leovic
Published
Very fun action adventure game. Feels like a AA game in early 2010s. Handheld performance could be better, but playable enough.
40Hz cap to display refresh rate. Set graphics preset to balanced. The game on install defaults to Ultra. FSR 2 is available. I set it to Balanced. Nets me 2.5 to 3 hour battery life.
The in-game journal, game object captions, and NPC dialogue have tiny font styles. The subtitles can be scaled up but is presented as white text on often bright environments.
During launch the game would stutter. But thanks to the shader cache that the Deck compiles for us all and provided freely. The stutters went away. Some late game areas still struggle. But as of posting this review, it is still early days.
Launch version needs quality of life patches for things like controller customization, and better input response. Overall, I think it is fun to play on the Steam Deck.
Fun return for the battletech franchise to top down strategy games. Linux version needs a couple tweaks to get going on the Steam Deck.
Using the default key bindings, I made this controller config. steam://controllerconfig/637090/2808255147
30FPS lock with Gamescope. VSync on. Set graphics to low. You'll get up to 3-4 hours of battery life with all of that.
Text is very hard to read in this game and you will do a lot of reading. Take advantage of the Steam Deck's magnifier feature or play on a bigger monitor while docked.
With the linux version, I would get hang ups that look like complete freezing while loading in between missions. One hang up turned into a complete system freeze which led to a forced reboot. Switching to steam linux runtime - sniper helped out with that issue.
The game initially got off to a good start since it has a linux version. But that system freeze and tiny text makes this a slightly tough experience on the Steam Deck. Definitely fixable. But still something to tinker with a little.
Patch 8 is fun content wise. But know that the early access is for hyper fans and beta testers only.
--skip-launcher
Make use of the controller configurator as the PC version does not yet have controller support unlike the Stadia version.
Low graphics preset, In-game 30 frame cap, FSR 1.0 set to Quality, TAA on
Larian Launcher has mouse input issues both on the handheld screen and in desktop. It's like the actual window scale is smaller than what is shown.
Very small text on everything: hotbar, journal, inventory, dialogue, etc.
Audio would cut out if you "tab out" and lose focus on the game window when you come back
Using DX11, I'd still get missing textures like where shadow maps should be.
Cloud save would often fail to upload. Need multiple tries to actually upload.
The remaining bugs are related to the game's early access nature. So expect cutscene issues, lighting issues, etc.
Also, make sure to use DX11 when you first start out. The Vulkan version will guarantee a crash.
An easy graphics showcase for the Steam Deck. Story is meh for me. Kind of like a hollywood blockbuster movie. But played well enough.
For some reason, the steam deck prefers the official layout for PS4 controllers. It worked fine with that layout. But I preferred theofficial steam controller layout instead. It had better haptic presets for me.
30FPS lock with Steam's performance menu. Expect around 2 to 2.5 hours of battery life at maxed out graphics settings.
Another thing well worth pointing out is that the game has native steam input support. It also takes advantage if gyro controls a lot.
Wonderful Sci-Fi adventure. The handheld experience struggles at the end. But worth it to push through and finish the game.
Set to medium graphics preset. Lower in game resolution and upscale with FSR1 using gamescope. As of posting this review DLSS to FSR2 mods still doesn't work with this game. Nets me around 2 hours of battery life
The Steam Deck struggles in maintaning 30FPS in the later missions, where you traverse the lunar surface. Happens on both DX11 and DX12.
It was suprisingly easy to get stuck between objects due to the low gravity mechanics. But restarting is there and checkpoints that are spaced out well enough.
One side note: The game has raytracing support but is DXR through DX12. But I wasn't daring enough to grab the latest mesa drivers or AMD Pro drivers for linux to test this out on the Steam Deck. Maybe not worth it as the only decent upscaling tech here is DLSS. And again DLSS to FSR2 mods still don't work with this game.
I'd consider this the best of From Software's Souls games on PC and is now on a handheld.
Limit the display refresh rate to 40Hz. Turn on VSync. Set in-game resolution to 540p. Upscale with FSR. Applied Low graphics preset. Set anti-aliasing to high. Gets me around 2.5 to 3 hours of battery life.
Item descriptions are kind of hard to read with the Steam Deck's screen size. Same issue with the pop-up messages. Take advantage of the Steam Deck's magnifier feature.
Frametime is mostly steady. But hitches are inevitable. Hitches happen even with the desktop version.
There was one or two game freezes at the start. Happened right after Easy Anti-cheat loaded and the game publisher splashes are supposed to appear. Fortunately, I didn't get crashes when actually in game, unlike my desktop version.
Praise Valve, From Software, Bandai Namco, etc. for getting Easy Anti-Cheat to work with Proton.
Definitely a let down on the roleplaying department. But fun enough survival shooter when modded.
Installed Mod Organizer 2 to run mods. Highly recommend uninstalling High Res Texture DLC.
Low graphics preset. 30FPS cap with the performance menu. Nets me around 2 to 2.5 hour battery life.
Pipboy text is hard to read.
Unmodded game cannot use keyboard&mouse and gamepad simultaneously.
Framerate chugs when in Boston or there are a ton of explosions like with cars or explosive weapons.
Do not use an ENB with this game yet. Not even ENBBoost. Hard crashes the game.
Mod list I played with and highly recommend is the Welcome to Paradise mod list. Really easy to set up using Wabbajack. Great support too from the modders.
Playing vanilla works well enough. But it's incredible this can be played with mods on a handheld.
We can play the game with mods. Use the linux version of Mod Organizer 2 to manage mods. Here's the build I use: https://github.com/rockerbacon/modorganizer2-linux-installer
I play with the mod list, Viva New Vegas, and a few other mods. Here's my controller setup: steam://controllerconfig/22380/2818364555 I mostly keep playing with gamepad mode. But have a few keyboard hotkeys added in.
Set display refresh rate to 40Hz. In game VSync on. Medium graphics preset on with actors and object fade set to max. I get around 4 to 4.5 hours of battery life.
Don't quicksave or overwrite saves when playing modded. Also, don't use autosaves. Again, the troubles of modding this game.
I play Fallout New Vegas modded. I get crashes despite all the third party tools to get it stable. It's expected with this game.
I bound the back buttons for the analog stick clicks. Left touchpad for hotkeys. Right touchpad for mouse input, helpful for mouse like aiming.
Medium graphics preset. 30FPS lock with Gamescope. Gets me 2 to 2.5 hour battery life.
I don't know if it's an actual game bug or just an issue with the linux build. But my quicksaves would apparently get corrupted every now and then, like the game would say they're corrupted. Good thing the game autosaves frequently. I get this issue with the windows version too.
Just added more hotkeys to the left touchpad
40Hz cap to display refresh rate. left graphics preset to default
The game natively supports Steam Input, meaning you can rebind in-game actions to any button on the Steam Deck.
30FPS lock with Steam's performance menu. Turn down settings to medium. The game is surprisingly hard to get a stable 60FPS frametime with high settings. You could do a 40Hz display refresh rate lock for solid 40FPS on high.
the skills menu was really hard to read on the Steam Deck's screen. Had to use Steam's magnifier feature.
The game itself is a good Souls like. But the handheld experience is horrible. Best to play it on a desktop instead.
Low on all graphics settings. 40Hz cap on display refresh rate. Nets me 2 to 2.5 hours of game time.
All text in game is small: stats, item descriptions, menu, etc. Good thing subtitles can be enlarged.
This game is basically unplayable for me. The Steam Deck can technically reach 40FPS or even 60. But frametimes are abismal. This game is a stuttery mess.
Launch version of the game has bugs with regards to progressing quests and achievements. Still waiting on any patch as of the posting of this review.
The unstable frametime is also present in desktop. But at least we can throw as much compute power and an adaptive sync display to overcome it. Too bad. This game seems perfect for a handheld.
A surprising a graphical showcase for the Steam Deck. Set this game to the Ultra graphical preset just with shadows bumped to high.
30FPS lock with Steam's performance menu. With that and graphics preset to Ultra (shadows on high), expect a two hour battery life.
There are in-game diary has text that are in a handwritten style, which unlike other in-game docs, doesn't have an overlayed caption to it. Other than most of the text you'll need to read has bold captions to them that can be toggled on.
there was a slight hitch with the very first chapter. But beyond that no other problems.
I'm glad this game runs beautifully at ultra settings with the steam deck. Of course, it'll drain the battery to a two hour estimate. But worth it for me.
Usual 30FPS lock with the performance menu. VSync on.
There is a launcher to deal with for keybinds and graphics settings (worth reading what the presets are). Not a big deal really. Just make sure to have mouse input somewhere in your control layout, or just use the default hotkey of the Steam Deck for mouse input with the right trackpad.
30FPS lock with Gamescope. Gets me around 4 hours of battery life.
All in-game photos are saved in the proton prefix directory and Steam takes a normal screenshot at the same time. Fortunately the image file sizes are really tiny.
This game is free to download. Plus, years worth of content available to play with. Developers are also very receptive to feedback.
I just binded the grip buttons to the power hotkeys, the left touchpad to the operator power hotkey, and the right to reload. Mouse input isn't necessary as the in-game cursor can used well enough with the analog sticks.
turn on the in-game dynamic resolution to maintain a steady frametime with whatever framerate target you're going for. With the default medium graphical preset and dynamic resolution at a 60FPS lock with gamescope, expect around 2-3 hours of battery life. Resolution was also set to 1280x720 with in-game vsync set to auto.
Do not use the official steam controller layout. The developers have phased out native steam input support since late 2020. If you do, you can't use the buttons properly with content like Railjack, operator, etc. Only xinput controllers from here on out. So we'll have to use that in conjunction with steam input emulating other controllers or keyboard & mouse.
Do not use the directx 12 backend just yet. You'll get a crash right after getting past the launcher. The enhanced rendering engine and directx 11 works well with Steam's default proton build.
