The Last Of Us PC Port Deemed “Effectively A Beta” In New Technical Analysis

The Last Of Us Part 1 came out on PC last week, and it didn’t take long for fans to note the port’s extensive technical problems and strange glitches in negative Steam reviews. Now, noted tech outlet Digital Foundry has released a thorough analysis of the port, calling it “effectively a beta” and one of the most disappointing port jobs in recent memory.

The hour-long video analysis shows off the game running on three different machines, a PS5, a top-of-the-line PC with an RTX 4090, and a more modest setup with a RTX 2070 Super. Throughout the piece, Digital Foundry notes that the game’s steep VRAM requirements effectively lock out many PC users entirely, with 8GB cards unable to deliver anything approaching a playable experience.

The Last Of Us Part 1 plays much better on a GPU with 10 or 11GB of VRAM, but its extremely high CPU requirements are also an issue, causing hitching and dropped frames on all but the most powerful PCs. The video also includes several bugs that players have reported, including missing lighting and an outright crash.

The analysis says that though there have already been several hotfixes issued for the port, fixes for the more serious issues will likely take a significant amount of time. The overall conclusion of the piece is clear: Unless you have a supercomputer, this port is not a good way to play The Last Of Us Part 1.

In GameSpot’s The Last Of Us Part 1 review for PS5, critic Jake Dekker praised the remake’s visual improvements, while noting how far gaming has come in the intervening years.

“All these improvements taken by themselves may seem minor, but together they make one of the most memorable games of the PS3 era even better. In some ways, the two parts of The Last of Us are now better aligned, making transitioning between them much smoother. However, in other ways, the years of progress in game design and development are all too apparent. But while some of the level design may not have aged all that well, the vivid cast of characters and remarkable story are more poignant than ever.”