SUBSCRIBE
Tech Journal Now
  • Home
  • News
  • AI
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Best Buy
  • Software
  • Games
Reading: The Last of Us Part 2 has a ‘chronological mode’ now, in case you wanted to play through a story with all the finesse of a Wikipedia plot summary
Share
Tech Journal NowTech Journal Now
Font ResizerAa
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • AI
  • Best Buy
  • Games
  • Software
Search
  • Home
  • News
  • AI
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Best Buy
  • Software
  • Games
Have an existing account? Sign In
Follow US
© Foxiz News Network. Ruby Design Company. All Rights Reserved.
Tech Journal Now > Games > The Last of Us Part 2 has a ‘chronological mode’ now, in case you wanted to play through a story with all the finesse of a Wikipedia plot summary
Games

The Last of Us Part 2 has a ‘chronological mode’ now, in case you wanted to play through a story with all the finesse of a Wikipedia plot summary

News Room
Last updated: July 10, 2025 5:12 am
News Room
Share
6 Min Read
SHARE

One of the most powerful tools in any writer’s box is the complete mastery they have over time. While real life trudges along in a doldrum routine of cause and effect, stories can arrange their happenings however they’d like. Storytellers have spent centuries finding and developing effective structures. Naughty Dog, however, has better plans. Plans that I am about to be entirely too crotchety about. Nevertheless:

Ask yourself—who needs the potent hand of authorial intent? Why would you generate mystery? What’s the point of meticulously challenging a desire for vengeance after spending hours stewing in it? That kind of thing might lead to people having to think about a story’s themes and messages and analyse it, or critique it, or something. Ugh, gross.

Introducing the cure to what ails ye: The Last of Us Part 2 “Chronological Experience”, a truly baffling alternate mode recently released for the remastered version of the game on both PC and PS5.

Best gaming rigs 2025

Our current recommendations

“Those who have already played will know its story is told non-linearly,” a blog explains, “As Ellie and Abby’s motivations, realizations, and emotional stakes unfold across myriad flashbacks and present-day storylines.”

But what, instead of all of that, you simply didn’t? Naughty Dog is brave enough to ask that question: “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.”

The blog then posits that players will be given a “deeper insight into Part 2’s narrative”, before reaching so hard you can hear the joints pop: “Players will be able to see how Ellie being gifted a guitar flows so neatly into her learning to play.” This is great for me, someone who cannot parse the concept of someone having a hobby when I’m not looking at them.

In fairness, it does make the somewhat-salient point that seeing Ellie and Abby nearly bump into each other might be interesting: “You’ll see just how close they come into running into each other, how their actions impact each other, and more.”

Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

Except, uh. Naughty Dog. Buddy. Pal. That already happens in the base game, provided you have a functioning long-term memory. You just need to recognise a familiar area, then access your mind palace to remember that, oh, hey, I was here a few hours ago playing as a different character. It isn’t hard!

Look—I’m sure that this is a kinda-neat restructuring of the game’s narrative, a fun little alternate universe jaunt. If you play it and enjoy it for a second playthrough, I wouldn’t blame you at all, and the blog does, to its credit, say you should go through the game normally first. But I can’t imagine it’s a valuable exercise, other than an idle thought experiment. A shower thought that somehow made it into a production line.

Even if you’re dim on Part 2’s story, there’s a lot else that gets thrown in the grinder—pacing, for one, which in videogames applies to more than just narrative. I’m confident calling the shot here and now that this chronological mode doesn’t just make the story worse, it’ll make the game worse, too.

I just… I don’t get it, man. Maybe I’m being overly cynical because of the slow, steady slide of previously complex series dropping anything that’d otherwise challenge their players, or the seemingly pervasive, AI-driven hunger to punt writers out of their rooms. But I will dig my heels in and argue that Naughty Dog is being pretty condescending here.

Did you know that interviewees in a 2024 article published in the International Journal of Communication alleged that Netflix instructed showrunners and screenwriters “to both show and tell” and “say much more than you would normally say” so that people watching a second screen wouldn’t get lost?

This whole mode smacks of the same corporate cynicism, and while you can enjoy your videogames any way you want, it personally makes me feel babied. We can probably, just maybe, take stories seriously enough not to chop them up and repackage them just to get a few more play hours in the bank.

Microsoft Xbox Wireless controller

Best PC controller 2025

All our current recommendations

Read the full article here

You Might Also Like

Today’s Wordle answer for Tuesday, June 3

Demonic sci-fi RPG Illusion City is one of those timeless pixel art games that still looks incredible in GIFs 34 years later

Welcome To The Dark Place: All the key details on the Lethal Company developer’s next horror adventure

Deep Rock Galactic board game Kickstarter pulls in nearly $1 million in 1 day for a trio of new expansions

Palworld studio changes its mind about releasing its co-op Hollow Knight-like in early access, will go straight to 1.0

Share This Article
Facebook Twitter Email Print
Leave a comment Leave a comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

- Advertisement -
Ad image

Trending Stories

News

Seattle solar servicing company Omnidian to pay $7M for a slice of bankrupt Sunnova’s business

July 10, 2025
Games

Mycopunk review | PC Gamer

July 10, 2025
AI

From conversation to task completion – Computerworld

July 10, 2025
News

‘Coding is dead’: UW computer science program rethinks curriculum for the AI era

July 10, 2025
Games

How to unlock every Secret Skater in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4

July 10, 2025
Games

How to complete the Trial of Truth quest in Disney Dreamlight Valley

July 10, 2025

Always Stay Up to Date

Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!

Follow US on Social Media

Facebook Youtube Steam Twitch Unity

2024 © Prices.com LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Tech Journal Now

Quick Links

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • For Advertisers
  • Contact
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?