Hey, look, even more The Last of Us content. This time around, from Naughty Dog themselves as they announce the addition of a Chronological Mode for The Last of Us Part II. If you’ve ever wanted to play the game and see the story in the order things happened, congratulations. You won.

I never considered this as a possibility for ‘The last of us part ii’

The Last of Us Part II is a heavy-ass game. I was into it all the way through. Hell, I think the hospital and the Rat King set piece is one of the coolest parts of the game, given its importance to the overall lore of the series. But when I finished, I never once considered playing through it again. I know I’m not alone in that.

And through all of the discourse — some legit, some idiotic — about the game, Naughty Dog has stood by it and all of the design decisions that were made. And they should have. This is their art; they had something they wanted to say with it. But even they admit:

“While this structure is very intentional and core to how our studio wanted Part II’s themes and narrative beats to impact players, we always wondered what it would be like to experience this story chronologically. And now finally, we can answer that question.”

I’m curious as to why it was even a question there. Especially given the amount of work that must have been necessary to make this flow correctly. I am interested in seeing what The Last of Us Part II‘s story looks like in chronological order. I want to see if it feels different. More than anything, I want to see if it still feels too long. My main complaint with the game was that I felt there were about two — maybe three — hours that could have been cut. I don’t know when I’ll put myself through that again. But I’ll be giving it a shot at some point in the future.