This game is gorgeous, but it is unoptimized. The "Steam-Rip" allows you to tweak settings to find a sweet spot without Steam overlay interference, which can actually result in slightly better performance for low-end rigs compared to the bloated official launcher. However, you will still encounter texture pop-in and the occasional lighting glitch that are inherent to the PC port itself, not just the rip.
In scene release groups, the "i---" tag is unusual. Typically, groups use brackets [ ] or parentheses ( ). However, the "i---" is often a placeholder used by uploaders on specific Russian or Eastern European torrent trackers to bypass automatic DMCA detection filters. The dashes "---" separate the personal tag from the game name. It tells the tracker: "This is an internal release not meant for standard top-sites." i--- The Last Of Us Part 1 -Steam-Rip- Last Of Us
Assuming you find a clean crack, you will be playing an unpatched version. Expect: This game is gorgeous, but it is unoptimized
Let’s address the elephant in the room. The Last of Us Part 1 is a purely single-player, narrative-driven game. There is no multiplayer. From a purely functional standpoint, a cracked Steam-Rip offers the same story beats as the paid version. Moreover, the keyword "Steam-Rip" is increasingly obsolete
However, the developers at Naughty Dog spent over two years optimizing the PC version post-launch. By downloading a crack of the v1.0 build, you are not "sticking it to Sony"—you are playing an inferior, buggy, crash-prone version of a masterpiece. You are also denying yourself:
Moreover, the keyword "Steam-Rip" is increasingly obsolete. Modern Steam games use CEG (Custom Executable Generation) and, in this case, Denuvo. The Last of Us Part 1 used Denuvo at launch. Groups like FairLight (FLT) cracked it, but only after several weeks. Most "Steam-Rips" you find today are fake files pretending to be that crack but are actually Bitcoin miners.