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Some areas just tank the frame rate, usually not while in combat though.
Most of the game runs great, but some spots will tank the frame rate hard. I decided on a 40fps cap since the frame rate usually dropped to around 30-35, then I lowered the render resolution a bit to get the worst spots up to 40. You can probably run this game at 60+, but you will get frame drops in some areas, since I prefer to cap at a frame rate that is stable, I decided on 40. I played on a Steam Deck OLED. Here are my visual settings:
Windowed Borderless
1280x720
Dynamic Res off
Unlocked frame rate on (capped at 40 with Steam Deck quick settings)
Vsync off
TAA
Resolution scale 80%
Everything set to low except Anti-aliasing, I set it to high
This gave me an almost perfect locked 40fps, I only ran into one place where it dropped below that. I played a bit on an external monitor and the 80% resolution scale did make it a bit blurry, but the game looked great on the Steam Deck itself.
Very infrequent but occasional stuttering, but otherwise flows great
Black screen after splash screens
This game works fine on the same hardware on Windows 11 Pro, but on this Linux setup it goes past the initial static image, then the splash screen/videos (i.e. "EA Originals"), and then only shows a black screen. Waited for over 2 minutes past when the screen went black.
top shows the ZAU.exe using ~200% CPU.
So it at least doesn't work "out of the box" (I did try without forcing Proton Experimental first as well), I'll see if any tweaks address this. This same setup runs at least Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor without any issues.
Works perfectly except for some crash, but we just have to restart the game to go to the same point, so not a big deal.
Some crashes sometime , but the game auto save very often, so this is not a big deal.
So far, pretty seamless
On initial startup, the game window rendered nothing for about 40 seconds. It kicked into action, and hasn't done this since. About 83 minutes in, just froze up. I was able to get back in and replicate what I was doing without issues, and the game autosaves frequently enough.
I haven't quite finished the game yet, but frankly I don't anticipate many issues based on my playthrough so far. I'm using a DS4 controller, and while the glyphs are for Xbox, Steam clearly communicates that they haven't implemented Playstation glyphs yet.
In addition, the system journal is complaining pretty often with the below logs:
kernel: umip: Zau.exe[2374168] ip:14784b2c6 sp:b96140: SGDT instruction cannot be used by applications.
kernel: umip: Zau.exe[2374168] ip:14784b2c6 sp:b96140: For now, expensive software emulation returns the result.
kernel: umip: Zau.exe[2374168] ip:21c1aa1 sp:b96108: SGDT instruction cannot be used by applications.
kernel: umip: Zau.exe[2374168] ip:21c1aa1 sp:b96108: For now, expensive software emulation returns the result.
kernel: umip: Zau.exe[2374168] ip:14a78bacd sp:b96140: SGDT instruction cannot be used by applications.
Not gonna comment on what this means, but as previously stated, the game ran A-OK without any configuration whatsoever.
Runs very well at maximum settings. No issues to report.
Initially I was unable to launch the game after installing it. However, reinstalling fixed this issue. Now the game runs perfectly at maximum settings.
Plays well enough if you dial in the settings, but performs poorly given its very basic presentation
swapped "b" and right trigger, for hollow knight-style dashing
I reduced the target frame rate to 40fps
It's often difficult to have the game play above 30fps, without making it look awful
Some pretty good art direction doesn't entirely make up for the fact that this game has a very basic presentation. Despite this, it still manages to perform rather poorly on the Deck. At "low" settings the game looks absolutely terrible, muddy and temporally unstable. But there are long stretches of the game where "standard" settings drop the game to the low 30s. I realize that's not a deal breaker for many people ... it's just disappointing that the game doesn't perform better when, by all rights, this should be at least a 60fps game.
Aside from those gripes it's fine. No crashes, text is largely readable (if small), and it controls well. Story's a little on the nose but its heart is in the right place. However, it's a bit short its current asking price ($20) -- this is not a Hollow Knight-style epic.
Lowered the TDP and capped FPS at 40 like I do for most games, battery life is around 2-3 hours for the OG LCD Deck. Settings untouched.
The game runs very smooth and looks beautiful. It has Steam Deck recommended settings that are enabled by default and work really well. I like to play my metroidvania games on the Deck and was hoping it was optimized and I'm not dissappointed at all. No EA app launcher either and I can play in offline mode.
