In the videos introducing each of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered's three 'Lost Levels', game director Neil Druckmann goes to great lengths to remind us that these are rough, unfinished parts of the game, which, once cut, were never intended to be seen by anyone outside of Naughty Dog. But in playing through them, I was pleasantly surprised by how complete they could feel, and even more surprised by the candor with which the developers were prepared to discuss their work and the decisions behind it.
The Lost Levels won't take you long to experience. The three slices can be completed in around 30 minutes, and offer far more in terms of world-building than in any sense of narrative, despite Naughty Dog's spoiler warnings. Each level offers a new bit of detail; the first, set in Jackson, lacks facial animation and voice acting; the second, in the Seattle sewers, starts to delve further into puzzles and storytelling; the third, the Boar Hunt, features full voice acting, survival combat, and cinematics.
