Anyone looking to spend a little longer playing Joel in The Last Of Us 2 is now in luck — a model-swapping mod allows players to exchange Joel for Ellie, at least appearance-wise, and play as Ellie's ill-fated father figure throughout the course of the game. It's a great chance for players to reconnect with the protagonist of the first game of the series, but it might be a little jarring to hear the grizzled Joel speaking with Ellie's distinctly female voice.
Joel was originally introduced in who he quite literally sacrifices the future of humanity to save. Joel's story arc is largely wrapped up by the end of the first game, but his fraught relationship with Ellie and his horrific death in the early stages of the second game are the catalyst for Ellie's story throughout the sequel. Joel as a character, meanwhile, was well-received critically, particularly by fans of the series who enjoyed stepping into his shoes throughout the run of the first game.
Joel's death, however, meant that playing as him in the second game was out of the question, especially since his arc was more or less wrapped up and it was Ellie's turn to take on the protagonist's mantle. So the only way for players keen to step back into Joel's shoes was to play through the first game again, or to try some clever deepfakes. But modder and YouTuber smasher248 (via Game Rant) has introduced another way - a mod that allows players to model-swap Ellie's character model for one of Joel's, including his younger self in the original game. The videos below show off how the model-swap performs in game:
What makes the mod particularly notable is that console modding isn't as popular or as prevalent as PC modding, so it's rather more unusual to see. And to smasher248's credit, it runs quite smoothly, although there are a few animation details that don't quite work with Joel's larger physique, since those animations were created with Ellie's smaller frame in mind. Of course, model-swapping doesn't mean that Ellie's dialogue will be magically delivered in actor Troy Baker's voice, which does tend to shatter the illusion somewhat. But for anyone keen on playing as Joel again, that's easily remedied with the mute button, some subtitles, and disregarding other characters referring to the player as "Ellie."
The mod isn't widely available yet, and it looks like smasher248 is still working on getting everything right. But when they do, it'll most likely only be available to gamers playing The Last of Us 2 on a PlayStation 4 with 7.55 or earlier firmware, and those who are aware that modding carries its own particular set of risks. But for players itching for the chance to see Joel get firsthand revenge on Abby for killing him, it'll be worth it.
Source: smasher248 (via Game Rant)
