Perhaps one of the best features of the upcoming The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered for PS5 is the No Return Roguelike mode. Naughty Dog briefly touched upon No Return during their official announcement of the PS5 remaster last month. Now another post on the PlayStation Blog has explored the mode in more detail.
No Return – A Roguelike Survival Mode
No Return is a roguelike survival mode that will be part of the Last of Us Part 2’s PS5 remaster. The mode has been built to spotlight The Last of Us Part 2’s incredible combat and gameplay in a new way.
No Return – Quick Facts
- No Return is a roguelike survival mode
- Will take place in familiar places from The Last of Us Part 2 campaign
- There will be four different challenge modes: Assualt, Capture Holdout and Hunted
- The mode will have optional challenges called Gambits
- Starts with Ellie and Abby as playable characters
If you have ever played PS5 exclusive Returnal or any other Roguelike game you will be pretty familiar with how No Return’s gameplay works. Players can choose their path and test their skills in runs of randomised encounters. The encounters will take place in locations familiar to players who have played the main The Last of Us Part 2 campaign. Locations from the campaign will include Jackosn, The Hardware Store, the news station, the hospital and more.
Being a Roguelike mode, death is permanenet in No Return. So if you die halfway through all your weapons and upgrades accumulated throughout the run will be lost. And you’ll have to start again with a new set of random encounters. You can choose between different encounters which determine the type of gameplay mode to have to tackle as well as the rewards you can unlock and modifiers.
At the end of a successful No Return run, players will face one of six successively unlocked boss fights. Once you have unlocked all six the boss encounters will randomly finish up future runs. The bosses will be familiar to players who have previously played the campaign but Naughty Dog says you will fight them differently in No Return.
Different characters, different playstyles
No Return will start off with the game’s two main characters as playable, Ellie and Abby. Other characters can be unlocked by completing various challenges. These include Dina, Joel, Tommy, and Jesse, while Abby’s companions Lev, Yara, Mel, and Manny are all also unlockable.
Each character has unique traits and playstyles making No Return seem like it could be played for a very long time. Characters will also have their skill trees and upgrades.
No Return will be playable as soon as you start up The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered. However, Naughty Dog recommends that new players play the campaign first to get acclimated tot he game mechanics.
No Return sounds like the type of game mode that will make The Last of Us Part 2 remastered buying just for this mode alone. With randomised encounters and each run being unique, not to mention the unlockable characters No Return sounds like it could be a fantastic addition in its own right.
You can read more about No Return on the PlayStation Blog which goes into quite a bit of detail about the new mode.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is out on January 19th for PS5. The WLF Collectors Edition can be pre-ordered from PlayStation Direct for £99.99. There is also a standalone physical and digital copy of the game. The physical version of the game is priced at £44.99 and can be pre-ordered from PlayStation Direct or Amazon.
And the really good news for existing owners of The Last of Us Part 2 on PS4 is you’ll be able to upgrade to the PS5 remaster for £10.00.
