The Last of Us Part I launched on PC in 2023 as a full remake of Naughty Dog’s 2013 masterpiece, rebuilt from scratch using the technology developed for The Last of Us Part II. The game follows Joel, a hardened survivor, and Ellie, a fourteen-year-old girl who may hold the key to a cure for the fungal infection that has devastated civilization. Together they travel across the ruins of the United States, encountering hostile survivors, military zones, and the infected. The remake includes the Left Behind DLC, which tells a prequel story about Ellie.
The PC launch of Part I was among the most troubled in recent memory, with widespread performance issues, crashes, and optimization problems that drew severe criticism. Months of patches have addressed the majority of these issues, and the game in its current state runs significantly better. Community sentiment now focuses more on the merits of the game itself, where the story and presentation draw near-universal praise while the gameplay and the value proposition of a full-price remake draw more debate. The narrative remains one of gaming’s crowning achievements, but the path to experiencing it on PC was unnecessarily rough.
Joel, Ellie, and a Story That Defines the Medium
The relationship between Joel and Ellie is the reason this game is considered a landmark. Their dynamic evolves naturally across the journey, from mutual distrust to reluctant partnership to something resembling a father-daughter bond, and the writing earns every emotional beat through accumulated small moments rather than grand declarations. The dialogue is naturalistic, the voice performances by Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson remain exceptional, and the game’s willingness to sit in uncomfortable silence or let a scene breathe gives it an emotional texture that most narrative games rush past.
The visual rebuild is transformative. Character models convey emotion through micro-expressions and subtle physical acting that the original’s technology couldn’t achieve. Environments are rebuilt with a level of detail that makes every space tell a story through its decay, its remnants of normal life, and its evidence of the violence that followed the outbreak. The difference between the original and the remake is not just graphical fidelity but emotional fidelity, with scenes hitting harder because you can see the pain, exhaustion, and resolve on characters’ faces.
The infected encounter design, particularly the Clicker sections, creates tension that holds up across multiple playthroughs. The resource scarcity, the limited combat options, and the vulnerability of the player characters force a survival mindset that makes every encounter feel dangerous. When the game puts you in a room with Clickers and limited ammunition, the atmospheric tension is as effective as any dedicated horror game.
The Left Behind DLC, included in the remake, provides crucial context for Ellie’s character and delivers one of the game’s most emotionally resonant sequences. Its dual timeline structure, alternating between Ellie’s past friendship and a desperate present-day survival scenario, showcases the writing team’s ability to create meaning through juxtaposition.
A Disastrous Launch and Decade-Old Design
The PC launch cannot be glossed over. Performance issues ranged from severe stuttering to crashes, with some hardware configurations essentially unable to run the game. The backlash was immediate and justified, and it took several months of patches before the game reached a state that most players considered acceptable. For a premium-priced remake, the launch quality was unacceptable, and it damaged trust in PlayStation’s PC publishing efforts.
The gameplay, while refined, reveals its 2013 origins under the new visual layer. Combat encounters follow predictable patterns of stealth-then-action, and the enemy AI, while improved in some areas, still exhibits behaviors that break immersion. The game’s level design is linear in a way that occasionally feels restrictive, and the puzzle elements (moving ladders, pushing dumpsters) are simple to the point of being busywork. Compared to gameplay innovations in the decade since the original, Part I can feel mechanically dated.
The value proposition of a full-price remake, when the original and the remastered PS4 version already exist, has been debated extensively. Players new to the game generally find the investment worthwhile. Returning players who remember the story may find less motivation to revisit what is, beneath the new visuals, fundamentally the same game. The gameplay improvements don’t extend to the depth of changes seen in remakes like Resident Evil 2.
The AI companions, while improved, still occasionally break immersion by standing in plain view of enemies during stealth sequences without consequence. The game’s stealth system was designed around this compromise, but it remains a noticeable break from the tension the game works hard to establish.
Why It Still Matters
The Last of Us Part I endures because its story operates on a level that few games reach. The final scene, and the moral weight of Joel’s choice, provokes genuine ethical reflection that stays with players long after they’ve set down the controller. The game doesn’t tell you how to feel about its ending. It trusts you to wrestle with it yourself, and that trust is what separates a good story from a lasting one.
Should You Play The Last of Us Part I?
If you’ve never experienced The Last of Us, the Part I remake on PC (in its patched state) is the definitive way to do so. The story is essential, and the visual presentation is the best it’s ever been. Players returning from the original should consider whether the visual upgrade alone justifies the investment, as the gameplay changes are modest. Ensure your hardware meets the requirements, and check current performance reports for your configuration before purchasing. Skip it if you’ve recently played any version and remember the story well, or if you need gameplay innovation from a full-price release.
The Verdict on The Last of Us Part I
The Last of Us Part I contains one of gaming’s greatest stories, presented with a visual fidelity that enhances its emotional impact significantly. The journey of Joel and Ellie remains as powerful as ever, and the rebuilt presentation brings new depth to moments that were already extraordinary. The catastrophic PC launch and the decade-old gameplay design are real marks against it, and they prevent the remake from being the definitive PC release it should have been from day one. In its current, patched state, it’s a remarkable narrative experience wrapped in a good but not great game. The story alone makes it worth experiencing at least once.