PC Modder Rebuilds The Last of Us Factions Inside Part II After Naughty Dog Cancelled Online Game

The Last of Us Online may have been cancelled years ago, but one PC modder is attempting to revive the competitive Factions experience inside The Last of Us Part II Remastered. Modder Speclizer has transformed an early technical experiment involving 2 independently controlled versions of Ellie into a functional multiplayer prototype with synchronized movement, weapons, interactions, hit detection, respawning, custom menus, and its first complete 1v1 match.

Speclizer began documenting the project in January 2026 after experimenting with multiplayer functionality inside the PC version of The Last of Us Part II. The first version was only a local proof of concept that placed 2 characters inside the same game world. At that stage, the modder made it clear that the work was experimental and might never develop into a playable multiplayer mode.

Several months later, the project has expanded far beyond that original test. Speclizer’s latest 25 minute gameplay demonstration shows a working competitive match with map selection, custom loadouts, limited lives, radar, spawn points, and respawning systems inspired by Supply Raid, the central competitive mode from the original The Last of Us Factions.

The menus were created inside the game using Naughty Dog’s own Widget interface system. This allows players to select maps and equipment through an interface that feels more consistent with the original game than an external mod launcher or basic development menu.

Speclizer’s public development logs show how difficult it has been to convert a cinematic single player game into a functioning multiplayer experience. By Episode 5, the project could synchronize character models, prone movement, weapon switching, inventory states, and a custom weapon drop system between connected players.

Episode 6 expanded synchronization across additional player components and interactive objects. This was necessary because The Last of Us Part II was designed around one locally controlled character interacting with a scripted environment, not several independent players changing doors, objects, weapons, and animations simultaneously.

By Episode 7, the mod had become a recognizable player against player prototype. Sprinting could be synchronized correctly, including movement through doors, while backpack states were controlled by intercepting the game’s request state system and determining which animation states a remote client should accept.

Door interactions are now functional, while the narrow squeeze animations used throughout the campaign are also partially synchronized. These sequences remain challenging because the original game carefully controls the player camera, movement, animation, and world state during every traversal event. Two way squeeze sections still have issues, but the system is already operating well enough to demonstrate the larger multiplayer concept.

The most important breakthrough was hit detection. The original collision system prevents bullet raycasts from striking the local player layer, which protects the character from shooting themselves. When a second playable character was added, the game continued treating that remote character as another player and allowed bullets to pass directly through them.

Speclizer solved the problem by moving the remote character onto the collision layer used by enemy NPCs. This causes the game to recognize the second player as a valid combat target and allows the existing weapon system to register impacts.

Full body hit reactions also had to be disabled for the remote player. Without that change, being shot could trap the target inside an animation and prevent them from responding. A custom death handler was then added so that a player death would trigger the multiplayer respawn system instead of causing the single player mission to fail.

These changes allowed Speclizer to assemble the first complete match using systems inspired by the original Factions mode. Players have a limited number of lives, appear at defined spawn points, track movement through radar, and return to the match after death. The result remains unfinished and visibly experimental, but it now resembles an actual multiplayer game rather than a technical demonstration.

Additional Factions inspired features are also being implemented. Speclizer has shown listen mode, enemy marking, and sprint indicators appearing on the radar, helping recreate the information and stealth systems that shaped the original multiplayer experience.

The project exists because Naughty Dog decided not to include Factions in The Last of Us Part II and later cancelled its much larger standalone multiplayer game. In its official cancellation announcement, the studio explained that releasing and supporting The Last of Us Online would require dedicating its resources to post launch content for years.

Naughty Dog ultimately chose to remain focused on single player narrative games rather than becoming a studio built primarily around one live service project. Recent comments from the cancelled game’s former director suggested the project was around 80% complete, making its cancellation even more painful for the team and players waiting for a successor to Factions.

Speclizer’s mod is not attempting to recreate the full scale concept Naughty Dog planned for The Last of Us Online. Instead, it appears focused on rebuilding the smaller and more direct competitive structure of Factions using the combat, movement, animation, and environments already present in Part II.

That could be exactly what longtime fans wanted. The original Factions earned a dedicated community through slow tactical movement, limited resources, stealth, crafting, team communication, and brutal close range combat. Part II already contains more advanced animations, movement systems, weapon handling, and environmental interactions, giving a multiplayer conversion an unusually strong foundation.

The mod is currently targeting September 2026 and will only be available for the PC version of The Last of Us Part II Remastered. That platform limitation is unavoidable because the project depends on modifying game code and systems that cannot be accessed on PlayStation consoles.

A public release is still not guaranteed. Sony or Naughty Dog could object to the distribution of an unofficial multiplayer modification, particularly if it requires proprietary game code, online services, or copyrighted assets to function. No takedown has been announced, but legal and technical uncertainty will remain until the project is released.

The most impressive part of this project is not simply that 2 players can appear in the same world. It is the amount of hidden engineering required to make a single player game understand networking, remote animation states, shared interactions, damage, death, radar, and respawning.

Speclizer is rebuilding multiplayer one subsystem at a time, often by adapting systems Naughty Dog originally created for enemies and scripted campaign sequences. The mod will not replace the cancelled ambitions of The Last of Us Online, but it could give Factions fans the modernized competitive experience they have been waiting years to play.

Would you return to The Last of Us Part II for an unofficial Factions multiplayer mod, or would you rather Naughty Dog develop an official version?