The Last of Us PC Review
The original The Last of Us game was released in 2013 and was an immediate hit, spawning its own franchise that now includes a sequel, a record-breaking HBO adaptation and more. For almost a decade, anyone who wanted to play The Last of Us video games had to have a PlayStation console for them, but that finally changed with the PC port. Our ending is Part 1.
The End of Us Part 1 is a remake of the award-winning 2013 original that brings Joel and Ellie’s story up to modern standards by upgrading the graphics, adding more accessibility options and introducing new game modes. The End of Us Part 1 was first released last year as a PS5 exclusive and received widespread critical acclaim, with many pointing to it as the definitive way to experience The End of Us Part 1. What’s left of us.
The Last of Us Part 1 is an almost 1:1 remake in terms of gameplay, story and overall content, with some exceptions. Missing from the original The Last of Us is the Factions multiplayer mode, which is a shame, because at the time it was a really strong addition to the original game. Arguably the upcoming Our Last multiplayer game played a part in Factions being sidelined in Our Last Part 1, but regardless, it’s still disappointing that it didn’t make the leap in the remake.
One thing that The Last of Us Part 1 is that the original didn’t have was the left rear expansion built in and accessible from the beginning. Left Behind was a standalone expansion for the original The Last of Us that revealed more about Ellie’s past. Thanks to Left Behind being part of the bundle and benefiting from the same major upgrades as the base game, those who played The Last of Us Part 1 their entry into the series were able to have a more complete view of one of the game’s biggest storylines, whereas those who played the original had to wait months for Left Behind to drop. Leave it to the left rear.
What’s left of us has one of the best stories in gaming, but at this point it’s been told, retold, remade and adapted for television. Those who have already played the game or recently watched the series may want to focus on the direct gameplay when playing the remake. Thankfully, most of the cutscenes in What Remains of Us are skippable, although there are many moments in the game where control is forcibly taken away from the player in order to show a cinematic, however brief, that cannot be skipped. Being able to actually skip every scene in the game would be a nice quality of life feature, but at least the longer ones are skippable.
This could make the opening hours of The Last of Us Part 1 a bit of a drag for returning players, but first-time players should strap in from the start. What’s Left of Us begins with a heartbreaking prologue and quickly progresses to a post-apocalyptic world where Joel and Ellie’s blood-soaked adventure takes place. Throughout the game, players will find themselves taking down enemies with brutal executions, battling against terrifying Clicker monsters, and finding themselves in explosive firefights that will make you sweat.
What’s left of us The action is unrivaled, with a realistic approach to violence that gives each fight more weight than you might be used to in a video game. It’s frustrating to shoot an enemy and hear them drown in their own blood, but disturbing details like this help What’s Left of Us stand out from other games. It goes out of its way to make everyone feel real, which elevates the combat to a level few games reach.
Of course, all of this was also true for the 2013 original. There are some tweaks and improvements here and there, but the core gameplay experience is mostly unchanged from the original to the remake. The biggest selling point of the remake is the vastly improved graphics. The 2013 game looked great for its time, but Episode 1 takes things even further with stunning new environmental details and more realistic character models. It looks absolutely incredible when played on High or Ultra settings, but unfortunately, even PC gamers with powerful systems will probably have to settle for playing on lower graphics settings for now.
Despite far exceeding what was left of our PC recommended requirements, the game struggled with High and Ultra settings on our PC. Setting the graphics to Ultra caused the most frequent issues with flickering textures and other graphical oddities. Turning things down to High alleviated the issues a bit, but didn’t completely eliminate them. Oddly enough, the game only seemed to crash completely when the graphics were set to High instead of Ultra.