TL;DR: It is a good and fun game yet not outstanding in any aspect. Wait for 50% discount to buy.

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Update: Especially after 1.0.5 update, performances & texture quality issues are mostly fixed. Hence Performance section is updated to reflect current status of the game.

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The Last of Us Part 1 (for PC) is re-release of the same game released for Playstation 5. It is also remake of ‘The Last of Us’, released in 2013 for Playstation 3.

You play as Joel and occasionally as Ellie in a world 20 years after it got devastated with a global and sudden fungal outbreak. Infected persons behave like zombies, and can transmit the disease with biting. Federal government is collapsed, and there are different factions living in separated and isolated settlements, trying to survive.

Joel is given a mission to bring Ellie from point A to point B in the US, and you, the player, follow the duo endure hardships during their travel; see how the world is evolved after most of the population is gone, and cities are bombed.

The Last of Us Part 1 is an action game with a lot of gunplay. There are also stealth elements baked into game design and level designs.

Stealth aspect of this game requires player to have a gamepad.

You can carry a lot of big and small firearms at once. You can also carry some limited-use items including but not limited to medical kits, molotov cocktails, bricks, homemade grenades.

These limited-use items are to be crafted by various types of materials collected around the world, and they can be crafted at anytime.

It is possible to upgrade your weapons; and to boost your skills or health with another type of collectibles.

Gunplay is satisfying. Archery is underwhelming in both sound and gameplay wise.

There are puzzles to reach certain areas and not many of them are there. They are easy to solve.

Levels are linear, yet you are given some freedom to how to approach the situation at hand. Some wider areas contain several paths you can follow, even though these paths converge very quickly.

Sound is very important in this game because enemies are able to hear and pinpoint your location based on sounds you make. Some of the enemies are more sensitive to sound due to prolonged infection. They react to gun fire, colliding objects, walking over broken glass etc, yet our characters speak rather loudly when stealth involved and enemies don’t react to that.

Enemies also often don’t react to some of sound you make while slowly walking (even though there is
substantial level of sound).

Enemies talk to each other when they are searching an area, and you can position yourself to them. It is also possible to see them through walls. Game explains it as it is due to noise they make. It is a nice feature although not realistic at all. When they make very low noise, so low that you actually can’t hear, it is still possible to see them through walls with your given ability.

Let’s assume a situation that you are being hunted by a group of enemy. They loudly communicate with each other. You silently kill all but two. Remaining two still continue to talk. But when you kill another one silently, and once only one is left; he becomes silent, don’t talk, don’t report; even though it is unbeknownst to him whether his brother in arms is dead or alive.

Gunfire sounds bounce back off the nearby buildings when fighting is outside, which is nice, yet not greatly implemented in my opinion. Echoed sounds are much louder than actual source of the sounds. At some encounters, this made me think that there were enemies on my right or left, firing at me, but there were no one.

Echoed sounds also heard almost instantly when a sound is made. In reality echoed sound is heard with a delay due to distance between sound source and surface; then the distance between that surface and the receiver of the sound (the player).

I have very mixed opinions on graphics. This game can provide very good visuals, but often textures are very low quality for what their worth. Hair, fur don’t look very good.

Problem with graphics mostly due to low performance of the game.

Other games both new and old provide much detailed, sharper, overall better graphics with lower requirements on my computer.

Score is good yet limited. I would have liked if there were more variety to music.

To read more about sounds, look under Game Design > Sound Design located above.

When I first play the game in its original state, it had performance issues. Textures at Low and Medium settings were terrible. I played at 1712x960 render resolution, textures set to High with GTX 1660. It was OK, but looked worse than most games. Using an RTX 3070 only helped to increase the render resolution a little bit.

After 1.0.5 patch most issues are fixed as far as I can say. Now there are more options. VRAM usage is decreased. VRAM usage is shown correctly in-game. Game doesn't hit and stay under 10 FPS for no reason anymore.

In winter sequences (these sequences come much later in the story), game becomes extra demanding. I had to lower environmental textures, and couple of effects to get rid of stuttering. Keep that in mind.

Game provides a lot of translation options: full audio for 13 languages, interface and subtitles for 25 languages.

I play games in English audio with or without English subtitles. I give my primary language’s subtitle option a try and quite liked the translation. If all translation and dubbing work is as good as I tried; I can say Sony/Naught Dog did a good job in that regard.

This game provides a whole lot of accessibility settings. I have never seen so many options in a game before. Personally, I don’t need any of those settings but they are essential for some; therefore it is very nice to have some many options.

Titles of accessibility options are as follows:

• Alternate Controls
  
• Magnification and Visual Aids
  
• Motion Sickness
  
• Navigation and Traversal
  
• Screen Reader and Audio Cues
  
• Combat accessibility

The Last of Us Part 1 is in its core, a decade old game. It shows during gameplay. Remastered version supposed to provide great visuals. It provides on Playstation 5; but fails on PC. So what we have is an old game at a new game price.

The world is captivating, but characters and their story are not so much so. Combat is enjoyable but expect nothing new.

If texture quality increases and performance issues are fixed, I would recommend this game to all. But it’s current state it is only playable (by) (or at enjoyable state for) general public. Decide to buy on your own terms. But wait for at least 40% discount.

[b]TL;DR:[/b] It is a good and fun game yet not outstanding in any aspect. Wait for 50% discount to buy. [hr][/hr] [b]Update:[/b] Especially after 1.0.5 update, performances & texture quality issues are mostly fixed. Hence Performance section is updated to reflect current status of the game. [hr][/hr] The Last of Us Part 1 (for PC) is re-release of the same game released for Playstation 5. It is also remake of ‘The Last of Us’, released in 2013 for Playstation 3. You play as Joel and occasionally as Ellie in a world 20 years after it got devastated with a global and sudden fungal outbreak. Infected persons behave like zombies, and can transmit the disease with biting. Federal government is collapsed, and there are different factions living in separated and isolated settlements, trying to survive. Joel is given a mission to bring Ellie from point A to point B in the US, and you, the player, follow the duo endure hardships during their travel; see how the world is evolved after most of the population is gone, and cities are bombed. [h2]Game Design[/h2] The Last of Us Part 1 is an action game with a lot of gunplay. There are also stealth elements baked into game design and level designs. Stealth aspect of this game requires player to have a gamepad. [h3]Weaponry[/h3] You can carry a lot of big and small firearms at once. You can also carry some limited-use items including but not limited to medical kits, molotov cocktails, bricks, homemade grenades. These limited-use items are to be crafted by various types of materials collected around the world, and they can be crafted at anytime. It is possible to upgrade your weapons; and to boost your skills or health with another type of collectibles. Gunplay is satisfying. Archery is underwhelming in both sound and gameplay wise. [h3]Puzzles[/h3] There are puzzles to reach certain areas and not many of them are there. They are easy to solve. [h3]Level Design[/h3] Levels are linear, yet you are given some freedom to how to approach the situation at hand. Some wider areas contain several paths you can follow, even though these paths converge very quickly. [h3]Sound Design[/h3] Sound is very important in this game because enemies are able to hear and pinpoint your location based on sounds you make. Some of the enemies are more sensitive to sound due to prolonged infection. They react to gun fire, colliding objects, walking over broken glass etc, yet our characters speak rather loudly when stealth involved and enemies don’t react to that. Enemies also often don’t react to some of sound you make while slowly walking (even though there is substantial level of sound). Enemies talk to each other when they are searching an area, and you can position yourself to them. It is also possible to see them through walls. Game explains it as it is due to noise they make. It is a nice feature although not realistic at all. When they make very low noise, so low that you actually can’t hear, it is still possible to see them through walls with your given ability. Let’s assume a situation that you are being hunted by a group of enemy. They loudly communicate with each other. You silently kill all but two. Remaining two still continue to talk. But when you kill another one silently, and once only one is left; he becomes silent, don’t talk, don’t report; even though it is unbeknownst to him whether his brother in arms is dead or alive. Gunfire sounds bounce back off the nearby buildings when fighting is outside, which is nice, yet not greatly implemented in my opinion. Echoed sounds are much louder than actual source of the sounds. At some encounters, this made me think that there were enemies on my right or left, firing at me, but there were no one. Echoed sounds also heard almost instantly when a sound is made. In reality echoed sound is heard with a delay due to distance between sound source and surface; then the distance between that surface and the receiver of the sound (the player). [h2]Graphics[/h2] I have very mixed opinions on graphics. This game can provide very good visuals, but often textures are very low quality for what their worth. Hair, fur don’t look very good. Problem with graphics mostly due to low performance of the game. Other games both new and old provide much detailed, sharper, overall better graphics with lower requirements on my computer. [h2]Sounds & Score[/h2] Score is good yet limited. I would have liked if there were more variety to music. To read more about sounds, look under Game Design > Sound Design located above. [h2]Performance[/h2] When I first play the game in its original state, it had performance issues. Textures at Low and Medium settings were terrible. I played at 1712x960 render resolution, textures set to High with GTX 1660. It was OK, but looked worse than most games. Using an RTX 3070 only helped to increase the render resolution a little bit. After 1.0.5 patch most issues are fixed as far as I can say. Now there are more options. VRAM usage is decreased. VRAM usage is shown correctly in-game. Game doesn't hit and stay under 10 FPS for no reason anymore. In winter sequences (these sequences come much later in the story), game becomes extra demanding. I had to lower environmental textures, and couple of effects to get rid of stuttering. Keep that in mind. [h2]Localization and Accessibility[/h2] Game provides a lot of translation options: full audio for 13 languages, interface and subtitles for 25 languages. I play games in English audio with or without English subtitles. I give my primary language’s subtitle option a try and quite liked the translation. If all translation and dubbing work is as good as I tried; I can say Sony/Naught Dog did a good job in that regard. This game provides a whole lot of accessibility settings. I have never seen so many options in a game before. Personally, I don’t need any of those settings but they are essential for some; therefore it is very nice to have some many options. Titles of accessibility options are as follows: [list] [*]Alternate Controls [*]Magnification and Visual Aids [*]Motion Sickness [*]Navigation and Traversal [*]Screen Reader and Audio Cues [*]Combat accessibility [/list] [h2]Summary[/h2] The Last of Us Part 1 is in its core, a decade old game. It shows during gameplay. Remastered version supposed to provide great visuals. It provides on Playstation 5; but fails on PC. So what we have is an old game at a new game price. The world is captivating, but characters and their story are not so much so. Combat is enjoyable but expect nothing new. If texture quality increases and performance issues are fixed, I would recommend this game to all. But it’s current state it is only playable (by) (or at enjoyable state for) general public. Decide to buy on your own terms. But wait for at least 40% discount.