A new mod released for the PC version of The Last of Us allows gamers to play the game as Bill. While the modding scene for The Last of Us on PC hasn't proven to be huge yet, this mod gives gamers a look at the potential it has.
It's still early days for The Last of Us on PC, and it hasn't been an easy start for Naughty Dog. The game launched completely broken, with reports of hour-long loading times and terrible frame rates. While Naughty Dog has already launched patches for The Last of Us on PC to improve the experience, it's still a long way from what players expected upon launch. After a decade-long wait for the game to finally arrive on PC, there's no doubt that the current situation has proven to be the worst-case scenario for the developer. Hopefully the issue doesn't deter Sony from the platform, with so many of its exclusives finally coming to PC.
The clip from the mod was posted to Reddit by user ODINSFALL_YT, showing Bill slashing through clickers rather than Joel. According to the user, the mod is part of JediJosh's character swap tool on Patreon, so unfortunately it's not a free option available to gamers. Right now, the mod isn't fully complete, as loading a save causes the game to reload Joel instead of Bill, but hopefully this will get fixed in the future. While paid mods haven't always been popular with gamers in the past, at least in this instance it's going directly to an individual rather than a mega-corporation.
As a character, Bill from The Last of Us is having a resurgence in popularity recently. While he was already a fan-favorite, Nick Offerman's incredibly moving portrayal of the character in HBO's The Last of Us TV adaptation has brought him to a new level of popularity, especially among mainstream audiences. It's great that players now have a way to go straight from watching the show, directly to playing as Bill in the game instead of Joel.
It appears that modding capabilities in the game remain limited at present, but that hasn't stopped gamers from experimenting with what's possible. One Last of Us mod even allows players to play as Pedro Pascal's Joel, bringing the television version of Joel Miller back into the video game. It will certainly be a popular choice among gamers who are only experiencing the game for the first time, with the popularity of the series bringing a whole new audience to the game.
The Last of Us Part 1 is available now on PC and PS5.