That was a rollercoaster, wasn’t it? Coy interview quotes emerged alongside The Last of Us: Part II’s single player previews yesterday, suggesting that Naughty Dog had ditched the series’ superb Factions mode. The news was met with a mixture of celebration and frustration: some felt that, unshackled from the requirements of online play, the Californian developer would be able to deliver an even better solo campaign; others went straight to social media to air their grievances – especially after the popularity of the previous game.
I’ve got to admit, I was bemused by the news. Following the game closely, I knew that the first-party team had been hiring multiplayer-focused developers, so I quickly concluded that the mode was probably being spun out as its own standalone thing. To be honest, I had a different Soapbox planned out to point that out, but the studio – pushed for answers by its rabid fans – released a statement more or less confirming that. That’s left my content plan in tatters, but I’m happy we have a better idea of what’s happening now.
Most of you know my tastes by now: I’m a single player gamer at heart. I do have an exception, though: I really liked The Last of Us’ multiplayer mode. I think elements of it were cumbersome – the whole camp management system, for example, was a wonderful idea that demanded more time and iteration – but the core gameplay was, as I believe they say in Robert Ramsey’s neck of the woods, champion. I know there are plenty of PlayStation fans who are desperate for the return of SOCOM – well, look no further than The Last of Us: Remastered, comrades.
The thing is, now we have a better idea of what Naughty Dog’s doing, I’m very much excited again. Sony’s said several times how it wants to improve its slate of exclusive multiplayer experiences, and a hypothetical The Last of Us Online has the potential to be something special moving into the next generation and beyond. Imagine the same tight, survival-based gameplay with a much bigger scope – that alone is a mouth-watering proposition.
But what if the developer’s going a step further than that? It’s bordering on meme territory, but some kind of Battle Royale mode would fit the fiction superbly: an enclosing circle of devastating gas; survivors hunting for supplies; clickers to add hazards around every corner. What if your performance in matches could then be used to build out your own personal camp, in an addictive meta-game that allows you to task recruits with different jobs, unlocking perks and upgrades?
There’s so much exciting potential here, that it’s almost overshadowing the re-reveal of the single player campaign for me. Don’t worry, I’ll be there to see the next step in Ellie’s story on 21st February, but I’m intrigued by this multiplayer mode. How will it be delivered? What will it cost? Will it even be set in The Last of Us universe – or is Naughty Dog ready to create new fiction to house its online efforts? Anything’s possible really.
Look, I love Sony’s single player output, but the platform holder’s mastered those types of games. I don’t want it to stop making those experiences, but I want to see what it’s capable of in the online space. Multiplayer shooters have stagnated over the past decade for me, but Factions brought some fresh ideas which I really appreciated. The fact that the developer has a dedicated team exploring and expanding on the concept has me a little hot under the collar, I'm not going to lie.
Do you think Naughty Dog's wasting its talent working on The Last of Us Online, or were you a big fan of the underrated multiplayer component in the first game? Should the studio focus its efforts on single player, or are you intrigued what it can achieve by putting more time and talent into its online output? Steal our supplies in the comments section below.
Comments 24
I’d have liked factions to be a part of the game, but I’m also happy that Naughty Dog’s full resources are being put into the single player. That’s the main draw of The Last of Us.
As someone who barely dipped into Factions, I wasn't disappointed at all by the news that TLOU2 wouldn't have any multiplayer.
The thing is, now that a spin-off standalone release is looking like the plan, that might actually tempt me in and have me more interested when it comes out.
I feel like this gives everyone the best of both worlds so to speak, and it's likely why they've made this decision.
Before we get our hopes up lets be unfortunately kinda real here for a sec. Naughty Dog will probably release a pay2win game The Last Of Us 2 battle royale game filled with microtransactions and lootboxs about 3-6 months after launch and all the reviews are out
@roe It definitely gives the multiplayer an opportunity to step out of the shadow of the single player and stand as its own thing.
@KnightWolf Or it might be a great game that people will enjoy playing for years to come.
@Shepherd_Tallon In this industry, when it rains, it really does tend to pour.
Personally, I haven't played more than a dozen hours across all of Naughty Dog Multi-player and I would buy ANY Naughty Dog game regardless of whether it has MP or not.
I really don't think its Naughty Dogs strength so I am not disappointed by a lack of MP - its better than having a MP just because other games do it. To a degree, I think ND added MP because Uncharted 2 & 3 had it and it was almost expected.
However with Sony having a LOT of very strong Single Player games, Highly Praised too with games like H:ZD, God of War, Spider-Man etc and no-doubt have the figures for MP with Uncharted and Last of Us Remastered, it maybe stopped being a priority, stopped being a necessity.
Its a competitive market for MP with numerous Free to Play MP's as well as the juggernauts. With barriers coming down too, could ND make a F2P MP and make it available on multiple platforms with Cross-Play? Its possible as MS has games on Sony and Nintendo. With the partnership with MS, maybe that will see some MP cross platform games released on multiple devices and Sony keeping the Single Player exclusive. In some ways, that could work too their advantage - get them hooked on the MP so they buy a console for the Single player.
If they did release a F2P multi-platform MP, of course you have a much bigger pool of whales for all the MTX too - not just 'Sony' gamers paying Sony. It may be unlikely at this time but who knows what could happen in a year or more. MS has certainly said that they won't keep games purely Xbox - of course their own Big franchise to sell 'Xbox' (which doesn't just mean the console anymore). All I am saying is that it may not be so segregated in the future and that maybe, just maybe, IF its in Sony's best interest as they (not us) see it, then maybe they could release MP's on more platforms...
Before anyone else goes on about Sony would never... I am not saying its guaranteed they will BUT its possible whilst also being very unlikely at this point in time. Who knows in a year or more...
Sony did say that they like to create multiplatform online games and this might just be it.
I am not sure I trust what they are saying. Feels like they have just said what they think people want to hear. Otherwise why did they not make this statement at the same time as the one where they said it was not included in the main game. Feels like damage limitation PR exercise.
To me, I feel that Naughty Dog knows where to put the money and clearly the main focus is on single player as the first priority. I am happy with that. They have the numbers, they know the player count, the player drop off, the engagement and how it affects sales etc. While I know there is a lot of love for the MP content of TLOU, to me they always felt like an addition.
Now if ND and Sony are spinning it off into its own thing, that is great. However I would much rather they focus on what the majority of us gamers want which is a fast class single player. I know you could argue that they managed both with Uncharted and TLOU but we don't know the stress that put on the teams to deliver both. So basically, I think this is a good strategy.
I think ND want to separate the single and multiplayer, rather than just tacked on mode, it will be stand alone multiplayer mode with years of support like pubg or fortnite.
My biggest concern for Factions is the Survivors mode and that it is included and barely changed as it is a fantastic mode.
The other two modes were just ok in comparison. I happy for new modes and an evolution to Factions overall, but bare minimum, I need the Survivors mode.
the Factions was full of garbage microtransactions, so i never bothered with it. i will never support that thing ever.
Was the MP really popular? Looking at the trophy completion it had low percentages of MP trophy unlocks. https://psnprofiles.com/search/games?q=The%20last%20of%20us
@GodGamer - 10% of 7 or 8 million players is still sizeable player numbers.
@leucocyte TLoU sold over 18 million copies. 10% of 8 million is only 800,000 anyway and that is way too low.
i enjoyed factions on PS4, in fact i might even go back and give it another go when it comes to ps+ if there's a new influx of players, and not just a hardcore group that have been playing it solidly for 5 years.
not sure how i feel about it being its own thing though, inevitably if a game is online only focused these days, there is some kind of GaaS mechanic involved to keep revenue coming in, even if it's not lootboxes. i miss the days when multiplayer used to be just multiplayer with no BS, and you'd maybe get the occassional map pack if the game was popular.
wouldn't worry about it taking resources away from ND's traditional single player games - sounds like they're building their own team and set of resources for multiplayer, which seems like a solid strategy. even CoD's main studios outsources some of its mp development, eg: both beenox and high moon have developed parts of the latest game, rather than stretch all of IWs resources thin.
@GodGamer - i only looked at the PS4 numbers. too low for what?. destiny 2's got a player base of about a million, and is still cracking along. that 10% is the number who played it long enough to reach the trophy requirements, not the number who actually played factions.
personally, on the sony front, i'm kind of hoping guerrilla games gets its multiplayer groove back, and has something cooking for PS5, whether it's killzone related or not. it really dropped the ball with shadowfall imo, after it had the perfect base with KZ2/3 to deliver something special in regards to multiplayer. that M82 in KZ3 is still the pinnacle of gaming assault rifles, imo. i had 35K kills with just that one gun!
So many excuses and so much denial. The game is shipping without multiplayer. Everything else is PR bs and at least 2 years away.
I have to disagree. I don’t think the statement made by Naughty Dog was anything close to “more or less confirming” a standalone TLoU multiplayer is coming.
“However, you will eventually experience the fruits of our team's online ambition, but not as part of The Last of Us: Part II. When and where it will be realized is still to be determined.”
This could mean many different things in my opinion. Not only is it yet to be determined when something multiplayer-related will be revealed, but also where it will be revealed, according to them.
That to me sounds like we could see all of Naughty Dog’s multiplayer efforts put into an entirely different game possibly.
Or you could be spot on and we are getting a standalone TLoU multiplayer. I just feel like the wording Naughty Dog used far from guarantees that.
I loved factions! I hope they dont just cheap out and make a battle royal game though.
I could see it taking place in a much larger almost mini open world maps, though, and with a lot more people!
Please dont ditch having multiple maps in favor of one single BR style map. I seriously hate that. Also full character creation PLEEEASE!!!!
God no. TLoU multiplayer component was absolutely awful in every sense. Then again so is 99% of all multiplayer games. I can't think of anything more shallow, void of content, and boring than a multiplayer game. Yup, let's run one of eight maps for a year or so at two minutes apiece and call it quality replayability. Single player games offer you so much more but if you want the bottom of the barrel, least effort required, double paywall experience... Go for it. Leave the games for the gamers.
@Nintyfan I can think of something more shallow. Enemy AI in single player. You're bad at multiplayer, obviously.
@get2sammyb - It may well be a great game but it will 100% guaranteed be rammed full of p2w weapons and there will be 1000's of cosmetic mtx just like the remaster, it'll be mostly hats, again.
I have zero idea why Naughty Dog get a pass on that but the factions we already have is right up there with all the scummy practices that EA and others employ. This new MP will be the same.
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