The Last of Us Part II Remastered Steam Deck OLED Spoiler-Free Review

(Update – As of 04/02/25 – The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is now Steam Deck Verified)

When The Last of Us Part 1 was released on PC back in March of 2023 by Iron Galaxy Studios, to say the game was a hot mess would be an understatement. The timing couldn’t have been worse, considering the TV show adaptation was finishing up its run on HBO to rave reviews. Sony announced an increase in the game’s player engagement on the PlayStation and hoped to see the same with the PC release.

Eventually, months after launch and an “all hands-on deck” approach by other Sony studios, such as Naughty Dog and Nixxes Software, the game finally became a respectable port on PC and obtained verified status on the Steam Deck. I felt it was important to start by discussing the first game’s history because from the near-final build of The Last of Us Part II Remastered that I’ve been playing, I’ve encountered ZERO issues and am thrilled to finally review a port that performs as one would expect on day one.

The Last of Us is widely popular outside of the gaming community, thanks to the success of the HBO TV series.

With that said, Season 2 airs on HBO on April 13, 2025, which is mere weeks after the release of The Last of Us Part II Remastered on PC on April 3rd. So, it’s safe to assume Sony is taking every course of action to avoid the launch failures of the first game.

I am avoiding spoilers, but assume you have watched or played Part 1 (if not, skip to the performance section of the review below). The Last of Us Part II Remastered continues the story along with a 4-year time jump of Joel and Ellie, and now the dreaded reality that there is no cure, and this is just how life will be for the foreseeable future. Ellie has her suspicions about what took place at the Fireflies’ base. We are introduced to several new characters, some with deep ties to the events in Part 1, and others, such as Elle’s girlfriend, Dina.

Now, unlike The Last of Us Part 1, the gaming community was and still is very divided on the story in Part II and the creative storytelling taken by Naughty Dog. Again, I’m avoiding spoilers and pointing out that Part 1 pulled on the heartstrings early in Part 1, and the same happens in Part 2. This moves the story forward with a new narrative to introduce an alternate perspective. Still, for many, this was too drastic a change and, in turn, drastically altered the overarching story. I’m interested to see how the TV show retells this story and, even more so, how the viewers will react.

Performance on Steam Deck OLED

I reviewed The Last of Us Part 1 on Steam Deck (click here), and it was way after the endless arrivals of patches and hot fixes to push it to verified status.

This was intentional, as you didn’t need to read another review pointing out all the framerate issues and crashes. Instead, I waited to see if the devs could fix the game, which they did, and the product was a solid play experience.

However, for The Last of Us Part II Remastered, it’s like night and day. While it has a playable status of “unknown,” it’s running at a stable 30-40 FPS. I included performance overlays on all my screenshots in various game parts. Some during cutscenes, others in close-quarter combat, and others in wide-open areas with long-range draw distance. If you played Part 1, you’ll recall the extremely long wait time for loading shaders.

This is not the case in Part II. While there is a shader load time upon first bootup, it’s about 4- 5 minutes. The CPU is pushing in the 80s and the GPU in the 90s, but never spiking out, and so far, I’m about halfway through the game and have experienced no crashes, freezes, or frame drops. Even during the downtown Seattle portion of the game, while on horseback. The game looks great and runs smoothly, even if you pause the game and put your Steam Deck to sleep. Upon waking, you’ll be right back in the pause menu with no crashes or frame rate stutters that would require you to restart the game.

So, what graphical adjustments did I make to obtain this stable performance? NONE! For the first time in a long time, I did not have to tinker with any settings. This game was optimized for the Steam Deck and, I’m sure, other handheld PCs. The graphical changes I would normally make, such as lighting, effects, etc., were already adjusted for me by the game.

This is fantastic and something we (the gamers) want from developers. They are taking into consideration where we plan to play this game, in this case, the Steam Deck OLED, and optimizing it for the best performance so we can jump in and play. Of course, the options are still there for you to tinker with, but they are not required, or should I say, necessary to have a fun experience.  

The Last of Us Part II Remastered comes with all the features found in the PlayStation version, such as Guitar-Free play and developer commentary. I highly recommend checking this out because it explains why they made choices and the roguelike survival mode, No Return.

This fun mode pits you in various situations and locations from the game. Depending on how you complete the areas, you get rewards that include unlockable characters and weapon skins.

The Last of Us Part II Remastered vindicates what happened with Part 1. Gamers expect Triple-A game ports such as this to perform as expected. So it’s great to see developers taking the time to produce a quality release that fans can play on day one with zero issues and not have to wait or expect a plethora of patches & hot fixes. Now, I’m sure we will get patches, but out of the box, day one on the Steam Deck, you will be good to go and stealth-kill the world of infected.

This review was written based on a digital review copy of The Last of Us Part II Remastered for PC provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment.