A little over seven months after The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered was released on PC, bringing the former Steam Game of the Year winner with a slew of features and even a new mode in the form of “No Return,” a hardcore fan and creator has discovered what are apparently cut gameplay features that never made it into the final product.
Note that The Last of Us Part 2 was one of the first major releases on PC this year to be cracked by video game pirates. Then the floodgates opened and dozens more titles were cracked as the year went on.
Now they're working on bringing these gameplay features to the PC release, showcasing what may have been Naughty Dog's original vision of how The Last of Us Part 2 would have played.
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On Twitter, Speclizer, a modder and content creator, shared his discovery of two features: “Peek Mode” and “Hold Up,” both of which never made it into the final product, but have animations, scripts, and even dialogue available in the game's files.
“Peek Up” is exactly what it sounds like, with it allowing players to peek around corners, as well as under or over objects. Considering how the camera works in The Last of Us, it's easy to see why this feature might have been cut, as it likely didn't provide any gameplay advantage.
The real treat though is “Hold Up”, which would have allowed you to sneak up behind an enemy and force them to raise their hands before controlling exactly where they could move and even what direction they were facing. It feels very Metal Gear Solid V meets OG Splinter Cell.
As Speclizer demonstrated in a follow-up video, the feature is actually pretty neat and would almost certainly have been an important part of the game.
That element is even more true when you add the found dialogue scripts, with phrases like “Don't do anything stupid” or “Happening where I can see them.”
Personally, I've never had any problems with the gameplay in The Last of Us. It was absolutely tight where it needed to be, but after watching these videos it's clear that there were plans to make things a lot deeper.
When and if there is a third The Last of Us title, or (shocker) another re-release of Part 1 or Part 2, we may see the final form of these features.
- Released
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June 19, 2020
- ESRB
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M for adult: blood and gore, intense violence, nudity, sexual content, strong language, use of drugs
- Engine
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Proprietary
- Cross-platform play
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no
- Cross Save
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no
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