The Last of Us Part 1 is a remake of the PS3 original from 2013, released for PC on March 28, 2023. It was initially met with excitement, but gamers have reported experiencing hour-long load times while playing. This has resulted in The Last of Us Part 1 receiving a “Mostly Negative” rating on Steam and has caused many players to express their disappointment with the game’s optimization.

While the recommended hardware specs for The Last of Us Part 1 on PC are fairly reasonable, many gamers are still experiencing crashes due to the poorly optimized game. MP1st reported that a PC slightly above the recommended specs took around an hour to build shaders, and a high-end system required just under 45 minutes to do the same. Furthermore, the report states that The Last of Us Part 1 seems to be using 100% of the CPU, resulting in the hardware running hot for an extended duration. Even with GPUs that are well above the recommended system requirements, the game is still struggling to maintain a 60 FPS rate. 

Naughty Dog has taken notice of these issues and stated that they are working on an upcoming patch. Until then, most players will have to continue dealing with these lengthy loading times and other optimization problems.

In conclusion, the Last of Us Part 1 is yet another example of a poorly optimized game coming out on PC. Even though the game was released after many of Sony’s other titles, it’s still facing technical issues that should have been addressed prior to release. This is especially unfortunate, as The Last of Us Part 1 offers a fantastic gaming experience, with many praising its vibrant visuals and slick new character models. Hopefully, the upcoming patch will fix these issues and allow players to fully enjoy The Last of Us Part 1 on PC.