The Last of Us Part 1 is getting pummeled on Steam: "A technical disaster"
Naughty Dog is "actively investigating" the issues
The Last of Us Part 1's PC launch isn't going well, at least according to hundreds of negative Steam review.
The previously PS5-exclusive remake released on PC on Tuesday, and after just a few hours in the wild, it's garnered over 2,000 negative reviews and a "mostly negative" Steam rating. The vast majority of complaints relate to the PC port's technical performance, from its lofty VRAM and CPU demands to its slow-moving shaders. A lot of folks are reporting frequent crashes and generally shoddy optimization on PC, with one particularly scathing review calling it "the single worst PC port I have ever seen."
"The optimisation is even worse than my will to live," wrote one reviewer.
"30 min to cache 16% of shaders.... all the while my 9900k I9 CPU is CRANKING at 100% non stop," wrote another. "nice job guys. multi billion dollar company btw. gross."
"Then again, this is all such a major first world problem, maybe ill refund the money and donate it to charity," the reviewer added, rather responsibly.
"I have a juiced PC and this game runs like buttcheeks," said another unhappy customer. "Don't buy until they fix the numerous performance issues."
And so on.
In case you want a good visual representation of The Last of Us Part 1's PC problems, here's what it looks like when shaders fail to load in a timely fashion:
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I thought shaders were compiled but ummm pic.twitter.com/EJ0kF59o8NMarch 28, 2023
Naughty Dog has taken notice to the myriad complaints about The Last of Us Part 1 and says it's "actively investigating" them.
"We will continue to update you, but our team is prioritizing updates and will address issues in upcoming patches," the studio said in a tweet.
Elsewhere, the studio is celebrating the release and promising it won't be the last of Naughty Dog's PC support.
After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer, I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.