Path of Exile 2 Gets Steam Deck Verified Before Free to Play Launch

If you haven't yet, follow us on X (Twitter), Mastodon, or Bluesky to know when we post new articles, and join our Reddit or Subscribe to us on YouTube to check out our content and interact with our awesome community. Thank you for supporting us!

I don’t play many free-to-play games, but Path of Exile was always the exception. It felt fantastic, like Diablo but with a much more expensive skill tree. The sequel, Path of Exile 2, followed suit with some wonderful enhancements, and I’ve been enjoying it greatly. Since I can remember, the developers have been wanting it to be enjoyable on the Steam Deck, and according to Valve, it finally is.

Recently, the game got the Steam Deck Verified badge. This note that the game’s default controller and graphical configuration work well, all the controller icons are accurate, and the in-game text is legible. It’s great to see it finally have the green check mark, but I do have some reservations about whether it deserves it.

I’ve played the game a lot on the Steam Deck, but my experience has always been mediocre. It performs decently in a lot of areas, but it requires a lot of visual compromise to hit 30. And even still, when there’s a ton of effects on the screen, there could be some drops here and there. It’s not unplayable, but it’s very hard for me to look at it and consider it a great experience.

Just in case, I did look through the recent past changelogs for the game on the Path of Exile 2 forums, but I didn’t see anything about any improvements for the Deck. It’s possible there is something that helped the game a bit more on the device, but based on what I’ve played, I would consider it decent. With the game going free to play on December 11th, it won’t be long until everyone can try it out for themselves and see for themselves.

Path of Exile 2 can be purchased for $29.99 during its early access until it goes free-to-play on December 11th. 

If you enjoyed this article, check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that will help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got you covered!