volf3n
Published
Changing the display mode to "windowed" using game's native 800x450 resolution and selected "linear" scaling method to improve text readability and overall battery life.
Game can drop couple of frames in the late game.
Enjoyable arena shooter. Comes with official controller layout and works well out of the box.
Game benefits greatly from playing in 60 FPS, so to optimize battery life I've tinkered with GPU clocks and landed on 1200 MHz as a safe and stable bet (since the initial phase of each wave is usually the most demanding).
For those looking to squeeze as much playtime from battery as you can: 40 FPS limit, motion blur and 700-800 MHz on the GPU clock (to warrant stable frametimes).
Regardless of GPU clock and power limits - the game can drop some frames in the wave opening phase later in the game.
Great rogue-like dungeon crawler with near-native level of performance and developer support.
Setting the framerate cap to 40 FPS allows for further battery longevity gains. Other than that - it's perfect - game is rather lightweight, doesn't require high FPS.
Some of the in-game text (ie. card descriptions and several context menu options) are using a pretty tiny font size which makes it hard to read.
Also, some gamepad button prompt icons periodically disappear.
Outstanding Hack 'n Slash that works and looks great on Steam Deck. The official controller layout is very well though-out.
Locking FPS to 50 allows to save some battery life while ensuring a smooth gameplay. I have GPU clock to set between 1000-1200 MHz depending on the location - since when the action gets hectic, the frames are bound to drop. All in-game visual settings are at MEDIUM.
You can get more battery life with 40 FPS lock and LOW settings, but I like my eyecandy and battery on the aforementioned settings is more than enough for quick sessions.
Since the UI on the item descriptions isn't scrollable, it will be cut off by the Deck's small screen if too many modifications are added to an item. Other than that, all in-game text is perfectly readable (and scrollable, like lore notes).
Switched up and down DPAD buttons - they are incorrectly mapped in-game by default.
Good albeit not perfect soulslike game. Looks and plays really well on switch. Natively supports gamepad controls.
Setting the framerate cap to 40 allows for using MEDIUM quality settings across the board (significantly improving game's presentation). Additionally, GPU clock can be set to 1200/1300 MHz to futher lower the power consumption.
The game in its current version doesn't scale well on lower resolution devices such as Steam Deck, so some of the text (ie. upgrade descriptions) can be difficult to decipher.
While the launcher is not controller-friendly, the rest of the experience is pretty much flawless. Game runs great, looks great and it has native controller support.
Remapped left trackpad for radial menu selection of in-game abilities.
Game initially boots up in a half-black, zoomed-in display window.
To fix this go to Properties > General > Game Resolution then pick any resolution above Deck's native (e.g. 1600x900) and select "Set resolution for internal and external display". Boot the game, go into Settings (top right), select 150% scaling option and exit the game. Then go back to the Game Resolution setting and select "Default". You're done.
As described above, initially the game doesn't load the window properly. But it can be fixed rather easily.
Cap the framerate to 40 FPS and lower all the setting to LOW/MEDIUM (shadows on LOW make the game look really bad, but if you want all the performance - it's the main culprit).
Additionally I've set the GPU clock to 1500/1600 MHz (mostly to stabilize the frametimes).
For the most part (ie. while exploring the map) the game sustains stable framrate, but if you trigger a horde or get into a fight with a couple of zombies, the game will chug rather significantly (doesn't dip below 30 FPS, but the hitching is noticeable).
Additionally, TLS:A is the first game to trigger the "Steam Deck is overheating" prompt. Quite concerning given the graphical fidelity isn't really AAA-level.
Excellent port, scales really well to Steam Deck's hardware. Official native gamepad support and menus designed for use on smaller screens.
Any refresh rate ECO: graphics set to LOW (MSAA: 2x + FXAA: on) frees up a lot of graphical power, while not compromising the overall presentation too much.
Any refresh rate PREMIUM: graphics set to MEDIUM (MSAA: 2x + FXAA: on)
For 40 FPS cap: set GPU clock limit to 700 MHz = lower power consuption (by up to 32%), more stable frametimes.
For 60 FPS cap: set GPU clock to 1200 Mhz = framerates are more stable vs GPU unlocked.
Great looking and performing racing game. Pleasure to play on Steam Deck.
