According to Naughty Dog, the season pass for The Last of Us will apply some tweaks (called "bonuses") to give you an advantage in the campaign. They allow you to reload faster, heal faster etc. I really think season passes are a good value if you plan on sticking with a game, but to give you weird little boosts like that seems like it could undermine some of the design of the game.

So I've got two questions:

First, is there any good reason to use "bonuses" like this on initial playthrough?

Second, I haven't really encountered this specific scenario on a ps3 before so I am wondering how easy it will be to not apply the season pass if I don't want those bonuses. I know for some 360 games I have just deleted the download and re-downloaded in later but I'm not sure how that works with psn.

I'd assume for the PS3 you would just delete the game data then redownload the pass when you want it back. Thats how most other things work on the PSN.

As for them tossing in some "cheats" with the season pass it's cool I guess as long as they can be turned off. Nothing wrong with a game giving you options. Some people play games for the story an not for a challenge so I'm sure those people would make use of the boosts or whatever on the initial playthrough.

I hope there's a way to toggle those bonuses, seems kind of silly to me. For a survival horror action game doesn't these bonuses seem like the would break the pacing and the immersion? While I haven't played Last of Us or seen much more than the E3 gameplay, speaking in terms of other games if I could reload faster in Metro Last Light or in a game like Resident Evil won't that also influence the tension in those kinds of games? Moreover, do you think it will interfere with the intentions of what the designers and developers had in mind?

@rapid: yeah exactly. Everything you said is exactly what I'm thinking. Just digging around online I think the pass will just direct you to downloads off psn. So hopefully you could download their day 1 exclusive 90 minute documentary without having to also download the single player stuff. I think that's how premium worked for BF3 at least.