Updated January 30th, 2024, by Christopher Norman Worcester: With the release of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered for the PS5, Naughty Dog has included several new gameplay elements to the base game. This update will cover how these additions effect the overall experience, including its effect on overall play time.

With The Last of Us Part 2, developer Naughty Dog is continuing a storyline that started way back on the PlayStation 3, and which has built an expectation that's seemingly impossible to live up to. The good news is that regardless of how fans feel about the game, Last of Us Part 2 is easily the most ambitious project that ND has ever undertaken.

While an average Naughty Dog game typically takes about 10-15 hours to complete, The Last of Us Part 2 takes between 25-30 hours to beat. Players that choose to explore every nook and cranny are in for a real treat with the game, as the developers have made sure to offer plenty to discover around every corner.

How Long Does it Take to Beat The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered?

• Most players complete The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered's main story in 25-30 hours.
• Completing everything the game has to offer will usually take 40+ hours.

With The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, Naughty Dog did not add any new content to the main story, so players should not expect any significant expansion of overall playtime. However, this does not mean that the overall experience with the game has not been considerably lengthened. Naughty Dog has included the following new gameplay elements in the remaster:

• No Return: The most significant new gameplay addition, No Return is a roguelike survival mode that offers players the ability to complete various runs under a wide variety of unique conditions. The roguelike gameplay means that all death is essentially permanent. Because of the gameplay style, it is hard to provide an exact amount of additional playtime. Experiencing everything No Return has to offer, including a full set of new difficulty options, will likely add at least 10 hours to the overall experience.
• Lost Levels: Naughty Dog has included three so-called 'Lost Levels' in The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered. These levels were cut from the original release, but have been included here to give players a deeper look into three areas of the story. These levels are technically unfinished, so they are not considered canon. Because of this, they are kept fully separate from the main story experience. The 'Lost Levels' experience adds several hours of new gameplay to the game. The three levels are:
  • Jackson Dance
  • Boar Hunt
  • Sewers

• The Last of Us 2 Remastered also includes the following features:
  • Guitar free-play mode
  • DualSense Integration
  • Graphical Enhancements
  • New Outfits

The Long Playthrough

The disparity in The Last of Us Part 2 completion times mainly comes down to two different playstyles. If players are focused on collectibles and journal entries, then they will spend a lot more time in the game. The Last of Us Part 2 is a relatively easy game to unlock the Platinum Trophy on, so many might attempt to find all of the artifacts, coins, journals, and collector cards during their first playthrough.

If players should miss any collectibles on their first playthrough, The Last of Us Part 2 has a very smart replayability system that allows them to jump into the game at any of the main chapters. There are even encounter replays available, but those typically don't have all of the collectibles.

In other words, if The Last of Us Part 2 players spend a lot of time digging around for everything that Naughty Dog has left to find, then they will likely finish the game in about 30 hours. Those who choose to focus on the critical path and do minimal exploring will be done in around 25.

The Challenging Playthrough

The other key factor in how long The Last of Us Part 2 takes to beat is the difficulty. Like the first game, the sequel offers a robust selection of difficulty options as well as modifiers to further tweak individual elements. There is the usual Survival and Grounded for the ultra challenge, but even on Easy or Medium, players can go into the menu and dial up (or dial down) attributes like AI awareness or companion aggression.

Players that keep things leaning towards the easy side will find they can get through The Last of Us Part 2 quicker than most and likely near the 25-hour mark. But those who up the challenge and have to be methodical about each encounter will end up stretching more runtime out of the game.

In our The Last of Us Part 2 review playthrough the final time counter said it took us about 27 hours to complete the story from start to finish. We did some exploring and were on the default difficulty, and there were some encounters that took longer than they might on easy. Either way, this game is easily Naughty Dog's biggest game and offers a substantial experience for players.

The Last of Us Part 2

Franchise

The Last of Us

Platform(s)

PS4

Released

June 19, 2020

Developer(s)

Naughty Dog