The Last Of Us Just Suffered Its Biggest Hit Yet

Published Sep 14, 2026, 1:19 PM EDT Jared is a writer, editor, and Communications Studies graduate who loves popular nerd culture (almost anything to do with Marvel, DC, Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings) and the interactive storytelling medium. Jared's first console was the PS1, wherein he fell for Spider-Man, Spyro the Dragon, and Crash Bandicoot. Sign in to your ScreenRant account The Last of Us Part II is leaving quite an interesting legacy behind. While some fans adore it for the bold storytelling choices it made and how The Last of Us Part II’s gameplay iterated on what The Last of Us achieved as an action-adventure game with a sprinkle of survival horror, many fans are upset to this day that the sequel never reprised The Last of Us’ team-based PvP multiplayer. Instead, The Last of Us Part II received No Return, a roguelike mode that is great for casual play, but not necessarily for professional play, where players attempt to grind for high scores on the highest difficulty, Grounded, in daily runs. A modder had sought to rectify the absence of a multiplayer mode in the sequel, but it is getting its legs cut out from under it in the ninth inning. As per Twitter/X, modder Speclizer has made a statement regarding the development and future of their Last of Us Part II multiplayer mod, explaining that it will not be coming out after all, “on behalf of Sony Interactive Entertainment requesting for the mod not to be released.” The mod was slated to launch this month, too, which salts the wound even more. This mod had been in development for a while and gained traction online from fans who’ve been desperate for something akin to The Last of Us’ Factions mode for ages. Factions is still available to play in the original Last of Us, to be fair, but it’s a shame that the sequel does not have a multiplayer mode of its own in order for it to adopt those same formulas to The Last of Us Part II’s excellent advancements in gameplay and graphics. Moreover, not having a Factions mode or an unofficial multiplayer mod in The Last of Us Part II is doubly tragic, considering that an online Last of Us game was previously in development and canceled, reportedly in an effort to focus Naughty Dog’s resources and attention on single-player endeavors. It would’ve been fully forgivable for The Last of Us Part II to not have a Factions mode if it meant that there’d be a full-fledged, standalone multiplayer Last of Us game, but now fans can’t even have a fan-made mod that delivers that online functionality and PvP matchmaking, either. Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann recently stated that there’s at least a couple Last of Us projects in the works at the moment, and it’s anyone’s guess what they’ll be. It’d be a bit bizarre for one of these to be a multiplayer game, seeing as the one Naughty Dog had was canned, but it’s exciting to have more Last of Us to look forward to regardless. Released June 19, 2020 ESRB M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs Developer(s) Naughty Dog Publisher(s) Sony Engine Proprietary Cross-Platform Play no Cross Save no Franchise The Last of Us Steam Deck Compatibility yes The Last of Us Part II is a continuation of The Last of Us universe and a direct sequel to the original title. It takes place five years after the events of The Last of Us and sees players taking control of two characters, Ellie and Abby. Players will be forced to live the lives of both characters before their stories ultimate at the end of the release.