Despite its excessive ambition, Naughty Dog had to abandon elements of The Last of Us Part II before its launch in June 2020. One of these deleted features has been discussed on social media.
On X, modder Speclizer presented a feature that was ultimately rejected called Hold Up. It allowed players to sneak up on an enemy from behind and then force them to raise their hands in the air. It then became possible to control their movements by dictating a direction or making them face your character. After a certain amount of time, the opponent would draw their weapon to try to defend themselves.
The animation and script are still present in the game. Several lines of dialogue such as Don’t do anything stupid and Don’t make a sound have been unearthed. The modder replied that he could possibly restore the functionality on PC via a mod, but that it would probably require a lot of work. It is therefore uncertain whether such a project will be completed.
