The Last of Us Part I PC review: An unfinished port of a decade-old masterpiece

When the PC port of The Last of Us Part I was announced, I was excited that I would finally get to immerse myself in the world of the PlayStation-exclusive title, widely considered one of the greatest video games ever created. In all these years, I have managed to keep myself away from watching its gameplay or learning too much about its story. I even decided to watch the successful HBO adaptation only once I had completed the PC port.

The delay in the launch date did not deter me. I merely hoped that the developers were ironing out any remaining creases to provide players with the fullest experience possible. Boy, was I wrong!

I quickly launched The Last of Us Part I on my PC after release, waited a while before the initial settings page came up, waded my way through them, and was finally greeted by the main screen where I could press any key to move on to the main menu.

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Once there, I noticed that the game was building shaders in the bottom right corner, and it told me that I should wait for it to complete before I start a New Game to have a smoother experience. Remembering a similar debacle with Horizon Zero Dawn, I decided to wait.

Building shaders is a tedious affair (Image via The Last of Us Part I)

And that wait seemingly became indefinite. It took upwards of an hour to merely cross the 30% mark. By then, I had already noticed initial player feedback regarding prolonged shader loading time, among a plethora of other reported issues. The red flags regarding the port were already waving high, with many pointing their fingers at Iron Galaxy, an outfit infamous for the Arkham Knight PC port.

The Last of Us Part I PC port gives players a beta experience for a premium price

As the clock ticked on and I impatiently saw the number move at a snail's pace, I already dreaded what awaited me inside. A quick look at the hardware utilization stats for my system during this period hinted at a much more integral issue than what could be quickly fixed in a patch or two.

Having waited long enough, I decided to move ahead with starting a new game. The cutscenes played in, and I managed to reach the moment that Joel is running away with his daughter and being shot at by a soldier when the screen froze, and the game crashed. Till then, I had seen a few graphical glitches, frame rate issues, and drops.

I booted up the game yet again, faced similar issues, and this time crashed when the first Firefly attack occurred, and Joel started running for cover. By then, it was quite clear to me that The Last of Us Part I PC port was a shoddy attempt that played like a beta title while charging players a premium price.

I do not want to wade into a debate regarding whether The Last of Us Part I required a remake given its age or posit other PlayStation titles as suitable candidates. But given the severity of the technical issues that The Last of Us Part I PC port suffers from, to the extent that players have been having trouble making much headway in the title, I wonder whether the developers at Naughty Dog and Iron Galaxy were aware of or anticipated the matter.

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As of the time of writing, several hotfixes and a major patch have already been pushed. NVIDIA also released a hotfix, stating that the title was randomly crashing for those with an RTX 30 series graphics card. While these updates do address many issues and smoothen out the experience for players, plenty of other problems, like issues with CPU, RAM, and VRAM utilization, still remain.

Weaving through the narrative

Almost a decade since its initial release, The Last of Us is a narrative experience that truly deserves its moniker as one of the greatest video games of all time. There is nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said about the title, with each aspect being dissected, critically commented on, and celebrated over the years.

While I won’t be able to feel the impact The Last of Us initially had on game development and the industry when it came out in 2013, the raw emotion and fervor of the title still hold true. The pacing of the narrative, the way each space is designed, the overall soundscape of the title, and the excellent character development complement each other perfectly.

Set against the backdrop of a zombie apocalypse, the player is tasked with the role of Joel, who loses his daughter early on, as he smuggles Ellie, a teenage girl seemingly immune to the raging fungus, across a post-apocalyptic United States.

Joel and his daughter (Image via The Last of Us Part I)

This survival-horror title navigates multiple themes while pondering on bonds, losses, and grief. The visceral violence did not feel gratuitous. Instead, it seemed a necessary addition to depicting Joel’s and the player’s struggle. You have to strategize carefully regarding how to approach a fight, with ammo being a scarce commodity and stealth being a better option.

Rather than being a title where players are perenially pitted against one enemy after the other, you will walk around and scavenge for long periods in The Last of Us Part I. I was pleasantly reminded of A Plague Tale: Innocence, especially the vulnerability of Amicia in combat and the traumatic aftereffects of violence once she committed them.

In essence, The Last of Us Part I’s story is about the two characters and their relationship with each other and others that define the player experience of The Last of Us Part I. This is masterfully told, utilizing thoughtful dialogs and meaningful swathes of silence. I am reminded of the introductory segment of the game where Joel’s daughter wakes up and makes her way around the empty house.

As she wanders around different rooms and interacts with objects, the developers utilize the art of environmental storytelling to intimate the player about the father-daughter relationship and whatever is happening. The reality outside of the house repeatedly threatens to invade that of the inside of the house, beginning with the news report and continuing with the infected neighbor breaking in and being subsequently killed by Joel.

Barring technical shortcomings and difficulties, The Last of Us Part I does look the best it ever has with the PC port when you crank up the settings. The art design of the title and the color palette of each frame shine through and collate into providing players with an immersive experience.

In conclusion

The review of a PC port demands the reviewer to not only talk about the technical performance of the title but also about how the game plays on the new platform. It's disappointing that the current state of The Last of Us Part I PC port makes it quite impossible to thoroughly enjoy the game.

While there is no doubt regarding the excellent narrative experience that awaits within the game, the dogged bugs and glitches that The Last of Us Part I PC suffers from almost gatekeep players from experiencing the same. It is going to be an uphill task for the developers at Naughty Dog and Iron Galaxy. But for now, I can merely recommend players to wait.