The Last of Us Part II is another stellar PC port from Sony

The strains between console generations and {hardware} leaps have change into so blurred in the previous couple of years. It virtually doesn’t make sense to me that The Final of Us Half II is already 5 years outdated, nor does the reminder that it was initially a PlayStation 4 sport really feel like every extra of a truthful assertion. An enormous a part of that could be a mixture of simply how extremely good this sport has all the time appeared, mixed with the more and more shrinking quantity of house new video games have left to innovate or broaden on graphical know-how. It already felt like we hit the apex with the original PS4 release of this game, and seeing simply how attractive it’s on PC makes it even more durable to consider it isn’t truly a cutting-edge, model new sport.

One among my favourite components of recent PlayStation exclusives is absolutely the overload of accessibility choices and fine-tuning settings they pack into their releases. The current PS5 re-release of The Last of Us II added a formidable variety of these to the sport, past what was already there on PS4, they usually’re all included on this PC launch as effectively. Plenty of them are gameplay altering choices that reduce or take away sure situations in fight, and choices to retool a variety of button-holds and presses to faucets or triggers. There’s a refreshing quantity of UI choices, as effectively, together with welcome sizing choices for the HUD and subtitles that may make enjoying the sport on a big display screen or from a far non-desktop distance lots simpler.

On high of those instruments, there’s an enormous array of latest graphical and show settings obtainable for the PC model of the sport. All of the body era and upscaling strategies you’d hope for are included right here – with AMD’s FSR 3.1 and 4, Nvidia’s DLSS 3 with Body Gen, and Intel XeSS help. There’s additionally stable ultrawide display screen help, with the choice to even toggle cinematic pillarboxes on or off for those who dare.

There’s all of the graphical settings you’ll anticipate from a local PC launch, with issues like texture high quality, LOD, volumetrics, shadows and extra all scalable. I used to be additionally glad to see the quantity of management The Final of Us II offers you over visible impact depth on PC. You’ve bought sliders for movie grain, lens filth, chromatic aberration, and digital camera shake, letting those that dislike sure results tune them down or flip them off. A few of the finer choices go a bit over my head, however what’s apparent is that the sport appears to be like nice and runs nice.

With out doing in-depth benchmarks throughout dozens of GPUs and configurations, my GeForce 3080 dealt with the sport with ease. I get crisp visuals at 1440P and practically maxed out settings alongside the sport hovering round 120FPS in cutscenes and floating between 60-90FPS in gameplay.

The Final of Us Half II can also be verified for the Steam Deck – and whereas it’s actually a constant expertise on the hybrid Valve handheld, it’s additionally unquestionably a extremely compromised expertise. Visuals take a noticeable hit on this platform, even with heavy FSR upscaling utilized. I wouldn’t see myself having fun with the narrative-heavy materials of the sport on this means.

I did, nevertheless, get pleasure from a pair hours of the roguelike No Return mode on my Steam Deck, because it’s a lot extra of a fight targeted expertise the place visible constancy and lighting results don’t matter practically as a lot to me. This mode has been expanded somewhat for the PC launch, with the brand new content material being patched into the PS5 launch as effectively. There’s new characters introduced ahead from TLOU Half I with Invoice and Marlene giving new playstyles, and there’s 4 new maps to assist sprinkle somewhat extra selection into your runs.

There’s nothing compromised about The Final of Us II on PC. Even the beforehand controversial PSN account necessities touted for Helldivers II and God of Conflict: Ragnarok on PC are absolutely non-obligatory this time round for The Final of Us II. If you wish to expertise this chapter of Naughty Canine’s harrowing post-apocalyptic epic, you’re in for simply as a lot of a rewarding journey on PC as you’ll be on PS5.