Some gamers have reported experiencing hour-long load times while playing The Last of Us Part 1 on PC. The game is a remake of the PS3 original from 2013 and features upgraded visuals and redone character models. It came out on PS5 in September 2022 and released for PC on March 28, 2023, with the PC port being handled by Naughty Dog and Iron Galaxy.
It looks like players have been dealing with numerous issues with the PC version of The Last of Us Part 1, resulting in it getting review bombed on Steam. The Last of Us Part 1 currently has a rating of “Mostly Negative” on that storefront, with many users expressing their disappointment with the game’s optimization. It seems like several gamers are experiencing crashes while trying to play The Last of Us Part 1 on PC, despite being above the recommended hardware specs, with some players also running into ridiculously long loading times when trying to play the game.
As reported by MP1st, The Last of Us Part 1 on PC is taking over an hour to finish building shaders for some users. MP1st itself ran tests, with a PC slightly above the recommended specs taking around an hour to build shaders and a high-end system requiring 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.
MP1st mentions that both of their GPUs, a GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 4090, struggled to maintain a constant 60 FPS in their testing. These GPUs are well above the recommended system requirements for The Last of Us Part 1 on PC, while a GeForce RTX 4080 or Radeon RX 7900 XT is required to play the game on ultra settings.
Many of Sony’s PC ports didn’t have such issues at launch, making The Last of Us Part 1 one of the few PlayStation games on PC to have received a negative rating. The PC version of Horizon Zero Dawn did have some problems when it first came out, but these issues were patched later on. Naughty Dog has confirmed on Twitter that it's aware of the problems faced by some PC users while playing The Last of Us Part 1 and stated that the team is working to address these issues in upcoming patches.
The Last of Us Part 1 is available on PS5 and PC.
Source: MP1st