Say what you’ll in regards to the controversy surrounding The Final of Us Half 2’s story, which feels as contemporary at the moment because it did in 2020, there’s no denying that it stays an absolute stunner of a online game. The extent to which Naughty Canine utilized the PlayStation 4 {hardware} to ship such spectacular constancy, be it within the character fashions and results or the animations and environmental particulars, stays as baffling because it does miraculous.
Although it acquired a free replace for the PS5 that included 30 FPS and 60 FPS choices, The Final of Us Half 2 Remastered is a correct paid improve over the PS5 model. Whereas it’s not an enormous graphical overhaul, it does supply new modes, together with the rogue-like No Return and Misplaced Ranges, three ranges reduce from the sport alongside in depth developer commentary. You can too interact in Guitar Free Play or attempt to full the story as rapidly as doable in Speedrun Mode.
Over a 12 months later, the remaster lastly involves PC on April third, as Naughty Canine groups up with Nixxes and Iron Galaxy. Is it an enormous enchancment over the PS5 model? Is it the definitive strategy to play the basic? In fact, after The Final of Us Half 1’s disastrous launch on PC and the combined bag that some first-party PS5 ports (like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2) have been, some skepticism is comprehensible. Let’s dive in and discover out.
What’s New With the PC Model?
Contemplating that The Final of Us Half 2, each the unique and remastered, doesn’t supply ray tracing, it’s no shock that it isn’t on the desk with this PC port. What it presents is Ultrawide monitor help, whether or not you’re rocking a 21:9, 32:9 or 48:9 decision show, to not point out triple-monitor set-ups. Upscalers like Nvidia DLSS 3 Tremendous Decision, AMD FSR 3.1, Intel XeSS and AMD FSR 4, alongside Body Era and DirectStorage, are additionally supported. You can too allow Vsync and output a lot increased body charges than the PS5. However how heavy will all this be in your system?
PC Necessities and Take a look at Rig Configuration
Relating to PC necessities, Naughty Canine, Nixxes and Iron Galaxy supply an honest vary of scalability. Whilst you solely want an Intel Core i3-8100 or an AMD Ryzen 3 1300X on the Minimal finish, a GeForce GTX 1650 or Radeon RX 5500XT is required together with 16 GB of RAM, which is sufficient for 720p/30 FPS at Low settings. On the really useful facet for 1080p/60 FPS on Medium settings, you’ll want a Core i5-8600 or Ryzen 5 3600, an RTX 3060 or Radeon RX 5700, and 16 GB RAM.
Enjoying at 1440p/60 FPS on Excessive settings requires a Core i7-9700K or a Ryzen 7 3700X, an RTX 3070 or a Radeon RX 6800, and 16 GB of RAM. Should you’re aiming for the best high quality customary, specifically 4K/60 FPS at Very Excessive settings, you’ll want a Core i7-11700 or a Ryzen 7 5700X CPU, an RTX 4080 or RX 7900XT and 32 GB RAM. And whereas it’s roughly 79 GB on PS5, a whopping 150 GB of set up house is required for the PC port (SSD obligatory). Our rig has an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and 32 GB of RAM.
Graphical Choices and Our Settings
On prime of upscalers, DirectStorage help, and whatnot, the massive enchantment of the PC port is adjustable graphics choices. You may alter the Stage of Element, Reflection High quality, Texture High quality and Filtering, Shadow High quality, Depth of Area High quality, Refraction High quality, Particle Density, and rather more.
For our settings, we went with DLSS set to High quality at 3840×2160 decision, 60 Hz because the refresh price and body price capped at 360. DLAA and Vsync are enabled whereas just about each choice is about to Very Excessive, although no modifications have been made to the Area of View, and dynamic decision scaling is off.
PC Efficiency
If the efficiency of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on PC made you skeptical of future first-party ports, relaxation assured. The Final of Us Half 2 Remastered’s body price runs at a stable 60 frames per second all through with very minimal drops. It’s spectacular given the sheer quantity of element and results at 4K, whether or not you’re admiring the lights on the town or venturing by way of snow-covered fields, escaping from a horde of contaminated. Facial and character animations additionally look as nuanced and pure as ever, with beautiful picture readability bringing all of the little particulars – like freckles, snowflakes, and whatnot – to the forefront.
Nevertheless, there are some drawbacks. In an early scene with Abby and Owen, the latter’s hair glitches out in locations. It occurs once more afterward and although it’s not super-prevalent, the occasions it does happen are unattainable to overlook. There are additionally ghosting points, that are delicate within the mansion scene, once more with Owen’s hair, however they’re rather more noticeable when Ellie sprints by way of the snow on horseback. At first, it appeared restricted to cutscenes, however it’s possible you’ll even discover it throughout gameplay whereas shifting at a measured tempo. There aren’t any main glitches or efficiency troubles in any other case.
PC vs PS5 (Constancy and Efficiency)
On the PS5, The Final of Us Half 2 Remastered presents Efficiency and Constancy modes. The previous runs at 1440p/60 frames per second, whereas the latter presents native 4K and 30 frames per second. These with a 120 Hz output can fiddle with the PS5’s VRR settings to realize increased unlocked body charges, however we caught to the default.
Each modes supply steady body charges on the console, however Constancy mode packs higher picture readability, particularly in distant particulars and facets like foliage. The trade-off is the body price, in fact. With the PC model, you get one of the best of each worlds. Sections like using by way of the fields as Joel and gazing upon Jackson from a distance whereas the solar shines actually spotlight how effectively the visuals have held up by way of the years, even when some ghosting is seen at occasions.
Conclusion
Once you look again on the sequence’ debut on PC with The Final of Us Half 1, The Final of Us Half 2 Remastered is on a very totally different degree. Sure, the ghosting can get distracting, and there’s the odd visible glitch with Owen’s hair, nevertheless it’s backed by glorious efficiency, attractive visuals throughout and no main bugs (no less than none we noticed in our hands-on time).
As at all times, your mileage can range relying on the {hardware} and settings, however seeing this degree of constancy with most settings on Very Excessive and at 4K with a principally locked 60 FPS on an RTX 3080 Ti is fairly spectacular. Should you’re a PC participant ready to proceed the story since Half 1 dropped, The Final of Us Half 2 Remastered comes extremely really useful.