The Last of Us Part 2 has always been an excellent game. Look no further than our reviews of the original PS4 release from way back in 2020, and the more recent PS5 Remastered release from last year. Personally, Ive always felt that the weakest part of The Last of Us Part 2 was the fact that it felt a bit limited by the constraints of the PS4 back when it first came out. With the PC release, we now potentially have the definitive way to experience a game weve repeatedly referred to as a masterpiece. It all comes down to how well Naughty Dog, along with Nixxes and Iron Galaxy have been able to bring the game to PC. So lets get the most important things out of the way first. The PC version of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is quite excellent. As the reasonable hardware requirements that the studio had previously announced would imply, the game is able to make fantastic use of the resources a modern gaming PC can give it. During my time with the game for this review, I played on a PC with an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU, an AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT GPU, and 32 GB of RAM. This, paired with the fact that I had it installed on an NVMe M.2 SSD, meant that I never really experienced any technical hiccups. Throughout my time with The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, I was able to max out the graphics without having to switch on any of the image upscaling tools like FSR, while still being able to maintain frame rates of anywhere between 90 and 120. All of this while playing on a 1440p display with a refresh rate of 144 Hz. Running it on the Steam Deck was also quite fruitful, delivering good enough performance with some of the graphics settings dialed in to get me just under 60 FPS. While this may not sound that good, it is worth noting that Steam Deck games often tend to run fantastically with a frame rate of 40 FPS for a good balance between performance, visuals, and battery longevity. "The PC version of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is quite excellent." All of this good news also carries over into some of the smaller aspects of the game, like how it actually plays. Turns out the keyboard and mouse combination is a rather excellent way to play The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered. It offers players a lot of control and accuracy when you really need to nail that headshot, while also providing more versatility when it comes to doing things like needing to craft a quick molotov in the heat of battle. The only real downside to the control schemeone I didnt experience while briefly using a DualSense controllerwas what felt like a strange rendering issue. Essentially, when youre in-game, Any UI element involving the mouse tends to tank the frame rate. I experienced this multiple times with my frame rate going from the high 90s all the way down to 40. Overall, this strange bug didnt really have much of an effect on my enjoyment of the game, since you rarely need to use the mouse outside of crafting and upgrading abilities anyway, and the moment you leave the UI and your mouse disappears, the frame rate tends to shoot back up. While I am far from a technical expert on the matter, the issue feels like it might have something to do with how the mouse is being rendered. These dips in the frame rate are basically non-existent just about anywhere else in the game. Generally speaking, the PC release of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is a big step upnot just from the state of the PC port of The Last of Us Part 1, but also the more recent PC release of Marvels Spider-Man 2. Aside from the minor bug involving frame rates dropping in UIs with a mouse, there hasnt really been much to complain about. Even the controls have transferred over to mouse and keyboard quite well, with the minute-to-minute gameplay involving both stealth as well as action feeling better than ever. The fact that the title is also Steam Deck Verified is definitely a sweet cherry on top of an already-excellent sundae. "Even the controls have transferred over to mouse and keyboard quite well" When it comes to the game itself, even five years after its original release, The Last of Us Part 2 can still be considered a certified masterpiece. The game tells an incredible, epic tale of how the cycle of violence tends to hurt those closest to you, and how revenge is ultimately never really worth it. It also does an incredible number of smaller things to make sure that the overall narrative hits hard. The narrative trick here has been executed incredibly well; while you start off the game hating Abby as a character and spend quite a bit of time as Ellie in her quest for revenge, the script is essentially flipped at one point. You go back in time and take on the role of Abby, and you start to learn why she did the things that kicked off the plot of the game. You also get to see just how horrifying Ellies actions have been from an outside perspective, with her kill count getting higher and higher as you progress through the game. Interestingly, while many players will appreciate Ellie largely because they grew attached to her thanks to the events of the first game, in The Last of Us Part 2, I found Abbys parts to be much more fun from a gameplay standpoint. While both characters play the same (albeit with separate upgrade paths and weapons), Abbys gameplay felt a lot more interesting because of the kinds of enemies you get to take on, thanks to some of the best boss fights that Naughty Dog has ever made. "You also get to see just how horrifying Ellies actions have been from an outside perspective" I also have to make special mention for one of the strangest encounters in the entire game: the Rat King. Feeling like an enemy straight out of a Resident Evil game, the Rat King is an amalgamation of incredibly strong cordyceps infected enemies, including clickers, stalkers, and even a bloater. The entire encounter is an intense one, forcing you to use up just about every resource you can to take it down. In a fun twist, players also experience a separate battle against a stalker that broke off from the Rat King during your fight with it. The whole fight, along with others you get to encounter as Abby, such as the memorable ones against Tommy and Ellie, are some of the highlights of the entire game, really showcasing how well its intense action gameplay works. The core story of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is excellent, but special mention has to go to its gameplay. The general gunplay and stealth both feel so good to use in the game, that the Remastered release on the PS5 brought with it an entirely new game mode with it in the form of No Return. Essentially a roguelite mode that allows players to fully experience the depth of The Last of Us Part 2s stealth and combat mechanics, No Return has been a generally great addition since its debut. The PC release brings in some more content for the mode, including new playable characters like Marlene. The mode continues to be an excellent way to re-experience the downright fantastic gameplay of The Last of Us Part 2. The Last of Us Part 2s story choices remain divisive to this day, but regardless of where you stand, its gameplay is undeniably top-notch. Playing it on a high-end PC with excellent performance makes this version the definitive way to experience the game. This game was reviewed on PC.