The Last of Us Part 1 is finally available on PC… if you can get it to work. Steam have slammed the PC version of the PlayStation classic due to crippling performance issues and crashes.
In fact, it currently has “mostly negative” reviews. “Crashes every 20 minutes,” said one review. “Game is badly optimized. Game looks great just needs to be better optimized.” Naughty Dog is currently investigating the issues, however, and has promised it's team is working on resolving them.
“The Last of Us Part 1 PC players: we've heard your concerns, and our team is actively investigating multiple issues you've reported. We will continue to update you, but our team is prioritizing updates and will address issues in upcoming patches.”
The Last of Us Part I PC players: we've heard your concerns, and our team is actively investigating multiple issues you've reported.
— Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) March 28, 2023
We will continue to update you, but our team is prioritizing updates and will address issues in upcoming patches.
At the moment, only 33% of The Last of Us' 6,015 user reviews have reported having a positive experience, leaving a staggering 67% underwhelmed.
“I waited for almost 2.5 hours for the game to build shaders while crashing in the main menu every five or so minutes, [it's] one of the most frustrating experiences I've had with a game,” said another review. “To clarify, if the game didn't crash every five mins while in the main menu, it would've taken half the time to build the shaders and actually start playing.”
One of the main problems seems to be that shader compiling takes a long time, especially on PCs that only just meet the game’s requirements. That said, users seem to be experiencing issues across the board, and complain that the game simply hasn’t been well-optimized.
One user even reported a massive 14 crashes within 4.8 hours of playtime. The Last of Us was ported to PC by Iron Galax, the same company that recently served up Metroid Prime Remastered on the Nintendo Switch, as well as the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection.
Want to read more about The Last of Us? Check out how the TV show’s success has driven sales for the game as well as this pretty cool tabletop version of The Last of Us.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
