We can’t speak for the entire PlayStation community, but we suspect all anyone wanted from the new The Last of Us Factions was fresh maps and gameplay from The Last of Us 2.
Naughty Dog instead pursued one of the most ambitious projects in its history, and eventually scrapped its work once it realised it would probably have to dedicate its entire studio to supporting the game moving forwards.
Of course, the sad part in all this is that we still don’t have a new version of The Last of Us Factions to play. Yes, you can still enjoy the original via The Last of Us Remastered, and it’s still brilliant. But it hasn’t been updated in a while, so you’re stuck with the old maps and gameplay.
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One indie dev, however, has vowed to resurrect the mode with a new game named Terminal War.
Here’s what it wrote on X (or Twitter):
“They cancelled The Last of Us Factions 2. So we're building our version. We’re indie and entirely self funded. 4v4. Limited ammo. Brutal executions. This is Terminal War.”
There’s a bit more information on the game’s Steam page:
“Terminal War is a grounded, team-based third-person shooter set in a fractured America during the late 1990s. Engage in intense combat across war-torn cities, forgotten towns, and contested territory where every bullet, every strike, and every decision counts.”
The bullet points mention there’ll be three factions to choose from, and the gameplay does seem to understand the appeal of The Last of Us’ multiplayer, which focused more on white-knuckle tension than all-out action.
Writing in response to some comments on social media, it pointed out that it’s building the game from the ground-up itself; this isn’t a direct replica of Factions, but its own interpretation of the game.
Early Access is planned for PC according to the game’s Steam page, and there’s no word on consoles just yet. We’d imagine this has to be targeting PS5 given the audience for it.
It’ll be interesting to see whether an indie dev can match the production values of Naughty Dog, but if it it can, we do think there’s an audience for this.
It’s truly bizarre to us that, as part of Sony’s live service strategy, the company hasn’t been able to put out a more simplistic follow-up to Factions, which was among the most-liked multiplayer games of the PS3 and PS4 era.