If The Last of Us Part 3 Rights The Series' Biggest Wrong, It Can't Make One Mistake

Fans are growing restless with anticipation for news concerning The Last Of Us Part 3, with over four years having passed since the franchise's last fresh mainline release. The project was confirmed by franchise creator Neil Druckmann in February 2024, although solid details surrounding the title, such as its plot, focused characters, and release date are still largely unknown.

Even more attention has been placed on The Last of Us Part 3 in recent months thanks to the success of HBO's The Last of Us series, which has brought a massive new audience to the longstanding franchise. While this upcoming project would do well to shape its own identity and stand out from the games that have come before it, there is one huge element of the IP's past that The Last of Us Part 3 should definitely revive. 2013's The Last of Us found huge success with its Factions multiplayer experience, with TLoU Part 2 infamously ditching the mode. It only seems right that Part 3 should be the project to put this multiplayer experience back on the map, and it would have plenty of lessons to learn from its original iteration.

Naughty Dog Could Make Up For the Heartbreak Around The Last of Us' Factions Mode

Alongside its iconic single-player narrative, the original The Last of Us wowed players back in 2013 with its gritty and exciting Factions multiplayer experience. As the name suggests, the mode was centered around players choosing allegiances between either the Fireflies or Hunters factions, with them then engaging in a range of PvP battles to fight for supplies and ultimate survival.

Factions MP possessed a range of game modes that fostered high-octane or massively suspenseful experiences, with the multiplayer as a whole generally being praised for the way it felt like a logical and grounded extension of the single-player story's bleak and brutal post-apocalyptic world. Many players had high hopes for how this online formula would be built upon in the run-up to The Last of Us Part 2, but were disappointed when the news broke that the highly-anticipated game would be single-player only.

This seemed like a confusing move on Naughty Dog's part given the huge success of the original game's multiplayer, but these concerns were briefly alleviated with the news that the studio was developing a standalone multiplayer release set within the world of The Last of Us. This project was known as The Last of Us Online, and it gathered huge amounts of support and interest before Naughty Dog ultimately announced the game's cancelation in December 2023.

The Last of Us Part 3's Multiplayer Should Give All Players the Full Experience

Ultimately, this means that fans have been without a fresh multiplayer experience for The Last of Us for over a decade, with the absence of an online mode for The Last of Us Part 2 now seeming like a sorely missed opportunity. Naughty Dog stated that the massive scope of The Last of Us Online would have hindered the development of future single-player titles, and a good middle-ground could be found in The Last of Us Part 3 featuring a smaller-scale and more traditional Factions multiplayer of its own.

Given the long absence of multiplayer content for the IP, many fans seem sure that The Last of Us Part 3 will revive this aspect of the franchise. If one lesson can be learned from how Factions was originally implemented, however, it should be that the concept of paid DLC weapons for the multiplayer is completely absent in TLoU Part 3. The original Factions locked full ownership of certain perks and weapons behind in-game purchases, being a restrictive stain on what is otherwise an unforgettable multiplayer experience. A multiplayer mode in The Last of Us Part 3 will have a lot of goodwill to regain from fans, and offering the full breadth of perks and weapons as standard would be a good way to enter the next era of the franchise's online offerings.