Recently, Naughty Dog teased the idea of The Last of Us Part II Remastered and its mechanics about crafting with Dina during the No Return mode. If you have not been living under a rock, No Return just launched as a roguelike survival mode, in which you can actually feel bullets whizzing past your ears, and not the imaginary ones. With Dale crafting, she has basically turned into a one-woman bomb factory. Trap mines and stun bombs? You know it.
The Last of Us Part II Remastered is out on PS5 and PC (Steam and Epic; I mean, exclusivity is so retro 2020), and this most-recent piece of news about Dina’s crafts is just one reason to check it all out again. Or for the first time, if you’ve been living under a clicker-infested rock.
So what’s really up with “No Return”? It’s pure pain, throwing in randomized circumstances with permadeath just to make sure death accompanies every scream you give into that poor controller of yours. But with Dina, it feels like cheat codes. She has never-ending supplies to make her enemies regret anything they did, from trap mines to stunning bombs for that borderline uncomfortable survivalist Christmas.
Here’s the deal, though. Clearly, Naughty Dog’s tweet asking people to share what they think about No Return failed to ignite the conversation with a multitude of replies (Seriously? None? Did everyone black out from excitement or something?). But that doesn’t at all mean players are not excited. If anything, the lack of replies only means that players were double-tapped by the gameplay so much they couldn’t have put the controllers down and tweet! Or perhaps they are still dealing with the emotional aftershocks from the first one… Anyway, it’s eerie.
For anyone who somehow missed it or just wants to relive it in 4K glory, The Last of Us Part II Remastered isn’t just an upscale port; it’s got new content, gameplay tweaks, and, oh yes, No Return, like something Naughty Dog said, “You thought the base game was hard? Get fed.”
So it basically is a no-brainer for all the masochists, the crafters, and those who make really fine games. Now excuse me while I go set some tripwires and probably book myself a therapy appointment.
