The Last of Us 2 has found plenty of ways to extend its longevity beyond its core story, with there being a few avenues that dedicated fans can take to experience fresh gameplay experiences within the 2020 title. Alonside the challenging modifiers and difficulty options that fans have at their disposal for the game's main campaign, Naughty Dog added a highly replayable roguelike experience called No Return, exclusively for The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered.
While players gained access to No Return through The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered since early 2024, Naughty Dog recently announced a big content injection coming to No Return that has come as a pleasant surprise to many fans. These upcoming changes to No Return definitely make it worth picking up either again or for the first time, with the uncertainty around TLoU's future and the inbound continuation of its live-action adaptation making for a perfect storm that pulls players back into the mode.
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April is Going to Be the Perfect Time to Experience The Last of Us 2 Remastered's No Return Mode
No Return acts as a huge element of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, being one of the main ways the game has justified its divisive existence as a remaster that released less than four years after the launch of its source material. As a roguelike experience, No Return offers a wide range of challenge runs that players can tackle, split between the four types of Assault, Capture, Holdout, and Hunted.
These addictive challenge runs take place throughout different locations within The Last of Us 2's story, with successful runs culminating in challenging boss fights with enticing rewards that can be unlocked upon successful completion. Through completed runs, players can gain things like weapon skins, new boss fights, new playable characters, new character skins, and more. While dedicated players may have already seen everything No Return has to offer, the upcoming launch of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered on PC is set to bring a sizable wave of content to the mode.
Launching on April 3 and being made available across both PC and PlaySation 5, the No Return update will see both Bill and Marlene added to the mode as playable characters, each bringing two unique playstyles and overall builds that open up a world of new possibilities for players. Four new maps are also being added to No Return, named Overlook, Nest, Streets, and School, with these additions combining to make No Return well worth a chance.
Bill's "Smuggler" playstyle gives the character a custom pump shotgun as well as double rewards from drops, whereas Marlene's "Risk Taker" approach offers a custom assault rifle, a No Return path reroute mechanic, and "All or Nothing" gambits.
With The Last of Us 3 Seeming Unlikely, Fresh No Return Content Seems All the More Important
While many fans have been hopeful of news regarding The Last of Us 3 for quite some time, series creator Neil Druckmann recently dashed a lot of hopes with his comments asking fans not to bet on any more Last of Us content within the gaming space. This paints a pretty bleak picture of future Last of Us content as things stand, making the fresh updates to No Return all the more worthy of attention from fans who are hoping to experience everything the IP has to offer.
Of course, there are still some exciting near-future developments for The Last of Us, with the hotly anticipated second season of HBO's live-action TLoU show being set to debut on April 13. The launch of No Return's upcoming update ten days before the release of The Last of Us' second season seems like a purposeful move on Naughty Dog's part, as players who want to get firmly back into the mood of the franchise need look no further than No Return's fresh content on April 3.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 89 /100 Critics Rec: 90%
- Released
- January 19, 2024
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
- Developer(s)
- Naughty Dog
- Publisher(s)
- Sony Interactive Entertainment
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure
