Big Hops was provided by Luckshot Games for review. Thank you!
I am not usually a big fan of platformer games, largely because of my considerable lack of skill with them. 3D platformers have a habit of making me plunge to my death, or at least the furry avatar that represents me in the game I’m playing. It is certainly a skill issue on my part! However, it has been a while since I played a platformer with as much heart as Big Hops. The last one I played I was a huge fan of was A Hat in Time, so it took just over eight years to bring me another game in the genre worth playing. It was a long time coming, and although Big Hops has a couple of small issues, it's a great start to the year for video games.
Big Hops makes a big leap forward from the get-go, and the game is easy on the eyes and fairly simple to understand. A family of cute frogs is doing typical family business when the siblings get lost. While the little sister manages okay, you (Hops) end up on a grand adventure across the world. Narratives in platformers are rarely a standout in gaming, but while it isn’t winning any Oscars for story, I liked the characters enough to stay engaged, and the dialogue and voice acting were both charming and entertaining.
Then, things take a drastic turn into the supernatural, completely taking me off guard. Hops gets sucked into a portal by a weird spirit thing called Diss that traps him until we help him acquire these ‘Dark Balls’. It completely drew me in, and the world really opened up as we helped gather supplies for an eccentric mechanic to build an airship to get home while navigating this strange new world.
The classic platforming mechanics are all here, although Big Hops has some unique mechanics, given that the main character is a frog. You navigate all sorts of puzzles and treacherous drops by using your long tongue, and the creativity this game shows with this single mechanic is impressive. You use the tongue to grab onto objects, collect critters for the completionist records, and eat things to gain health back. I must give developer Luckshot Games a bunch of credit for how realistic everything feels, and I was pretty immersed in the world.
Big Hops rewards exploration above everything else, and the gameplay leans heavily on that. That isn’t to say the game is easy, and some puzzles will frustrate players who don’t play these games often. Despite copious swearing on my part while trying to complete some challenges, the game does not punish mistakes much. Failing a jump and falling into oblivion only takes a sliver of health, and getting health back is easy with so many consumables around the world.
Growing mushrooms and trees to navigate platforming can also be eaten to get health back, and those respawn infinitely from what I’ve tested. This might sound like the game is deliberately making things easy, but the varied puzzles make a perfect balance. I occasionally got frustrated with puzzles, but the game gives you all the tools you need. As you progress through the game, you get access to shops that offer items to improve the incredibly low stamina bar and backpack space, as well as choose perks to add to your repertoire.
The best way I can describe the game’s presentation is that I treated it like an interactive cartoon. The graphics look great, with colorful biomes, and the music has a peppy theme that makes playing the game a joy.
I haven’t come across many bugs (the annoying video game kind, not the little ones you find in the world) apart from Hop occasionally getting caught up on a rock and the camera zooming up his bottom, but Big Hops has one major annoyance for me, and that’s the save system. The game relies on an autosave that doesn’t tell the player anything. There are obvious breather sections that look like checkpoints in other games, but I wish the game had a more reliable way to save. While I would prefer a manual saving system, I know platformers don’t usually use those.
Overall, however, Big Hops carries a lot of weight on its little green shoulders. The developer's clear joy in the game is evident, and the mechanics and exploration are very attractive to platformer fans.
Big Hops has received a Verified Badge by Valve just before the launch, which is good. Hopeful fans can hop to it, because Big Hops has been a great experience on the Steam Deck overall.
There aren’t many options we can play with in the game, unfortunately. With no adjustable controls or graphic options beyond screen resolution, this is one of those games where it is one size fits all for gameplay. Fortunately, Big Hops comes with full controller support, and the game runs great overall.
With our options limited, there is only one preset we can really use. With a native resolution, 60hz refresh rate, and default TDP, Big Hops holds a steady 60FPS even in the open areas. The controls are fluid despite there being no way to adjust them. I won’t be surprised to see Big Hops get the Verified badge on the Steam Deck.
With the full TDP running, I found Big Hops draws quite a lot of power. You will see an average power draw of around 13 watts, with spikes up to 16 watts during scenes with heavy on-screen action. This got me a little under 4 hours of battery life on the Steam Deck OLED. I tried tinkering with the TDP to improve battery life, and a 5-watt TDP kept the framerate around 30 FPS with a 9-watt average power draw. While this was an improvement, I recommend keeping things at their defaults for the smoothest gameplay. As Big Hops is a platformer, you need all the reaction time you can get.
Big Hops is available in English, Spanish (Spain), Russian, Portuguese, and Simplified Chinese, although only English has full audio.
This is a strange case where Big Hops has some good accessibility settings but is woefully lacking in others. Font scaling, Vsync, and controller sensitivity are nice to have, especially with the former on a smaller screen like the Steam Deck. However, there are no colorblind options, no way to change keybinds or button prompts, and no graphical settings that can be adjusted right now.
Big Hops did something interesting today: it charmed a player who is terrible at platformers into liking it. The gameplay offers plenty of variety with its different mechanics, and I’ve found the story and characters charming. If you fancy a new platformer game with both charm and depth, this is a great way to kick off 2026!
It isn’t perfect, of course, with some irritating camera bugs, a general lack of customization for game settings, and some very frustrating moments at times. None of these are dealbreakers, however, and I can heartily recommend Big Hops both as a solid game in its genre and a great addition to the Steam Deck library.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to 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 your back.
Once Upon a Katamari was provided by Bandai Namco for review. Thank you!
When it comes to the PS2 era, there weren't many games that stuck in my head apart from my favorites like Kingdom Hearts and Naruto Ultimate Ninja. However, no game sticks out to me as much as Katamari Damacy does. It was just so weird compared to most of the games that stuck out to me on the console, but it was so addictive and hilarious. Now, after almost 15 years, we are finally getting a new game in the series, and I couldn't be happier. I was hoping for more Katamari, and I got exactly what I was hoping for in Once Upon a Katamari, with maybe a little too much variety at times.
It sounds like a weird issue to have, and I thought I was weird for thinking it as well. Once Upon a Katamari still plays exactly like how I remember. We roll a ball and try to stick as many objects to it as we can to make it larger and larger, doing so within a time limit to make it as big as possible. I still got that same giddy feeling I had during the PS2 era, watching as my ball gets bigger and bigger, ultimately sucking up animals and humans, who are all doing some odd routine while waving their hands around as fast as possible. It brought back so many great memories from previous entries, and I was having a blast.
The levels are kept interesting thanks to multiple changes that can happen during and power-ups. In some levels, as we grow our ball, new areas will unlock or levels will change, ranging from being able to go outside of a building or a ladder coming down to access the roof to an entirely new pirate ship coming up next to ours. Add in the power-ups like a magnet to bring in objects that can fit on our ball, and a rocket to blast our way across the map, and each level feels more invigorating and exciting than the last.
There are also collectibles that can be tracked down across each level. There are three crowns to find, one of The Prince's cousins, and a present. The crowns are more like collectibles, while finding The Prince's cousins gives you new playable characters. As for Presents, well, we can get some costume items from them to customize our playable character. They are ultimately small additions, but I love the little bits of customization we have for both our playable character and how they look.
Now there are a good chunk of levels in Once Upon a Katamari, and I love how they are structured. The King of Cosmos has once again destroyed the cosmos, and it's up to us to replace the stars and planets. To do so, we will be traveling to different eras of time, creating new stars as we go. It's a similar premise, but it opens up interesting levels that feel wildly different from each other. Whether it be roaming with the dinosaurs or trekking around Japan's Edo period, I enjoyed the visual variety between them.
However, it's the level variety that started to get a little rough. While we do have the usual levels where we have to grow as much as we can within the time frame, there are also levels where we have to get a number of specific items, having to get certain items within a limit of how many we can roll up, and different variations of those. It was nice at first, but these variations happen more often than I thought, and I missed the older style of levels, where we just made our ball as big as possible. There are some specialty levels that I fell in love with, like having to roll up a person to fatten them up with food, but there weren't as many of these as I would have liked.
I was happy to see the series' brand of humor still alive as much as ever. The developments of levels, actions of characters and animals, the way the King of Cosmos acts, and even the small cutscene showing the Queen's adventures in different eras were all on brand and just hilarious. The small cutscene talking to the King of Cosmos when starting each level was a little obnoxious, but it was quick to skip it if I decided to, which I appreciated.
Outside of the normal levels, we can also play KatamariBall. This is a special little mode where you compete against three others, trying to get your ball as big as you can and submit the objects you gather for points. Whoever has the most points when the time limit is over takes the win. KatamariBall can be played online against others, and as you win, your own level can go up, unlocking new balls and such. We can also use the currency we get to unlock expressions for the hub and other customizable items.
Once Upon a Katamari generally plays quite well on the Steam Deck, but it was a little heavier than I expected. The game locks to 60 FPS, so we do have to change our framerate/refresh rate to get the smoothest performance possible. However, on the default settings, there were moments where the battery drain would go much higher than I anticipated, sometimes hitting 17W or 18W, and there were some drops to 40 on some very crowded levels. For a game that looks like this, I expected better, but I am happy to say there is a solution.
By turning down shadows to Low, we can get rid of the bulk of the issues, bringing down the drain by almost 6W - 7W on average, saving almost 2 hours of battery life. Oddly enough, this doesn't actually change much visually, and the game still looks fantastic and retains its signature charm. There are some smaller shadows that disappear on low, and some shadows have less detail when further away, but ultimately, the pros outweigh the cons with battery life savings for minimal visual difference.
In general, you should be able to play at 60 FPS 98% of the time, but with the battery savings for almost no difference to the graphics, I recommend the change. I also noticed that the hub feels a little off compared to how smooth it feels in the levels. I am not sure exactly why, but the hub feels a little stuttery.
We can change the control type, toggle the rumble, reticle, hint guide, invert the camera, change sound bars, and change keybindings, but that's about it in the settings.
The game doesn't support 16:10 resolutions, but it does have cloud saves and controller support. There are no HDR settings.
Ultimately, Once Upon a Katamari is exactly what I was hoping for. The lack of core gameplay changes invoked the wonderful feelings I had with the older games, and with the extra collectibles, power-ups, and level changes that could happen, it felt fresh and exciting. There was a good variety of level aesthetics, thanks to having to travel to different eras of time to repair the damage the King of Cosmos had caused. I do wish there wasn't as much level variety, so I could play more of the classic gameplay I had come to love. Still, with the collectibles, customization, and multiplayer, this is a fantastic new addition to the series, and I couldn't be happier that it exists.
The game is also great to play on the Steam Deck. Changing the shadows to low fixes some of the smaller issues I encountered, as well as saves a good chunk of battery life, and ultimately, we can expect a solid 60 FPS with around 4-4.5 hours of battery life. This is a great game to take on the go, and I highly recommend it.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to 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 your back.
Escape From Duckov was provided by bilibili for review. Thank you!
The rather shamelessly named Escape From Duckov is finally here, and as the name might suggest (being a take on Escape from Tarkov), this one is an extraction shooter, but it's got something that separates itself from the rest of the bunch: it's a single-player extraction shooter. However, while it is a unique experience, it is one I feel conflicted about.
Rarely have I felt so conflicted about a game as I do with Escape From Duckov. I enjoy the concept of a single-player extraction shooter; my main issue with the genre is that they are (usually) competitive multiplayer, which isn't my cup of tea. The gunplay in Escape From Duckov is good; the weapons feel powerful and great to use, and enemies present a challenge, requiring you to play to your weapon's strengths and ensure you are well-equipped.
You've also got a decent progression system, which features many upgrades to enhance your duck, and a bunker that you can upgrade with new furniture that lets you craft more powerful items and get new unlocks. Really, this game should be a lot of my favorite things all boiled down into one game.
The problem is, each of these systems has its own little flaws, and when they're all put together, the game really feels like it's a bit... well, sparse.
The single-player aspect of the game, which initially appealed to me, actually ended up being a downside. Escape From Duckov doesn't have a story that keeps things moving along. A multiplayer game doesn't need one; the motivation and satisfaction come from besting other players or showing off your equipment to your friends. In Escape From Duckov, what's my motivation to keep progressing? It's not a quick pick-up-and-play game; progressing takes time, and it feels a little like a single-player grinding game after you've played the same map a few times to find the randomly generated loot you need.
Therein lies the issue I have with the progression in the game. There's plenty of it, from new weapons and crafting stations to upgraded stats on your duck. The problem is that it takes a long time to progress. Not only do you need the items required to do the upgrade, which can be a little RNG as to whether they spawn in the map, but you also need money for almost every upgrade. Plus, some upgrades take time to research, which is baffling in a single-player game. Why do I have to wait several minutes to research a health upgrade?
Map progression likewise feels like a bit of a pain. You can explore the entire map, but the harder enemies feel like a huge step up from the rest of the map, meaning you'll have to grind for a while to get the absolute best equipment before you can take on the final enemies.
The audio in the game is also a very mixed bag. The guns sound great, with differing sounds depending on the gun type and whether they are silenced. The music, however, was much louder than anything else in the game on the rare occasions it played. It is also a strange lo-fi relaxation mix you might find on a coffee shop ambiance video online, not really fitting for the kind of game Escape From Duckov is.
Sounds like dodge rolling was also unusually loud compared to other sounds. Ambient sound is almost absent from the game, but that is somewhat understandable, as hearing enemy footsteps can be vital to figuring out positions out of your line of sight.
Escape From Duckov does support 1280x800 as a resolution, so we can take advantage of the entirety of the Steam Deck's display.
Sadly, the game does not support controllers, which is pretty irritating given how the aiming works. The best I could come up with is using the default Keyboard (WASD) & Mouse layout, using the left touchpad for a radial menu to control the hotbar, and then adjusting the sensitivity of the right analog stick to your preference to aim somewhat acceptably, but it's not ideal.
As for the game's performance on Steam Deck, if you want a pretty stable 45 FPS experience, you have to play on the lowest settings, aside from having the Shadows bumped up to Low, which is how I decided to play.
If you disable Shadows entirely, you can run at closer to 60 FPS, but it does make the game look worse and is not quite as stable, so I recommend you stick to locking the game in the 40-45 FPS range.
The power draw was around 11W-14W, and temperatures were around 55-60 °C. Expect a battery life of about 4 hours on a Steam Deck OLED and 3 hours on a Steam Deck LCD.
Controls are rebindable, and all dialogue is in text form. Escape From Duckov has no other accessibility options. There are flexible difficulty settings, so you can make the game much easier (or harder) than the default difficulty.
Escape From Duckov has some great potential, but it feels like a rushed game. The actual gameplay feels great, fighting enemies and finding loot is engaging and satisfying, but the progression systems feel too elaborate and lengthy for a single-player game.
Co-op would have gone a long way to fixing the issues I have with the game, allowing us to show off our cool new loot to friends, as well as sharing the burden of progression amongst a group, rather than it just being on you to constantly search out for that 1 item you need.
Escape From Duckov runs OK on the Steam Deck; the performance is fine, and we can get a stable 45 FPS experience here. The controls aren't ideal, though, and I would love to see some actual controller support in the future.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Hirogami was provided by Kakehashi Games for review. Thank you!
3D Platformers aren't a hugely popular genre these days, so I'm always excited when we see a new game try something different. Hirogami is aiming to do exactly that, offering a paper aesthetic similar to Sony's Tearaway and a unique "folding" mechanic that lets you change the player character's movement and abilities on the fly.
Hirogami puts you in the role of Hiro, a master of the art of "folding", which is the game's main unique mechanic, the ability to fold into different creatures and inherit their abilities.
After the "Blight" has reached your homeland, it's up to you to fight back and restore peace to the land. There isn't too much of a "storyline" in Hirogami; the Blight appears out of nowhere after a short monologue of the protagonist hinting at his past, before quickly meeting up with 2 fellow villagers, Ruz Pappy and Shiori, in order to embark on a journey to protect the village. You'll meet the occasional animal that you save from the Blight, but they don't really have much to say, and nothing that adds to the story.
Movement is key in a 3D Platformer, and while Hirogami does feel OK, it also feels off. I can't quite focus on exactly what feels off about the movement, but it almost feels stiff or stilted, and it isn't quite as responsive as I'd like. It's serviceable, but you often feel slow or the character doesn't move the way you would hope. This is perhaps exacerbated by the different forms of Hiro behaving differently in movement and physics.
The folding mechanics are the highlight, and it is a neat feature. Being able to fold your character at will into a frog or an armadillo, even a paper plane, is always a treat. The game rarely tells you what shape you should be to proceed, but it's intuitive enough that you can figure it out pretty quickly. Some areas can be a little annoying in that they require you to switch between shapes constantly to proceed, and in these cases, I wish the level design allowed you to stick to 1 form for a bit longer, rather than every new jump or puzzle requiring a different form.
One thing I really took issue with in Hirogami, however, is the camera system. The game uses a fixed camera perspective that you can merely pan with the right thumbstick. Unfortunately, this method really does not suit a 3D Platformer. Not having a traditional third-person camera that can be rotated and zoomed in really hurts the experience, and within the first 30 seconds of playing the game, I was getting irritated.
The fixed perspectives prevent you from looking around the level as you wish, and you also sometimes don't follow the character close enough to see dangers ahead of you. This caused some problems with depth perception, which can be a struggle when walking away from the camera.
Visually, Hirogami is quite nice to look at. The stop-motion animation style might not be everyone's cup of tea, but you get used to it, and the visual style itself is well-suited to the paper theming. Sound design is also quite nice, with paper sound effects as you perform certain actions and a Japanese-inspired soundtrack that blends in nicely.
It isn't a long game by any means, and most players will probably see the end within 5 hours of playtime, but there are secondary objectives that you can aim to get by retrying each level. The game is priced at $29.99, which I think is fair given its short length.
Hirogami is best played with a controller, so we have no issues with the controls. Unfortunately, the game doesn't support 16:10 resolutions, so we do have black borders along the top and bottom, as we have to play at 1280x720 resolution.
I personally would recommend that you use the "Medium" quality setting, then the in-game frame limiter set to 60. Depth of Field I turned off, as I don't like the effect, and it does cost some performance.
Unfortunately, even with these settings, the game struggles to hold a locked 60 FPS; some levels frequently run in the low 50s. Even more disappointing, the game's "Low" quality settings look awful, employing raw resolution scaling (No FSR/XeSS here) and eliminating most lighting/shading, making it preferable to deal with the frame drops than the poor image quality.
Strangely, the game hits the Steam Deck's CPU hard, meaning we're always drawing significant amounts of power even when nothing is happening. Expect to draw around 19W-21W from the battery, giving us about 2.5 hours of playtime on a Steam Deck OLED and about 1.5 hours on an LCD model.
The temperatures were generally in the 65 °C - 75 °C range. The fan does ramp up in order to keep the CPU cool, which gets hammered in Hirogami.
Hirogami has no accessibility options.
Hirogami has some missed potential. If the movement was tighter, things worked a little smoother, and the game was optimized, it would be an easy recommendation for me. There are some redeeming qualities still, like how cool the folding mechanic is, but even this feels a little forced too often. However, for the price, especially considering the game's short length, I have difficulty saying this is a good buy.
As you can imagine, with the optimization issues, the Steam Deck's performance is fine but disappointing. It's certainly playable, generally staying above 50 FPS, but I was expecting to run a game like this at 90 FPS, not 50.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to 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 your back.
Hell is Us was provided by Nacon for review. Thank you!
Leading up to the Hell is Us release, I tried to avoid any spoilers and discussions about the game. I loved the initial trailer, and I wanted to go into the game as blind as I could. Honestly, I think this was the best decision I could have made. I went back and watched the other trailers after I finished the game for this review, and I would have thought it was way closer to a soulslike. Instead, Hell is Us is a third-person action-adventure with little to no hand-holding and intense combat, and I loved it.
The story is one of the biggest elements of the game, and I grew to love it the more I played. We take control of Remi, an expat who has returned to his home country of Hadea to meet his parents and learn why he was sent away. However, he is met with these ghoulish monsters and thrust into a fight for the country to not only save the people there, but also learn about what happened in this desolate land that made it so horrifying in the first place.
On the surface, a mysterious calamity caused some big event that unleashed supernatural forces that are impervious to modern weapons, but deep down, Hell is Us is a look into human nature and how evil we can be. Hadea collapsed not just because of these monsters but also because of the civil war that erupted across the land. Most of what happened in the past is told through the environment, conversations, and discovered items, which makes it more interesting. There were some moments I was confused at the time, but the more I ran around and read and listened to audio logs, the more it all made sense.
This way of storytelling does mean it could be easy to miss some optional logs that help tell the story, but there are many benefits to exploring beyond lore, so I found many reasons to run around. Learning about the world this way makes it feel more fulfilling overall, since we are making a ton of effort to figure the plot and history out for ourselves. It's a deep tale about how evil humans can be, how religion can incite conflict, and how important it is to piece together the past.
If you enjoy games where you have a map, quest markers, a journal with a list of side quests, and the game gives a general idea of what you have to do next at any given time, this won't be for you. Hell is Us prides itself on giving you all the clues within pictures you pick up and notes you find, and you have to figure out what to do with all of them. There is no guide on where to go next or how to unlock new locations to progress the story; it's all implied or told through the objects you find around the world.
I have a love-hate relationship with this kind of emphasis, but it's ultimately why I fell in love with the game. It forced me to pay more attention to the world, clues left around buildings, details hidden in notebooks, and information from conversations, and it made me feel more connected. When I could piece a puzzle together, I felt so satisfied. Every document, monument, slab with cryptic writing, and computer could contain important information necessary later to complete a puzzle or go to a new location. Of course, it could just be lore as well, but it motivated me to listen, read, scan, and engross myself in the world of Hell is Us.
Now, while I found a lot of enjoyment, there were also some moments of frustration. There were multiple times I found myself at a loss on where to go next or how to complete a puzzle, and I found myself going around the entirety of each location just searching for the next clue. On one hand, this added hours of playtime that I could have been spending keeping the story moving. However, I also found other secrets and tools like Limbic Rods to open Limbic Chests and get new weapons, armor, and glyphs. Even if it was frustrating not to know where to go next, I never felt like it was wasting my time. Each location, even if it doesn't seem like it, has its purpose and secrets to discover.
Luckily, I wasn't completely navigating blind. Hell is Us has an Investigation window that shows us key information we learn from findings and conversations with people we meet, and an exploration tab to show where some Limbic Chests and other findings are. It never says exactly where they are, and there's no map or minimap to look at for your position, but that's a big part of the game. It compiles the clues we find to give us some idea of where to investigate next, but leaves out enough to make us search out our next objective.
Besides the hands-off exploration, we will also participate in many fights against these mysterious creatures. I would consider it a mix of soulslike combat, but it has some Action-esque mechanics snuck in there. Like soulslikes, it's slower-paced and difficult, and monster attacks can get overwhelming and kill you, but the actual progression system is more like a regular Action or RPG game. We have a multitude of unique weapons we can find, each of which has a different moveset with a light and a chargeable heavy attack. We will have to utilize dodges and blocks to help us survive these encounters, finding the right time to strike and take them down.
To mix up combat, we have different abilities we can use as well. Our trusty drone can have four different skills that can be equipped, while our weapons can have three different glyphs equipped that give it its own abilities. Ultimately, you will have seven skills to use at any given time, and each one has a variety of effects. I attribute the drone skills to being similar to physical abilities, while the glyphs on the weapon are closer to magical abilities. They all have their own benefits, and I found a use for them as the game progressed. It made fights feel much more engaging and made the more difficult fights much more enjoyable.
There will still be some frustrating fights, with a few I noticed where the camera angle was near impossible to get to an optimal spot, but the majority of fights are great. There is a small variety of enemies, but each has three different ranks and can sometimes summon an internal emotion that manifests as a more powerful foe that must be defeated first. Having to navigate each encounter that can change pretty quickly keeps combat interesting, but one wrong move can result in death pretty easily.
Unlike soulslikes, Hell is Us' progression is much closer to a less-intense action RPG. Weapons each have their own level that gets experience and becomes more powerful as you defeat enemies. Defeated foes drop shards, which are used at the smithy to upgrade its Grade, letting you choose one of four emotions to imbue into it and increasing its max level. It's a great balance between the two, and it takes away a lot of the frustration with progression that I have found in soulslikes with trying to collect and keep souls to level up. It does take a little long to get new glyphs, since a lot of them are in these Limbic Chests, where you have to remember where they are and what rods go in them, but the combat is satisfying enough to keep me entertained until I get them.
We also get two Relics to equip that can buff ourselves. One adds an eighth active ability, while the other adds a passive buff. These are nice little changes that can affect or enhance your playstyle, and I liked playing around with them. We can also equip two defensive gear to give us more health and absorb health, but they were tougher to find than I expected. We can enhance them at the smithy as well, which is nice, but it took me a while to find a second piece of equipment after getting the first one through story progress.
While there are a good chunk of different weapons to find, I found myself not caring much to try new types when I found two that worked for me. I did justify going through the weapons to choose two to fill out my loadout, but as soon as I found the ones I liked the most, I focused on leveling them up and not touching the others. There are some items we can find to add EXP to weapons, but trying to level up the others by grinding takes too much time.
Hell is Us also has a feature called Healing Pulse, where you can heal a part of your health and stamina with a well-timed button press. The amount you can heal increases as you attack enemies without getting hit, but as soon as you do, the pulse goes away. I found this mechanic to be wonderful, and it saved me many times from certain death as I would hit once and then dodge to heal. There is an assortment of items you can use, including med packs to heal quickly, but this is a great way to bring health back without any items.
Other than the fights against these creatures out in the open, there are side quests called Good Deeds to complete that may give some extra rewards, mysteries, and secrets across Hadea to discover, and Timeloops to disperse. Each of these gives more information about the world and what has happened in Hadea, while also sometimes providing benefits to help your journey. Nothing is straightforward, and some of these Good Deeds and mysteries may fail or be completely missed, so paying attention and exploring will be helpful.
If you have a notepad, marking down which chests need which Limbic Rods and where some of these Good Deeds are will be helpful. There is a window that shows all of these and lists how many there are in each area, but it won't give more information than that.
When I first started playing Hell is Us, I was worried that it wouldn't run on the Steam Deck. This is a beautiful game with larger open areas, and with the minimum specs being on the higher side, I had my doubts. However, now that I have played through the game, I can say it's surprisingly playable on the Steam Deck, but it will require some compromises.
While there are a lot of areas that actually run very well, and can hit up to 40 FPS, there are many that drop it below. So, for stability purposes, I recommend keeping it at 30 FPS. It will stay at and above 30 in almost every area, with some slight drops to 27 or 28 when running around very crowded areas quickly. Most areas will stick to 30, with a lot of them keeping battery drain relatively low for a game like this (14W - 17W).
To keep this framerate, we will have to keep the game running on Low settings, but we can increase post-processing to Medium and the 3D resolution scale to 45%. They are small changes, but it does very slightly help with blurriness on further away objects. I did try both FSR and XeSS upscaling, but FSR was way too pixelated and shining when moving the camera around, and both upscalers were more intensive than just putting the 3D resolution scale down.
Usually, I would recommend setting Textures higher with games like this, but with how high the RAM usage is, I wouldn't change it. Textures usually influences how much RAM is used with the game, and it regularly hits around 12-13GB.
I did try using FSR 3 frame generation while in-game, but I don't recommend it. Not only does it have difficulty getting to 60 FPS, which I would consider necessary, but the camera movement feels extremely floaty. It doesn't have too much input lag, but it doesn't feel smoother at all. 40 FPS without frame gen feels so much better than the 45 FPS. I also attempted to try Lossless Scaling using the Decky Plugin, but it didn't work. Based on the performance with FSR frame gen on, I would not recommend using it.
Some of the UI and text can be on the small side, especially for researched items or checking out our investigations. It isn't unreasonably small, but keeping the screen further away will make reading much harder. Everything else plays and feels great throughout the game, so there shouldn't be many issues. With how big the game is, I would say expect to hit around 2.5-3 hours of battery life because of the larger and more populated areas, and some slight blurriness on faraway objects. It's still very playable, looks decent, and is pretty awesome to experience on the go.
Hell is Us does have an accessibility tab, which includes settings for camera shake, motion blur, three color blind modes for Deuteranope, Protanope, and Tritanope, and shows directional audio. We can also toggle auto target switching, enabling tutorials, shortening the datapad opening, changing combat difficulty, changing HUD elements, changing audio languages, and changing language and subtitle size.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions, cloud saves, and has controller support. The game does have HDR and recognizes the OLED screen.
Hell is Us is a fantastic experience that I ended up loving, even though I am not generally a fan of this style of game. The lack of hand-holding can be a little frustrating, but it encourages exploration in a way that feels rewarding in terms of general gameplay and the fantastic story. Figuring out where to go and completing puzzles to progress or discover secret items is so satisfying and keeps me wanting more. The combat combines its slower-paced soulslike feel with more Action-focused progression in a great way, with an assortment of skills to equip that help make combat feel more engaging. There are some nuisances with camera angles, but it is generally in good spots.
The game is also surprisingly playable on the Steam Deck. It does need compromises to the visuals and a 30 FPS lock to make sure it runs, but it's ultimately a great experience on the go, and it feels wonderful to enjoy wherever you are.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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The Knightling was provided by Saber Interactive for review. Thank you!
In a time when everything is about survival crafters, roguelikes, or huge open-world sandboxes, it can be nice to go back to the late 1990s, when more focused action-adventure platformers were king. The Knightling really feels like a bridge between the classic 90s formula and a more modern take on the format.
The Knightling puts you in control of, well, the Knightling. The game's prologue places you on an adventure with your mentor, Sir Lionstone, who abruptly goes missing. Now you must step into his shoes with his trusty (and possibly sentient) shield at your hand to help the residents of Clesseia and find out what has happened to Sir Lionstone himself!
The Knightling ticks all the boxes for a fun adventure, with light-hearted dialogue, plenty of puzzles, a decent combat system, and a weird sense of nostalgia. While the game is an open world, it isn't massive. It's more of a similar scale to 1990s platformers, but if all the levels were interconnected, instead of separated by loading screens. There are plenty of side quests, but there isn't an overwhelming checklist of things to do like in a Ubisoft game or a large-scale RPG.
That being said, the game has some Ubisoft-like elements, such as finding "Cartographer Lookouts" to unveil the map. But it's on a smaller scale than your average open-world game, and doesn't feel like a laborious checklist of things to do. In a way, it reminds me a lot of a Legend of Zelda experience.
While there is this main questline to pursue, the game is non-linear, so you can head off and explore, or, as I mentioned, do the plentiful sidequests to help the residents of Clesseia with their day-to-day problems if you want a break from the storyline.
The brightly colored, saturated world and cartoon-style enemies all add to the game's light-hearted aesthetic. None of the dialogue is voiced, but it does aim to be humorous and carefree and pulls it off without being cringe-inducing. You just might hear the city residents complain about kids a lot; no one seems to like children here.
The combat, however, is a little more on the difficult side, which is why I wouldn't say this game is designed for "kids". While not a "souls-like" game, The Knightling heavily features parrying and dodging mechanics, and you will need to learn them to succeed. Some enemies take almost no damage unless their stamina is depleted, and the best way to do that is through successive hits and parrying.
It's not as enjoyable as most soulslike games, but there is a degree of satisfaction when you face an enemy, pull off multiple parries, and whittle that health bar down with combos.
The upgrade system is fairly simple, and there aren't many upgrades, but it does aid the sense of progression. You can earn many upgrades simply by exploring the map, rather than having them locked behind storyline progression. It is great for someone like me who enjoys exploring over just barreling through a storyline.
I encountered a couple of issues during my time with The Knightling. Unfortunately, both of them were quite frustrating. One was a tooltip that stuck on my screen forever, even when exiting and restarting the game, preventing other, more relevant tooltips from appearing, making it difficult to know how to proceed. Secondly, some objectives are just overly vague, or in some cases, don't spawn the required NPCs. The game gives you a task, leaving you with little information on how to accomplish that task. This wasn't helped by the aforementioned issue of being unable to learn new gameplay mechanics due to the bugged tooltip.
The Knightling has great controller support and supports 16:10 resolutions, so we get a nice full screen with no black borders. The game even has UI scaling that can go up to 125%, which I recommend for the Steam Deck, as some text becomes difficult to read at 100%.
Unfortunately, performance is a bit of an issue with The Knightling, and oddly enough, the game is CPU-bound rather than GPU-bound. This does have the advantage of us being able to bump up the graphical settings a little and having some nice shadows and textures, but depending on the area, we can struggle to maintain 30 FPS. You can see the exact settings I used in the images below; you can click to enlarge them.
Using these settings, in combat areas and the vast majority of the game, we can maintain 30 FPS and have a playable experience, even if we do drop frames here and there with some stutters. The town area taxes the CPU quite a lot, so expect some drops to the mid-20s in that area.
The power draw of the game varies a lot depending on the area, with around 18-20W in the city, about 15-17W in rural areas, and as low as 10-12W when in dungeons. I would estimate battery life at around 3-3.5 hours on a Steam Deck OLED and around 2-2.5 hours on an LCD model. Temperatures were around 70C-80C outside, dropping below 70C in dungeons.
The Knightling does have difficulty options and the option to make the player character immortal. UI scaling affects all UI, including subtitles/dialogue.
The Knightling is a game that fills me with nostalgia for the platforms and adventure games of the 1990s. It's got some rough edges here and there, but despite those issues, it's a really good time. The movement and combat feel nice and smooth, there's a decent amount of content, and the world is interesting. It's a game to check out if you enjoy platformers and feel nostalgia about the good ol' days. It's possibly the closest I've seen to a 3D Zelda game on PC.
Steam Deck performance is a little disappointing; the inability to hold a constant 30 FPS is a shame, especially when it feels like the main reason you can't is because of non-essential background NPCs and their pathfinding. However, in most combat areas and away from the city, the game tends to hold at 30 FPS, making it a playable experience.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to 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 your back.
Echoes of the End was provided by Deep Silver/PLAION for review. Thank you!
Some of my favorite games are the story-driven action-adventure games that define the PS4 and PS5 eras. The Last of Us, Uncharted, God of War, and Spider-Man have all been incredible experiences worth playing through, with cinematic storytelling and addictive gameplay loops. These games are awesome, and that's a big reason why I was drawn to Echoes of the End. Developer Myrkur Games has created one of the most beautiful games I have seen in a long time, and it's great when everything works, but there are a bunch of small problems that compound together to end up hurting the overall experience.
Visually, Echoes of the End is stunning. The world and set pieces look phenomenal, with highly detailed textures and models. There were a couple of times that the world stunned me, with light hitting rock formations just perfectly to illuminate the fine details in the rocks or the luscious foliage around me. Trekking through the land of Aema and seeing the splendor around was a pleasure. There are some odd, less detailed textures here and there, with the most prominent being in Chapter 3, but it isn't noticeable unless you look very closely.
As for the story, it's a bit of a hit-or-miss. We take the reins of Ryn, a magic-wielding Vestige, who travels with Abram Finlay to save her brother, who has been taken by the invading The Reigendal Empire as a guide. As we travel across the world, we will discover the mysteries of the land of Aema, and watch as Ryn discovers more about her powers and herself.
I love stories like this, and for the most part, I enjoyed learning about Echoes of the End's world. It's intriguing seeing how Aema ended up the way it has, and I was curious to see what being a Vestige meant. Finding ways to weave fantasy stories like this into more meaningful, dramatic stories always keeps my interest, and there were a couple of twists that I didn't expect. They were minor; most of the story follows the predictable path, but those little bits were appreciated.
I also liked how Ryn evolved as a character. Initially, she distrusts and takes the lead, feeling that she has to look out for herself since everyone despises her as a Vestige. She can be aggressive and lash out, with the belief that she has to stay away from everyone and will only hurt those close to her. I felt her development and growth throughout the story was solid, feeling more gradual and realistic compared to many other dramatic stories I have witnessed.
Still, it has its issues. The voice acting and some facial animation can make the experience feel disjointed, and some chapters linger far too long. While Ryn's voice acting was solid and believable, I found her brother, Cor, and one of the main antagonists, Aurick, to be especially hard to believe. Aurick's voice in particular was just too quiet, and I had to rely on subtitles to understand what he was saying. Cor's voice didn't feel like it belonged, standing out too much in discussions. The intro tutorial chapter also feels too long, though it gets better afterwards.
The story is passable and has interesting moments, but it didn't all feel like it stuck the landing. Whether it was the voice acting, some minor animation mishaps, the predictable beats, or the sound effects, it never fully brought me in. I like the fluid cinematics they were going with, reminding me of games like God of War, but it just felt awkward at times. There were also some characters that didn't have the impact I would have thought.
The combat feels very similar to the story, with it being a hit-or-miss. When all the elements work together, it's awesome, but half the time, it doesn't, and it ruins the entire encounter. You'll face groups of enemies and utilize your sword and magic to kill them. We have a regular combo and assortment of magic attacks, which can be upgraded with new moves from the multiple skill trees. Finlay will join us in battle and attack, with a special attack we can utilize to help us kill enemies quicker or stun them.
The magic powers, combined with sword strikes, feel fantastic when they all work together. It was so satisfying throwing enemies into each other and swinging my sword or creating a vortex to bring all the enemies around in one place, then slamming them into the ground, and while they are getting up, using an attack to channel magic into a blade strike that can cut them all further. The combat felt slow in the beginning, but as soon as upgrades came into play, it got significantly better.
However, there are too many issues that can affect it. Sometimes, locking onto enemies for magic attacks just doesn't work, and unless you turn and face the enemy, attacking could go in a different direction entirely. We also can't cancel attacks, which means going into a combo and trying to block an attack will not block. I had to be very careful about how long my combo would be, and I worried more about when the enemy would attack rather than what I would do next.
As I mentioned earlier, Ryn does have skill trees, which can be used to get new abilities. We get a set amount of exp per each encounter, and can use those skill points to get new sword attacks, magical abilities, making other abilities more powerful, and augmenting our companion powers. The game itself is very linear, so there aren't many extra encounters or grinding involved, but I would say skill point distribution is balanced, though some of the best powers and abilities are further in.
This can completely ruin combat encounters. I regularly died due to missing attacks or magic not locking onto an enemy, even when I had enough mana. Some attacks from enemies also shine, noting whether they can be blocked or parried, and sometimes attacks won't have any shine to them. It can be confusing and obnoxious. I understand only having a shine for attacks that can't be blocked, but the shine for some attacks that can be parried makes it harder to discern when regular attacks with no shine are coming.
Outside of combat, there are tons of puzzles we will encounter to solve and progress. The majority of these puzzles are well-made, and as the game progresses, the puzzles get more and more unique. The mechanics change with the different chapters, but progress naturally. I was impressed with the variety, with some areas surprising me, like the invisible bridges and echoes. There were a few puzzles that were extremely difficult or didn't have enough instructions, but I ultimately did figure them out.
The biggest issue I have outside of combat is the movement system. While it's pretty standard movement in general, jumping around feels floaty due to how momentum will continue after jumping. This can make any platforming puzzles, or challenges to find secrets like more documents for extra story lore and extra increases to health and mana, and it becomes aggravating to try to maneuver.
While Echoes of the End is decently playable on desktop and seems to be optimized, it is not Steam Deck playable at all. On the lowest possible settings with TSR upscaling at 33% render scale, I was getting around 27 FPS in the opening area standing still, and there's nothing I could do to increase performance further without completely destroying the visual quality. This is not going to be a game to play on the Deck.
The game does have an accessibility tab, which allows us to change difficulty, subtitle options, and language. We can also toggle how much gore is shown, invert camera controls, change sensitivity of the controller, turn vibration on or off, and change audio sliders.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions, as well as cloud saves and controller support. It also recognizes the OLED HDR screen and has options to turn it on or off.
Echoes of the End is a solid production, but it just has many instances that take me out of the immersion. It's small things here and there, but in the end, it's enough to make the experience suffer. When the mechanics work together, it feels fantastic, and the visuals are top-notch, but when it doesn't work, it is frustrating and made me want to stop playing. The story is intriguing as well, even if the voice acting was off and plot was predictable.
Unfortunately, the game isn't in any state to be played on the Steam Deck. Even at the lowest settings, it can't hit 30 FPS, and I wouldn't recommend playing on the go.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety game reviews and news that are sure to 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 your back!
PEAK was provided by Aggro Crab & Landfall for review. Thank you!
At first glance, you might think that PEAK is yet another VR climbing simulator, which are a dime a dozen, but don't worry, it's designed to be played with regular controls, and it plays well. Avoiding the obvious puns about the game being "peak", the game is very solid. There's no backstory to the game, merely that you are scouts who go on a flight that crash-lands on an island with some ridiculously tall mountains on it, and it's your job to climb to the top!
The climbing mechanics are the key here. The developers have opted for a "fun" vibe rather than a realistic one. Yes, you do have stamina that depletes whenever you're climbing, and yes, there are somewhat realistic physics, but climbing itself is as simple as holding down the right trigger (or a mouse button) and moving in the direction you wish to go. It's a beautiful balance between the realistic dangers of free climbing and the easily accessible nature of an arcade-style game.
However, the game goes beyond simply climbing. If you're in a co-op game with friends, you can help each other up ledges by pulling. You can also "lunge" near a ledge to give you that extra boost, but if it isn't enough, be prepared for some dire consequences. You can also collect various items to give you an advantage, such as ropes, rope guns, chain cannons to fire a climbable chain, and items to increase your stamina or heal in case you've taken a tumble.
You can play the game solo or offline, but I recommend playing it in co-op with friends. The element of cooperation enhances the experience, and the in-game proximity voice chat really adds to the immersion and tension, with voice effects such as echo and muffling adding to the experience.
It all combines to make PEAK a game that's great to play in short bursts. This isn't the kind of game you spend hours playing, but periodically hopping in for an hour or two session with friends is the way to play this game. The map changes every 24 hours, using a random map generator. This doesn't change everything; the biomes, for example, remain the same, but you will have to find new ways up the mountain and deal with different item locations.
This neat mechanic helps to expand the replayability of the game. If you get on a good "run", you'll be able to "finish" the game in under 2 hours, but with the map changing every day, you can always go back and try to beat future maps. Plus, there are scout badges to collect for doing specific tasks in the game, and you're unlikely to get them all on your first set of runs.
The biomes, too, are varied. While the map is randomly generated, there are certain environmental features that each biome sticks to, the Shore that you start on, for example, is always flat at first, leading to a rather sheer cliff, before entering the Tropics, where you'll be confronted with dangerous flora, vines, and rain which can make climbing more difficult. There are 5 biomes in all, each presenting unique challenges requiring different approaches, which helps to vary the game up, rather than constantly being about climbing sheer cliffs and finding resting points along the way.
All this while, you're being chased by "the fog", which, if you don't climb fast enough, will catch you and give you a stamina debuff (and eventually kill you) if you remain in it.
Is PEAK a perfect game? By no means. I had difficulties with controller support in the options menu, requiring me to use the Steam Deck's touchscreen to choose any options. The physics can also be a little finicky. Dropping a backpack against a wall caused it to ping off into oblivion, for example. The servers also had some issues while playing, sometimes refusing to connect me to the Steam servers until I restarted the game.
These should be easily fixable issues, or at least mitigated by being careful where you put your backpack down, so they don't ruin the experience. PEAK is a great game, although it's perhaps best enjoyed with friends.
PEAK runs reasonably well on the Steam Deck. The controller support works fine in the game, but it has issues in the options menu when I played. We also had issues with the in-game voice chat not working with the Steam Deck's microphone, which is a real shame. There are some graphical options to choose from, and to get a nice 60 FPS experience, which you will want in PEAK, we had to lower the graphics options to "Low", which seemed to work well in our testing.
You can also choose to boot in DX12 or Vulkan mode; however, I found Vulkan to have more stable performance on the Steam Deck, so I recommend using that.
We could run "Medium", but as you enter later biomes, it causes drops into the 40s, whereas "Low" settings kept us at, or close to, a solid 60 FPS throughout, with some areas dropping into the 50s on occasion.
Power draw varies depending on your current location on the map; some biomes are easier to run than others, but on average, expect around 16W, with lows of 13W and highs of around 20W. Temperatures were about 60 °C - 65 °C. You can expect around 3 hours of battery life from a Steam Deck OLED and around 2 hours from a Steam Deck LCD.
PEAK allows you to adjust the Field of View (FoV) and play on a lower difficulty, decreasing stamina drain and removing the time limit.
PEAK is the first "climbing simulator" that has caught my attention. With a mix of realistic consequences/physics and arcade-style climbing mechanics, it's both tense and accessible for your average player. The fact that you can embark on this adventure with your friends is just a cherry on top. For the modest price tag, I would say it's very worth checking out.
There are some issues with PEAK on the Steam Deck, namely, the controller support isn't fully there yet, and the microphone issues for the voice chat are a real shame. Hopefully, these can be fixed easily. But don't let that stop you from trying the game out on your Steam Deck, because it runs great on lower settings and is still fun.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to 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 your back.
Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny was provided by CAPCOM for review. Thank you!
Onimusha was definitely a franchise that slipped me by in the past. I hadn't actually heard of the series until the 2026 relaunch was announced recently, partly due to the fact that Onimusha was never originally released in Europe. To boil it down to simple terms, Onimusha is basically Resident Evil if it were set in feudal Japan. Onimusha 2 plays very similarly to other CAPCOM games of the era, like Resident Evil and Dino Crisis, with a fixed camera angle and tank controls for the character.
The setting for Onimusha 2 is an interesting one, set in feudal Japan, but with a heavy emphasis on fantasy elements. Our protagonist, Jubei, of the Yagyu clan, sees his village burnt down before him by Oda Nobunaga himself, who has called on the aid of demons in order to conquer Japan. Thus begins our protagonist's quest for vengeance, whereupon he will meet others who are in similar tragic circumstances and want to defeat Nobunaga for their own reasons.
Jubei is a likable protagonist, and is portrayed as your fairly stereotypical honorable, yet vengeful type. The other allies you'll meet on your journey are also quite likable, although they often fit into the mold of 2-dimensional characters, figuratively speaking. There's also a "relationship" system in place that lets you give gifts to your allies, who will, in turn, give you an item back, which may prove useful, such as healing items and more. Having a high relationship stat with an ally also makes them show up to help sometimes in battles, which can make the game a bit easier.
Moving onto actual gameplay, if you've played an older Resident Evil or a Dino Crisis game, you'll know how they feel, a little stiff to control, and it can be a bit frustrating at times. Onimusha 2 isn't exactly a difficult game, but when you swing your sword and the game decides to ignore the enemy entirely, it can be a little frustrating.
The camera also doesn't help the situation; it's a fixed camera angle, so you would think that the developers could place it in the optimal position so the player has a clear view of the action. Sadly, in at least a few instances, that is not the case. Sometimes the camera is placed low down, and enemies can walk immediately in front of it, completely blocking your view of everything. It's very irritating. Capcom clearly decided to remain fully faithful to the original in regards to gameplay, but this is something that should have been changed as a basic quality of life improvement.
Despite these misgivings, the game is still a good amount of fun. Sure, it's janky, and it's a little irritating when the camera angle suddenly changes and you get disorientated, but it's a good bit of simple fun, and there's enough challenge in there to give you some satisfaction from defeating enemies without taking any damage.
You can switch up the combat with different weapons, the ability to use a "magic" attack, which essentially uses the element of your current weapon to deal massive damage, and you can enable "Onimusha mode", which basically makes you whack things harder. You also have the ability to block and some limited dodging capability, so there is some depth to the combat.
Having not played the original, it's hard to say how it compares, but most of the improvements have definitely been focused on the visual side of things. The backgrounds that you walk on are generally pretty detailed, and there are some nice visual effects for things like water and certain lighting.
Gameplay-wise, the main improvements are the fact that you can switch weapons in real-time, the "Onimusha Mode" is triggered manually by the player, whereas in the original it apparently activated by itself, which seems terrible, so this is a major improvement. The game also now auto-saves, which makes the game a lot easier, as you can only save at specific save points, but auto-saves ignore this limitation, meaning if you die, you can respawn much closer to where you died, compared to the original game.
There is also a "hell mode" difficulty, where you die after taking one hit from any enemy, but Oliver isn't really cut out for that!
Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny (Remastered) plays it safe as far as remasters go. It improves the game's appearance, as well as tackles a couple of obvious quality of life issues in the original, but besides that, it leaves the source material untouched. There are still a couple of issues (like the camera angles) that I would have liked to have seen addressed, but those who played the original PS2 release might appreciate how closely this sticks to it.
The game is a little on the shorter side, as you'd expect from a Capcom game of this era, but most players should get a good 7-8 hours from it if they aren't familiar with the game.
Onimusha 2 runs brilliantly on the Steam Deck. The game has great controller support, but it does run at 1280x720, so we do have some black bars at the top and bottom of the screen.
There are no graphical settings in the game, so the adjustments we can make are minimal. Thankfully, the game will run on a potato anyway.
The game actually uses relatively little power, but the cutscenes, which seem to be rendered in real-time, do take a little more juice to run. The game likes to stick to 60 FPS, and we can easily do so by applying an 8W TDP Limit.
Power draw is low, mostly holding around 8W-10W, and temperatures are also low, at around 55C. You can expect about 5.5 hours of battery life from a Steam Deck OLED and around 4 hours on an LCD. If you're familiar with the game, you might be able to beat it in 1 battery charge on the OLED model!
The remaster of Onimusha 2 mostly improves the graphics and leaves the rest of the game largely untouched, so we don't have many accessibility options aside from subtitles. The game does have some difficulty options, and if you die several times on a higher difficulty, the game will ask if you wish to lower it.
Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny (Remastered) sticks faithfully to the original, while managing to improve in some key areas. Could it have done more? For sure. But that doesn't mean that it's a bad game by any means, it's a good bit of fun, even for someone like me without nostalgia, and I'm sure that if you do have nostalgia for this game, you'll have a good time with it.
Onimusha 2 also runs pretty flawlessly on the Steam Deck, with good controller support, great performance, and a long battery life.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to 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 your back.
Revenge of the Savage Planet was provided by Raccoon Logic Studios Inc. for review. Thank you!
The Savage Planet is back, but this time, the formula is getting switched up. Unlike the previous title, Journey to the Savage Planet, which was a first-person shooter, Revenge of the Savage Planet opts for a third-person approach and has a bit more of a focus on the crafting and research mechanics of the game.
After waking up on a planet after a long cryosleep, you find out that your former employer, who sent you on a mission to find a habitable planet, has fired you during your stasis. Now it's up to you to build up the colony that never was and explore nearby planets to find the resources to get yourself back home!
Some mechanics have carried over from Journey to the Savage Planet, such as the somewhat zany humor, whether or not that's to your taste. It also keeps the element of scanning and researching the flora and fauna on the planet(s), to unlock further upgrades for your equipment. I found this to be both a positive and a negative.
The movement is really solid in Revenge of the Savage Planet. You can double jump, sprint, slide, vault up ledges, and eventually unlock additional moves like dodging, which help you get around. It feels nice and fluid, and there are no feelings of frustration in how the game controls, which is good, because Revenge of the Savage Planet has you moving around a lot. The maps aren't huge, but there are 5 planets in total, and each of them will take a few minutes to traverse from one side to the other, unless you use the teleporters scattered around each planet as you unlock them.
The combat is perhaps more on the basic side of things; you're pretty much going to be using your blaster for the vast majority of combat, which can be given upgrades, but is largely going to feel the same throughout the game, with the additions of a faster firing rate and secondary shots.
There is a melee "whip," which also doubles as your lasso, with which you can capture and research species. However, it's generally not nearly as useful in combat as it puts you in close proximity to enemies and is pretty cumbersome to use. I mostly just used the lasso part of it and forgot the whip as a weapon.
You also have to hit enemy "weak points" on their bodies to stun them so you can capture them. Generally, it works okay, but sometimes it's frustratingly difficult. Shooting an enemy while it's stunned will pull it out of its stunned state (from what I could tell), so I kept accidentally unstunning enemies after shooting their weak point too many times. When your objective is to capture a rare animal, it can be a huge pain, as if you accidentally kill it, it can take several minutes to respawn.
Now, onto the upgrades of the game, and to focus on the positives, Revenge of the Savage Planet has plenty of upgrades, some of which are pretty cool. You can upgrade your jetpack, your blaster, your whip, you can even upgrade the drone that follows you to give yourself some extra abilities like gliding.
But my goodness, the upgrades are also the most tedious part of the gameplay loop, as story progression is largely locked behind finding a new "gadget". The game's structure invariably follows this same pattern:
This happens over and over again, and it's very tiresome. The worst part is that you know it's coming. As soon as you get an objective telling you to go to an area to find a resource you need, you know that once you get there, it's going to say the resource is inaccessible, so go to the other side of the map to get another resource so you can get this resource.
It feels like a thinly veiled way to slow progression down and either artificially lengthen the game, or the developers weren't sure how to introduce all the abilities you can have in the game, and decided to introduce them all similarly.
Visually, the game is nice, but it is running on Unreal Engine 5, so we pay the price for that with the game's performance, as we'll get into in the Steam Deck Performance section of the review. The voice acting in the game is also fine; whether you enjoy the game's humor will be hit or miss.
You can also play through the entire game with a friend in split-screen or online co-op (cross-platform supported). We played multiplayer for a bit, and it worked pretty well, although you had to stay on the same planet. Difficulty didn't seem to increase with another player either, so you'll probably find the game easier with a friend.
Revenge of the Savage Planet isn't a bad game, but its structure highlights its faults rather than its strengths. This is a shame, as the upgrades are good in their design, and the storyline is quite interesting; it's just that the methods of progressing both are a little arduous.
Revenge of the Savage Planet starts off with good controller support for gameplay and the menus and 1280x800 resolution support.
By default, the game's graphical settings are locked, so you will need to put SteamDeck=0 %command% as a launch option in the game's Steam Properties.
I'm unsure why the settings are locked. The settings the game gets locked to are completely unplayable on the Steam Deck, so this isn't some sort of developer-recommended preset for the Steam Deck.
Unfortunately, the game is taxing on the Steam Deck's GPU, and I found that the only way to run the game at a playable frame rate and with somewhat "OK" image quality was to reduce all settings to low and then run with Intel XeSS on Ultra Performance. The game does have FSR support, but it felt like XeSS gave superior image quality when both were set to Ultra Performance. We're also locking the game to 30 FPS with the SteamOS Frame Limiter.
Using these settings nets us a mostly stable 30 FPS, although we will get occasional stutters. Some areas can drop the frame rates as low as the mid-20s. But I still found the experience to be a playable one.
The power draw varies, around 15W-20W, and temperatures also vary between 60 °C and 70 °C. Expect to get around 2.5-3 hours of battery life from a Steam Deck OLED and 1.5-2 hours from a Steam Deck LCD.
Revenge of the Savage Planet doesn't have many accessibility options; it has a couple of options to assist with aiming, and you can enable/disable vibration and motion blur, which are classed as accessibility features. It also has subtitles for voiced dialogue available in various languages.
Revenge of the Savage Planet does some things well. I like the movement, the combat is fine, if a bit basic, and the upgrades themselves are interesting and affect how you play the game as you progress. But from a game design perspective, I feel the game needed a lot more variety in how you progress the game, and every objective is just heading to a new location to find a new resource. It doesn't ruin the game, but it hampered my enjoyment.
Steam Deck performance is alson't the best; we have to run on the absolute lowest settings possible, and even then, we only maintain a playable framerate. Fortunately, we do have good controller support, and I would say that the game can be played fully on the Steam Deck; you just might enjoy the experience more elsewhere.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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