Released in June of 2020 to resounding critical acclaim,The Last of Us Part 2is a dark, harrowing, action-adventure title. Developed by Naughty Dog,The Last of Us 2follows protagonist Ellie as she sneaks and fights with various factions on the streets of Seattle.
An ambitious title much longer than anything Naughty Dog had produced before it,The Last of Us 2originally launched without a multiplayer mode. The firstThe Last of Ustitle had a much-beloved competitive multiplayer mode titled Factions, and it was expected by fans that the sequel would include some sort of equivalent. However, in September 2019, Naughty Dog released a tweet stating that the scope of the follow-up faction mode had grown so large that the company decided not to include it with the main single-player campaign, and instead planned torelease it as a standalone experience separate fromThe Last of Us 2, but only when it was ready.
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Since then, fans of the series have heard very little information regarding the sequel’s online offering, and as such, the community has been becomingconcerned with the silence aroundThe Last of Us 2’s Factions multiplayer mode. But, a tweet and new post on Naughty Dog’s official blog have finally revealed some more information regarding the much-anticipated mode.
To celebrate this year’s “The Last of Us Day”, which is the day the fictional outbreak reached critical mass in the franchise’s narrative, September 26th, Naughty Dog has announced that it is, in fact, still working on the Factions game mode. The post on its website states, “In short, we’re working on it - we see the community comments as many of you clamor for multiplayer and want updates,” before further elaborating, “we’ll say that we love what the team is developing and want to give them time to build out their ambitious project, we’ll reveal more when it’s ready!”
Naughty Dog also states in the post that it has been growing its team sinceThe Last of Us Part 2launched and has a multitude of multiplayer-themed job openings available on its site, hinting thatthese positions are related toThe Last of Us 2’sFactions mode. These positions possibly tease at features fans can expect coming to the title, like a Senior Monetization/Economy Designer and AI Programmer, perhaps alluding to microtransactions and AI enemies being included in Factions.
Fans would certainly love to have more information regardingThe Last of Us 2’s multiplayer offering, like a release date or more gameplay specifics. Still, it is reassuring to players that the online component of the title is still currently being worked on, as vague as the information has been.The Last of Us 2’s recent PS5 performance patchwill have to hold players over for now.
The Last of Us Part 2is available on PlayStation 4.
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