Review of The Last of Us Part I on PC

I found this a difficult task. That is, to evaluate a remake of the port of an already remastered game. We should not keep silent about the fact that the review is published a few days after the release of The Last of Us Part I on PC, which means that players from all over the world and the Internet have had enough time to share their impressions, which is not very positive, especially with regard to technical side of the title. I will share with you my own experience, which is also marked by the fact that I enter the series from Naughty Dog almost without a kiss – I knew a lot about The Last of Us, but this is a new experience for me in terms of games, and I intentionally skipped the series on HBO.

• Platform: PS5, PC (Revised Version)
• Publication date: 03/28/2023 (PC)
• Developer: Naughty Dog, Iron Galaxy
• Publisher: Game console
• Genre: action adventure
• Czech localization: Yes
• Multiplayer: No
• Data to download: 100 GB
• Game time: 17-20 hours
• Price: 60 euro

The optimization of the PC version of The Last of Us remake has been heavily criticized. I can tell that I’m on my machine with a processor Intel Core i5-12400, 16 GB RAM and video card RTX 3060 he didn’t struggle with the technical side as much as some. But most importantly, we really had a tough start to the game.

After the first launch, like everyone else, I was greeted by a compilation of shaders. I can consider myself lucky here too, it was done in about half an hour. The thought of the several hours of waiting that so many people talk about scares me. It shouldn’t be the standard.

I boldly turned on the campaign at the highest possible graphics settings. In the first screensaver, I began to deeply regret my decision. Here I was waiting for a crash and the subsequent crash of the game. This was followed by lowering the graphics to the recommended preset. high.

At 1080p, the game ran at a solid 60fps the vast majority of the time.

I can safely say that overall performance the devs more or less delivered what they promised for my particular build (slightly above the recommended). At 1080p, the game ran at a solid 60fps the vast majority of the time. The only exceptions are a few more open outdoor locations with lots of greenery or reflections from the water surface. Here the frame rate dropped to fifty or just below fifty.

So I was mostly satisfied with the gameplay itself, as I found the right combination of settings – especially contrary to expectations. I even increased the quality of character textures and environments over time, which are quite demanding on the amount of video memory, and this had almost no effect on performance.

About halfway through the game, I had a nasty crash with a reboot of the entire computer.

But while I was enjoying the game itself, various technical difficulties began to appear. I encountered several graphical glitches, when entering new locations the image twitched noticeably, in exceptional cases even freezes for a moment, and around the middle of the game I had an unpleasant crash with a reboot of the entire computer.

Last but not least, sometimes the graphics are annoying even at unexpected settings. Again, this applies to large locations when the image is strange. we’ll see and, for example, water, greens, or apparently even the ends of the hair pay for it. Fortunately, this is not a massive problem.

Before moving on to the impressions of the game itself, I will stop briefly in the menu. This is a prototype and this is what it should look like. Each individual graphic option, and that the developers do not skimp on them, shows in the pictures how the game will look like. With the changes, the VRAM load is also calculated for you right away. If a strangely optimized port won’t work with your build, know that there’s a lot of tweaking to be done here. I wish it wasn’t necessary.

We can also find other fine boxes on the menu. A varied choice of difficulty or ample opportunities to facilitate for players with disabilities. Naughty Dog are revolutionary in this regard and should be given credit for that. In addition, the game is not devoid of Czech localization, for which many will also be grateful.

After about three thousand characters, I finally got to the content of the game. And I can’t begin otherwise than with story and narration. Unsurprisingly, the series’ treatment also appealed to a significant portion of the non-fiction audience. Even ten years after its inception, Joel and Ellie’s journey proves that games can tell original, creative, intimate, and human stories. Naughty Dog didn’t go into the cliché and introduced a varied quest, perhaps to save humanity, perhaps more humanity.

The narrative is also aided by the pacing in which the action regularly alternates with exploratory passages and cutscenes. In addition, in the last quarter of the game there is a revival of the gameplay, the essence of which I prefer not to reveal. Everything is skillfully put together in such a way that the time spent with the two main characters passes like water, and after watching the final credits, you want even more. The game will at least partially allow this in the Left Behind DLC.

I really enjoyed the event. It’s raw and believable. If you’re well-equipped, you can feel like a killing machine from time to time, and in a few moments, instead of human – or rather healthy – opponents, there are a few clickers waiting for you in a small room, and you don’t have a rifle. cartridges or hammers.

After all, I’m not going to run into a guy with a shotgun and a club in my hand.

Artificial intelligence, which is very predictable and allows fundamental underestimation of the enemy, probably deserves a little criticism … I’m not going to run at a guy with a shotgun and a club in his hands. It also manifests itself during stealth, when enemies burn headlessly for each thrown bottle. But, as far as I know, no one has yet invented a better system. After all, it’s still a game.

Upgrading weapons is as much fun as the combat itself. Not only will you immediately feel most of the upgrades in action, but you will also be pleased with such platitudes as animation of modifications and change in the appearance of equipment.

In the end, I have to laugh heartily at the musical accompaniment and the sound system in general. It complements the already painful atmosphere, but also the atmosphere of hope that sounds against a gloomy background. As a newcomer to the series, she just blew me away.

I’m not a PlayStation owner, so this is my first and only chance to try Naughty Dog’s masterpiece. And I have no regrets, although I would like the game to be in the state in which players on Sony consoles will experience it. If you have a choice, don’t choose PC, if you’re like me, you can still argue with the technical side. Even on PC, The Last of Us Part I remains the same incredibly complex, mature and, above all, fun adventure game – one of the best ever.