The Last of Us 2 Unused Assets Hints at Battle Royale Mode

Although it has been over a year since 2020 action-adventure game The Last of Us Part II came out on PlayStation 4, developer Naughty Dog and publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment has yet to release an online multiplayer mode.

A curious fan has recently discovered a number of unused multiplayer assets for The Last of Us 2 in-game and came to a conclusion upon inspecting them that Naughty Dog originally planned to include a Battle Royale mode at release.

While there is no announcement for a multiplayer mode yet, one enthusiast fan has dug up and discovered some TLoU2 assets that were most probably intended to be added to The Last of Us 2 online mode and uploaded it to YouTube.

YouTube user Speclizer took a map prop that was meant to be used for TLoU2 multiplayer and suggests that it could be used for a Battle Royale mode in future by merging several maps from single-player campaign into one large area.

Following release of first The Last of Us game, Naughty Dog rolled out a multiplayer mode and Left Behind DLC. Players were introduced to Factions for co-operative and competitive matches that allowed up to eight survivors to join up.

Speclizer was able to spawn some of these objects from unused The Last of Us 2 asset files that include objects like a "listen-mode-device", "collar" and even a "handheld TV", each one having at least some usages during a Battle Royale.

Though a function of "handheld TV" is not found yet but "listen-mode-device" could be used to enable Listen mode in multiplayer. Moreover, "collar" maybe a subtle hint towards inclusion of guard dogs into online mode to track others.

Naughty Dog always wanted to include a multiplayer mode for The Last of Us Part II at release but they had to scrap that idea afterwards to focus on an extensive single-player campaign and pushed back online features to a future date.

A little something that they forget to point out in video is a compass and a player count, a few common aspects of Battle Royale. Moreover, there is an emote wheel script that further pushes an idea of last person standing-style matches.

Naughty Dog may include all of these and more to online component for The Last of Us 2, which will make a great addition to multiplayer. Given that there are still some loose ends to TLoU2, a post-launch DLC may also come out in future.

Speclizer uploaded a video on their YouTube channel detailing all recent findings of hidden multiplayer assets.

These newly discovered files shows how much dev team has actually worked on The Last of Us 2 multiplayer mode already. Fans can only be hopeful that Naughty Dog will launch "Factions II" in near future when they finish working on it.

Earlier this month, a Naughty Dog job listing has hinted that online features for The Last of Us II may be released as a standalone experience, instead of a previously planned multiplayer online that includes fan-favorite Battle Royale mode.