Elden Ring Nightreign was provided by Bandai Namco for review. Thank you!

I love souls-likes, but I am admittedly terrible at them. I love the story building and in-depth gameplay mechanics, but I can get easily frustrated trying to time my dodges just to get one hit in that takes a sliver of health. It feels extremely rewarding when I beat the boss, but I can get aggravated along the way. However, when developer From Software announced Elden Ring Nightreign, I knew I was going to have to play it. It combines souls-like with the roguelike genre, and I love roguelikes. While I had high hopes, the end result was better than I imagined, and it's easily going to be one of my favorite games this year.

I had my worries about how a souls-like game could work with roguelike elements, but From Software found a way to blend it in a way that highlights the beauty of both genres and doesn't sacrifice what makes Elden Ring so enjoyable.

Fighting is still exactly as I remembered in Elden Ring, with some tweaks to account for new features that come with Nightreign. You still must be very precise with your plan of attack, dodge at just the right times, and learn the enemy's attack patterns to sneak in your strikes or spells. It's the classic souls-like combat, and if you have played Elden Ring before, it's going to be very familiar. It does feel a little simplified when compared, since there are no Ashes of War or Spirit Ashes, but it's still very much Elden Ring through and through.

However, there are big changes that start to break away from the old mold. Instead of going into a giant action RPG world, you will start at the Roundtable Hold, our hub where we choose expeditions, customize our characters, and more. Then, we choose an expedition to go on and fly off to start our roguelike run. You are on a more condensed map of Limveld filled with enemies, mini bosses, and locations that can contain items and upgrades that will help defeat the expedition's main boss.

Each run has three days associated with it, and the first two days give you a chance to level up, upgrade, get items and weapons, and prepare for the third day, which has you fighting the boss. Throughout the first two days, a blue flame circle will close in (like Fortnite's circle), leading to a mini-boss fight. As the blue flames close in, you can view which rewards and items are available and the locations of mini-bosses on the field. While you can find new weapons and consumable items in chests, as well as upgrade flask charges or find materials to upgrade weapons, mini-bosses can offer even more powerful weapons with buffs or status effects to choose from, or permanent in-run upgrades like an increase to physical attack or resistances.

I love the balance that From Software has found with this mashup of gameplay styles, and it feels like the best of both worlds. I still get the Elden Ring experience with tough enemies and precise combat, but now there's an addictive reason to keep going back in for more. Paired with the faster movement mechanics like Surge Sprinting or Spiritstreams, it feels faster while also retaining the slow norm that souls-like games have set. Getting new weapons and items and finding passive upgrades that will really help the way I am playing feels rewarding and makes me want to keep coming back in for more chances at beating the boss.

I also like the weapons and items that can be found throughout the world. Not only can you find an assortment of different weapons that can be upgraded with found sharpening stones, but each can have their own passive buffs and abilities.

It's the same feeling I get from roguelikes, but it feels like a step up in quality thanks to the developer behind it and the series it's associated with. It's fluid, exciting, faster-paced, and still feels like the souls-like games we have come to know and love. I couldn't be happier. I also really like the simplified leveling up system, where you just go to a Site of Lost Grace and using Runes to just do a flat level up. There's no choosing specific stats to increase, and I prefer that simplicity.

There are also some events that can be triggered that change the map in unique ways. This can include a giant volcanic crater erupting in the middle of the map, woodland infested with scarlet rot will creep through the map, and a giant frozen-over mountain, and each event has some solid rewards if tackled and overcome. The world-changing events can happen randomly and feel like they can change the strategy during your limited time preparing for the final boss.

As with roguelikes, we do have forms of permanent progression, though it can feel a bit basic at times. Each run you finish, whether it's successful or not, you will obtain Relics, which you can equip on one of the characters you select before going into the expedition. Each character has specific Relic Rites that correspond to a color, which you can equip. Relics are randomly generated and can contain random buffs and stat increases or even rarer effects that enhance specific abilities each character has. You can also buy Relics at the bazaar at the Roundable Hold if desired.

These Relics can have a variety of different effects, which surprised me. I expected the usual stat boosts like Dexterity and Strength getting extra increases, but it can go even deeper. Depending on the rarity, which can have up to three different effects, these buffs can make your starting weapon deal fire damage, successive attacks restore FP, get improved guard counters, give you specific damage buffs with different weapons, start with different items, and so much more. I love the variety in these, and with it being random, I found a lot of motivation to keep playing and get new ones.

You can unlock cosmetics and story content for each of the characters as time goes on and you complete expeditions, but the Relics system is going to be the main way you get more powerful outside of runs. I think it's an interesting system, and I am glad it's randomly generated to keep my motivation to keep going back in and getting new ones, but I can't shake the underwhelming feeling. Maybe it's due to most roguelikes having more persistent progression options to make you more powerful. Still, it's interesting enough to keep me interested, but I still wish there were more to it.

Speaking of characters, instead of creating your own, you will choose from different characters that all have their own strengths and weaknesses. While on the surface, some may seem more geared towards melee combat versus ranged spells, each individual has different abilities, skills, and stats that make them wholly unique. This could range from an ability to escape death once on a hit that would kill, using Restage to deal immense damage when using it at the right time, or even the strength to utilize crossbows with one hand and still have a shield in the other.

I ended up using Wylder the most because I died a lot, and that ability to escape death once came in handy multiple times, but Guardian was a great melee tank, while I did enjoy Recluse for a focus on spell casting from afar. Each character also has their own abilities, which take the form of regular and Ultimate Arts. These can be extremely useful and range in utility, and Ultimate Arts can be a huge help depending on when you use them.

This is all key for co-op play, which is a major change in the formula. You can play solo if preferred, but the fun really kicks in when playing with two others. Picking and choosing characters that can complement each other and running around Limveld, taking down bosses together, upgrading and finding new items, and strategizing have been some of my favorite times with the game. It's clear as day that this is the way the game should be played, and while it's still fun alone, and the difficulty does scale and is a bit easier when playing solo, it truly shines when you bring in others.

Strategizing was one of my favorite aspects of Nightreign, too. Picking characters that can work together was essential, and figuring out a game plan to try getting what we would need to take advantage of each expedition's boss was exciting. With each boss having a weakness and pattern, it was a lot of fun to figure it out and tackle each challenge together. Even when playing with a random person to turn our team of 2 into 3, it felt more rewarding to experience just because I knew the others around were doing this all with me.

Nightreign has an overarching story, as well as individual tales for each of the characters in the form of the journal. The people you play as have lost their memories and have been recruited to fight against the Nightlord. While playing, clues can be discovered to uncover their pasts, and while it is mostly interesting, it's definitely not the highlight of the game. It's not bad by any means, and I did enjoy learning about the characters we play as, but it didn't captivate me past that.

One thing I will mention is that this is going to be a little divisive for fans of Elden Ring. The lore isn't as interesting or detailed, there are reused assets from the base game, and it doesn't feel as detailed as a usual souls-like. However, as someone who enjoys souls-likes and roguelikes, I found so much to love and a lot of reason to keep diving back in.

ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN - Steam Deck Performance

Even though Elden Ring plays well on the Steam Deck, I did have my worries for Elden Ring Nightreign. From Software tends to miss some features in their PC ports for the Souls games, and I was worried that this would be no exception. Luckily, the system requirements are the same, so I was optimistic that it would run, and I am happy to say it can.

Nightreign can be played both alone and with 2 other people, and each gives a different performance. Playing alone is better, as it allows for a higher frame rate, closer to 40 FPS. We can achieve higher graphical quality by playing alone at 30 FPS, or try making more sacrifices to reach 40 FPS. Either way works, though I preferred aiming for 30 FPS here.

Playing with two others causes significantly more stress on the system and results in more drops, especially in open areas or when everyone is fighting bosses together. Here, it is nearly impossible to consistently hit 40 FPS or more on the lowest settings, so we can maintain a mix of low and medium quality settings to prevent it from dropping below 30 FPS. It's still very playable and looks solid, but there isn't much more we can do to push performance when playing with others.

The biggest issue I ran into with the visuals is anti-aliasing, which can look oddly blurry on some surfaces, with the most prevalent one coming from our character when standing still. Fixing this is easy and doesn't cost much performance, but it also makes things look extremely sharp, which is horrible in the open world. I prefer keeping the blurriness with Anti-Aliasing on Low instead of High, which keeps the open world looking much nicer.

Regardless, it will be hard to get a stable framerate without any issues because the game is missing two key settings: Framerate Limits and V-Sync. Both of these can technically be done through the quick access menu thanks to SteamOS. However, it introduces input lag, and that's extremely detrimental in games like Elden Ring Nightreign. The only way to get a stable, capped framerate with no lag at all is to do it through the game directly, but unfortunately, it doesn't have those options.

I also tried the MangoHUD launch option to see if I could stabilize the framerate without adding any input lag, but unfortunately, it didn't work.

So, we are left with a choice. Do we stabilize the framerate, which can lower battery consumption, but introduce slight input lag, or do we keep it uncapped with high battery drain and have a better experience? After playing around with both, I went for the latter. I usually prefer a stable framerate, but with the input lag actually affecting my gameplay and missing key dodge rolls, there was no way I could recommend it to others.

Still, even with this, I didn't find the fluctuations to be jarring. I was comfortably playing with my team while sitting in bed or playing alone when at a restaurant. The controller support is solid, we can play offline, and the game supports HDR displays, including the OLED Steam Deck screen. It has some compromises, and it's a shame we can't do more to maximize, but it works, and I am happy with it.

The text is a bit on the small side, but it wasn't completely unreadable. I was able to figure out what everything said without straining my eyes, but it borders on being a bit too small.

Online multiplayer does work on the Steam Deck, but I did have some launches where online was automatically disabled due to framerate problems. I fixed this by closing and relaunching the game, and it worked perfectly fine afterward, but it did pop up here and there. However, the game can be played solo and completely offline, and the Relics you earn carry over to online play.

Accessibility

In the settings, you can toggle auto-targeting and auto lock-on, map cursor speed, camera speed, and whether it's inverted, auto rotation and wall recovery, cinematic effects, and whether subtitles and blood are displayed. You can also completely turn off the HUD, change volume settings, and edit keybindings.

The game doesn't support 16:10 resolutions, but it does have cloud saves and great controller support. There are HDR settings, and it recognizes the OLED screen.

Conclusion

Elden Ring Nightreign feels like a near-perfect blend of From Software's souls-like formula and addictive roguelikes that make this experience feel like a step above the rest. The combat still feels just like Elden Ring and other souls-like games we have come to love, but the faster exploration and bite-sized expeditions kept my attention longer than most other souls-like games have. I adore the new roguelike mechanics, which make each run feel distinct and impactful, while also maintaining the quality that further elevates the experience.

The Relic system can feel a little underwhelming, and the story for the characters feels significantly less complex and meaningful compared to the original game, but it's still a great, high-quality roguelike that should satisfy both fans of each genre Nightreign encompasses.

It also runs quite well on the Steam Deck, even if there are some fluctuations with framerate and visuals. A lot of the issues come from an underwhelming PC port that lacks some essential settings, like V-Sync and in-game framerate limiters. However, it's still very playable, both online and offline, and is still a solid way to play this wonderful 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.

Avowed was provided by Xbox Game Studios for review. Thank you!

Avowed is the latest first-person RPG from the minds at Obsidian Entertainment. Famed in the past for making games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity, and more recently, The Outer Worlds, Avowed takes a more "traditional" approach with a fantasy setting and a world full of magic and mystery, and for the most part, they pulled it off nicely.

The storyline is your fairly typical fantasy RPG affair. The game takes place in the wider Pillars of Eternity universe, but the events of either Pillars of Eternity game don't have a bearing on Avowed, so it's unnecessary to have played them. The basis of the storyline is that you are a "Godlike", someone who has been chosen by a god and receives special attributes from birth. Under the employ of the Aedyrian Emperor, you venture into "The Living Lands" to find the source of the "Dreamscourge", a plague threatening the land.

As you meet different characters and factions within The Living Land, you'll encounter many opposing viewpoints on how they think you should handle the situation. It'll be up to the player to decide the fate of The Living Lands. While the game doesn't delve quite as deeply into characters as a title like Baldur's Gate 3, you get some intrigue as you meet characters with differing opinions and political beliefs. For the most part, the characters are all pretty well voiced, too, with some interesting banter between the companions you encounter in the game.

One point I will bring up is that the game likes to give you lots of choices in dialogue, and while NPCs may react differently to your different options, a fair number of these choices appear inconsequential. There's no real difference between the choices that you pick for 90% of the decisions you make in the game. There are key points where the decision you make does matter, but the game does not indicate that being rude or kind to an NPC has any bearing on anything other than the next line of dialogue.

Combat is the main focus of Avowed, and it's a pretty great experience for the most part. You have various weapons to choose from, such as daggers, spears, hammers, bows, and wands, allowing you to play how you want to. If you want to be quick and maneuverable with a melee weapon, you can use a dagger, or want to hit like a truck? Choose a 2-handed melee like a Warhammer. Keep your distance with a bow or a wand and pick off foes while your party members take the hits.

You can specialize your character how you like with the skill tree, which lets you decide your "class" while you play, depending on which skill trees you invest your points into. You can also decide your party members' abilities, allowing you to mold them to benefit your playing style. Adding taunting abilities to a party member, for example, can be useful if you can't take many hits.

This is exactly the path I chose for my character build, opting for one of my loadouts to be a bow (later a gun), and the other to be a wand and spellbook (you can swap between your 2 loadouts with the press of a button), and then speccing my party members into being tanks or at least crowd control, allowing me to keep my distance and deal as much damage as possible from afar.

It worked well, although allies sometimes struggle to defend themselves. There's no way to equip them with armor or equipment, and it feels like they are quite a bit weaker than you in both attack and defensive capabilities.

I did find myself getting annoyed with spellcaster enemies, particularly healers and summoners, as the game seems to give them infinite "Essence" (mana), which means they can indefinitely heal their allies and summon an impossible amount of minions (5+), making it almost impossible to kill any other enemies before them.

I also found that the difficulty spikes in the game are pretty intense. You can go from feeling rather powerful with 1 or 2-shotting many enemies, to the next group of enemies requiring 15 shots to kill, it's pretty bizarre and frustrating. Thankfully, there are several difficulty options to choose from, which can reduce this issue if you're facing it. Although even on story mode, my party member got 1 shot by a spell against some fairly average enemies.

There's also plenty to do in the world of Avowed. There isn't a lot of space that can plague games like this; it doesn't take long heading in any direction before you stumble on a point of interest, and plenty of side quests keep you busy.

While this lack of empty space is a good thing, it can make the game feel a tad busy in the cities. Trying to find your way around the map to reach certain objectives or even find a merchant to buy some goods can be a hassle. There is no way to place a waypoint and no "breadcrumb" system in the game, so you'll just have to keep pausing and bringing up the map to figure out where you are in relation to a store or a quest giver and try to plot a route there yourself.

But again, I could see arguments from players as to whether that's a good or a bad thing. I found it frustrating trying to reach an objective behind a wall by walking one way around the wall and then the other until I found an opening to get inside. Others may appreciate the lack of hand-holding in this regard.

Things can get a little repetitive later, as enemies and items merely become better versions of their former selves. But if you focus on the game's story, it's not that long of a game, beatable in under 15 hours, and by the time you realize the items and weapons are the same, just with higher tiers, you're probably halfway through the game. Regardless, having some slight variations for items would have been cool, as if you find an item that you already have, it will always be identical (unless you have upgraded your item).

Avowed is a very pretty game. The sun-drenched streets, forests, and deserts play to the strengths of the Unreal Engine's lighting, and although it is quite a difficult game to run, it looks good enough to forgive that.

Ultimately, Avowed is a solid first-person RPG. It doesn't quite go as in-depth lore/story-wise as a game such as Baldur's Gate 3, nor is it quite as adventure and exploration-driven as a game like Skyrim, but it does form a neat little space in between those 2 games, with a fairly fleshed-out story and characters, as well as a good amount of action-packed combat and an interesting world.

Avowed - Steam Deck Performance

Avowed has great controller support and supports 1280x800 resolution. It also has a UI Size slider, which I recommend you put on the largest or one below the largest, as it greatly helps with readability on the Steam Deck's screen.

Avowed sets itself to some low settings by default, but we need to adjust it lower. Make sure Ray-Tracing is turned off, as it was on for me, lower FSR3 to Balanced, and make sure all your Quality settings are on "Low". Once you're on these settings, the game switches between CPU and GPU bound, which means we're getting as good as we can get from the Steam Deck.

Your settings should look like the ones below, which I found to be the best for a close-to-30 FPS experience.

The game may appear to be holding 30 FPS, maybe even 40 FPS early on, but once you reach built-up, larger areas, the FPS falls, even on these lower settings, you can occasionally dip below 30 FPS. There are also frequent stutters.

Whether this represents a "playable" experience is a matter of opinion. Can you technically play the game all the way through, albeit at a disadvantage? Yes. But I'm not sure I would have been as generous as Valve was to grant the game a "Playable" badge. I've seen games perform better than those ranked as Unsupported on Steam Deck.

The power draw tends to be high, around 21W-23W, meaning you can only expect about 2 hours of battery life from a Steam Deck OLED and around 1.5 hours from a Steam Deck LCD. The temperature tends to stick around 70C.

Accessibility:

Avowed has a UI size adjustment slider, as mentioned above, it also allows you to embolden certain text to make it easier to read, add subtitles to conversations, and make interactable objects more visible. You may also disable head bobbing, camera shake, and aim assist.

Conclusion:

Avowed feels like a first-person CRPG-lite. Set in a universe with plenty of lore and depth, the story paddles near the surface, going deep enough to be interesting, but not too deep to require you to be well-versed in the lore to enjoy the game. The first-person perspective offers the chance for some action-packed combat, with plenty of variety in weaponry and how players can spec their characters, albeit with some balancing issues.

Steam Deck performance is, simply put, disappointing. The game looks great, even on the lowest settings, but the performance isn't there. Frequent drops below 30 FPS and constant traversal stutter make the game dubiously "playable". You can finish Avowed on the Steam Deck, but you would be forgiven for putting some of the blame for your deaths on an unfortunately timed stutter or frame drop.

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.

Dragonkin: The Banished was provided by Nacon for review. Thank you!

This is a review of an early access game; the content and performance of the game are subject to change.

Dragonkin: The Banished is a brand new Action RPG from Nacon, so brand new that it's still in Early Access right now. That being said, is the game worth picking up in its current state? Let's take a look at how the game currently holds up.

Dragonkin: The Banished starts with a rather lengthy prologue, which will run you through the story's premise and introduce the various factions and classes you'll be able to interact with. Unfortunately, as the game is in Early Access, the prologue is the only time you run into some of these, and you don't get the option to play as them once you make your character right now.

At first glance, Dragonkin: The Banished seems to take straight after games such as Diablo, Torchlight, and Path of Exile, and it pretty much does. If you've played those games, the UI is immediately familiar with the classic 2 "orbs" of health and mana pools. Your face buttons and the left analog stick for movement/aiming will dictate most of your attacks. So don't go into Dragonkin expecting innovation; the formula is generic.

A part of Dragonkin: The Banished that could be seen as innovative is that you have some control over the game's hub, the last bastion of humanity, Montescail. This allows you to upgrade parts of the city and thus gain access to new equipment and improve your abilities. It's a pretty neat mechanic, but the downside of this hub is that it's far too large for what it is, and most of it serves little purpose regarding gameplay, so you just end up fast-traveling around it all the time. Also, in Early Access, most of the upgrades are unavailable.

The same goes for the world in general in Dragonkin. The game feels very large and barebones right now, as if the developers have made the world and are now trying to make enough content to fill it rather than designing the world around the content. A large part of the game is simply walking from point A to point B in a straight line, occasionally encountering enemies that are quick to dispatch.

Dragonkin has a ton of difficulty levels; it's one of those games that starts numbering their difficulty levels because of how many there are, but playing on the default "Normal" setting is mind-numbingly easy. The combat of the Oracle class that I played consisted of holding the A button and pushing the stick in the direction of the enemy you wanted to defeat, I rarely ever took damage as the majority of enemies are melee and couldn't get close to me, and even the first dragon I fought died without getting me below half health once.

This might also partially be to do with the health potion mechanic, which lets you use a health potion every 8 seconds or so. You seem to have an unlimited amount of potions, so it's quite difficult to die, and even if you do die, respawning just gives you a small penalty to your max health until you visit a town again, allowing you to respawn straight back into the battle with no progress lost.

I understand feeling "powerful", but Dragonkin makes you feel way too powerful and way too quickly. I shouldn't be level 4 and able to dispatch hordes of bandits by holding a button; I should have a reason to use the dodge mechanic in the game.

The skill system is both interesting and a part of the problem, I feel. It allows you to create a grid of skills and place modifiers beside them on the grid to enhance those abilities. The right combination can make your character overpowered and incredible at Crowd Control, rendering the majority of enemies helpless against you.

Visually, the game is fine; it's not amazing, but it doesn't look bad either. The sound design follows suit with the rest of the game, though, and gets repetitive hearing the same sounds repeatedly as you fight.

If I sum up Dragonkin: The Banished in one word right now, it would be "generic". The gameplay feels like it's taken straight out of other Action RPGs, but with less... action. The world is mostly empty except for random pockets of enemies, but you could take a screenshot in a zone, and you wouldn't be able to tell where that screenshot was taken, because everywhere in each zone looks identical.

Things could improve here, but there needs to be a lot more content (I got to the current "end-game" in less than 8 hours) and a lot more balancing of skills and abilities if Dragonkin: The Banished wants to compete against the kind of strong competition it's up against.

Dragonkin: The Banished - Steam Deck Performance

Dragonkin: The Banished has the basics in place for Steam Deck, namely good controller support. It does support 1280x800 as a resolution, so there are no black borders.

It also has quite flexible graphics settings, but we need to run the settings pretty low for the Steam Deck to get acceptable performance here.

I'd recommend putting all the quality settings on "Low" except Textures, which can stay on "Medium"; you'll want to use TSR as the upscaling method, and 50% on your Resolution Scaling with no Dynamic Resolution, then use the in-game frame limiter to limit the game to 30 FPS.

With these settings, the game will mostly hold 30 FPS, but expect some severe drops in cutscenes and drops into the mid-20s occasionally in large battles. This is because the game gets quite CPU-heavy when a lot of enemies are on screen.

The power draw in the game varies depending on your area, but you should generally see around 12W-15W of usage in combat, with the city of Montescail using closer to 20W. Temperatures also vary, being between 60C-70C most of the time. You can expect around 2.5 hours of battery life from a Steam Deck OLED and around 2 hours from a Steam Deck LCD model.

Accessibility:

There are subtitles and the option to increase/decrease their size, along with the game's cursor size.

Conclusion:

I can't recommend Dragonkin: The Banished in its current state. The game world feels empty, and it seems too easy to become overpowered early on. Just as the story starts going anywhere, it ends, and you're expected to do "end-game" content. The roadmap the developers have put out doesn't even mention if they're expanding the story, which worries me. For now, I would stick to the safer alternatives like Diablo IV or Path of Exile 2.

Performance on the Steam Deck is ok, but you will occasionally see dips below 30 FPS. It's playable, but not the best way to play the game.

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.

Assassin's Creed Shadows was provided by Ubisoft for review. Thank you!

I know that Ubisoft has gotten a lot of flak for many different reasons as of late, but there is still something special about the games they create. They still run some of the most iconic series, like Far Cry, and have been able to create collaboration titles with big companies like Mario + Rabbids, but nothing has compared to their Assassin's Creed series. It's an iconic series with one of the most intriguing premises in any game I have played, and the newest entry, Assassin's Creed Shadows, may be one of my new favorites for the series.

Of all the aspects of Shadows that hooked me, the world was probably the part that stood out the most. The premise of Assassin’s Creed fits perfectly into Japan, and taking time to examine the world and architecture was pretty wonderful. Visually, the world is stunning and is enhanced by some of the tech they have incorporated to make it feel more alive. This comes in the form of physics (rolling into doors to break them or cutting bamboo) to the slight grass tilt as you walk across it.

I also appreciate how drastically the world can change when the season does. So many aspects of the world feel different when the seasons change, making running through them more enjoyable. I am a fan of seeing the change from Winter to the other seasons more than anything, mostly due to snowfall during winter, but there’s something to love about each season.

However, I have a love-hate relationship with the foliage. There’s a solid amount littered throughout the world to cloak yourself for assassinations, but there’s too much out in the open world. It ends up discouraging exploration off the roads. I can understand the mountains and other obstacles I may face, but the amount of shrubbery makes it nearly impossible to see where I’m going. There were a couple of times I powered through it, but it wasn’t fun. Sticking to the roads will solve this issue completely, but it's still a bit disappointing that trying to find my way through the woods wasn't as easy to accomplish.

I don't want to go too much into the story to avoid spoilers, but it's great for an Assassin's Creed game. It does the job and stays a bit predictable, but I found Naoe and Yasuke interesting with intriguing character arcs. I was invested in each character and wanted to see the conclusion to their stories and what would happen next. As someone very interested in Japan as a whole, I enjoyed seeing Ubisoft's take on their history.

The contrasting personalities of Naoe and Yasuke and their motifs keep the story interesting. I don't want to go too much into it, so you can experience the story for yourself, but it's one of the better storylines in the series.

If you enjoyed the previous Assassin's Creed titles, especially Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla, you will feel at home with Shadows. Close combat is quite on par with those games, giving you a light and heavy attack that can be charged up to deal extra damage to vulnerable enemies or break guard. There is a heavy emphasis on parrying, dodging, and blocking to sneak in strikes to consistently carve out the enemy's armor and health.

Assassinations are a key element of the game, as they have always been from the first entry in the series, but they don't feel as prominent as they used to be. The stealth system is great; using bushes, the tops of buildings, and even the shadows at night to kill without being seen is a treat. However, more powerful enemies can't be assassinated fully and will only take chunks of their health away. There is an option to turn on guaranteed assassinations to make this go away, but I wish this were the default. I miss some of the older games where there was a reliance on stealth and assassination over more action-packed combat. Thankfully, the close combat is really enjoyable, so I didn't mind the up-close fighting as much.

I feel this even more when we take control of our second protagonist. Throughout the game, we will switch between Naoe and Yasuke, who have contrasting playstyles. It was quite nice to play in different ways, with Yasuke not relying on stealth and going all in on brute force. Even though I miss the reliance on stealth, I enjoyed taking a break from the norm and trying something different. There's a certain charm in using gigantic weapons to smash enemies' faces in, that's for sure.

We can spice things up a bit with combat thanks to a range of tools and different types of weapons to use. Each of the different weapons feels different to use with unique movesets, tools like Kunai and Shuriken to kill from further away, and smoke bombs to help you escape a fight.

I loved using all of these, and it just made combat feel even better. Taking on a group of enemies with a combination of Kunai to eliminate some of them, come in with an assassination to take down more, smoke bomb myself away to assassinate another from the shadows, then use my Kusarigama to swing my around and attack the rest of them all at once and slice and throw others into each other. There were so many fights that I just had a blast in and had to readjust my strategy by using the weapons and tools given to me, and I enjoyed it a lot.

The progression systems are pretty fun to play with, too. Like Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla, we have a generic RPG take on making yourself more powerful. You gain experience when you kill enemies and complete quests, which levels you up. The more you level, the more powerful gear you can use. You will also get mastery points to give yourself new abilities and passive bonuses in the skill tree, which can unlock necessary skills like assassinating two people at once and special combat abilities.

I also appreciate how easy it is to transmog and change appearance without changing the actual gear. It makes me happy to be able to customize how I look without always having to change out the gear I have grown attached to.

Even though this is a departure from the older Assassin's Creed formula, I enjoy these new systems. I like getting tons of different gear to play around with, and with each one having some randomized stats and unique abilities, I can prioritize the way I want to play. I like the gameplay loop of finding new loot and constantly checking out new gear; it feels meaningful.

Besides the main quest line, Shadows has many side content to dive into. There are castles you can find in the world to liberate and get lots of gear, shrines to find and increase your knowledge to get access to new skills, and many other quests. I like the "objectives" menu in-game, which details quests available to help others, and specific extra targets to assassinate and get extra experience. It also clearly notes where the quests are coming from, so you know if you are working on the main questline, helping the "league" expand, assassinating groups of criminals, and more.

You also have a hideout to expand and upgrade with materials you find worldwide. I like that we can customize the placement and design of the buildings, and they do have a function outside of aesthetics, like the Forge to upgrade and dismantle weapons or the Dojo to train your allies. Placing these can increase your hideout level and give other bonuses like reduced costs for the Forge and expanding what the Scouts can bring back at the end of the season. There are some purely aesthetic options, like lights and pathways, so you can design your hideout.

The content feels much more organic than in past iterations of the game, and there's a solid amount of variety that helps your character grow. It always feels like there's something to discover, someone to assassinate, shrines to pray at, castles to liberate, art to paint, people to help, and it all feels fulfilling. I also appreciate that we can automatically follow people in missions instead of having to manually control the character.

I did encounter some minor issues while playing, like some weird animation glitches or killing someone on the ground, only for them to rise again for me to kill them a second time, but nothing that ever stopped me from enjoying the game. Assassin's Creed Shadows doesn't stray too far away from the established norms of the series, which isn't bad, but it won't bring back anyone who has already made a judgment call after the last few games. Still, Shadows is a bunch of fun and is even enjoyable on the Steam Deck.

Assassin's Creed Shadows - Steam Deck Performance

After Ubisoft debated whether Assassin's Creed Shadows would run on the Steam Deck, I am still shocked at how well it's running. I expected a sub-30 FPS experience, and while it isn't perfect, it holds strong at 30 with solid visuals. It does have some moments where it can drop below 30 in some areas, like when turning around in crowded towns and bigger castles, and the RAM usage can spike a little bit, but it was still playable and never crashed.

In the Steam version of the game, we don't have all of the same graphical options in the base game, with some locked away, but we can change a few things around. We can change the upscaler (TAA, FSR, and XeSS) and the dynamic resolution range. After some testing, I found that TAA with a slightly reduced resolution range mitigates most of the framerate drops and still looks okay. There are slight differences between the upscalers, but I felt that TAA looked better when running around. You can choose any of the upscalers you'd like, but I recommend scaling the maximum resolution down to 35 or 40%.

I wouldn't expect the game to run any better than this, and it's pretty amazing that it's running as well as it is already. I wouldn't expect more than 30 FPS, and I don't recommend using frame generation either. It's going to drain the maximum amount of battery as well, but I genuinely can't see any way to improve performance without some significant visual compromises. You could reduce the maximum resolution range even more or force 1024x576 to make it run better, but it doesn't look nearly as good for not much other benefit, so I would say keeping it as is will be best.

The Steam version of the game also goes through Ubisoft Connect, and while the launcher does have an offline mode, I did have trouble actually getting it into offline mode. Even though I played online beforehand, it wouldn't let me play without internet. I can confirm that if you start the game with WiFi, you can turn it off afterwards and continue playing without needing to connect, but starting the game offline may not be possible.

Accessibility

Assassin's Creed Shadows has a fantastic amount of settings to change. You can toggle the HUD, change walking speed, toggle auto movement and left-handed layouts, adjust controller vibration, invert camera, change deadzone for triggers and joysticks, and change audio volume and music frequency. We can also change text size and color, toggle subtitle details, turn on aim assist, toggle a button to get all loot around you, and so much more.

The game supports 16:10 resolutions and has both cloud saves and controller support. HDR is recognized on the Steam Deck OLED and can be found in the image calibration menu.

Conclusion

Assassin's Creed Shadows is one of the best games in the series in a long time, and is one of my favorites. The Japanese setting fits perfectly within the context of the game, and the world feels more alive thanks to the physics and changing seasons. The combat is very engaging, both in close quarters and when assassinating, and I looked forward to each fight. The story is a bit predictable, but the dual protagonists have very interesting character arcs that make them feel more compelling. Shadows isn't perfect, and it feels like more of what we have seen in previous entries, but the good outweighs the bad.

As for playing Shadows on the Steam Deck, I am truly amazed that it is playable at all. I wouldn't expect anything above 30 FPS with a high battery drain, but the fact that it is playable and mostly stable is quite amazing. It won't be 100% stable, but if you have no other way to play, it will be enjoyable 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 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.

Rise of the Ronin was provided by Koei Tecmo for review. Thank you!

When Rise of the Ronin was announced on the PS5, I was so intoxicated by the world being shown. Seeing a samurai with a gun flying around on a hanglider was so cool, and knowing that Team Ninja, the developers of Ninja Gaiden, were working on it sold me. Now, the game is finally here on PC, and I finally had the chance to play it. Even with some minor issues here and there, the gameplay more than makes this a worthwhile experience to enjoy.

When it comes to making flashy, gratifying combat, Team Ninja is towards the top of that list. From the gorgeous fast-paced action of Ninja Gaiden to the souls-like esque Nioh, they have consistently shown they can make engaging and exciting gameplay that is hard to put down. Rise of the Ronin is in that camp and is easily the best part of the game.

It feels like a mix of their best games in a way. The faster-paced slicing mixed with the countering (or countersparks, as they call it in-game) strikes a nice balance between button mashy and necessarily strategic. You have multiple weapons to choose from that all feel different from each other and have fleshed-out move sets. On top of that, you have various combat stances to give you an edge against the foes you encounter, sub weapons like guns and a flame thrower, Martial Skills for stronger attacks, and items that can heal you or give you a quick out if you want to get away from a battle.

I truly love Rise of the Ronin's combat. Not only is it so satisfying to slice enemies up and change weapons and stances on the fly, but countering strikes coming at you is so delightful. The mix of the flash from the blades and the sound of metal hitting each other just works so well. This is great since countering is a crucial element of combat. Combined with the sub-weapons and items, the combat always feels fresh and versatile. I would find myself running around and seeking combat instead of keeping the main story going, a testament to how well the system works.

I also enjoy the stealth mechanics, and I feel that these were implemented nicely. It was enjoyable to sneak around and pick off enemies one by one. If I could change one thing, it would be that not all assassinations are one-shot kills. For stronger enemies, it can take away half or a quarter of their health, which I understand, but I feel like if you are sneaking up on someone, you have a chance to just kill them outright.

There are several ways to fine-tune your stats and make yourself more powerful. You will constantly get new and more powerful weapons and armor, which can have different stat buffs as you play. We also get experience from killing enemies, which can give you points to unlock new skills and increase weapon proficiency, and you can upgrade your weapons, armor, and combat stances. These mechanics work together to build yourself up and slowly, but surely, give you an edge over the enemy. I enjoy this kind of mechanic with constant, random drops with varying stats, giving me chances to build out my Ronin how I want to.

The experience you get is similar to a souls-like game, but it has some minor changes that I feel are an improvement. When you kill enemies, it fills up a bar to determine the number of skill points you will get. However, if an enemy kills you before you can make it to one of your checkpoints, the enemy will have a Vendetta assigned to them, and you will have to kill them to get all of your unclaimed experience back. I do appreciate that once you get to a checkpoint, all of your experience will be claimed, so you won't lose it anymore.

Rise of the Ronin’s open world is full of enjoyable activities that feel quite varied from each other. From fighting groups of enemies to restoring cities and helping random bystanders to finding cats across the map and shooting targets, it was easy to get lost in all the events that could pop up. None of it felt like filler, it was either quick and gratifying challenges or more combat, and I enjoyed it all.

However, I wasn’t the biggest fan of navigating this open world. Besides running around, we have our horse and glider to traverse more quickly and a grappling hook to get up some surfaces. The horse is quicker than running and does auto run, but it still wasn’t as quick as I would have liked it. As for the glider, it’s a cool concept, but it feels a bit stiff to use. I would have loved to see us with the ability to gain speed when going down or get a boost when using the grappling hook to propel forward into the air. It just didn’t feel as dynamic as I had hoped.

The grappling hook is more fun to play around with. We can use it to get up on ledges that are too high or pull enemies towards us, and there are some enjoyable parkour-ish challenges with it. I wish there were more surfaces to use it on or a way to use it on any ledge to pull us up, but it’s still enjoyable.

The tale of Rise of the Ronin is more fascinating than I expected. The setting of Japan in 1863, when American influence was starting to rise, led to some really interesting locals and people to meet. It's a big reason guns are in the game, making combat even more interesting. I like seeing the comparison between traditional Japanese architecture mixed with the more modernized American approach. It also leads to some interesting Japanese and American figures butting heads, which adds more to the period we are playing in.

The general story is intriguing, and your choices feel impactful, which can lead to one of the game's different endings. What started as a search for your Blade Twin thrusts you into conflicts that will dictate the future of Japan. There are two forces to choose from, and your decisions impact how the story ends and whether some characters die. I didn't expect this complexity, which is a nice touch.

I didn't feel like there was a lot of variety in all of the missions I played through, but with how much I enjoyed combat, I didn't mind it too much. Most missions are just going through different locations, sneaking around, killing, or killing enemies. Even some missions where you must find something will require killing almost all enemies.

Graphically, Rise of the Ronin can be gorgeous. The models, animations, and environment are great, and I enjoyed seeing the sights. I found many great locations to sit, look at the world, and enjoy. I found multiple places I could take a picture and make it my wallpaper on my phone or desktop, and it would look fantastic. I wish the color pallette was a little more vibrant, but it still works well.

Rise of the Ronin - Steam Deck Performance

Rise of the Ronin is an awesome game to play, but it isn't playable on the Steam Deck. The game pushes the CPU and GPU of the Deck to the max, and will regularly drop frames, sticking around 18 - 23 FPS on the lowest possible settings. Because the game is pushing the CPU hard, we can't make many changes to get it running on the Deck comfortably, so I would say this is not playable.

I also recommend not using frame generation. It not only doesn't help, but it makes the entire experience much worse with extra input lag and stuttering.

Overall, I don't have any recommendations here since I can't get the game into a playable state. It would be better to stream this from a PS5 or Remote Play it from a more powerful Desktop PC.

Accessibility

Rise of the Ronin does have a specific User Accessibility tab, which allows you to change controller mapping, whether you toggle or hold buttons for certain actions, automize certain actions like aiming, grabbing, crouching, and collecting items, subtitles and their size, and a toggling a range of effects like dismemberment, blood, motion blur, and more.

It doesn't support 16:10 resolutions, but it has great controller and cloud save support. It also does recognize the HDR screen of the OLED Steam Deck.

Conclusion

Rise of the Ronin is a great open-world action RPG that is fun to play. The combat is exquisite and a high point for this experience, and there are a lot of great activities to keep you busy. The story was surprisingly intriguing, with meaningful choices and an interesting tale. Navigating the open world wasn't as fluid as I would have liked it to be, and the missions can feel a bit repetitive, but it is overshadowed by the excellent gameplay mechanics and story being told.

I wish it could run on the Steam Deck, but unfortunately, there's no way to get it working without major compromises that still won't make it stable. Still, if you have a better computer to stream from, this is a great game to enjoy on PC.

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.

Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist was provided by Binary Haze Interactive for review. Thank you!

There's no shortage of Metroidvanias out there these days. Indie studios, in particular, seem to be producing them quickly, so you have to make something special to stand out from the crowd. Does Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist have what it takes? I definitely think so. This sequel to the well-received Ender Lilies is worth your attention if you're looking for a challenging Metroidvania experience.

While Ender Magnolia is a sequel to Ender Lilies, it is set decades in the future. Having never played Ender Lilies myself, I feel like you can play Ender Magnolia as a stand-alone game and still find it wholly enjoyable. Apparently, Ender Lilies is a great game, though, so it might well be worth checking out, too.

In Ender Magnolia, you'll play the role of Lilac, a young "Attuner" who finds herself beneath the surface of a kingdom where "the fumes" have driven the Homunculi (artificial life forms) insane. While the vast majority of Homunculi that you meet truly are insane, some have managed to retain their sanity, such as those found in the underground havens where the last humans in the underground cling to survival.

Lilac, with her ability to Attune, can save certain Homunculi from their madness, which is one of the key gameplay mechanics in Ender Magnolia. Once a player defeats a boss, they can often form a bond with the defeated Homunculi, and they will join your team. Other times, you can simply find Homunculi in the world that have not yet gone insane and will join you on your journey to leave the underground and find out what happened to this kingdom.

This forms the basis of the game's storyline, with each rescued Homunculi boss rewarding the player with a short (often 30-60 second) drawn cutscene that portrays the distant memories of the Homunculi, allowing the player to gather a picture of what life was like before the apocalyptical setting they now find themselves in.

When it comes to the game's combat, Lilac does not participate; rather, she can summon the Homunculi she has saved, who will fight for her, using various skills you can select and unlock, each mapped to a different face button or R1. Although the system might sound strange, you play the game like Lilac is your fighter, and the summons abilities execute immediately. Lilac's position and direction determine where the attack is directed as if she were the fighter herself.

The combat is fluid and, while not particularly fast-paced, can often require quick reaction times to respond to enemy attacks. The game is classed as "souls-like" by many users, and it reasonably fits that description. Getting hit by your standard enemies generally takes 3-4 hits to defeat you, whereas bosses can often defeat you in as little as 2 hits. Thus, recognizing and dodging enemy attacks and patterns is crucial if you want to survive. The game's dodge mechanic provides a small window of invulnerability, which you can use to protect yourself from an attack or simply move far enough away to protect yourself.

Each Homunculi you attune with will offer you a basic skill that you can use, some Homunculi have a basic attack like a sword, others allow you to hold a button and they'll continuously fire for you, another one can be a simple summon that will follow you that is fire-and-forget. However, you can only have 4 Homunculi equipped, and there are more than 4 in the game, so you'll eventually have to pick and choose your desired loadout for your playstyle.

As I'm not particularly skilled, I went with a more "idle" loadout, which favored having a "familiar" summon out and one that simply required holding a button to fire while keeping the beginning "sword" summon, which functions as a basic attack.

You also have healing items that get restocked at resting places dotted around the map, which is perhaps another nod to the "souls-like" genre. Using a healing item takes a couple of seconds, which makes you vulnerable to attack, so like everything else in the combat in Ender Magnolia, you have time to use it well.

As you progress through the game, you'll be able to find items hidden around the map that will let you unlock additional skills for your Homunculi and boost Lilac's health. This rewards exploration and makes it a treat to find hidden items when you can.

Fortunately, the map in Ender Magnolia is laid out well, with areas separated and clearly marked. Pathways between areas are signified with a line. The world is almost on a sort of "grid" where the entrance and exit of a pathway are always on a horizontal or vertical line, meaning if you need to find a way into an area, you can probably get a good idea of where you need to go. This is helpful in a Metroidvania title, especially a reasonably large one like this. You can also fast-travel between all of the "respite" points around the map that you find.

Visually, Ender Magnolia is largely subdued as a Dark Fantasy game. There's plenty of opportunity for OLED users to enjoy inky blacks, though, and on the odd occasion, certain pieces of scenery really stand out with vibrant colors. Despite this, the world blends together well, with the scenery elements detailed and fitting for the environment.

As for the game's sound, it's serviceable. Nothing stands out as far as sound design. Music tracks change per region you're in, and if you've spent a while in a region, you can notice the music getting repetitive. It's largely piano music, which I'm normally a fan of, but certain note patterns start to stick out after a while.

At the end of the day, Ender Magnolia is a Metroidvania that presents players with a challenge, which can be adjusted up and down depending on player skill, as well as having a tight combat system, all set in an interesting and unique world. If you are a fan of Metroidvanias, particularly ones on a larger scale that are more difficult, then Ender Magnolia should go near the top of your list of games to try.

Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist - Steam Deck Performance

Ender Magnolia performs excellently on the Steam Deck, with only a few graphical options at your disposal, and the default settings work just fine for me. The game chooses to disable Anti-Aliasing and keep the Post-Processing and Effects settings on high, which helps save a little bit of power without compromising visual quality, as Anti-Aliasing doesn't do much here. The controls work very well with a gamepad, including the Steam Deck.

A TDP Limit of 7W seemed to suit the game perfectly and gave me a locked 90 FPS framerate during gameplay, which only dropped to around 60 FPS for very brief periods when attuning to creatures, which only happens in cutscenes. If you play at 60 FPS, a TDP Limit of 6W should suffice.

On my Steam Deck OLED, I could run the game at 90 FPS and get a power draw of around 9-11W, or you can lower that to 60 FPS to save a watt of power. Steam Deck OLED users can expect around 4.5 hours of playtime. Steam Deck LCD owners around 3-3.5 hours.

Temperatures generally ranged around 55-60C.

Accessibility:

Ender Magnolia is a difficult game, and it has various difficulty settings you can adjust to make it easier or even harder. You can also disable the camera shake and rebind the controls.

Conclusion:

Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist is a game that Metroidvania fans won't want to miss. The tight, fluid, and challenging combat rewards skill and offers a variety of abilities that can be deployed in various ways to win a battle. Those who like to explore every nook and cranny will find that their thoroughness pays off with secret passages and items hidden away in various parts of the map, giving the adventurous player certain benefits. All of this is topped off with an intriguing story in a dark fantasy setting wrapped in a well-formed world that is as dangerous as it is mysterious.

As if that weren't good enough, the game performs brilliantly on the Steam Deck. The default settings offer great visual quality and a long battery life, and the controls also work perfectly. Ender Magnolia is a great experience on the Steam Deck.

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.

SWORD ART ONLINE Fractured Daydream was provided by Bandai Namco Entertainment for review. Thank you!

SWORD ART ONLINE is a franchise that has divided many. I remember when the anime aired its first episodes, which had a great response. But since then, the franchise has had ups and downs, no more so than in its video game adaptations, which often receive a mediocre response from players. But Fractured Daydream may be a big step up for the series.

It should be noted here that Fractured Daydream is primarily an online title. While you can play offline, you'll only have the game's story mode and miss out on the extra multiplayer-only modes. Also, suppose you choose to play in online mode and lose connection, such as by being inactive for some time or by putting your device in sleep mode and waking it up again. In that case, you will be sent back to the main menu, losing that current mission's progress, even in the single-player story mode.

Approaching Fractured Daydream's story from the viewpoint of someone with minimal experience with SWORD ART ONLINE is a little daunting. The game is designed for fans of the series, and because of that, you'll see references to other pieces of media that you likely won't understand if you aren't versed in the lore. Notably, characters are not introduced, and players are expected to know who they are and their relationship with Kirito, the primary protagonist of the franchise and this game's protagonist.

The game's story mode is structured into many short and sweet missions. They tend to be pretty dialogue-heavy and range in length from around 5 minutes to around 15 minutes. Some are more cutscene than gameplay, but the story is interesting and well-voiced. There is only a Japanese dub available, so there is no English voice acting. The average player will probably take 7-8 hours to play through the story mode.

The storyline involves a new feature being added to the virtual world that has caused a glitch, resulting in mass confusion for the players in the game (including amnesia because this is anime). Odd events begin occurring, such as virtual entities appearing that shouldn't be able to exist in this world. It's up to Kirito and his party to find out what happened and how to fix it.

There are 2 difficulty options, "Normal" and "Easy." However, selecting Easy will limit the kind of loot you can get. Normal is easier anyway, so I wouldn't worry about it. I played through the first chapter of the game without coming close to death, and I'm not exactly an expert at these types of games.

The combat in Fractured Daydream is pretty decent. It follows your usual hack 'n' slash formula, and you can abuse button mashing if you want to. There's no requirement for learning combo moves here. To spice things up, you can alternate between light and heavy attacks with your melee characters, and every character has special abilities that you can fire off by using RB + 1 of the face buttons. You can also use an ultimate ability by pressing RB + R3, which deals massive damage.

The variety here really comes from the different characters in the game. While you may have your favorites, you are forced to play various characters throughout the story mode (you can choose which you want in multiplayer modes). Some characters are ground melee and fight as you might expect a normal warrior to fight. However, other characters can fly, while others use ranged weapons instead, turning the game into a 3rd-person shooter.

All these combine to keep gameplay fresh, which could sometimes become monotonous button-mashing. The story mode constantly switches between weapon types, movement styles, and environments, which keeps things interesting, especially since the game's mission structure is fairly similar throughout. Thankfully, the variety of characters, weapons, and environments, plus the frequent story cutscenes/dialogue mixed with the repetitive mission structure, ease the blow.

The visuals of Fractured Daydream hold up because of its well-translated anime art style. Even at lower settings, the game maintains clarity and appeal. This, combined with well-mixed sound effects and good voice acting, means the presentation leaves a good impression.

The downside to the story mode is the friendly AI. This is one of those games where your NPC allies are there to draw fire from the enemy rather than do anything useful. The damage they deal to enemies and the damage they take is negligible. Don't expect them to do much fighting for you, but on the flip side, you don't have to worry about them dying on you, either. They are also terrible at pathfinding, so they'll usually teleport to you after a while. This means you can be alone in a combat situation until they teleport.

But all we've talked about so far is the story mode. A big feature touted for Fractured Daydream pre-release was its 20-player online battles.

The online play of Fractured Daydream was a lot of fun for me. There are a few different "Quests" that you can embark on, of varying difficulty and location, and on these quests, you'll initially be in a party of 4. Gradually, you'll meet up with 4 other parties to make a combined total of 20 players, at this point, you'll need to face off against the final boss.

It all creates a great sense of cooperation and camaraderie. Even though each party has its score and at the end of the quest, a party will be rated as the "best" party, and you're all still working together to complete the objectives and defeat the boss. It's just plain and simple fun at the end of the day, with no stressing, and no worrying about toxic teammates, this is my kind of online experience. Even if another party member falls, any of the 20 players can revive them, which lets the true cooperative nature shine through.

The only downside to the online game I found was that sometimes the game is overzealous and puts you in a match without 20 human players. Once, the game was matchmaking for nearly 2 minutes, and a full 20-player lobby was found. However, most of my subsequent games only waited around 20-30 seconds, and the player count was usually 5-8 players, meaning some parties were just 1 player. Fortunately, bots will fill empty player slots, and the bots in multiplayer are more competent than the NPCs that "help" you in the story mode.

If you want an even more casual experience, you can go into "free roam" online, which lets you explore a couple of the game's maps with other players. There is also a boss raid mode if that's your cup of tea, although you'll need to play a bit of multiplayer before that unlocks.

SWORD ART ONLINE Fractured Daydream - Steam Deck Performance

Fractured Daydream gets off to a good start. We have proper 1280x800 resolution support, meaning no black bars on the Steam Deck's display, and the game has excellent controller support, which is my preferred way to play it.

We can play with many graphical settings to get the game running as we want, so let's look at my recommended settings.

It's also worth noting that my settings never seemed to save, and when I rebooted the game, the settings would always default to the lowest. I'm unsure if this is a Steam Deck issue where the game is set to always run on the lowest settings on the Steam Deck, but it is annoying.

Recommended Settings - 30 FPS

In SteamOS, I applied a 30 FPS / 60Hz frame limit; there is no TDP limit. As for the in-game settings, we have a solid mix of medium and low across the board to make it look as great as possible while getting as close to a stable 30 FPS.

With these settings, we can have an almost completely stable 30 FPS in story mode. Some levels, such as those with dense foliage or lighting effects, have slight slowdowns. For example, an environment appearing in Chapter 2 drops to 27 FPS a few times during battle, but most environments will not drop from 30 FPS.

One problematic environment appears in Chapter 3. It has fog, which lowers the frame rate to the low 20s. Fortunately, it's a rare environment, and the combat areas tend to have less fog. However, this environment does appear in online play in some quests, which can cause issues there.

A Note on Online Play:

Sadly, my favorite part of the game, the online part, is the worst performing, and you'll want to turn Shadows down to "Low" to disable them. I also set my Resolution Scaling to 80%, which mitigated most of the dips in the frame rate. Even with shadows off and the 80% Scaling, you'll still see dips into the mid-20s when all 20 players are fighting a common enemy.

The saving grace here is that Fractured Daydream is not a game you "try hard" at. It's a reasonably casual experience, so even if you drop some frames, it isn't the end of the world, and it's unlikely to cause you to mess up or miss an attack, as the game is fairly forgiving.

Also, note that this isn't every map. The forest maps are often intensive. However, other maps, especially indoor ones, run at a constant 30 FPS, even online.

Power Draw & Temperature:

Power draw in the story mode often ranged between 13-18W, with some maps hitting 20-22W on very intensive moments. The online mode tends to stick towards the top end of these ranges. I saw mostly 16-22W during online play, with spikes to 24W. If you're playing story mode, expect 2.5 hours of battery from a Steam Deck LCD and 3 hours from a Steam Deck OLED. Online, you can knock 30 minutes off of each of those.

Temperatures are generally around 65-75C. In the environments that tax the Steam Deck, you can see temperatures up to 80C. The fan occasionally ramps up, but it isn't too bad.

Accessibility:

You have a few accessibility options in Fractured Daydream. Namely, you can have an aim assist for ranged weapons, disable the screen shake, adjust camera sensitivity, and whether the camera controls are inverted.

You can also enable English Voice-Overs when players use quick commands in multiplayer, like pinging. This will ensure that the characters speak in English instead of Japanese when giving instructions.

Conclusion:

SWORD ART ONLINE Fractured Daydream has a crowd that it caters to and caters to that crowd well, in my opinion. The story mode is designed with SWORD ART ONLINE fans in mind, with references to numerous anime story arcs and characters appearing with sound cues that signify that their presence is significant. Sadly, why their presence is significant isn't conveyed in the game, so your poor reviewer (who isn't an SAO fan) had to go look at a wiki to find out why this person appearing is such a big deal!

Fortunately, for non-SAO fans, the storyline is generally decent, the concept of SAO is easy enough to grasp, and you can sort of figure out what's going on as the story progresses. The gameplay also doesn't disappoint, with over-the-top visual effects firing off in every direction, making you feel like you're using weapons of mass destruction on that spider-looking thing about the size of a large dog.

Performance on Steam Deck is middling, and while the story mode largely runs well, you do have to put up with some pixelation due to the resolution scaling if you want somewhat stable performance in online play. However, the game is fully playable on the Steam Deck, with great controls and acceptable performance.

If you are a SWORD ART ONLINE fan, I don't think it would be a stretch to say that Fractured Daydream might be the best SWORD ART ONLINE video game yet.

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.

Cat Quest 3 was provided by Kepler Interactive for review. Thank you!

This review used an LCD Steam Deck. OLED details will be coming later.

I have seen the Cat Quest games around for the past few years, but never actually took the time to play one. Well, with Cat Quest 3, I finally got my chance. And I have to say, what a delightful little Adventure/RPG this game is.

Cat Quest 3 is technically an action RPG, but it kind of feels like an action RPG lite. It's very easygoing, with level-ups simply increasing your stats automatically and occasionally unlocking a new equipment slot. There aren't as many items or abilities as you might expect. Instead, the game opts for a system where getting a duplicate item raises the level of the item, making it more powerful.

While this simplicity and a smaller concentration of items might be perceived as negative in some games, I feel like it works to its benefit. It condenses the feeling of an RPG into a small and delightful bundle. The map is smaller than most RPGs you'll play, there are fewer items, and you won't be sitting there trying to figure out if you should put your points into strength or dexterity.

Despite this, the game still feels deep. You have limited equipment slots for gear, magic, and ship upgrades, meaning that even though there are only a few of each, you still need to decide which ones you want to use. Each piece of gear also generally gives a stat boost, so you can "spec" into health, defense, attack strength, or magical ability, so there are some adjustments you can make to suit your playstyle.

As I previously said, the game world isn't overly large. I'm unfamiliar with the previous 2 Cat Quest games to know how big their worlds are, but in Cat Quest 3, you can sail your ship from one end of the archipelago to the other in around a minute.

Cat Quest 3 is a pirate game, unlike the previous 2 games, which had a more typical fantasy RPG setting. You can get in and out of your ship at any time, and your gameplay will be a fairly balanced mix of using your ship to travel and fight other ships and walking around on the many islands in the game.

While most of the fighting is done in paw-to-paw combat, you get a ranged weapon, which can be good as an initial strike as they tend to be high-damage. Occasionally, you will find it's best to use your ship to bombard a strong enemy from range or deal with a pesky ship that's causing you problems.

It's not all about the combat, though; littered across the archipelago are its residents, many of whom are looking for help to complete their quests. The game is called Cat Quest 3, after all! These quests can be simple, such as carrying an item from Point A to Point B, or it could be to defeat a certain enemy or find a hidden treasure somewhere. The quests are nearly always on the shorter side, and even the "fetch" quests in the game aren't too troublesome due to that fact.

Many of the islands in the game are also home to puzzles and caves. The puzzles often involve magical rocks, and you have to work out what they want from you each time. Some require you to hit them in order, some require you to hit them in quick succession, etc.

Caves are Cat Quest 3's version of dungeons. They often contain enemies and/or obstacles for you to work through, and at the end, you will likely encounter some treasure, either in the form of a lot of gold and XP or a piece of equipment you can use. Much like the rest of the game, they are shorter and can usually be completed in 5 minutes or less.

There aren't many negative things I can say about Cat Quest 3. It sets out to be a simplified, cozy, relaxing Action RPG, and it does just that. If I were to pick out an issue I found with the game, it's mostly a bit directionless. Different islands in the archipelago have enemies of different levels, and it can be difficult to determine the next island you should visit. I often found myself visiting 2 or 3 high-level islands and almost dying before finding an island I could handle at my current level. That being said, the game is generally easier if you stick to the correct islands.

The story also feels a little flat. Information is clearly kept from the player from the outset, but this is one area where I feel like the simplified approach didn't help. Things just aren't really explained all that much. The protagonist's being entirely silent also doesn't help matters here, either.

These are fairly small complaints; however, Cat Quest 3 is all about how the game feels and plays, and you can tell that not much emphasis is on the story.

Cat Quest III - Steam Deck Performance

Cat Quest 3 is about as simple as you like when setting it up on the Steam Deck. It defaults to the Steam Deck's native 1280x800 resolution, and the controls work perfectly. The game plays best on a gamepad.

Because of this, I only have one preset.

Recommended Settings - 60 FPS

In your SteamOS settings, set an FPS Limit of 60 FPS / 60Hz and then we'll lower the TDP Limit down to 5W.

There are few graphical settings for Cat Quest 3, just Resolution and Draw Distance. In this case, the Resolution should already be set to 1280x800, but the Draw Distance was set to about half for me. So bump that up to the highest level as well.

Using these settings, the game almost always ran at a locked 60 FPS for me. There are occasional stutters, but nothing egregious. There's not much else to say, really!

The Steam Deck LCD's power draw stays pretty low, hovering around 8-10W generally, but you can see increases to 11W in "intensive" areas, such as when fog appears. So expect the Steam Deck LCD to get a good 4 hours of battery life and the Steam Deck OLED to get around 5 hours.

Temperatures mostly stuck to about 60C, occasionally creeping close to 65C but never exceeding it.

If you really want to save battery life, you can play the game at 30 FPS with a 3W TDP Limit. However, the power draw still stays at about 8W, so you might get an extra 30-40 minutes of battery life, which isn't really worth it to drop from 60 FPS to 30 FPS.

Accessibility:

Sadly, Cat Quest 3's lack of options extends to accessibility options. Other than rebindable controls, there are really no accessibility options. All dialogue is subtitled, though. The game also has an "Easy" mode.

Conclusion:

Cat Quest 3 is an appropriately fuzzy-feeling experience. Action-RPG-Lite feels like the perfect label for this game. It's accessible, fun, and about as carefree as you can make a game like this. Children and adults should have no trouble enjoying this game, and it could be ideal for a parent and child to play together.

The game isn't too long, likely following the previous two games, with around 10-12 hours of content here. But for the good times you'll have and the reasonable price tag ($19.99 at the time of writing), Cat Quest 3 is definitely a game I can recommend.

It runs great on the Steam Deck, too. It has a perfect control scheme and very low power draw, meaning you can easily get in long play sessions or hook it up to an external display to play at a higher resolution for some local co-op. Cat Quest 3 deserves our "Best on Deck" rating.

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.

Enshrouded was provided by Keen Games for review. Thank you!

This game was tested with a Steam Deck LCD. OLED testing is coming soon.

Enshrouded is a curious game. It seemed to launch into Early Access with a bang, and yet I had somehow never heard of the game before it launched and was suddenly being mentioned everywhere. The privilege fell to me to try and get this sudden sensation running well on the Steam Deck, and I couldn't wait to see it for myself.

At first glance, Enshrouded seems like a more visually detailed version of Valheim, and in some ways, it is. It takes place in a very large open world, with the ability to construct bases out of various materials and building parts you scavenge, go exploring, craft furniture, weapons, and armor, and defeat various enemies throughout the many biomes.

I like the building system. You can choose from only a few building blocks for each material type, but you can also choose what size you want. This allows you to create structures with more intricate details in them. The structures also snap together well and can alter appearance slightly depending on what structure pieces are placed next to them, making it all fit together.

The combat is another plus point and is probably the most fleshed-out part of the game so far. The combat leans more towards the tougher side, and when you're at a low level, most enemies will kill you in 2-3 hits. This means learning to dodge and parry attacks is essential. The movement system allows you to maneuver fluidly while engaged, feeling similar to soulslike combat.

You have a variety of weapons you can use, from melee to ranged, and although it's frustrating when you die to an enemy and respawn at your base, the penalties applied aren't harsh.

Enshrouded is still in Early Access, and it's fairly obvious to see why. Although the open world is vast and sometimes beautiful, the world is quite empty. There are specific places you are guided to when on a quest, but a lot of the world feels barren currently. While playing, I didn't encounter any friendly NPCs besides ones that can work on your base. It feels like a shame that there aren't friendly villages/towns you can encounter, and I hope something like that is planned for the future.

Another thing that frustrated me is that digging with a pickaxe, for example, can alter terrain by mining. I thought, "Wow, what an awesome feature," but when I quit the game and reloaded my save, all the terrain editing and rocks had returned to their previous state. I understand this might be done to create infinite resources for players, maybe even to prevent grief, but having the feature present and not permanent makes me think they might as well not have had it present.

This is a bit of a common theme, sadly. Whenever you log off and back on, all the enemy and neutral animal spawns restart. Enemies always appear to spawn in the same locations, meaning there's no sense of surprise. You KNOW a wolf will spawn over by those trees, that a group of enemies will be by that ruin. It would make sense if this was a single-player RPG, perhaps, but on a game designed to be played on a dedicated server for 16 players, it feels very strange at how "scripted" and static it can feel.

Enshrouded is an Early Access title, and features can change. From a fairly empty open world to some curious design choices, the game has its issues. But does it have potential? Given that the developers have created a game engine from the ground up to make this game, they're in it for the long haul, and Enshrouded could become a fantastic title once it gets fleshed out with more content and polish, a game to watch for sure!

Enshrouded - Steam Deck Performance

Enshrouded gets the basics right for the Steam Deck, it has full controller support for both menus and gameplay, and it supports 16:10 resolutions, including 1280x800 which is the Deck's native resolution.

However, things start to fall apart a little when we get to performance. The developers have stated that optimization is one of their key concerns right now, as even players using GPUs such as the RTX 3080 have reported difficulties playing the game at decent graphical settings. Unfortunately, that means, for now, at least, Steam Deck users need to make heavy compromises to make Enshrouded "Playable."

Recommended Settings - 30 FPS

Start by setting a 30 FPS lock in your SteamOS settings, and removing any TDP limit, we'll need all the power we can get.

In the in-game display settings, set your resolution to 1280x800 (Native), adjust the Resolution Scale to 65% (520p), and then select the "Max Performance" Quality Preset to set all other settings to their lowest. Ensure FSR2 is your selected Anti-Aliasing method and FSR2 Quality is set to Performance.

Because we're able to run at 800p and just use the resolution scale, we get to keep a crisp UI with readable text, only the gameplay is reduced in resolution. Performance is mostly steady, often holding 30 FPS, with occasional dips into the high 20s, usually in combat or heavily forested areas, with some minor stuttering.

Battery drain depends on where you are. It can be anywhere from 20-24W but tends to lean towards the higher end of that range. As such, I wouldn't expect more than 90 minutes of battery life while playing Enshrouded. Temperatures tended to stay around 75-80C, so it runs a little on the hot side, but that's to be expected given that this game pushes both the CPU and GPU.

Whether this represents a "playable" experience is up for debate. As you can see from the images, the low-resolution scale makes for a very soft image. I would use the Deck as a "secondary" device, where I can log on and do some quick resource gathering or base building but not take on major quest lines or serious combat, as a sudden drop in performance could easily lead to unnecessary death and frustration.

Accessibility:

Enshrouded doesn't offer too much in the way of accessibility. There are a few options in the accessibility menu. Most of these are related to how the camera moves, such as removing camera swaying and shaking. There's also an option to add symbols to item rarity, so the rarity isn't just defined by a color, which would be helpful for those with color blindness.

Conclusion:

Enshrouded is a bit rough around the edges as of writing this review, but it has the potential to be one of the best survival sandbox games out there. Given the effort the developers have put in to lay the groundwork and the positive reception they've already received, I'm hoping they'll stick by this game and keep improving it until it's a great experience. The combat and base building are pretty much there, but exploring the world feels a little unrewarding right now, and some elements of the game feel very static when a more dynamic approach would have been appropriate.

As for how it runs on the Steam Deck, I'm undecided as to whether or not this is a "playable" game. Before this review was written, Valve declared the game as "Unsupported" on the Deck due to performance issues. Perhaps the game receiving this grading will encourage the developers even more to optimize the game. With a little optimization here and there, we could easily achieve a solid 30 FPS experience and maybe up that resolution, scaling a notch or two.

This game is one to watch, but I'd skip it now if you want to play primarily on the Deck.

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.

Touhou: New World was provided by XSEED Games and OnePR for review. Thank you!

Dive back into the world of Touhou in this fan-made bullet-hell RPG. In Touhou: New World, the boundary between Gensokyo and the outside world have been breached and now, it is up to Reimu and Marisa to discover why. Take down enemies, level up skills, forge equipment, and explore to unravel the mystery as to why the barriers have broken and save Gensokyo, the outside world, and beyond!

Touhou: New World is a fan-game made by Ankake Spa, the same team that created Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity, and while there are some improvements across the board, there are some issues that keep the game from hitting all the marks. Starting with the good, the world is vibrant and colorful with an interesting narrative. The gameplay is tight as well, offering an experience that was regularly challenging, especially at boss fights. It was also a great design to have a healing ability that only had a cooldown and didn't have limited uses. I had a good time during these moments and that's where I felt the game really shine.

Ultimately, the experience is a button-mash though, only really getting to some strategy and needing to expand your arsenal past the "X" button in boss battles. There isn't a lot of enemy variety and I can't say I am a fan of the small slowdowns whenever an enemy is hit. It got me a couple of times thinking the game was slowing down, but in reality, it was supposed to highlight the impacts. The gameplay loop is also a bit on the simple side, so if you are an avid top-down action RPG player, this may get a bit boring in the long-run.

I had an overall good experience, but I wouldn't call it essential. If you enjoy bullet-hell games and want a vibrant one with simple RPG mechanics, this will be one for you. It can be a lot of fun, especially during the boss battles, but it can feel a bid tedious outside of them. Luckily, if you do decide to play, doing so on the Steam Deck will be a good time!

Touhou: New World - Steam Deck Performance

First thing to get out of the way, Touhou: New World's graphics settings are in their own little launcher window called "Boot config", which is a serious pain. While it isn't the end of the world, having the settings integrated into the game is a night and day difference and really should be standard. I also noticed that the game can really only be played at 60 and any framerates below don't feel right.

Outside of that, playing the game can be relatively easy, especially if battery life isn't a concern. But if it is, then the recommended build will be just for you.

Recommended Build

Setting the quality to medium, SSAO off, and a TDP limit of 8, we can get a smooth 60 FPS that has a nice 12W - 15W drain, which will give around a 3 hour battery. There were some minor spots where the game dipped below, but it was primarily loading in new parts of the level and not during any specific spots of gameplay or boss battles. This was the best way to experience the game without draining your battery!

Quality Build

The game defaults to the highest settings and it can be played this way without a TDP limit! Expect drain that can go up to 21W, but if you are fine with that, then no compromises need to be made to enjoy the game at 60 FPS at the highest quality settings.

The game doesn't have 16:10 support, so there will be black bars, but it does have full controller and cloud save support. Interestingly, the game seems to use Steam Input, but it has an option in the config to enable it and labels it as experimental. This may lead to conflicts, but the biggest one I had was it didn't show when I took a screenshot, even when it did.

Conclusion

Touhou: New World is an interesting, vibrant bullet-hell that shines when you are locked in energetic, challenging combat with bosses. There are light RPG elements thrown in here to round things out, but at some points it feels a bit on the simple side. Fans of the series will enjoy this game, but avid action-RPG fans may feel this is a bit too simple. Thankfully, playing this game on the Steam Deck is quite easy to do, though having the graphics settings in its own window away from being in-game is not ideal at all.

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.