(For Southeast Asia) The Last of Us Part II Remastered: Exploring the Roguelike Survival Mode, No Return

06.12.2023 - 06:49 / blog.playstation.com / Last Of Us

The Last of Us Part II Remastered arrives for the PlayStation 5 console on January 19, 2024. With it comes a slew of new behind-the-scenes content, technical enhancements to leverage the PS5 hardware, and new modes to ensure that whether you’re experiencing the award-winning sequel’s story for the first or fifth time, there’s something new to discover.

Preorders for digital version of the game are available starting today. . And to mark the occasion, we’re excited to highlight one of the most expansive new additions: No Return, a single-player roguelike survival mode. Before we jump in, check out our trailer for the mode below.

No Return is a new foray for the world of The Last of Us, built to spotlight Part II’s nuanced and engrossing gameplay in a unique way. Let’s dive a bit deeper into what you can expect from the mode.

No Return allows players to choose their own path and test their skills across runs of randomized encounters, throwing you into familiar spaces from The Last of Us Part II’s campaign, like Jackson, the Channel 13 News Station, and many more. These scenarios will be unfamiliar and even unexpected, though, with unique gameplay twists. But be warned: death is permanent in No Return, so if you fail a run midway, you’ll lose all weapons, items, and upgrades accumulated for that run and begin again with a fresh set of randomized scenarios. How you progress during any given run isn’t pre-defined – throughout a run, players will have to choose between different encounters, which will determine not only the type of gameplay mode you tackle, but also what rewards you may unlock, what potential modifiers you’ll encounter, and more. And in between each combat scenario, you’ll return to a Hideout, where you can prep and choose your next fight via a path laid out on a corkboard in these familiar locations.

Should you make it all the way to the end of a run, you’ll come up against one of six successively unlocked boss encounters (and after you’ve conquered them all, they will randomly cap off future runs) against some of Part II’s most memorable foes, but not necessarily in the ways you first fought them. Runs, whether they end in a victory or at the hands of a Clicker or Hunter midway through an encounter, culminate in a score and you’ll receive a rank based on your performance.

That next run will be unique from the one before it, offering a fresh set of encounters each time you play. No Return’s challenges fall into four different types – Assault, which pits you against waves of enemies; Capture, in which you have to break into a safe full of valuable supplies enemies are guarding; Holdout, during which you and an AI-controlled buddy defend against Infected swarming around you; and Hunted, in