How Joel’s death in The Last of Us Part 2 would be portrayed in HBO’s The Last of Us was always going to be a thrilling moment in modern television. Many strides are taken to make Abby’s ex-Firefly and Washington Liberation Front comrades seem far more humane and sympathetic than they did in The Last of Us Part 2, for instance, and Abby is given time in this adaptation to say the speech she had rehearsed that Joel never let her speak in the game. Meanwhile, The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 2 wastes no time making good on Episode 1’s tease that the infected will invade Jackson.
This Game of Thrones-esque epic event, similar to many beats in the show’s two seasons thus far, does not occur in the Last of Us games. Instead, the only time the infected are ever able to invade Jackson is in The Last of Us Part 2’s roguelike mode, No Return, when the town appears as an encounter map for either the Hunted or Assault mode and features infected as its encounter faction. No Return may not be what inspired this sequence in the show, but it’s ironically possible to recreate it if RNG stars align and Tommy is selected as a playable character.
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HBO’s The Last of Us and No Return Mold Jackson into a Battlefield
Jackson is an interesting map to have in No Return as it’s the one stage in The Last of Us Part 2 that isn’t actually a set piece for conflict in-game. Instead, the town serves purely as a means of worldbuilding and to illustrate a slice-of-life portrait of its residents the morning after the winter dance. Here, players receive only a sliver of backstory from the night before with Seth apologizing to Ellie—at Maria’s behest—for a derogatory remark by making Ellie what she dubs “bigot sandwiches” in the game.
No Return’s Jackson isn’t struck with calamity in the same way that the show’s infected invasion is, even if players have the greatest number of enemies spawning during Hunted or the largest possible waves during Assault. Jackson is also incredibly well-fortified and prepared for battle in the show, and its citizens defend themselves from a swarming army of thousands, not five infected at a time. The town is largely destroyed in the show with fires raging and mayhem ensuing, which may most closely be represented in No Return by the Molotov Rain mod, much less players lobbing Molotovs themselves.
Holdout isn’t an encounter type available on Jackson, but it would be more accurately representative of what the show’s sequence is like if so, especially because Holdouts have players defending an ally and can feature bloaters. Playing Tommy on a Jackson encounter isn’t unique in and of itself and yet, because Dina is on patrol with Joel while Tommy stands with the people of Jackson during the infected’s siege in Episode 2 of HBO’s loose Part 2 adaptation, it is neat that this scenario technically isn’t exclusive to the show and can be emulated in No Return on a smaller scale.
Coincidentally, the show and Part 2 share another poetic tether since Episode 2 features Joel’s death and Joel happened to be the character who was randomly selected for everyone to play as in No Return’s daily run on the same evening.
The Last of Us’ Tommy Gets His Heyday in HBO’s Show and Part 2’s No Return
Tommy plays a fairly large role in Part 2’s story campaign despite not being around in the flesh for much of it. Tommy is a vengeful wraith throughout Ellie’s half of the second act, mowing down Washington Liberation Front soldiers in pursuit of Abby. The show hasn’t reached this chapter by the end of the second episode, but Tommy, frightened as he may be, single-handedly downs a bloater.
In No Return, however, Tommy isn’t a versatile or favorable character due to a restricted Sniper playstyle. Tommy’s custom hunting rifle is a godsend for casual runs if players aren’t particularly concerned about earning high scores per run via bonuses for stuns, melee, stealth, or headshots. Rather, engaging in melee as Tommy can be a death sentence regardless of his Sturdier Against Melee trait because he’s unable to dodge. Bricks and bottles are always foundational in The Last of Us, but that is doubly true for Tommy’s gameplay in No Return so that he has a chance to inflict stuns and melee damage.
Depending on how lucky players get with trading post RNG and re-rolls, as well as how early or late Jackson appears as an encounter in a run, Tommy can even wield a custom flamethrower and spray infected mobs with fire like he does in the show.
The Last Of Us Part II Remastered
- Released
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January 19, 2024
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
- Publisher(s)
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Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Engine
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Proprietary Engine
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