The latest Steam Deck patch notes show that Naughty Dog has done a whole lot of work on The Last of Us: Part I to resolve some issues, but some of the most painful problems are still present with the port. When The Last of Us: Part I launched on PC in March, it wasn’t very well optimised, meaning many PC gamers experienced severe issues with performance and loading. Naughty Dog apologised, and Steam issued refunds and revoked the game’s Verified status, but both the store and the game developers have been working on improving the experience.
Now, version 1.1.0 of The Last of Us: Part I has enabled the game to regain Verified status, but as noted in the patch notes on Naughty Dog’s website, “the game will require a full shader rebuild upon installation.” While that didn’t used to be a problem, it’s now one, since the notes also say it takes too long to load shaders, as well as causing memory leaks and corrupted shaders.
In our Steam Deck review, I said, “The most painful problems are mostly fixed. The list of known issues includes several that sound like bugs that used to have the potential to totally break the game, but much of the time it runs like a dream on the Deck.” The uncertainty about whether or not it would have load issues would have made me cautious about saying something like “the most painful problems have been fixed.” So, for now, that’ll stay as a qualified statement in case it regresses.
Meanwhile, check out some of our favourite Steam Deck accessories, including controllers and headsets. You’ll want to take a look at The Last of Us: Part I Steam Deck battery life in order to play for as long as possible. Shacknews also has a breakdown of how TLaU: Part I stacks up to the rest of the best horror games on PC, with a big shout to Naughty Dog as one of the best PC developers.