Outlets Speculated PlayStation's The Last of Us would be Deck Verified. Turns out it's a Hot Mess

Correction: I initially believed The Last of Us did not have any verification rating as I couldn't find it on the desktop client while writing my article. I have since double checked on my Deck and did see the unknown rating there. I'm unsure why there is that discrepancy but the article has since been updated with more accurate information.

Leading up to the highly anticipated launch of The Last of Us: Part 1 for PC, outlets like PCGamesN noticed Valve recently advertised The Last of Us on the Steam Deck. PCGamesN seems to be one of the first outlets to speculate the game being Steam Deck verified at launch, but they weren’t the only one. “Valve uses The Last of Us PC to promote Steam Deck, implying it’s verified from day one” Video Games Chronicle wrote on the 27th.

I remember scrolling through these headlines that morning thinking, “Well, it seems strange to report on a guess, but I guess I’ve done it in the past too.”

Well launch day has since come and past and boy do things not look great. The game is currently sitting at a Mostly Negative rating on Steam making this the lowest rated PlayStation port to date. Steam reviews cite numerous crashes, incredibly high CPU usage on the menus, and all around horrid performance. These issues don’t seem limited to the Deck or Linux, but anyone looking to play this game at launch. Liam Dawe of GamingOnLinux walks us through the piss poor performance on the Deck in a YouTube video.

So what happened? Well for starters the game was hit with a delay, albeit slight. Perhaps the porting process wasn’t the easiest task for Iron Galaxy, the studio tasked with the project. The first thing people will mention about Iron Galaxy is that they were responsible for the Batman Arkham Knight PC port, a port so bad that it was pulled from Steam for a time.

Since then they have helped work on the Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection for PC and Metroid Prime Remastered. Unfortunately it seems like the state of the port has invited a deluge of negative reviews which may lead to possible refunds.

As it stands now, The Last of Us Part 1 is not Deck verified, but it’s not not Deck verified. When trying to check the verification status I didn’t see any type of Deck Verification badge on the store page on the desktop client. I could only find an unknown verification if I went the store page on my Steam Deck. Maybe the original plan was to have the game verified for the Deck at launch much like other PlayStation ports. There is even a screenshot of Steam Deck control prompts in the game. That might be why it appeared in an advertisement for the Deck with games marked as playable on Deck.

So I guess the takeaway is when buying games at launch for the Steam Deck, the only way to guarantee a painless gameplay experience is to look for official confirmation of being Deck verified.

Released the same day as The Last of Us Part 1, the once Epic Games Store exclusive Sifu as well with an unknown compatibility rating. That fact however didn’t stop me from immediately picking it up. While I’m loving the game, it has crashed on me twice (once on Deck and on my Nobara Linux desktop). It also experiences some stuttering when loading new areas.

While I wouldn’t say to avoid Sifu, I also can’t recommend it for the Steam Deck until I figure out why it’s crashing. Whether you want to try your luck with The Last of Us PC port is up to you, but you’ll be waiting an hour for the shaders to compile on Deck so keep that in mind for the two hour refund window.

So did you buy The Last of Us Part 1 with the hopes of playing it on Deck? Are you considering refunding it if you’re not happy? Are you like me and picked up Sifu instead? Let us know in the comments down below!