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Here’s how to play a free trial of The Last of Us Part I on your PS5

As the TV adaptation lands, immerse yourself in the video game it’s based on

Alistair Charlton
Thursday 19 January 2023 11:57 GMT
The trial is free, but only for Plus Premium subscribers
The trial is free, but only for Plus Premium subscribers (The Independent)

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Were you as impressed by The Last of Us as we were? Then you’ll want to make the most of a new offer from Sony, where the game that inspired the TV adaptation is currently free to play on PS5.

The critically acclaimed game first landed all the way back in 2013 on the PlayStation 3, before being remade for the PS5 console in 2022. Now, the TV adaptation is here, produced by HBO and set 20 years in the future, in a world ravaged by a fungal plague.

Video games turned into TV shows and films rarely succeed – look no further than the Resident Evil movies for proof – but in The Last of Us, HBO, along with Neil Druckmann, co-president of game developer Naughty Dog, has struck gold.

Our TV critic Nick Hilton awarded it four stars out of five and said: “The Last of Us is undoubtedly a new landmark in the seemingly impossible task of adapting video games. Druckmann, working with [Chernobyl series writer Craig] Mazin, has his fingerprints all over this tender, well-crafted and blackly comic piece. Right now, HBO is simply operating on a different level to any other network. With The Last of Us, it has another monster hit on its hands.”

Since the nine-part show is airing weekly on Sky Atlantic and streaming on Now – but not available to binge in one big gulp – fans will be pleased to know the free PS5 trial is here to satisfy your The Last of Us cravings until the next instalment arrives each Monday.

Watch ‘The Last of Us’ on Now TV

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How to play ‘The Last of Us’ free PS5 trial

The free trial is available through the PlayStation Store, but it’s only offered to PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers. This is the highest subscription tier and is currently priced at £13.49 a month.

This is technically the full game, but it’s a time-limited trial that is restricted to two hours. That’s enough to get you started, but the whole game takes in the region of 14 hours to complete, so, once your 120 minutes are up, there’s still plenty more to sink your teeth into, should you go ahead and purchase the full game (£69.99, Playstation.com).

To get started with the free trial, Plus Premium subscribers can simply head to the PlayStation Store on their PS5, go to the PS Plus section or manually search for The Last of Us Part I, be sure to select the free trial (not the purchase option), then start the download and installation process.

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