The Last of Us multiplayer getting changes on PlayStation 4

If you're a fan of the multiplayer mode in The Last of Us on PS3, you'll like several of the enhancements being put into next week's forthcoming PS4 version.

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When it was released for PlayStation 3 last year, The Last of Us came with a compelling single player campaign, telling the heartbreaking story of Joel and Ellie attempting to survive in a desecrated world. The Factions multiplayer mode also got quite a bit of acclaim for the team at Naughty Dog, though, and the upcoming Remastered version will make some enhancements.

Sony recently spoke with Naughty Dog staffers Erin Day (lead multiplayer designer) and Quentin Cobb (game designer) about what enhancements we could expect from the returning mode.

Said Cobb, "We wanted the online multiplayer to focus on the larger story of the player representing a faction (Fireflies or Hunters) and rebuilding their own clan in that faction. This grounds the online matches in a world where each player is fighting for the survival of their clan and therefore gives each match more weight and importance."

When asked about the new features for Factions, Daly responded, "Well, first off we are running the game at 1080p and targeting 60 fps. The power of PS4 and some of our talented engineers were able to significantly improve the load times."

Cobb added, "On the gameplay side we made some important tweaks. The DLC map Trophies now require five downs or executions and deaths don’t matter. We added eighteen new tips for new players. If you’re a new player you’ll start with 9 loadout points instead of 8. You’ll reach the max of 13 loadout points sooner as a result. All fifteen of our maps are in each playlist so the player pool will be consolidated. This means faster matchmaking and that you will have a greater variety of maps in each playlist! There’s a lot of great new stuff."

The higher frame rate really seems to play a huge part in the game's effectiveness. "This improves gameplay dramatically and makes shooting much more precise. I find that gameplay in general is much more responsive and accurate," Cobb said. 

The full interview can be found here. The Last of Us arrives in both physical and digtal form on PlayStation Network on July 29th.

Robert Workman was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    July 22, 2014 11:05 AM

    Robert Workman posted a new article, The Last of Us multiplayer getting changes on PlayStation 4.

    If you're a fan of the multiplayer mode in The Last of Us on PS3, you'll like several of the enhancements being put into next week's forthcoming PS4 version.

    • reply
      July 22, 2014 12:45 PM

      Faster matchmaking, shorter load times, and targeting 60 fps is all very good news.

    • reply
      July 23, 2014 11:53 AM

      I'm really excited for this. I'm finally going to do a full playthrough of the campaign on the hardest diff, something I didn't finish last time around.

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