The Last of Us Part II Remastered - ROG Ally Review

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DISCLAIMER

The Last of Us Part II has been out for nearly five years. During that time, the game became the subject of controversy surrounding the way the narrative plays out, especially in contrast to the first game. This article is NOT a review of The Last of Us Part II as a game; this is a review discussing how the game plays on PC, specifically the Asus ROG Ally. I will briefly describe the game itself, but I will focus solely on my experience playing The Last of Us Part II Remastered on the Asus ROG Ally.

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Genre: Action/Adventure

Developer: Naughty Dog, Nixxes Software & Iron Galaxy

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Release Date: April 3rd 2025 (PC)

Available On: PS5, PC

Reviewed On: PC (Asus ROG Ally Z1 Extreme)

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No other game this decade has become the subject of heavy scrutiny, fan hate and controversy quite like The Last of Us Part II. In the 2020s, we have seen controversial titles that left fans disappointed, like Suicide Squad, Cyberpunk 2077 (at launch) and Battlefield 2042, but The Last of Us Part II is different from the rest. The game was not full of glitches; it was stable, nor was it a visual mess; it was one of the most graphically impressive games ever made. Yet the game was still beaten to a pulp by fans because of the way the story unfolded. At the time, I liked the game, but I did not love it. I did not agree with the fans about the way the story unfolded, but it dragged out much more than it should have, and it made the game exhausting in the last few hours. Nevertheless, while I did not love The Last of Us Part II when it came out, I still really enjoyed it.

The Last of Us Part II Remastered for PC is the first time I have returned to the game after nearly five years. The exhaustion I felt by the end of my first playthrough left me unsure whether I wanted to go through it again, but I bit the bullet and began the game again. During my 25-hour playthrough, I found myself loving the game. I still do not agree with the universal critical acclaim this game got, but I enjoyed it a lot more during my second playthrough. For this playthrough, I decided to see how capable the Asus ROG Ally Z1 Extreme is at running a graphically demanding game like The Last of Us Part II Remastered. There was a lot of trial and error, but there was also an immense amount of satisfaction. Here is everything that happened during my playthrough of The Last of Us Part II Remastered on the ROG Ally.

A Rough Start

Things started rough. I opened the game and did not tamper with the settings at first; I left them at the default. I wanted to see if the ROG Ally would run the game out of the box and, if it did, at what frame rate. I managed to get through the title screen and start the game. The opening cutscene looked as good as I remember it looking on the PS4, and the game was clocking an average of 42 fps during the opening cutscene with Joel and Tommy. When I started controlling Joel, I got on the horse, and the frame rate fluctuated quite a bit. When I started riding the horse, the frame rate reached a maximum of 44 fps and a minimum of 27 fps. After about 30 seconds of riding back to Jackson, the game crashed. The Windows error screen came up, and I was booted straight back to my Steam library page. It was not the best start, but I booted the game up and tried again. This time, the game crashed before I got back into a gameplay scenario; the game was on a loading screen. I was frustrated, so I booted the game up one more time and hoped that the fates were on my side; they were not. I reached the gates of Jackson and got through the cutscene with Joel and Ellie before the four-year time jump. As soon as I got control of Ellie and followed Jesse, the game crashed for a third time. 

I gave in and knew that if I were going to get The Last of Us Part II Remastered running on my ROG Ally, I would have to play around with the system and game settings. After a bit of Googling, I changed the VRAM from 4G to 6G, set the game to Low in the graphics settings and changed the resolution to 720p. That was the bare bones of the settings, and then I booted up the game once more. This time, the game did not crash (more on that later), and the lower resolution did not impact the overall visual fidelity. The only slight annoyance is that the frame rate was now running at 31 fps 90% of the time. The only times the frame rate would drop were when I transitioned from cutscene to gameplay or when I got on the horse to ride to the next area. I am not a frame rate snob, and I was perfectly fine with the game running at 30 fps on PS4. However, when I booted the game up before it first crashed, I was getting more than 40 fps. Despite the lower frame rate, it was much more consistent, and I kept the game at these settings for the next 12 hours of my playthrough.

Tinkering

About halfway through the game, I started to wonder if I could improve the settings to get a better frame rate and improve the resolution. To do this, I first upped the resolution back to 1080p and turned FSR Frame Generation, VSync and AMD Anti-Lag on. I decided to keep my settings Low because I did not want to run the risk of giving the ROG Ally more than it could handle. The results were very good. I was playing at 1080p in Turbo mode and was clocking an average of 49 fps. There were times when the frame rate would reach a maximum of 61 fps, and on the odd occasion, it would drop to a minimum of 29 fps. I kept the ROG Ally at these settings during the rest of my playthrough of The Last of Us Part II Remastered. 

Despite the improved frame rate and visuals, there were three problems apparent for the rest of the playthrough. The first one was screen tearing, particularly during the section where Abby frees Lev from the Seraphites' camp. The screen tearing was only noticeable in this part of the game; it was quite distracting, and due to the fast-paced nature of the encounter, it made it hard to see where I should go next. The screen tearing was not a major flaw because I did not notice screen tearing at any other point of the game, but it made the Abby and Lev section harder to navigate. Secondly, whenever the frame rate dropped, the motion blur was enough to make me feel sick. I have never encountered anything like this in a game. The ROG Ally said I was getting around 30-35 fps, but whenever I moved the camera, the game would become blurred and jittery. The ROG Ally's upscaling technology is the likely reason for the blurred camera jitters, and it only happened whenever I first booted up the game for a play session.

Finally, even though I had played around with the settings and gotten the game running smoothly for the most part, there were still a few occasions when the game crashed. Strangely, the most consistent crash was whenever I equipped the scope on Abby's crossbow. Usually, the first time I shot someone with the scope, nothing happened. However, when I went to do it again, the whole screen froze. After a few seconds, the game cut to a black screen, an error message came up, and I was back at the Steam page once again. Weirdly, this bug did not occur with any other weapon that has a scope. It did not happen with Abby's rifle, nor did it happen with Ellie's rifle or bow; it only happened with Abby's crossbow. This same glitch happened to me five times during my playthrough, and it made me not use the crossbow scope for the rest of Abby's chapter. The glitch was especially disappointing, considering how often I used the crossbow and how beneficial it was to have a scope on the weapon.

The Last of Us Part II Remastered ROG Ally Review: Verdict

Playing The Last of Us Part II Remastered on the ROG Ally was an experience, to say the least. The Last of Us Part II Remastered was the first modern AAA game I have played on the ROG Ally, and it was a fantastic learning experience as well as an enjoyable one. I became more accustomed to the system and learnt a lot about what settings work best and for what games. There were irritations during my playthrough, and the game crashing multiple times was not ideal. However, I am all the better for learning how to combat why certain settings worked and what each setting would do to the gameplay. Playing The Last of Us Part II Remastered on the ROG Ally is not the best way for first-timers to experience this game; play it on PS5 or a more powerful PC. However, if you want to replay The Last of Us Part II, it is worthwhile playing it on the ROG Ally despite the frustrations.