The Last of Us franchise has been on a bit of a rollercoaster these last few years. The first season of HBO's Last of Us adaptation was met with critical acclaim in early 2023, and it brought a whole new audience to the franchise. The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered came out about a year later, and while the game itself was great, it drew ire from some due to being yet another re-release for the series. The abrupt cancellation of The Last of Us' online project a month prior certainly didn't help matters.
After three years of development, The Last of Us Online was officially canceled in December 2023. A few months before, a report from Bloomberg suggested the live-service game was in trouble, with Sony reportedly tasking Bungie with assessing the project's viability. In its official statement, Naughty Dog said it canceled The Last of Us Online to focus on producing more single-player narrative games. While that's probably the right decision, The Last of Us Online shouldn't be forgotten about entirely.
6 Biggest Changes In Season 2 Of The Last Of Us
Was season 2 of The Last of Us a more faithful or less faithful adaptation than season 1?
The Last of Us Online Shouldn't Be Left in the Dust Completely
A Multiplayer Mode Was Sorely Missed in The Last of Us Part 2
The original Last of Us released all the way back in 2013, an era in which the vast majority of AAA single-player games also came packaged with a multiplayer offering. Though it hasn't become quite as world-renowned as the game's campaign, The Last of Us' Factions multiplayer mode was a cut above the rest of the era's supplementary multiplayer modes, offering a refreshingly grounded and brutal experience.
Naughty Dog originally had plans to include a Factions mode successor in The Last of Us Part 2 at launch. But just before it shipped, the developer stated that The Last of Us Part 2's multiplayer offering had exceeded its original scope and would no longer be part of the 2020 title. In 2022, fans were told the mode had been expanded into a fully-fledged standalone multiplayer Last of Us game, and the rest is history.
For fans of The Last of Us' Factions mode, The Last of Us Online's cancellation was particularly disappointing, as many had been waiting for a decade for a new Last of Us multiplayer experience. But all hope might not be lost just yet.
A Potential Last of Us Part 3 Should Include a Multiplayer Mode
Over the last year or so, Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann has made a few slightly contradictory statements regarding The Last of Us' future. Most recently, Druckmann said in an interview with the Sacred Symbols podcast that "with the right opportunity, with the right idea, yeah, I would totally jump at [the chance to make The Last of Us Part 3]." So there's a possibility a third Last of Us installment could happen, and if that possibility becomes reality, it'd be great to see a new multiplayer mode.
Naughty Dog could take the foundations of its canceled live-service Last of Us game and use those building blocks to create a much smaller and more finite multiplayer experience that doesn't need a ton of work to maintain. This would finally give Factions fans the fresh experience they've been seeking while still giving Naughty Dog plenty of room to develop other single-player projects.
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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
- Engine
- Proprietary Engine
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure
