I’m willing to bet money that during your playthrough of The Last of Us Part II, there was not a single moment that you thought to yourself, “Huh, you know what this game with a great story and excellent gameplay mechanics needs, a roguelike mode”.
Well, Naughty Dog doesn’t care what you think to yourself because they went ahead and made one anyway.
No Return mode is a new mode coming to The Last of Us Part II Remastered around the middle of January next year and features a roguelike mode where players will have to pick from a roster of ten characters that come from the game, with different traits and abilities, and then attempt to make their way through a randomised set of levels, with waves of infected coming at you, eventually culminating in an epic boss battle, which will also be randomised.
On your way up to the boss fights, you will return to the hideout between each level, where you can upgrade your character and weapons depending on what you managed to pick up and find during that level.
Each level will also be affected by randomised level mods, like intense fog or invisible enemies.
The more you play No Return, the more upgrades, characters and level mods you will unlock, making each playthrough and more playthroughs a different and more exciting experience than the last.
At first, I thought this mode might alleviate my fear of the infected and finally allow me to play the game, but watching a couple of hands-on videos had my heart rate at 329 already, so I will probably still need to play The Last of Us only during daylight with at least two friends nearby to protect me from danger.
The No Return Mode releases on the 19th of January 2024 for PlayStation 5 consoles.