HomeHardwareFeaturesThe Last of Us Part I
The Steam Deck is no way to play The Last of Us Part 1 – for nowPray for performance patches
Pray for performance patches
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
Update:It’s fixed! Well, fixed enough.The Last of Us Part I is now Steam Deck Verified, following a series of patches. I’ve re-tested it and a combination of Very Low settings and Quality-level FSR 2 upscaling can now hold a comfortable 30fps minimum.
The original, far less impressed article continues below.
Image credit:Rock Paper ShotgunSteam Deck Academybrings together all our guides and explainers on getting the most out of your Steam Deck, no student loans or sweaty dormitories required.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
Steam Deck Academybrings together all our guides and explainers on getting the most out of your Steam Deck, no student loans or sweaty dormitories required.
Normally, when a big game releases, I’ll test how it runs on PC, knock together a best settings guide, respond in the negative to an email that asks if it will run on a GTX 680, and we all move on with our lives. Not so withThe Last of Us Part 1, which asyou’ve probably seen, has launched in a technical state that’s bleaker than Joel’s face.The first few patches and hotfixes(more are planned) have made it somewhat less terrible on powerful desktops, but I’m sad to report that playingThe Last of UsPart 1 on theSteam Deckis not currently worth your time.
This could change – there’sone hotfix plannedfor later today (Tuesday the 4th) and a larger patch due later this week, and I’m crossing every appendage going that the latter will stabilise the game’s technical issues to the point that I can start properly testing on desktop. However, from what I’ve played on the Steam Deck, it will need a major performance upgrade just to hit a steady 30fps.
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Maaaaaybe it could look nicer with some tweaks. like I said, I’m saving the settings testing for when the game feels a bit more finished, and there may be certain individual graphics options that can be left on Medium or High while keeping close enough to the Low preset’s performance. But something else I said was that TLOU can only hold 30fps forchunks, and even on these rock-bottom settings, it’s just as likely to dip into the twenties in other parts. One early chapter, which features a lot of heavy rain and water effects, dropped to 22-25fps and mostly stayed there.
This particular game’s slow pace means that sub-30fps drops don’t feel as horrible as they would in, say, fellow PS5 portMarvel’s Spider-Man Remastered. Yet they suck regardless, especially when they happen in spite of an image so pixellated that it becomes hard to spot mushroom zombies in darkened rooms. To get The Last of Us Part 1 fully playable on the Steam Deck would therefore require performance improvements to the point where it can, bare minimum, handle 30fps on FSR 2’s Performance setting. Even if it comes at the cost of setting everything else to Low.
(Side note: I get the impression thatNaughty Dog’s tweeton why they haven’t submitted to the Steam Deck Verified programme is being misinterpreted. It doesn’t really read like they’re deprioritising the Steam Deck generally, they just want as many updates and fixes in the bag before submitting; Verified and Playable badges are useful indicators to players, but not actually required for a game to run on the Deck.)
We’ll see, in any event. Meanwhile, you can load up one of the30 best Steam Deck gamesinstead.
