The Silence Around The Last of Us 2‘s Faction Multiplayer is Concerning.One year on, and The Last of Us 2 is not yet in multiplayer mode and some fans wonder whether it ever releases.
The Last of Us 2 was released almost exactly a year ago today, to a somewhat mixed, but largely positive, reception. Although some of the game’s narrative decisions caused controversy among fans, the experience left many eager for more The Last of Us content. The Last of Us 2 did not include a multiplayer mode, thus fans only got to play the singleplayer storey. This mode was instead postponed to a later date, but fans have yet to see even a trailer after months of waiting.
While The Last of Us is and always will be primarily a singleplayer franchise, the original game’s Factions mode was a hit with die-hard fans. Factions may not have been the first thought that sprang to fans’ minds when a sequel to The Last of Us was announced, but it would be warmly welcomed nonetheless. The hush surrounding the new Factions feature is disconcerting, especially given the lack of a release date and reports that Naughty Dog may be moving on from The Last of Us to a new IP in Stray’s Cross.
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What Is Known About The Last Of Us 2’S Factions?
Factions in The Last of Us allows players to choose between two clans: Hunters or Fireflies. After that, these clans compete in one of three modes: Supply Raid, Survivors, or Interrogation, in teams of twelve. Despite the multiplayer setting, Factions has a variety of singleplayer aspects, which makes it a unique option. The Last of Us’ desperation is maintained in the mode thanks to resource scarcity and realistic, non-regenerating health. This creates a very unique experience, which helps to explain why the mode has such a large fanbase.
There’s nothing to rely on when speculating what The Last of Us 2’s Factions might look like without a trailer or official announcement. It’s been believed that Factions would be a standalone game rather than a DLC for The Last of Us 2, which allows fans to hypothesise that it will be a more fleshed-out experience. Whether as a sequel to the original game or as a standalone title, The Last of Us 2 gamers have been promised that multiplayer is coming, which is fantastic news for fans.
Recent Last of Us 2 Faction Updates
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Despite Naughty Dog’s quiet on the game mode’s development, recent Naughty Dog job listings suggest that faction development may be speeding up. The job listings were for a variety of vocations for a new standalone multiplayer game, which adds gasoline to the fire that Factions will be its own game. Naughty Dog is also employing temporary video editors to work on trailers, implying that a big announcement is on the way. It’s still unclear whether this will be for Factions or something else.
Aside from job listings, fans have previously received signs that the Factions feature is progressing faster than the silence suggests. Last year, leaked Factions gameplay footage surfaced, indicating that the game was in good working order. This piqued the interest of fans who were looking forward to a new release at the moment. Despite the fact that it’s been almost ten months, that’s still the closest fans have gone to a disclosure. This raises the obvious question of why fans must scour the internet for job openings in order to learn about Factions. It’s excellent news if the game’s release is imminent, but the radio quiet is concerning.
Have Naughty Dog’s Priorities Changed?
One of the most concerning possibilities for Factions fans is the possibility that Naughty Dog’s goals have shifted. Naughty Dog has been working on updating The Last of Us 2 for the PlayStation 5 since the console’s launch. This update, which allows users to choose between 30 and 60 frames per second while also improving the graphics, was launched in May of this year.
However, virtually little information about The Last of Us 2’s Factions has surfaced since then. Instead, speculations of a The Last of Us remake have been swirling, though fans will be hoping that this isn’t high on Naughty Dog’s priority list. If The Last of Us Remake is unveiled before Factions, the highly anticipated multiplayer mode will undoubtedly suffer.
Stray’s Cross, an all-new AAA sci-fi title, is another alleged future Naughty Dog project. This initiative, however, is unlikely to have an impact on the development of the Factions mode because it will most likely be handled by a separate team. Nonetheless, particularly compared to even Stray’s Cross, the relative hush surrounding Factions is troubling for aficionados of the game mode. Factions has received less information than past Naughty Dog projects, which could indicate that the game is still a long way off.
The Silence Around The Last of Us 2’s Faction Multiplayer is Concerning
If Factions is unveiled this year, it will most likely be in the lead-up to, or on, The Last of Us Day on September 26. The identity of Naughty Dog’s standalone multiplayer project might make or break fans’ expectations for a Factions mode in The Last of Us 2. Last year, Neil Druckman stated that Factions will be worth the wait, reassuring fans and implying that the new project would be a Factions clone. Fans are growing antsy as they wait for any news from Naughty Dog, but there has been no official confirmation.
