The good, the bad and the VRAM!!!. The most re-released and loved title from the PlayStation’s Exclusives has finally made its way to PC, and this time without the help of any emulator.
But was it worth the wait of all these years? Let’s find out in our today’s review.
Story
The story of Last of Us Part-1 is one of the best campaigns you can experience. It’s emotional, full of action and adventure, love and decisions that will decide the completion of your journey.
The story begins with the life of Joel and his daughter Sarah which you instantly feel bonded; the night of Joel’s birthday, Sarah plans on surprising him with a watch.
But the joy doesn’t last for too long as an epidemic breaks out of a zombie virus by a group called Fireflies which eventually leads to the death of Sarah and Joel join the survivors.
20 Years later, Joel works with Tess to run different errands in exchange for supplies, when suddenly Tess took on a job to deliver a package across the town to a group of fireflies; which they later find out is that package is none other than Ellie.
Here start’s journey of them of delivering Ellie to the fireflies as they are sure Ellie is the cure of all this madness.
Gameplay
The gameplay overall is exciting and engaging, the combat is fluent, and the characters are relatable, which makes the whole experience beautiful. But that’s not the end of the story, there are other factors that comes in, especially with the release of PC-Port, and I’ll break them down for you.
Optimization
Now here is the part where the real trouble begins; the game has such a great story yet one of the worst optimized ports to date. In its initial state, Last of Us consumes a hefty amount of VRAM and has so many stability issues that it leads to crashes.
The Graphics menu is also a bug where Medium environmental settings are asking for more Vram than the High settings. High Quality Textures seem to get buggy shaders, while other presets work fine.
From massive stutters during the gunfights to glitched textures, you name it, the Last of us got it. Currently, if you have a Graphics card below massive 12 gigs of Vram, then you probably be having trouble running it above medium settings. Yes, you heard it right. An RTX 3060 gives a smoother experience than an RTX 3070Ti due to that extra Vram it has on higher texture quality.
Main Story & Side Quests
The main story is engaging and fun, with a lot of emotional stuff going on around the life of Joel and Ellie, yet in the meantime, both are there to support each other during the hard times.
There are barely any side quests in the game, keeping you heavily focused towards the campaign and giving you an immersive experience. The story is as beautiful as it was since the day it first came out and I have no shame in saying I can play it again and again and again no matter how many times it comes out.
You also get to experience cute moments like Ellie interacting with Joel from time to time to keep the mood light and build an even stronger connection with the players.
Combat
Combat in Last of Us part 1 is pretty basic, you get different weapons to shoot and basic melee combat. The recoil of the guns feels a bit high which you can easily adjust at the crafting station. Rest the idea is to either survive from or kill as many zombies as possible.
Graphics & Visuals
Naughty Dogs have done an amazing job with this remake making it a truly PC release, and the textures are top notch of course if your hardware can load them and the new cinematics of the game are more than ever glorious. Almost identical to the latest Part 2’s quality.
Not only does the cinematics look this good, but the overall game has been revamped by increasing the fidelities, high quality textures, better lighting and volumetric effects, making it a complete eye candy experience for most of the gamers.
all in all, we can give a full rating to the graphics and cinematics of Last of Us part-1. It’s truly a treat for new and old players who are either giving it a try for the very first time or getting back on the couch to do a speed run just relive all the good moments.
Sound Effects
Sound effects and ques in Last of Us Part 1 are pretty solid, you won’t find a single time when you can’t track a zombie coming towards you or roaming nearby.
The music is engaging and pleasing as well, the boss fights keep the hype going with extra bassy music. A very decent experience over all, and the gun sounds are accurate to a good extent as well.
Current State of The Game
The Game in it’s current state is not worth recommending as it is costing a premium yet not up to the mark performance. It’s like Naughty dogs rushed with this one and ended up ruining the whole experience of the game. The story is no doubt beautiful and it requires that smooth experience to truly appreciate it.
Our Verdict
The review has now come to an end, our recommendation to you is to give the game some time, let the developers release few stability patches to sort the crashes and Vram issues, as in the current state, the game is extremely unstable and demanding which will kill the whole experience.
The game itself is a masterpiece, and we know that you have waited so long to get your hands on it but trust me, it’s worth waiting a little longer as right now, you will end up disappointed and might not pick it up again. We hope that you will love this review and also that developers can provide us with quick updates so everyone can enjoy this beautiful adventure of a lifetime.
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Shoaib Rashid is a passionate Gamer and an experienced writer who has been covering the Gaming Industry for over 3 Years. He started his career as a freelance journalist, writing reviews, previews, news, guides, and features for various industries. He joined VA Gaming as a Writer in 2022 and was promoted to Content Editor in 2023, where he oversees the editorial tasks and ensures the quality and accuracy of the content.
Shoaib loves to play all kinds of games, from Competitive shooters to the latest AAA releases, you name it, and he got them all covered; a PC Enthusiast who loves to stay upgraded with the latest hardware, and he enjoys sharing his insights and opinions with the Gaming Community.
While being a hardcore competitive Gamer he also a big Anime fan so his IGN goes by #SHiNiGaMii. and you can join him on Steam and checkout his library to learn more about his accomplishments.
