One of the most successful video games of all time, The Last of Us Part II, has recently been upgraded to a remastered version. After more than 3 years, The Last of Us Part II Remastered was finally released exclusively on PS5. Not only does the remaster of Naughty’s Dog incredible story-driven video game present graphical advancements, but it also brings many more interesting features, which could be great ideas for other titles if they are going to get remastered one day.
One of these features is called “Lost Levels.” Lost Levels includes three new sections that were cut from the final release of the actual game. Each of these missions takes Ellie to a part of the map that doesn’t exist if you play the main story. In the main menu, you should click on “Making Of”. Here, you can access Lost Levels. There will be three levels: Jackson Party, Seattle Sewers, and The Hunt.
Once you click on each of the sections, you can turn on or off the Developer Commentary, which includes comments from designers, and the Introduction Video, which is a video from Neil Druckmann. It is highly recommended to leave them both turned on as the explanations about how these parts were made and why they were removed are of importance.
Jackson Party: The Moments Before Dancing with Dina
The first deleted level is Jackson Party. According to Neil Druckmann, this was actually the roughest one. This unfinished section doesn’t have any dialogue, animation, and high-quality graphics. The purpose was to show how Jackson operates. It takes you to the night when Ellie and Dina shared their first kiss, the cutscene we saw in the gameplay trailer back in E3 2018, and in the ending of the main story.
There are 7 developer commentary audio files from Banun Idris in this level, giving you information about each area you visit. One of them is about a workbench. In the real game, you could upgrade your weapons, but here you can make drinks. The other one is that you can take Ellie to a make up artist, who was her ex-girlfriend. She was actually the person who drew Ellie’s tattoo on her arm to cover the bite she got when she was a kid. So, it seems that she also knew that Ellie was bitten and remained immune. You can also find an audio about the Milk Bottle Game in which you throw a ball at milk bottles, and if you manage to win, the prize will be a toy that is the same one on the tractor at the farm when Ellie was hanging out with JJ.
One interesting part is seeing kids playing Clicker Marco Polo. If Ellie joins, she has to then close her eyes and use her listening skill to tag one of the children, similar to what a Clicker does. The tutorial was then replaced by the snowball fight. The level ends with meeting Maria and Tommy, and Ellie enters the party.
Jackson Party level
Seattle Sewers: Going After Nora
Seattle Sewers is about Ellie’s second day in Seattle when she was going to take down Nora. A group of Stalkers attacked her. She fell into the water with a Stalker still sticking to her. She manages to eliminate it. Now, she has to fight the current and navigate her way out of the sewers.
The level contains some dialogues and animations. There are 16 audio files from Pete Ellis to be found. Ellie has to use the flow to reach a pipe because, at the beginning, you will see a ladder already broken. As Ellie moves towards the light, indicating the right direction, she must crawl in smaller and smaller pipes. Based on the commentary, at one stage, you see a long tight pipe without clear end, but you decide to keep moving to the end of the pipe. The pipe won’t take you anywhere and it’s a deadend. However, Naughty Dog didn’t intend to waste a player’s time for nothing, and you will be rewarded some resources.
At one point while Ellie still has to keep crawling, she ends up seeing a Clicker that is sprouted and the fungus has grown on the sides of the pipe. You might feel scared, wondering whether the Clicker is going to attack you in this tiny space. However, it’s even worse. You have to recharge the flashlight by shaking the controller. Eventually, In a jump-scare way, the Clicker turns into Joel to reveal Ellie’s PTSD. This moment was replaced by the Farm level at the end of the game for more impact. After jumping over more obstacles, Ellie finally leaves the sewers.
Ellie hallucinates a Clicker as Joel
The Hunt: Ellie Still Carries Her Violence
The final unfinished level is The Hunt. According to Banun Idris’ 5 audio files, the primary reason for the removal of this part was technical issues. Several iterations were performed for naturally hunting the boar. But, every time the result was different. They ended up removing it from the original game.
The Hunt level dates back to the time after Abby spares Ellie upon the intense battle between the two. It’s like in Part I after Joel terribly got wounded, and we took control of Ellie while being confused about whether he survived. Ellie’s hair is short, and nothing is clear about Dina’s fate because she was bleeding badly during the fight.
Ellie finds a trail of blood from a boar, similar to the deer’s in Part I. She finds her way down to the woods and reaches a store where the boar is hiding. There will be a mini-boss fight, but Ellie relentlessly manages to shoot the boar, making it run away to the back room. The final scene is almost similar to what she experienced in the sewers. The boar is screaming with Joel’s voice. A picture of Joel’s death is shown, indicating that she still suffers from the unforgettable memories. Interestingly, the story of this hunt made its way into the actual game in Ellie’s journal.
Ellie hunts a boar
