The Last of US DLC News: Left Behind Gameplay Previewed by Naughty Dog

"The Last of Us" was one of the most critically acclaimed games of 2013, and developer Naughty Dog is hoping to continue this success in 2014 with the story based DLC for the game entitled "Left Behind." This DLC will follow Ellie and her friend Riley in the time before the events of the game. To give fans a preview of this new content, Naughty Dog has released a new video on the PlayStation Blog that sheds new light on the DLC.

While "Left Behind" has been described as more lighthearted than the main portion of "The Last of Us,"  lead game designer Jacob Minkoff assured fans that there will be some combat situations in the DLC that are more challenging than players would expect.

"You'll have some extremely challenging fights. In fact, some of those fights will be showcasing some new features that we've added to the combat," Minkoff said.

One of these new features is multi-faction combat where players can encourage both human and infected enemies to fight each other rather than Ellie and Riley. This requires players to stay out of combat and leading the two different types of enemies near each other so they start fighting. One example given is having the players throw a bottle near a human enemy so that the infected explore the noise and begin attacking the human enemies. This new style of combat is exciting and opens up a new level of strategy for fans who have already completed the main campaign for "The Last of Us."

Minkoff also confidently stated that he feels the story of "Left Behind" will exceed the critically acclaimed main story found in the game due to the amount of work Naughty Dog has put into the new content.

"With Left Behind, we wanted to make a single-player DLC that was as fully crafted as our main campaign. There's a great deal that we've done with the DLC that exceeds the level of narrative density that we had in the main campaign," Minkoff said.

Time will tell if "Left Behind" is able to surpass the bar set by "The Last of Us," or if it ends up being a disappointment like the story-based DLC for another critical darling of 2013; Lost at Sea Part 1 for Bioshock Infinite.

"Left Behind" is scheduled to be released on Valentine's Day, Feb. 14. The DLC will cost $14.99, but will be free to those who bought the season pass for the game.