Naughty Dog has released an unconventional new game mode for The Last of Us Part II Remastered—one that allows players to play through the game’s levels in a different, more chronological order.
The mode, called “Chronological Experience,” was announced via the PlayStation blog. Naughty Dog editorial content manager Jonathon Dornbush wrote in the post that the studio “always wondered” what it would be like for players to experience the story in chronological order. He prefaced this by saying that the original structure—where players first play through the story as protagonist Ellie, then as new character Abby—is still “very intentional and core to how our studio wanted Part II’s themes and narrative beats to impact players.”
Studios are prone to release post-launch updates and DLCs that expand on existing stories. A mode that deliberately reframes a non-linear narrative isn’t as common. The closest comparable example would be how companies like Bethesda Softworks and BioWare have released downloadable content meant to expand the endings of games like Fallout 3 and Dragon Age: Inquisition, but these updates don’t alter the pacing of the original game.
The developer believes that players will gain “even deeper insight” into the sequel’s narrative, experiencing parallels between the protagonists Ellie and Abby, as well as how close they come into running into each other across their personal ventures through Seattle. Naughty Dog “of course” recommends players new to the game to play through the story “as was originally developed.” The bulk of The Last of Us Part II takes place across three days, which the player experiences through the perspective of both characters separately. There’s also a myriad of flashbacks fleshing out their respective character arcs, the placement of certain scenes being quite deliberate and important in providing context.
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Naughty Dog teamed up with Nixxes to bring the Chronological mode to life. The Dutch company, which Sony acquired in June 2021, has worked on the PC ports for not just Part II, but also Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon Forbidden West, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, to name a few.
Not quite the last of the news around Naughty Dog’s five-year-old game
The Chronological Experience update isn’t the only event driving conversation about The Last of Us Part II’s narrative design. The HBO adaptation’s choice to lean on the game’s non-linear structure to split its narrative across several seasons has drawn mixed reception. The season, which ran from April 13 to May 25, encompassed Ellie’s perspective through the events in Seattle, while also hinting that season 3 will follow Abby’s instead, which is how the game is originally structured. As reported by Deadline, there are clear story differences, which are expected from an adaptation. For the most part, the show is also non-linear. This isn’t without challenges, however—showrunner Craig Mazin told Collider he hopes to make a fourth season of the show that will wrap up the HBO adaptation, as there’s “no way to complete this narrative in a third season.”
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As reported by Variety, season 2’s finale reached 3.7 million viewers. This marked a 30 percent drop compared to the season’s premiere, which reached 5.3 million. Overall, the second season is outperforming its predecessor with roughly 3.7 million viewers per episode to date, up from 32 million average viewers each episode by season 1 after 90 days of viewing. At the beginning of July, however, co-writers Neil Druckmann and Halley Gross—who also acted as co-creator of the franchise and co-writer of Part II, respectively—announced their departures from the show ahead of season 3. They were both credited as executive producers, and their contributions include writing, as well as directing in the case of Druckmann. (Thanks, Ars Technica.)
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Back in April, Naughty Dog released The Last of Us Complete, which bundles both remastered versions in one package. A physical edition will be available on July 10. The series has seen a plethora of remasters and re-releases, and while “Complete” might signify that the developer is done with them for the time being, the Chronological Experience update showcases an intention to continue revisiting the game five years later.