The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered: release date, modes, and more
After leaks by employees and the PS5 database, Naughty Dog has finally confirmed that The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered exists – and not only that. The developer revealed a release date as well as a variety of other details about the game, including a brand-new game mode and the interesting technical upgrades.
Fans were worried about what additional value a remastered version of the game, which came out very late in the PS4 lifecycle, could actually bring to the table, and it seems like Naughty Dog asked itself that question as well, trying to avoid accusations of a blatant cash grab.
Here’s everything you need to know about The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered.
Naturally, this remaster comes with a host of visual upgrades.
Naughty Dog
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered: release date, editions, price
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered will be released on January 19, 2024, for PS5.
A price for The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered has not yet been released either, though we’ll have more information on that for you on December 5, 2023, when pre-orders for the game begin. Players who own The Last of Us Part 2 on PS4 will have the opportunity to upgrade their version to Remastered for $10 USD.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered will be available in a Standard Edition and a WLF Edition.
The special edition will only be available via PlayStation Direct in the US, UK, Germany, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Austria. It will contain a variety of physical goodies, such as a steelbook case, additional digital PS5 content, 47 Society of Champions trading cards, and a Washington Liberation Front patch.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered: PC port
At this point, a PC port of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered has not been announced, nor has the development of such a port been confirmed.
This is contrasting the reveal of The Last of Us Part 1 Remake, during which a PC port had been confirmed to be in development. Of course, this doesn’t mean that a PC version of the title isn’t in the oven at the moment.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered: new content
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered will feature a brand-new roguelike game mode called No Return.
Featuring a variety of playable characters – some becoming so for the first time – with their own unique traits and play styles, No Return tests the players’ combat abilities in a series of random encounters over the course of each run. Users will be able to choose their own path through the run, challenging combat or stealth encounters according to their selection. Naturally, these will contain a host of potential modifiers to keep things mixed up. Each successfully solved encounter will be rewarded, once again letting the player choose from a selection of benefits that will define the rest of the run. Players can earn additional characters, skins, and other goodies in No Return.
New skins for Abbie, Ellie, and their weapons will be unlockable in the game proper as well.
Guitar Free Play is another new mode coming with Remastered. Players can choose to play in the form of various characters and at different locations from the game, unlocking instruments and audio FX pedals to modify performances.
No Return will be a mode revolving around stealth and combat.
Naughty Dog
The unlockable Speed Run mode, which lets players compare times with others, will return from The Last of Us Part 1.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered will additionally contain a variety of Lost Levels – gameplay slices from earlier in development that were eventually cut. With embedded commentary by the developers, these levels allow users a behind-the-scenes look into the game’s creation phase.
Newly-recorded lines of Director’s Commentary from Neil Druckmann, Halley Gross, Troy Baker, Ashley Johnson, and Laura Bailey can be found as well.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered: technical improvements
Finally, in terms of improvements compared to the PS4 version, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered offers enhanced visual options like native 4K output in Fidelity Mode, 1440p upscaled to 4K in Performance Mode, an unlocked framerate option for VRR-compatible TVs, higher texture resolution, increase level-of-detail distances, better shadows, and more. Photo Mode has been enhanced with several new options as well, just like for The Last of Us Part 1 Remake.
Naughty Dog also promises faster loading times for the game on PS5. The PS5 DualSense controller’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers functions will be used by the title as well.
The DualSense controllers will be used for enhanced accessibility functions as well, such as one that translates descriptive audio and speech to vibrations, indicating speech cadence.
