PC players who want to play this former PlayStation exclusive sequel portably will be in for a treat, thanks to multiple visual options and a seriously great roguelike mode.

Another year, another season of TV show to watch, and also somehow yet another way to play . Having initially released as a exclusive way back in 2020, it eventually came to four years later in its fully enhanced form (at least we thought).

Now it’s the turn of players on and the Store to catch up with Ellie’s sequel adventure thanks to its dedicated launch on last week. As you’d expect, it’s very much the same solid survival horror-meets-stealth experience users have come to know, now looking better than ever thanks to the stronger capabilities of high-end desktop setups. More so than that, however, what’s most impressive is just how well The Last of Us Part 2 plays on the go via .

Although The Last of Us Part 2 was already technically playable on the go thanks to the remote play functionality of the , the game’s recent PC release marks the first time it’s been able to run on a handheld device natively. And true, while other options such as the and certainly exist, ’s sequel being Steam Deck verified means it should run the sweetest on ’s dedicated handheld, right?

Well, yes, more or less. Poor battery drain aside – which is almost expected for a game as flashy as this – it was a pleasure to see that this is very much a version of the core The Last of Us Part 2 experience optimised and running well in the palm of my hands. Given that Ellie’s revenge story is quite cinematic in nature I’m not sure if it’s the best way to play, but it certainly works.

The benefits of The Last of Us Part 2 being Steam Deck verified by Valve is made instantly apparent; running at 30fps by default after you load it up, riding through the snowy outskirts of Jackson as Joel on horseback makes a strong first impression. Is it as clear and crisp as it would be if I fired the game up on my RTX 4090 equipped gaming PC? Of course not, but it’s clear that Naughty Dog and its PC porting studio partner, Nixxes, have dedicated a lot of time making Part 2 perfect for the handheld market than even the PC version of back in 2023. That version was notoriously buggy even on a desktop, so to have this bigger, more ambitious sequel playing so soundly on a handheld shows how much PlayStation has learned when catering to Steam players.

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If you start paying close enough attention, you’re sure to see the odd framerate dip here and there – even when you tweak the Steam Deck’s built-in Dynamic Resolution Scaling function. But if the standard 30fps doesn’t do it for you, like a lot of graphically intense modern releases, I found 40fps to be a good middle-ground as it’s still relatively smooth.

I can’t advise players who already own a copy of The Last of Us Part 2 on PS5 and a PlayStation Portal to double dip for the PC release with the intention of playing on Steam Deck. However, if all you own is Valve’s portable gizmo and you’ve been waiting for resolution following the first game’s killer cliff-hanger, The Last of Us Part 2’s PC release will certainly see you right.

Digging into the actual game itself, what I’ve been enjoying playing most on the Steam Deck is the Last of Us Part 2’s dedicated roguelike mode, No Return. Because as if taking on waves of clickers, WILF soldiers, and Seraphites wasn’t already moreish and addictive enough on a big screen, doing so is made even more painful to put down when playing on a handheld.

No Return excels at delivering the same high stakes stealth action gameplay found in the main campaign, except you’re thrown into combat scenarios with very few weapons and resources as you must slowly work your way through rounds until your mettle is fully tested against a final boss. It was one of the best new aspects of The Last of Us Part 2’s PS5 release before, and the same is true here on PC and Steam Deck.

You can read of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered from last year to learn more about why No Return and the inclusion of previously cut content is so great. For now, though, it’s not hard to see how one could potentially lose dozens of hours endlessly scrounging, surviving, and battling against hordes of human and undead monsters in this newly minted PC version of Naughty Dog’s ambitious sequel on Steam Deck.

I’d like to say this will be the last time The Last of Us Part 2 gets released on a new platform, but the truth is that these days you never really know. Dare I say PS6? However, as a way to bring one of PlayStation’s best-ever exclusives to an all-new audience (alongside a whole new way to play, at least natively) The Last of Us Part 2 on PC more than gets the job done.