Naughty Dog"s award-winning action adventure The Last of Us Part II is well known for its hard-hitting narrative elements. The lengthy storyline is given to the player in a non-linear fashion, switching between main characters as well as time shifts that jump between past and present occurrences. Now, Naughty Dog has gone ahead and changed how the story is presented entirely with a new option.
Announced today, the new Chronological mode does exactly what it sounds like: stitch together the story from start to finish without any of the time shifts from before. The studio said that while the original non-linear storytelling structure was an intentional decision to deliver on its themes and narrative vision, it wanted to see how the story would come together in this new chronological way too.
"Through the new Chronological mode, we believe players will gain even deeper insight into Part II’s narrative," says Naughty Dog in a blog post announcing the feature. "Players will be able to see how Ellie being gifted a guitar flows so neatly into her learning to play, for example, while the journey through Seattle will showcase the fascinating parallels between Ellie and Abby’s crisscrossing journeys. You’ll see just how close they come into running into each other, how their actions impact each other, and more."
The free update comes out as a joint project between the PlayStation studios Naughty Dog and Nixxes. The teams still recommend new players play through the story in the original non-linear way, but for those returning, the new option may be a good way to get more perspectives on the experience.
There"s also a reward for completing the game in this new Chronological mode, with two skins being unlocked for players, straight from Naughty Dog"s Uncharted series: Joel dressed as Nathan Drake and Tommy as Sam Drake in No Return. The skins can be used in the game"s No Return roguelike survival mode.
The Last of Us Part II Remastered"s new Chronological Mode is now available on PlayStation 5 and PC (Steam and Epic Games Store). The update also carries new achievements as well as bug fixes.