Linear survival fight in “The Last of Us Part 1” with bombastic graphics and many contradictions
Benchmarks
To be able to judge objectively, we would have had to use different CPUs, because who would put a GeForce RTX 3060 in such a test system with the Ryzen 9 7950X? But due to all the launches, I hardly have any resources left, so I activated my normal test system again and simply ran a few cards through in Full HD and Ultra Preset. In addition, in order to exclude the AI and reach the same loads over and over again, I use a longer sequence that runs automatically with a very high visibility and decent vegetation. LOD or not, this scene is quite brutal to GPU and CPU alike.
The FPS numbers speak for themselves. All cards below a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti or Radeon RX 6950XT even drop to their knees in Full HD as long as you play with the Ultra presets. With a RTX 3070, you would still manage quite well with medium or low settings, but everything below that becomes quite questionable. The two PCs, each with a Ryzen 7 2700X, have already reached the CPU’s performance limit here, where compiling the shaders and the loading times already make the gaming fun absurd, especially since the RTX 2060 seems hopelessly overtaxed with the game. The RTX 3060 still manages that with lowered settings, but more than Full HD is not really possible here either. At least not consistently in all scenes with a lot of distant views or vegetation.
Summary and conclusion
Overall, “The Last of Us Part 1” is a game that unfortunately wastes a lot of potential (which it would have if the gameplay was polished even more). However, the narrative fails to fully reach the player (at least me) on an emotional level and the overall artwork also falls short of my expectations. Of course, there are also many positive things to report, so you have to be fair. After all, you are never not alone, but have alternately several companions, well interwoven in the story, who join you in the adventure and definitely intensify the experience.
The PC version will certainly be a big success as soon as the technical problems are solved and the price is lowered a bit. The visuals are not bad, even though there is no DXR raytracing despite DirectX 12. But the developer makes intensive (and sometimes a bit too excessive) use of reflections implemented through a mixture of different technological approaches. There is also pre-calculated global illumination and physically based shading. That is quite pleasing.
The individual scenes are mostly well thought out and paired with very well-designed environments – if only it weren’t for the far too linear, narrow tube without any alternatives or logical challenges. It often looks temptingly enough like open world, but then disappointingly always ends at a single crate or a gate as an exclusive loophole. A real highlight is without a doubt the well-modeled characters and their facial expressions, which are among the best I’ve ever seen. The quality of the textures is also impressive. They are sharp and precise even when you stand directly in front of them (keyword VRAM requirement).
In terms of performance, the game is very demanding, similar to some other titles released this year. However, not only the CPU and GPU performance requirements are high, but also the VRAM poses a real challenge. Cards with 8 GB are already punished with drops in average FPS in Full HD, and cards with less than 16 GB of memory are quickly at the end in Ultra HD. This hardware hunger, coupled with the still sporadic hangs and also crashes spoil my mood in addition to what I wrote on the first page about the gameplay. The brutally linear storyline and the alternativeless progress of the story, where there are no side quests, alternative storylines or at least entertaining sequences (apart from collecting various items), quickly becomes boring.
And what do we learn from this once again? Buy after the third or fourth patch at a more forgivable price and maybe save up for better hardware in the meantime. Otherwise, this will somehow come to nothing.
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About the author
Igor Wallossek
Editor-in-chief and name-giver of igor'sLAB as the content successor of Tom's Hardware Germany, whose license was returned in June 2019 in order to better meet the qualitative demands of web content and challenges of new media such as YouTube with its own channel.
Computer nerd since 1983, audio freak since 1979 and pretty much open to anything with a plug or battery for over 50 years.
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