part II until early next year, as that’ll probably be when Sony begins to build hype for what’s probably their most anticipated release in recent memory.
