5 Years After Release, The Last Of Us Part 2 Just Got A Surprise New Way To Play

Five years and one remaster later, The Last Of Us Part 2 Remastered just got a surprise update today, and it added in a heavily-requested feature, one that might get fans to jump back in to Ellie's and Abby's journeys all over again. The Last Of Us Part 2 is one of the most polarizing games in recent memory, and its ambitious decision to tell two separate narratives and have them interweave at key moments was a point of contention. Now, there is a way to play all the events in chronological order.

In a post to X by the official Naughty Dog account, a new update for The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered was released today, and it added a new Chronological Mode, which will let players play through the entire narrative in a linear structure, switching between Ellie and Abby, instead of having to play all of Ellie's section and then all of Abby's section. The new mode is only available in The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered on PlayStation 5 and PC, and not in the original release.

New Chronological Mode Comes To The Last Of Us Part 2

One Linear Narrative

The Chronological Mode will switch players back and forth between the major characters. In the normal mode, players have to play all of Ellie's chapters before the game goes back in time to show Abby's perspective and what she was doing during Ellie's revenge mission. The narrative structure of the game was polarizing among fans, becoming one of the most discussed parts of the game. With this update, fans can experience the entire narrative in two unique ways.

Additionally, the mode isn't just a character switch at the normal end points for the Seattle chapters, but rather multiple switches across all three days in the narrative, at least from the video shown. For example, the game's opening Seattle section will begin with Abby's chapter, switch to Ellie's, and then end with the forest section of Abby's chapter, ending all of Day One. Presumably, the series of chronological order of events also includes the flashbacks and epilogue.

Our Take: The Chronological Mode Is A Cool New Addition

But Does It Undermine The Key Points Of The Story?

This new mode, especially being dropped out of the blue, is quite a large addition to an already packed game. The remaster also saw the addition of the rougelike No Return mode, which added a lot of new playable characters, and the main game got new costumes, improved visuals, and a few other smaller features, too, but this is the biggest addition to the game yet. For fans that did not enjoy the structure of the game, this might be the addition that piques interest again.

However, with key story themes and plot beats relying on the absence of concrete information about Abby and why she makes the choices she makes, it's hard to say if the new Chronological Mode will benefit the narrative in any way. Still, giving fans the option to play the story either way is neat, and I'm sure a lot of fans will be tempted to jump back in just to see how the new structure changes their experiences with the game, so The Last Of Us Part 2 Remastered seems to be the game that can't escape discussions and fans' minds.