The game was provided by Koei Tecmo for review. Thank you!
Despite being a big baby, I always tend to find myself playing and enjoying horror games. My favorites are generally ones that lean into psychological horror over jump scares, like Visage and Layers of Fear. However, Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Remake has flipped the script. With a balance of atmosphere and jump scares, I found myself enchanted and horrified, as well as frustrated, but I still enjoyed my time with it.
Fatal Frame 2 Remake is…well, a remake of Fatal Frame 2. The game originally released on the PS2 in 2003, and was later remade for the Wii in 2012, making this the second remake of the game. However, the visuals have been massively overhauled, we have a more refined third-person viewpoint, new side stories have been added, some new mechanics, a new ending, and more. There's enough here that even veterans of the original game should find a worthwhile reason to come back.
If there’s one thing Fatal Frame 2 Remake nails right off the bat, it’s atmosphere. The gorgeous new visuals mix extremely well with the ambient atmosphere and sounds to make this creepy, ghost-ridden town actually feel haunted. I generally don’t like jump scare horror, generally preferring psychological horror that doesn’t get in your face, but this game uses it in such a unique way that I couldn’t help but enjoy it. Of course, the environment is creepy in its own right, so it’s kind of a combination of both that work in tandem to complete the experience.
This extends to the story as well. You play as Mio, who is almost constantly searching for her twin, Mayu, in Minakami Village, where they stumbled upon. Ultimately, the two of them get caught up in a weird story, filled with wraiths trying to get them, and a ritual that the two of them are slowly being coerced into completing. Armed with the Camera Obscura, a special camera that can capture (an attack) ghosts, Mio will have to find a way out and save her sister. The story hooked me in way more than I expected in the beginning, and it held my attention all the way through thanks to the interesting premise and side stories that gave me some extra insight into other people who have been caught up in this village nightmare.
On top of that, I was interested enough to keep playing and discover the multiple endings in the game. There aren't many games that can convince me to come back and play again, but Fatal Frame 2 did, and it earned my respect.
Now, as much as I enjoyed playing the game, I could not fully enjoy the gameplay. There are some fun moments, especially once you fully get used to using the Camera Obscura, but I regularly found it frustrating. When I used the right film and captured ghosts with all the focal points for maximum damage, it felt great. But, I also regularly missed, or ghosts moved as soon as I snapped a picture, or some would just disappear and reappear inside a wall I was standing next to, and quickly come out and attack me. This got way worse when trying to attack multiple ghosts coming at me at the same time. It was already difficult to manage one, especially without Type-90 film, so adding another was an extra special burden.
Still, when it works, it’s a really cool idea that has its upsides. The camera acts like a gun, allowing us to attack ghosts using different kinds of film we find throughout the world. By lining up our shot, taking into account zoom and focus, we can hit more focal points and maximize our damage. All the film we find has different power and reload speeds, and while you may think high power would be the best, using low power and fast reload speeds (Type-14) regularly became my go-to. We can stun ghosts as they are attacking to stagger them and possibly deal significant damage, so faster reloading meant more chance to stagger.
We will also have to manage both our health and willpower. The willpower acts similarly to the armor in DOOM, where if you have it, ghosts won’t take your health down as much until it’s gone. However, you can also use willpower to use special shots with different effects, which don’t take up any film. It’s very handy when you have to use film that takes forever to reload.
Then, we have different filters, which have their own uses in and out of combat. They all have their own effect on power and reload speeds, and can interact with the world, showing us paths that people have walked in the past or even exposing hidden areas or objects in the village. Picking and choosing the right filter and film for each situation will help immensely, and it’s easy to switch between them to make it happen. I did accidentally switch film a couple of times, which restarts the reload process and leads to my death more than once, so that wasn’t great.
Regardless, there was this uniqueness to the system that compelled me enough to keep coming back. Is the combat frustrating? Absolutely. Has it led to my death more than once, where I felt it was on the unfair side? For sure. But I still wanted to keep coming back and try to get better. Not only that, the camera just adds to the horror.
It was frustrating, obnoxious, and downright rage-inducing in combat, but the Camera Obscura adds so much to the experience that I find it hard not to call it compelling. The horror level felt higher when I was in combat because of the limited view, and I love how it can be used to interact with the world. It’s a very clear love-hate relationship, but no matter how tough it could make my life, it still won me over.
Throughout the village, there will be items to find. These can range from usable items to replenish health or Prayer Beads to upgrade our camera and filters. There’s even a point system that awards you points based on how good your pictures are, and you can redeem them for items or charms that can be equipped for passive bonuses. And if you can find twin dolls throughout the village, the variety of items you can purchase will increase. It would have been nice to find more Prayer Beads earlier on, but the upgrades were worthwhile (for the most part). And using the point system to stock up on items was very helpful.
Fatal Frame 2 Remake may be based on a PS2 game, but the enhancements have made it a little bit tough to run on the Steam Deck. The game defaults to standard settings with FSR2 upscaling, but we still won’t be able to get a solid 30 FPS throughout. Almost every cutscene has frame rate drops, sometimes going down to the 15 range. Regular gameplay will largely stick to 30, but there were some drops when running around Minakami Village.
However, we can turn down the settings to help with performance during the gameplay sections. By switching the preset to “Best Performance”, we can get a near-solid 30 FPS when running around the village. There are some sacrifices in visual quality, including some lighting and shadows, and there will be some noticeable pop-in from buildings and foliage, but it will run better. I wouldn’t say it hurts the experience too much, but it is a noticeable change that affects the world and makes it slightly less scary.
However, there will still be drops here and there. Even with the TDP limit gone, there will still be moments where framerate can fluctuate more than I would like. I would consider the game playable, but there are definitely considerations that need to be made in terms of visual quality and stability.
Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Remake does so many things right, and even the mechanics that give me nightmares turned out to be high points in my experience. The atmosphere and setting are creepy, and the great use of jump scares, camera angles, and an engaging story heightened the horror I felt deep within. The use of the Camera Obscura to interact with the world is great, and it ups the horror factor more than I expected, but the combat can be extremely frustrating to the point that I had to take breaks. Still, I always felt compelled to come back, and I am glad I did.
I was a little disappointed with the performance on the Steam Deck, and the compromises to visuals necessary for a stable framerate did take away some of the creepiness. Still, with these changes, I would consider it playable and enjoyable, just not to the extent that the game can offer.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Resident Evil Requiem was provided by Capcom for review. Thank you!
Since I can remember, Resident Evil has been a consistent series I have always come back to. Even with more controversial titles, like Resident Evil 6, I have been a long-time fan. Then, we have the soft reboot with Resident Evil 7, which brought the series back to its horror roots in a new way, and Resident Evil 8, which took more inspiration from Resident Evil 4 and included more action. Now, the next mainline entry in the series, Resident Evil Requiem, is here, seeking to combine the elements of the previous two games into a dual-protagonist story that will be a joy to fans of the series.
Requiem gets us started quickly. We start off with Grace, who goes to investigate the hotel where her mother, Alyssa Ashcroft (from Resident Evil Outbreak), was killed. This gets her abducted and brought to a facility that has been overrun by infected. At the same time, series veteran Leon S. Kennedy is investigating deaths related to the survivors of the Raccoon City incident in 1998 and will ultimately cross paths with Grace at this very facility. As their stories intertwine, they will learn about how they are connected, what Dr. Victor Gideon is after, and the secrets behind Elpis.
Throughout the game, we will be swapping between the two, completing the compelling story from different viewpoints. The narrative itself was a treat, and for fans of the series, the multitude of surprises with the return of Raccoon City is going to be extremely fulfilling. I was jumping out of my seat as we made it back to Raccoon City, letting waves of nostalgia rush over me. This was a feeling I felt more often than I expected in Requiem, and it will be apparent why for those familiar with the series.
I enjoyed the swapping between Grace and Leon in the second half of the game, but the first half felt forced. There were multiple moments where we played as Grace for 1 hour, then switched to Leon for 5 minutes, and then back to Grace for another hour. I wouldn’t say it harmed the story or pacing, but it would have been more fluid if maybe we just played as Grace and skipped the couple of minute sections with Leon.
Grace and Leon also have wildly different mechanics between them, giving us two styles of gameplay that wouldn’t normally mix. Grace takes on the RE7 mechanics, focusing more on sneaking around, avoiding enemies, and completing puzzles in first-person. She is not built for killing, and getting cornered by just one zombie can be the death of us. It all makes sense given that she is a younger FBI agent who hasn’t had to face the horrors from previous outbreaks.
Luckily, we do have a couple of extra tools at our disposal to help. We do have a gun in case of emergency, and it’s really the only gun she will be using, but it will alert the infected to the sound it makes. So, to get around that, we can find broken bottles to throw and create diversions, along with Hemolytic Injectors that we can use to stealth-kill infected. The maps in Requiem are more open or have more pathways, which gives us ample opportunity to get by without killing, if we play our cards right.
Crafting also makes a return in a new, weirder way. We utilize this new type of technology where we can collect blood and combine it with scrap to create items like handgun ammo and injectors. It’s an odd system, but finding enough blood on the ground to absorb and craft with was almost never an issue.
Apart from that, we don’t have many ways we can upgrade Grace or her gun. We can find some Antique Coins to unlock some upgrades, like a Hip Pouch and stabilizer to increase our firepower slightly, but that’s about it. I like this minimal approach to Grace’s progression, and it makes a lot of sense in the context of who she is and what she’s capable of.
As for Leon, he is essentially the polar opposite. He’s a seasoned fighter with a gameplay style that matches his mechanics in RE4. He goes around killing infected left and right, using a wealth of guns, like his pistol, shotgun, or rifle, and his trusty new hatchet, in third-person. We will be disposing of zombies left and right in brutal fashion with plenty of ammo to go around. The action will be consistent and utilize his expertise in hand-to-hand combat and shooting that he has gathered from years and years of fighting against bioterrorism.
Some of his previous mechanics return, like melee attacks that can knock back or kill zombies, but we have some new moves in the arsenal that are greatly appreciated. Most of these revolve around his new hatchet, which can be used to decapitate some zombies that need it and parry attacks. It does have durability and will need to be sharpened from time to time, but it’s extremely useful against the more mutated zombies that start to pose a bigger threat (and lead to some awesome action scenes). We can also interact with larger weapons around the environment, like throwing makeshift spears, swinging large axes, and picking up chainsaws to attack whatever zombies are around us. And it’s all integrated nicely into the flow of combat, which is a treat.
With that in mind, zombies also tend to be a little smarter than usual in Requiem. Those makeshift weapons that I just mentioned? Well, zombies can pick up, use, and throw them as well. Some of them can come out of the ground, while others can play dead and grab us as we walk by them. They are still zombies and exhibit the usual characteristics zombies have, but I did find them marginally more challenging than in previous games. These zombies may also exhibit characteristics from when they were alive and be affected by light and sound, which will mostly affect Grace as she is stealthily moving around them, but it also affects Leon.
Requiem aims to balance both of these staple Resident Evil gameplay styles through Grace and Leon, and it does well. In a way, it feels like a swan song, showing the greatest hits of the different eras of the series. Grace’s emphasis on stealth and great level design to allow us to make combat optional drives up the horror element as we try to get through with limited resources. Leon goes all in on combat, reliving his glorious Resident Evil 4 days, with action-packed sequences, intense camera angles of zombies being smashed, and blood flying everywhere.
I also appreciate that it offers options to modify the playthrough how we want to, with a big nod to allowing us to change camera angles for Grace and Leon. We can choose whether we want first or third person, which is another nice nod to the newer and older styles of gameplay through Resident Evil past. I can't say I recommend changing them, the default angles fit perfectly for their respective gameplay, but I do appreciate the option.
Unfortunately, we were not able to get a PC review code of Requiem before launch, so we will have our full recommendations for settings a day or two after release. However, you can check out some early impressions from our guest contributor on how it is running in the early areas of the game.
Resident Evil Requiem finds a way to bring the newer and older gameplay styles that have defined the franchise into an exceptionally enjoyable experience that is perfect for fans of the series. The meshing of Grace's slower, stealthier gameplay with Leon's action-packed killing works wonderfully, giving us the best of both worlds. Combined with an exciting story with some fantastic twists and turns and a gorgeous setting with recognizable locations, Requiem stands above its minor issues to become one of my favorite survival horror experiences I’ve played.
Our review is based on the PS5 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.
REANIMAL was provided by THQ Nordic for review. Thank you!
I remember way back in the day when I first played Little Nightmares. I was captivated by the gorgeous, surreal world with larger-than-life proportions, portraying some of our deepest fears in glorious, creepy ways. While the developers were replaced for Little Nightmares 3, the original developers, Tarsier Studios, went ahead with their own vision for the evolution of their horror series they created. Now, their game, REANIMAL, is here, and it shows that Tarsier hasn't lost their step one bit, and they ultimately created one of my favorite atmospheric experiences I have played this year.
REANIMAL's setting goes in a very different direction than what they have done before. With Little Nightmares, we were running around in a surreal world where everything was much larger than normal, and everything felt off. With this game, we get a more life-like world where the proportions of the environment are more in line with realistic standards, relying more on the deteriorating world and horrifying monsters that lurk around.
I love this change, and I can say with certainty that this is where REANIMAL shines brightest. The haunting world and atmosphere, coupled with the design of the characters and mutilated humanoids that try to capture you, elevate the experience wonderfully. The world, filled with crumbling cities, sprawling forests, and neon-lit cinemas, is one we have to navigate slowly, which lets the carefully crafted surroundings shine.
There were certain camera angles that just felt near-perfect, giving this haunting cinematic vibe. The way the camera perfectly pans backwards as we are moving our mine cart into the mine, getting the trees around slightly illuminated with the deep dark cave engulfing us, gave me chills. Add in the dim lighting that comes from our characters, and it becomes a spectacle on the eyes that is hard to look away from, no matter how much I want to.
The story, while short, gives off a similarly haunting vibe, though it didn't captivate me as much as I had hoped it would. We play as siblings who go back to their hell to rescue their friends who previously weren't able to escape with them. We will have to rely on each other to survive the horrors of the island, save our friends, and hopefully survive to make it off the island once again.
While the ending wasn't what I expected, and didn't give me the resolution I hoped for, the journey to get there was interesting. I wouldn't say the story is one to write home about, but it upped the creepiness factor as I made my way throughout the island to discover what was actually going on. It was equally unnerving, with the feeling of malice seeping through every inch of whatever we had to do.
The gameplay is very similar to Little Nightmares as well, which helps drive home how much of a spiritual successor this is. We will run around locations, trying to keep moving forward by completing puzzles and avoiding monsters. There will be a lot of interaction with the world, whether it be tools like crowbars to open doors or picking up objects to throw and break windows, or crouching behind objects or under tables to avoid lurkers trying to capture us.
However, the world is more open, with a larger emphasis on decent-sized 3D planes instead of smaller 2.5D-like sections, which feels unlike Little Nightmares. This lends itself nicely to some of the chasing sequences, or leading to one of my favorite moments early game, when we are driving a car and have to escape from the slithering man. It also helps the world feel more cohesive. In Little Nightmares, each area felt like going from one stage after another, but for the most part, I feel like I am going from one connected area to another in REANIMAL.
I expected the game to feel a lot like Tarsier's previous games, and while I still did enjoy it, I couldn't help but find myself wanting something more. In most cases, it feels like Tarsier played it very safe to what they know, and I wish they had gone a little further. It's not that REANIMAL is bad, and it is a great horror game, but I wanted to see something that stands out more.
When it comes to REANIMAL on the Steam Deck, it is playable, but it's a little difficult to find the best settings. It reacts oddly when changing them, especially when it comes to turning on and off Nanite. I had encountered issues where I had turned it on, then turned it off by changing the overall quality setting. I had to set Nanite to "On" to actually turn it off. However, I would say it's still doable, and we can improve it without many sacrifices.
The other oddity I found is when limiting the framerate. Without any limiter, some scenes will run at 35 FPS max with 23W battery drain at our recommended settings, but with a 30 FPS limit, it will bring the drain down to 12W. Such a drastic change in battery life for the framerate difference is odd to me, so it must be putting a cap on another issue to make the battery drain go down so much. Still, for a game like this, I think a 30 FPS cap is more than okay.
No matter what the settings are, though, there will be some drops when loading in new models or scenes. These can happen quite frequently, and there will be some stutters and slowdowns for about 2-3 seconds each time. It's not the end of the world, but it does happen frequently enough to be mentioned.
REANIMAL is a beautiful game, and horror games like this tend to be best when they look as good as they can. So, with my recommended settings, I wanted to push visuals as much as I could while balancing battery life.
Through my testing, I found that Post Processing is the biggest resource sucker. It does make sense why, there are some big changes in visual quality in some scenes that make them look darker and more atmospheric, but it can cause a lot of drops. However, by turning it down to Low, we can basically put every other setting on Medium or High, we can even turn Nanite on, and it won't drain as much. It's pretty crazy to see such a change all come from Post Processing, but for a stable framerate, we will need to keep it on Low.
Even when setting Post Processing to Medium and everything else to Low, it will suck the Deck's resources more than any other setting, so I would say keeping it to Low is going to be best for the Deck. But with the 30 FPS cap, we can get around 3.5-4 hours of gameplay at a stable framerate, which is great.
There are also some settings we can change, including language, subtitles, vibration, and audio settings. However, that's about it, as there isn't any dedicated accessibility tab.
The game doesn't support 16:10 resolutions, but it does have cloud saves and controller support. There are no HDR settings.
REANIMAL is a fantastic horror game from the Little Nightmare veterans. The atmosphere and world are wonderfully crafted with a disturbing story and creepy characters. The gameplay differences help it stand out, though it still feels a little too close to home in some cases, but that doesn't detract from how great an experience the game is as a whole. This is a horror game worth adding to your library, especially if you are a fan of Little Nightmares.
And while it's weird on the Steam Deck, it's still very playable and enjoyable. We do have to sacrifice the Post Processing, which adds to the game's atmosphere, but it isn't the end of the world. We can put almost everything else on "High", get a stable 30 FPS, and survive the horrors with a good-looking experience 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.
SLEEP AWAKE was provided by Blumhouse Games for review. Thank you!
I love horror games, especially when they feel largely unique in a way I have never seen before. However, most horror games tend to follow similar patterns, and while there can be new stories, it's almost never fully new experiences that make me do a double-take. However, SLEEP AWAKE does. It has a premise that I have really never seen before, while also creating a world that I found intoxicating in its crazy weirdness. It ultimately creates an experience that I fell in love with, and I can't help but recommend playing through.
The biggest hook of SLEEP AWAKE has to be its story, which almost immediately hooked me. Basically, whenever people fall asleep, this evil force, the Hush, will make you disappear. So, it’s either find ways to stay awake, which includes taking drugs and hallucinating your way through life, or letting yourself be taken. This has led to the world deteriorating, cults popping up, and an overzealous police force senselessly killing people they deem threats.
I’ve never seen a premise like this one before, and I love it. I would say most people would deem sleep as a blessing, but in this world, sleep is essentially death. That’s what our protagonist, Katja, comes in. We have to survive, basically solving puzzles to keep herself awake, while also figuring out what she will have to do next to ensure her survival, even at the cost of her own sanity.
And boy, is that sanity tested. The game is marketed as a psychedelic experience, and I’d consider that a little bit of an understatement. With how we are hallucinating and going in and out of sleep and dreams, or just putting on our sketchy eye drops, the world will morph randomly. Hands can come out of walls, lights can change on a dime, we can be walking one minute and then floating through bedframes into these hexagons to put the shadows of people who have been taken by the Hush to rest, and much more. I wouldn’t necessarily consider it a traditional horror experience, but it is thrilling, creepy, and unnerving all the same.
I also want to commend the use of real footage instead of relying only on digital. Because the game teeters on the cusp of dreams and reality, the splicing of real-life footage drives home the surrealistic aspects of SLEEP AWAKE, which only improve the overall experience.
Despite some awkward dialogue delivery from some of the voice actors from time to time, SLEEP AWAKE's story felt unique and captured its own horror-filled essence. The reliance on psychedelic scenery and vibrant changes makes sense within the context of the game, and it's implemented well enough not to get old. The scenery just oozes charm and creepiness, from the broken-down apartment we live in to the vibrant world outside, stained with the deaths of those taken by the Hush. The world is haunting and creepy, and it does exactly what it needs to create this aura of uneasiness when walking around, and is complemented perfectly by the booming soundtrack that encompasses the game.
The gameplay itself strikes a good balance between puzzles and sneaking past people. Most of the game will be us walking around, taking in the sights, completing puzzles, and witnessing some crazy events transpiring in front of us. There will be some spots where we have to sneak by people, and while the mechanics are sound, none of it felt forced or stuck around longer than it should have. It all felt nicely balanced, with the environment being entertaining enough to gaze at and take my time walking through.
However, getting caught when sneaking was the worst. If you get caught, you will go to a loading screen and then have to very slowly walk through a corridor to make it back to the real world. It feels like it takes a full 30 seconds to just revive, which is way too long. It was probably the only gameplay moment that took me completely out of the game. Still, this was a minor issue, and the bulk of the game didn't make me feel this way.
I would say the gameplay does well for this type of game. Unless it's a survival-horror game, I expect more reliance on the world-building, creepiness, and story, which I feel SLEEP AWAKE did. There were only one or two puzzles that I felt were a little too difficult to figure out as easily as the others, but it's not impossible to complete. The gorgeous, creepy world is so much fun to walk around, and there always seems to be something new to see around the corner that is just as interesting.
When all is said and done, SLEEP AWAKE is a surprisingly optimized game. Even at the lowest settings, the game looks and performs quite well on the Steam Deck, which I wouldn’t have expected. As a horror game, this is something I’d consider essential for portable play, and I’m glad they were able to do it. However, it isn’t perfect.
The game will stick above 30 FPS almost the entire time, and will usually hang around 40-50 at the default lowest settings, but there are still a few hiccups. Specifically, when loading into a new area, the framerate will drop to the 20s, and there are some areas that have too much going on and will drop to the 20s or even the 17-18 FPS range. There aren’t many places like this, but they exist and are enough to disrupt the flow.
Since nothing can be done, and the majority of areas aren’t this draining, I actually increased the graphical quality overall. I was able to get away with increasing the resolution scale to 75%, as well as bringing textures and anti-aliasing up. Ultimately, the game stuck above 30 FPS still, and those draining areas went down from 25 FPS to 21 FPS on average. Yes, it is more taxing, but the difference in visual quality is significant and improves the experience.
Because the game doesn’t have a consistent framerate at the default settings, I wouldn’t say it deserves the verified badge. But it is still playable and very enjoyable. If you can deal with these few areas, 85% of the game that does run well will be phenomenal.
We can change the language, subtitles, invert camera controls, hide the crosshair, change audio settings, and change camera sensitivity, but that's about it in the settings.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions, cloud saves, and controllers. There are HDR settings you can turn on, and it does recognize the Steam Deck OLED screen.
SLEEP AWAKE is by far one of my favorite horror games I have played this year. The story is creative and intriguing, hooking me until the end so I could see what would happen next. The gameplay has a nice balance that I would expect a horror game like this to have, even though a couple of the puzzles are a little hard to solve, and dying takes way too long to come back. Still, this is one of the more creative horror games I have played, and it is one of my favorites that I have played this year.
While it isn't completely solid throughout, the game is still very playable on the Steam Deck. It runs decently in most areas, though there are some unavoidable drops that could go below 20 FPS. Still, it doesn't happen often, and I still recommend playing it 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.
A.I.L.A. was provided by Fireshine Games for review. Thank you!
In today's world, it isn't insane to have a fear of the possibility of what AI could become. It's scary seeing it seep into almost everything we do online now, and it can feel a bit crazy. Still, it's interesting to think about where it could head, and that makes some games with overly intelligent AI quite intriguing. A.I.L.A is one of these stories, taking on what a game-focused AI could do if given control of our ever-evolving world of tech and how it integrates into our daily lives. Despite a predictable story and combat I wish I could avoid, A.I.L.A succeeds in creating a horrific experience that kept me on my toes and shows off a variety of locations that kept me hooked until the end.
A.I.L.A’s story is a bit on the predictable side, but that didn’t stop it from being entertaining. We play as Samuel, a game tester who is testing out a brand new product called A.I.L.A. This unit packs an advanced AI that can create horror experiences based on the preferences of its user. However, almost immediately, the AI seems to be pushing its limits, and it drives us to new experiences and a loss of control that hits a little bit hard in this current age.
While the whole storyline and AI’s evolution is easy to guess, it’s still a lot of fun to play through. I enjoyed the back and forth, going through the unique levels A.I.L.A creates, which range from creepy apartment complexes to medieval landscapes. The pacing does feel a little off at times, with some levels taking up a lot of time to just get back to our apartment for a few minutes of story development, but I loved the variety that each level brought to the table. It felt like condensed, unique horror experiences all put into one game, which was interesting. And with meaningful choices involved that can lead to multiple different endings, there are reasons to dive back in and play multiple times.
In today’s day and age, AI stories tend to hit a little harder than they used to. With the rise of AI and all the products being created with it, it’s a justifiable fear to think AI could become self-aware. It’s because of this possible eventuality that A.I.L.A’s story just hits different. It’s not necessarily a bad thing; it makes the story a little more impactful than it would be otherwise, which I would consider good.
For horror games, visuals are a very important aspect to creating a haunting experience, and A.I.L.A takes this to heart. The visuals are stunning and creepy, which made me want to take things slow and steady to get through each level. And because of the variety of each level, due to the way the game is structured, it always felt like there was something unique in each place.
The gameplay is pretty straightforward for horror games, feeling reminiscent of the newer Resident Evil games that take place in first person. You walk around each level and solve puzzles to continue the story along, experiencing horrors as you go. I would say 95% of the puzzles are pretty straightforward, but do require some thought to complete, as well as utilizing objects we find scattered around to complete them. There are some directions on what to do next, like whether to find the right fingerprint to unlock a door or fix a car, but it’s up to you to figure it out.
There are some puzzles that I found a little too difficult, but the majority of them can be figured out with a little bit of thought. Still, it never got to a frustrating point, and ultimately, it was fun to figure out.
However, I wish combat weren’t as prominent as it is. There are some levels where fighting enemies becomes a necessity, and the mechanics just don’t feel great. There are both melee weapons and guns we can use, but it feels half-baked with enemies that feel like bullet sponges. There are some generous aspects, like respawning at full health if you die and the shotgun being decently powerful, but it’s still borderline aggravating. I wanted to avoid these sections completely without my more powerful weapons, but they didn’t frustrate me enough to ruin the overall experience. I didn’t like them, and it just felt clunky with some areas not having enough ammo, and melee combat feeling floaty, but it was something I could overlook.
A.I.L.A is a bit of an odd one on the Steam Deck. It did get Verified ahead of its launch, and I would say it technically deserves the badge due to its default settings going straight to the lowest, but this makes some of the levels look terrible. The lighting completely changes the game, and it makes the scene look either devoid of shadows or devoid of color. Some places look terrible, like our apartment and the first two levels we will play through.
However, there are also some levels that look better at low quality. The third level, where we are at a farm, performs significantly better on Low over Medium, but visually, it looks about the same or better. It's an odd conundrum that makes it hard to choose settings to recommend. On one hand, we can go with low visuals with a good chunk of the game looking bad, but performing well. But on the other hand, we can get solid visuals with some drops in other levels.
Personally, I actually preferred dealing with the drops. There are a couple of extra changes that I made to stabilize the framerate a little more, like turning FSR to Performance upscaling and View Distance to Low, but it still looks fantastic. For horror games like this, visuals can be a big part of the experience, and while there is some pixelation from upscaling, the lighting makes a huge difference. It does drain battery life a bit more as well, but this is a demanding game in general, and I found the trade-offs worth it.
The only big issue is that every time the game is booted up, the settings will default back to Low. It's a little annoying to have to change each time, so I can understand defaulting to just staying at Low, but the game looks significantly better in most areas at Medium, so it's hard not to change it each time.
There is a dedicated Accessibility tab in the game, which includes options for subtitles, showing objectives, aim assistance (highly recommended if playing with a controller), Vignette Effect, camera shake, font contour, reticle and interaction icon size, and color blindness options for Protanopia, Deuteranopia, and Tritanopia.
We also have regular options for showing tutorials, auto reloading, camera blend, bloodscreen, showing the reticle at all, controller sensitivity, running mode, changing the controller scheme, switching between English and Portuguese voiceovers, and changing audio volume.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions, cloud saves, and controllers. There are no HDR settings.
A.I.L.A is a solid horror game that shines thanks to its gorgeous visuals and interesting story. Despite it being a bit predictable, I was entertained and enjoyed seeing everything play out, and the variety of locations made the experience overall feel very unique and kept me interested. Combat parts of gameplay weren't that enjoyable, but I had a great time figuring out the puzzles, and it strikes a nice balance with its difficulty. Still, it's an overall unique and enjoyable time that fans of horror will enjoy.
And even though it isn't the greatest experience out of the box, it's playable on the Steam Deck. It doesn't save the changed settings on a new boot, but the visuals look significantly better set to Medium over Low for the most part. Still, either way, it's playable and 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.
Silent Hill f was provided by Konami for review. Thank you!
Konami is on a roll lately. While they have most notably released collections of some of their classic titles, like Castlevania, they recently released the Metal Gear Solid (MGS): Snake Eater remake, which I loved. It became one of the few games that actually captivated me enough to play through a second time, and that’s not something I normally do. A month after its release, Silent Hill f is here, and just like MGS, it completely hooked me to the point where I felt the need to go back and start a second playthrough. I didn’t expect it to rope me in like it did, but not only did it successfully do exactly that, it took almost all my worries and made them disappear.
In the game, we play as Hinako, a schoolgirl who is sucked into what feels like an alternative dimension. She will go to search for her friends and find a way out, while dealing with her own self-doubts and problems that she has to face from her destructive household and sense of self-worth.
The story is where Silent Hill f shines, and I don’t want to go too deep into it so I can avoid spoilers at all cost. However, expect an emotional rollercoaster with twists that got me in ways I didn’t expect. It felt like the story could go one way or the other based on clues littered throughout the documents we can pick up, but in the end, we just go a whole different direction than I initially expected, and it made so much sense.
One of the big reasons I decided to quickly start the second playthrough is the changes from New Game+ and the alternate endings we can get. After completing the game, there are four more endings to unlock that are all detailed, and as soon as I saw what we had to do to unlock them, I was immediately brought in. It feels like the entire game and outcome could completely change with what we’d need to do to get those endings, and boy is it a treat.
Expect the game to be very coded and loose with its storytelling. There isn’t much that is outright explained, especially on the first playthrough, so it’s going to be a lot of guessing. It’s not necessarily bad, and it helps knowing there are other endings and more to do after beating the game, but it did leave me wondering and very curious initially.
Visually, the game is just stunning. The monochrome town with the iconic Silent Hill fog, the vibrant red flowers that erupt, and the gorgeous lighting of the more classic Japanese world we will have to explore just blew my mind at times. The haunting soundtrack and solid voice acting helped bring it all together. However, their lip movements didn’t always sync with the English dub, but it didn’t detract from the experience.
I wasn’t really worried about the story or visuals going into the game, but the gameplay was another story. I had heard previews comparing the combat to soulslikes and there being a big focus on it. I didn’t know how to feel hearing all of this, but I kept an open mind going in, and I’m glad I did.
Combat starts off relatively simple. We have a weak and strong attack, as well as the ability to dodge. Our weak attack doesn’t do a lot of damage, but is relatively fast, while the strong attack is slow and deals more damage. Using the strong attack can also stun the enemy, which will receive extra damage when attacked, and makes weak attacks worthwhile to use. All of your moves use up stamina, which can be replenished by not attacking or dodging for some time or timing your dodge perfectly, which will fully refill your stamina.
As we keep playing, we will learn new types of moves and mechanics to master. We learn how to counter fairly quickly to put enemies into a stun, though the indicator of when to counter is hard to see, and the timeframe is quite short. And following that up, we learn about our focus and sanity bars. Focus allows us to charge up a weapon to do a special move that will usually stun the enemy, and this costs Sanity. However, while in focus mode, the timeframe to counter is extended as well. So, if you know your enemy’s attack patterns, you can strategically get into focus to ensure you land a good counter.
Combat grew on me, and while there’s a lot of it, it’s enjoyable. It reminded me a lot of God of War 2018 and Ragnarok’s combat systems, with some small soulslike elements like the stamina bar. I didn’t mind the stamina bar much, but I did mind the weapon durability system. There were a few times in the beginning of my first playthrough where I almost ran out of weapons and had to resort to running away and dodging through enemies. This changed later on, and there are plenty of weapons to find with an item that can restore durability, but it was a nuisance at first.
I would say the only time I was genuinely aggravated in combat was having to fight multiple enemies at once. The mechanics feel perfect for one-on-one fights, and they shine in these moments and the boss fights against these crazy monsters. But mix in 2-3 enemies at a time, with all of them attacking at once or right after each other, and it was just too much. I’d have to exhaust my stamina just to dodge away and hope they weren’t fast enough to catch up to me as I was trying to heal. There were a couple of times it just felt way too much, and that brought the experience down a little.
The other big element of Silent Hill f is its puzzles, and boy, can they be difficult. When choosing a new game, you can decide the difficulty of the combat and the puzzle difficulty, which I found interesting. I started off hard, and there were definitely moments I hit a snag. One puzzle in the middle school had me in my head thinking it was more complicated than it was, but some of the others actually were. Reading clues and using your journal with logged information is going to be a lifesaver here. Documents are going to be key here, both in terms of story and to help get through puzzles.
I actually want to praise the team specifically for how they implemented the UI. The journal sorts the relevant clues for each puzzle, while the map does an excellent job of telling us where we have and hadn’t gone yet, with some landmarks to give us an idea of what’s in the rooms we’ve already been to. Some areas can get very confusing to walk around in, with winding corridors and many rooms, so the map with the clear real-time updates is a life saver.
There are ways to improve yourself with upgrades, which give a nice touch for the most part. We can find Ema to use with accumulated faith and upgrade Health, Stamina, Sanity, and the number of Omamori we can hold. Omamori gives us some passive buffs, like getting some health back after an enemy is defeated or increasing the potency of healing items. We can find these around the world or use Faith to gain a random one. Faith is mainly gathered from offering up objects or items at Shrines, which stems from one other problem I had with the game: inventory management.
Silent Hill f has eight inventory slots for items you pick up, and with how many healing items there are for health, sanity, stamina, and special objects that can give lots of faith when offered, it very quickly becomes a problem. There are items you can find to increase your inventory space, but I found them far and few on my first playthrough. I was getting rid of items very often because I wanted to keep my faith items to upgrade, but I ultimately had to sacrifice healing items that would have come in handy not much later. Starting New Game+ with more space completely alleviated the problem.
I was pretty surprised when I saw Silent Hill f get the Steam Deck Playable rating, especially after the release of Metal Gear Solid Delta. With the reasons it was rated Playable due to small text and needing to manually set the graphical options, I went in worried. However, after playing around with the settings, I can say that it is more playable than I expected, but there are some compromises.
There is one spot in particular that I was able to test effectively to make sure the settings are the best they can be. There’s an early semi-early on where we are engulfed in fog and have to find the correct dolls to show us the way to get out. For whatever reason, there’s one section of this that’s very demanding, so I chose to optimize there.
Regardless of the upscalers I chose, whether it be FSR or TSR, as well as just changing the rendering scale without upscalers, I ultimately found that FSR on Balanced provided the best performance and visual quality balance. I had also played around with shadows and view distance to find a balance between better visuals, especially in the town, and performance. With those combined, I came to a compromise with FSR balanced, view distance, shadows, and textures on medium, and everything else on Low.
I also decided to keep the indirect lighting set to "Lumen High" instead of off and reflections set to Screen Space Reflections (SSR). Lumen and SSR are usually a very intensive setting to have on, and while I would usually turn it off, it changes the entire look of the world for the worse. Specifically, the iconic fog that defines Silent Hill games and the flowers that define this entry either disappear or become completely colorless. It changes the look and feel of the world, and that effectively ruins the experience. It's still playable with these settings on, but with some extra little stutters here and there. Still, I wouldn't have it any other way.
The doll area still had some drops, but stuck above 25 FPS. With it being the only area I’ve found to behave this way, apart from some cutscenes and the Journal menu, I felt the small drops justified the better visuals. There are some small stutters here and there when running around and going to new parts of the areas you are exploring, but taking it slow, in combat, and completing puzzles generally stuck to 30 and above. There are even some areas that can go up to 40, but there are many more that drop, so I recommend just sticking to 30 FPS for the most stable experience.
While there may be some areas that don’t drain battery as much, expect to be pushing the Deck to its limits. There will also be some lighting pop-in and some shadows may have a slight grainy effect at the ends of them, but it ultimately looks better and stays stable overall.
Against my initial worries, Silent Hill f is still playable and enjoyable on the Steam Deck. It may not have the visual fidelity that can come from more powerful computers and consoles, but it’s definitely enjoyable while looking decent, and that's just a treat.
We can change options for controls like camera sensitivity, inverted style, vibrations, how to toggle running, change language, subtitle size, color, and audio settings.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions, cloud saves, and controllers. The game does have HDR settings and recognizes the Steam Deck OLED screen.
Silent Hill f does have flaws, but the pros heavily outweigh the cons. The story sucked me in and combat was more fun than I expected. I am being more nit-picky with the issues I’m bringing up, but they ultimately never affected my enjoyment of the game, nor made me think twice about getting back into it for round 2. And a lot of the issues I had were erased as soon as New Game+ started, which was like a weight lifted off my shoulders.
On top of that, it actually runs quite well on the Steam Deck. It’s definitely not perfect and needs compromises to run effectively, but the game is playable on the Deck and can look gorgeous. It may cost a little extra performance in 3-4 scenes, but they include graphical improvements I’d consider necessary to enjoy.
In the end, Silent Hill f is a thrilling game, and if this keeps up, the future of AAA releases from Konami is going to look very bright.
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.
No, I'm Not a Human was provided by Critical Reflex for review. Thank you!
There are a few development and publisher studios that come to my mind that I feel are underrepresented and deserve more attention. One of those publisher studios is Critical Reflex. Over the past two years, they have brought some incredible games like Lunacid, Arctic Eggs, Threshold, and one of my favorites, Mothwashing. They are releasing a slate of new games over the next couple of weeks, and No, I'm Not a Human is one of them. While it may be short, the game offers an experience that kept me on the edge the entire time I played, and it's awesome.
No, I'm Not a Human does a fantastic job of using its unique art style to communicate this unnerving sense of unease throughout the entirety of the game. From the darkish green color palette at night and the morphed faces of the humans that come to your door, to the way the rooms of your house look and how the doors open, it feels like every aspect was meticulously crafted to accommodate and enhance that uneasy ambiance.
It's probably the aspect of the game I love the most. Even with its basic gameplay, the world is just so compelling and does a great job of keeping me on my toes. Just walking through the house and opening doors, or even turning around after looking through the peephole of the front door, which morphs how people look even more, kept my paranoia spiking.
With the world coming to an end due to the Sun starting to erupt, you will have to find a way to survive against unknown entities called Visitors that seem to come up from the ground. However, to survive, you will have to live in your house with people, so it's up to you to decide who comes in and try to discern who is human and who is a Visitor, and who will need to die. It's not a deep story, but it just fits perfectly within the context of the game.
No, I’m Not a Human shines from its anxiety-inducing atmosphere, and its gameplay mechanics enhance it. Every night, people will come to your door and you’ll have to decide whether to let them in or not. The choice is up to you, but during the day, you’ll have to test them and find out whether or not they are these underground visitors murdering people. With new tests introduced to try out every day, and new symptoms to look for, we have to act strategically to use our limited energy and make sure we take in as many people as we can, as long as they aren’t these visitors.
It's pretty simple on the surface. You let people in, have to test them and check their teeth, hands, eyes, and other body parts, and if they show signs, you can decide whether or not to shoot them. All of the humans and visitors tend to act odd, so testing will be the sure-fire way to figure out who is who. However, some people may show a couple of signs, or just one, and listening to their stories and why they may be showing signs could change your mind about whether or not to shoot them. It still never lets up on its creepiness, and the animations of checking people are especially creepy.
Playthroughs of the game may seem relatively short, and they are, but there are reasons to come back and play multiple times. There are 10 endings to unlock, with some having relatively complicated methods to unlock them, and a few being relatively straightforward. On top of that, there are some secrets to uncover and special events that can play out by spending time talking to people. It's quick to get through, but there's enough reason to come back and play again. Still, an excuse to get back into this creepy world is one I will happily take.
Throughout the playthrough, you can also get items to increase your energy, which can be very helpful for testing others to make sure the people in your house are human. However, while the items are mostly useful and interesting, I dislike how the save system is linked to an item. The only way to save the game is by drinking Kombucha, and with how short the game is, it makes some sense that saving won't be commonplace. Still, I encountered a couple of bugs in my playthrough that forced me to quit the game, and I ended up either having to start over or go back pretty far.
There have been a few updates to the game since I started writing this review, so it's possible these issues I found were fixed, btu I still wish the save system was more accessible over being linked to an item.
No, I'm Not a Human is an awesome game to play on the Steam Deck and generally works well, but it isn't perfect. I noticed the game drains a lot more than I think it should. The game is essentially one 3D model of a home with 2D humans that come in and out. At 60 FPS, looking out your front door peephole can push battery drain to 18W and higher, while walking around the house sits at 15.5W. Looking into rooms can bring battery drain down, but it's just odd how high it can go.
To counter this, I recommend setting the framerate to 45 FPS. It still feels smooth, while also bringing the drain down. It's still relatively high, but looking out the peephole goes down to 13W instead of 17W, and that's a nice decrease. Since there aren't any other graphical settings to change, this is about all we can do.
I also noticed a few problems with controls. The most debilitating was the cursor just completely disappearing. This could stop progression entirely, as we can't select people to talk to or even the bed, so we can sleep. Switching to the Keyboard and Mouse controller scheme fixes this for a moment, but switching back will keep it hidden. And sometimes, we have to reboot since the controller selection can just disappear.
Mixed with the limited save system, it can be a buzzkill to have to deal with this and start over. There have been some updates since I wrote this review, so this may have gotten better, but it was still obnoxious to have to deal with. It was also listed as a known issue with the game before release, but due to the game having gamepad support and being now listed on the store page with support, I wanted to include my experience.
We can change the language, volume, toggle vibration, and change controller sensitivity, but that's about it. There aren't many settings to change at all.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions, has cloud saves, and includes controller support. There are no HDR settings.
No, I'm Not a Human sets out to create a short, horror narrative with an unbeatable, paranoia-inducing atmosphere, and it succeeds completely. The game is unnerving from start to finish, thanks to its color palette, combination of 3D and 2D visuals, and creepy artwork that morphs people's faces to never look completely normal. Something always feels off, and even though it is short, the atmosphere developer Trioskaz is going for transcends a lot of other horror games' atmospheres I have played.
Apart from some minor issues with controls and how high the battery drain can be, it runs quite well on the Steam Deck. It still feels a little off how high it can drain when looking through the front door peephole, but it isn't the end of the world. A 45 FPS lock helps a lot here, and this is a great game to play cuddled up in bed.
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.
Cronos: The New Dawn was provided by Bloober Team for review. Thank you!
Developer Bloober Team has been undeniably one of the best horror studios around. They started making a name for themselves in the space with Layers of Fear in 2016, and have increased their notoriety steadily with Observer and Blair Witch, culminating with the hyped release of the Silent Hill 2 remake. Now, Bloober is getting back to self-publishing with a brand new IP: Cronos: The New Dawn. It first got my attention with its visual similarities to Dead Space, which I love, but I was completely pulled in thanks to the gorgeous visuals, intriguing story, creepy atmosphere, and slower-paced gameplay.
Even with the slower start, the story hooked me in relatively quickly. We play as The Traveler, who is going to different locations on a desolate Earth, looking for rifts to extract the souls of people from the past. The world was devastated by a mysterious plague that morphed humans into grotesque monsters that have essentially taken over the planet. Our goal is to uncover the origins of this pandemic-induced apocolypse, and we must do it, such is our calling.
Right off the bat, I have to say that this kind of story is right up my alley. Put in a sci-fi, futuristic aesthetic and apocalyptic scenario with a devastated world, and I am all in. Cronos: The New Dawn is a clear example of the exact type of story I love. We get glimpses into the past to piece together what caused this pandemic, interact with different crazy-ish individuals, and make some choices that affect how we progress. It isn't as emotionally-charged as it could be, since this giant spherical mask covers our face, but that didn't detract from the joy I had continuing the tale and reading the lore in passing logs.
While the story completely gripped me, there's just one part that I found hard to enjoy. Throughout Cronos, there will be times when we have discussions with another traveler, and hearing both of them talking in their raspy robotic voices is just a little too jarring for me. The one-off voice lines from our protagonist, and when they talk to other humans, are not that bad, but something about the discussion where both have this type of voice is just a little too much for me. It didn't harm the overall experience, but it's worth mentioning.
Visually, all I can really say is wow. Bloober Team has stepped up their game and created an extremely creepy and tense world that I found myself needing to take time to get through just because I didn't know what would come next. The atmosphere exudes this unnerving feeling, with grotesque pulsating flesh across the walls and ceilings, floating debris with anomalies disrupting gravity, and destruction as far as the eye can see, all cloaked in the darkness illuminated only by the light on your shoulder. It works in tandem with the soundtrack, which can both creep me out more and pump me up in fights. It's just fantastic through and through.
I was a little worried that, with the emphasis on combat, Cronos would feel more like a thriller over the horror experience I had hoped. I am happy to say that fear is unfounded. Even with third-person combat, crafting, and more action-oriented mechanics, there are enough moments to keep that horror focus intact. Enemies can pop out of the flesh, bodies can come to life, random sounds, the necessity of walking slow, and the atmosphere all work together to keep tensions high.
We have a lot of time to admire the world of Cronos due to how necessary it really is to take your time, go slow, and be as careful as possible. There could be enemies lurking around every corner, and with how scarce resources and ammo are, we have to be careful and conserve everything we have. There are some well-placed resources here and there, and exploration is rewarded nicely with extra ammo, crafting materials, and currency. Taking time to really scan and find the chain-locked doors and cracks in the wall, we can slip through, which will make or break future encounters.
Luckily, getting into combat is still enjoyable, but we can't just let loose. All of the enemies we come across can easily kill us if we aren't careful, and if we are just too willing to use our ammo, we will run out very quickly. So, we have to take our time, shoot for specific areas, like the legs, to make them fall over, and melee attack. We need to be careful with our melee attacks, since enemies will sometimes not flinch from being punched or stomped, so timing and knowing when to move away to not be hit by their spit or arms.
On top of that, we have to also be very aware of our surroundings. Not only can it be helpful, with explosive barrels that can help disperse multiple enemies or deal some big damage to tougher foes, but enemies can merge with their fallen brethren and become significantly stronger. They can merge up to three times, and letting them merge can ultimately lead to our downfall. To combat this, we have a capsule to shoot on the ground that burns bodies around us. Like the rest of our resources, this is limited, and while we can get them more easily compared to the rest of the resources, we still need to be careful.
In general, I do enjoy combat; it's tense and adds to the appeal of Cronos, but it can get frustrating in some instances. There are a few fights that come to mind where I have to fight enemies that have merged once already, and I have to defeat them in very small spaces. Sometimes, the camera positioning got in my way, while others it was just difficult to manage multiple foes, or more powerful ones, and not die. These deaths felt unfair, and with some of them bringing me far back to a previous save point when I perished, I started to feel frustrated. This didn't happen super often, and it wasn't enough for me to close the game and take a break, but it was still there and still annoying.
To help us, we can use those crafting materials and currency to craft, upgrade, or purchase some necessary items. The upgrades are helpful, especially increasing inventory items, but it does take a while to upgrade weapons. With how necessary the currency is for getting items when we need to and upgrading, I regularly found myself a little short of getting the upgrades I wanted. This is one of the few games where I consistently found a use for the assortment of weapons I had, and that's an achievement in itself, but it also meant I had more upgrades that I wanted to make, which strained my wallet.
However, I would say this strain and worry are a big part of what makes Cronos: The New Dawn so appealing. It's supposed to be tense and difficult, while also forcing us to strategize to conserve what we have and make smart choices to keep us from dying. While some of the fights can get too difficult and teeter on frustrating, it never stopped me from wanting to keep playing.
When I first loaded Cronos up on the Steam Deck, I was a little worried. Despite it not showing up on the Steam store page, it does have a native Linux build, which is the default on the Deck. However, the game is not great in this build. I could just barely hit 30 FPS in closed-off areas on the lowest settings, and there were almost no upscaling options apart from TSR. This felt off to me, especially since the game will be releasing on the Nintendo Switch 2 as well. However, I am happy to say we can fix it, and it's actually way more playable on the Deck than I initially thought.
The fix actually just comes from forcing the Proton compatibility layer and using the Windows version instead of the native Linux build. I genuinely had no idea the Linux build even existed due to it only showing the Windows icon on the Steam store page, so I am glad I tried it. It ends up making a huge difference, with closed-off areas hitting almost 50 FPS on Very Low settings, staying above 30 FPS the whole time, no matter what, and giving us options for the rest of the upscalers we could use.
As I was writing the review, the game got a day 1 patch, which did help performance on the Linux build. Both FSR and XeSS are still not showing up, but it's more playable out of the box on Very Low settings.
Now, with the game working as intended, I can also say it's actually very playable on the Steam Deck. However, there's only one way to play it. Ultimately, only the Very Low preset of Cronos works on the Deck, with anything above getting the framerate pummeled in more open areas. Even with upscaling turned on with the low-quality preset, or all the advanced settings set to Low or off, framerate can't hit 30. The only way to play on the Steam Deck is using the Very Low preset; that's it.
You can turn FSR or XeSS upscaling on, but it doesn't change the visuals or performance much. They all look relatively the same, and my guess is that the Very Low preset is a specially made one with pre-defined settings that we can't change. Still, I would say the game looks pretty wonderful at this preset, and still gives that creepy atmosphere that defines Cronos. There are some fluctuations in performance when loading in new areas and running through crowded ones, but it generally sticks above 30 with battery drain ranging from 14W to 19W.
However, it isn't all perfect. Despite the better performance, I still encountered crashes here and there. Reloading the game and going through the same scenes seemed to fix it, but I would say this is the result of RAM usage. Since we can go back and play through the scene without crashes, I would consider it playable.
I also tried out the in-game frame generation to see if that would help performance at all, but it only made things significantly worse. It became stuttery with major input lag and completely unplayable. On the other hand, Lossless Scaling is significantly better. It's smoother, has almost no extra input lag, and doesn't feel stuttery at all. Some of the slowdowns feel more pronounced, but to fix this, I disabled the framerate limit and changed the screen refresh rate to 60. This made the issues less prominent and lowered battery drain. They were still there, but I didn't feel the slowdowns as much.
The game still feels great at 30 FPS, and I wouldn't say Lossless Scaling is necessary, but it's a nice option to have. Having Lossless Scaling on does also make some of the ghosting feel more noticeable, with some scenes showing a weird bubble effect around us. It's not enough to drive me crazy, but it's definitely there. This effect gets worse at 3x and 4x, along with more input lag, so I recommend keeping it at 2x for the best experience with frame generation. However, playing at 30 FPS with no Lossless Scaling will still be more stable overall, so I personally recommend that.
Still, in the end, I am pleased to say that Cronos is very playable on the Steam Deck one way or another, and I recommend it, even with some possible crashes here and there. I didn't find one that was difficult to get back to, and I passed right through on the second try. Yes, it is annoying, but if you are someone who only has a Steam Deck to play games or just want to play in bed here and there, it's perfect.
There is a full on accessibility tab, which has options for quick time events, vibration intensity, aim assist, and a center dot to combat motion sickness. There's also a color blind mode for Deuteranopia, Tritanopia, and Protanopia, and a Dyslexic font style. Apart from those, we can change the interaction indicator styler, item shader, reticle settings, HUD elements, language, subtitles, and transcription details with text size, options for tutorials and loading hints, and audio sliders.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions and has both cloud saves and controller support. The game does have HDR and seems to recognize the OLED screen, but it doesn't show up in the quick settings as enabled. Just make sure your Screen Mode is set to Fullscreen or Borderless if you want to use HDR.
Cronos: The New Dawn has quickly become one of my favorite horror games. The story completely hit me, and I loved the sci-fi, futuristic, apocalyptic vibes throughout. The general gameplay, while a bit aggravating at times, feels strategic to make sure we have all the resources and ammo we need, and to make sure we don't die. The visuals and soundtrack just hit, and they ultimately work together to create a creepy, atmospheric, and horror-inducing experience that rarely lets up. This is survival horror at its finest.
On top of that, the game runs much better on the Steam Deck than I expected. It can hold 30 FPS while still looking decent, and is one of the only games I have found frame generation (through Lossless Scaling) to be worthwhile and enhance the experience. All in all, this is a fantastic game to take on the go, and I can't recommend it enough!
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.
Dead Take was provided by Pocketpair Publishing for review. Thank you!
I am a mixed bag when it comes to horror games. I enjoy them, but I get scared very easily. Still, I enjoy and respect the artistry behind them and how they can make something so haunting, creepy, and scary. Dead Take is one of those horror games that I not only loved, but came out with a new appreciation and respect for developer Surgent Studios. Even with its short runtime, this is an experience worth having and will be one of the few horror games I will remember.
The crux of what makes Dead Take so memorable is its story and presentation. You play as Chase, an actor, who is vying for the role of Willie in Duke Cain's latest picture: The Last Voyage. However, your friend Vinny has secured the part, but afterward, has gone missing. He was last at Duke's mansion for a party. Worried about his friend, Chase will travel into the mansion to figure out exactly what went down there and where Vinny is.
What happens next is a journey into the actions of an egocentric, traumatized mind that is willing to do whatever it takes for his artistry. The story is told in a non-traditional format, with the bulk of the details being written in documents and emails that can be found across the mansion. Usually, I don't enjoy this kind of storytelling much; I like being a more active component and seeing events play out in front of me, but the subject matter was interesting enough to keep reading on, and I am so glad it was.
We also have real-life video to find and watch in the cinema, which gives us more clues about who Duke Cain is and the psyche of our two main characters, Chase and Vinny, our other actors, and how they were affected by Duke's crooked methodology. This was awesome to experience. Not only did it give a real look at who these people are and their personalities, which are as complex as our twisted director, but are expertly portrayed by some of the best video game actors and actresses, including Neil Newbon, Ben Starr, Jane Perry, Alanah Pearce, and even features some smaller appearances from Sam Lake, Laura Bailey, and more. Watching these real actors in the videos was captivating and helped their virtual counterparts feel more alive.
The surrealist environment, coupled with these videos, created an unnerving atmosphere that was difficult to get rid of. The short runtime of the game helped make sure its creepy surroundings never overstayed their welcome. Just walking around put me on edge, and I love when horror games are able to evoke that kind of response without resorting to cheaper jump scares.
Speaking of the horror elements, I love the emphasis on atmospheric and psychological horror. The creepy sound effects continually made me nervous as I walked around the dimly lit rooms. There are some of those jump scares, which I very much dislike, but the bulk of the horror was created through the environment and frightening performances of the actors, Duke Cain's chilling voice messages, and the overall message throughout.
Gameplay-wise, Dead Take is more on the basic side. We walk through the mansion, solving countless puzzles to move the story along. The puzzles are primarily enjoyable, with most not being too hard to solve and making me feel smarter afterwards, but there are a couple that just felt impossible to complete. There were a few, with one puzzle with four weapons in particular, that took me significantly longer to complete. There's little direction with some of the puzzles, like that one, and it made it more difficult than it should have been. I wouldn't say it was aggravating or frustrating, but it wasn't enjoyable.
There are some cool aspects to the gameplay mechanics, like finding USB drives and splicing together individual videos we find to create new ones. This leads into the side content, where people can unlock additional footage by finding specific notes and documents throughout the mansion. It isn't straightforward for this either, but I actually enjoyed it here. Figuring out what to do to get this extra footage was something I discovered by chance, and I felt great afterwards.
Dead Take's gameplay isn't too deep, and generally is easy to grasp. We will find a bunch of items and have our own inventory, where we can interact with some of them to uncover the next clue. However, unlike other games that have more basic gameplay, I wasn't longing for more depth. This was a short, sweet, horror-filled experience, and it fulfills it with clear quality and passion from Surgent Studios.
Dead Take was rated Steam Deck Verified ahead of its launch, and while it is playable, it definitely needs some compromises to run well. Even though this is a small game overall, it is very demanding. There are some spots that do run very well when there aren't many objects around you, but it can be quite draining on resources in more complex or outside areas. Finding a balance for visuals with these scenes isn't the easiest, but in the end, I would consider it solid at 30 FPS with some sacrifices.
The game has XeSS 2, TSR, and Nvidia Image upscaling, but neither of them will provide a stable 30 FPS at their lowest possible settings. TSR at 33% render scaling will get a mostly stable 30 FPS, but there are areas towards the end of the game that will have some drops. Putting the rendering scale that low also makes the game look blurry, and text will sometimes linger on the screen when looking away, so I don't recommend going too low.
The three upscalers look very similar to each other, so I would comfortably say you can go with any of them. However, when comparing between all three, I found that TSR at 60% rendering scale was the sweet spot. XeSS 2 had some pixelation around where light was being cast that TSR didn't and Nvidia Image Scaling had more noticeable ghosting.
While some areas of the mansion run well, there are more areas that drop more heavily. Because of that, we can set it to 30 FPS and raise some quality settings, like Texture, above their default Low preset. It does say the Low preset is best for Steam Deck in-game, which I appreciate a lot. There is a "Lowest" preset as well, but I don't recommend using it since it changes the way the game looks completely, for the worse. Still, at these settings, it's very playable and I enjoyed it on the Deck.
The game does have an accessibility tab, which contains options for controller sensitivity, vibrations, analog stick and trigger deadzones, toggles for motion blur and screen shake, and a slider to change how much the camera bobs when moving or standing still. We can also change the text size, which I recommend setting to large, language, showing the reticle, changing different controller presets, and moving audio sliders.
I would also recommend increasing controller sensitivity, as the default movement speed is too low for my taste.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions and has both cloud saves and controller support. There are no HDR settings.
Dead Take is a horrifying game that uses its short run time to create a memorable time. The way Surgent Studios uses surrealistic architecture, creepy atmosphere, and real-life videos to tell its disturbing story is wonderful. While some puzzles can be a little difficult to figure out without any help, the bulk of the game's basic gameplay is enjoyable when considering how brief the game is. Still, this is clearly a quality over quantity discussion, and I would say this is a quality experience that is worth playing through.
Even with some compromises to visuals and the need for upscaling, it's a great game to enjoy on the Steam Deck. Sitting in my bed and playing Dead Take at night was awesome, even though it had ended up scaring me shitless.
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!
KARMA was provided by Wired Productions for review. Thank you!
When it comes to horror games, I can be quite specific with the titles I enjoy. I am not a fan of over reliance on jump scares and I am a sucker for abstract visuals ant atmospheric creepiness. It can be really captivating with realistic visuals, and I love how they can morph and add to the unnerving sense of the world around you. As soon as I saw KARMA: The Dark World, I knew it would be one of the horror games I could get behind, and it seemed like it had an intriguing story along with it. After playing through it, I am left with mixed feelings, even if the story is fascinating deep down.
Without going into too much detail, you play as Daniel McGovern, a Roam agent for the Leviathan corporation. Your job is to dive into people's minds to investigate crimes against the company and interview suspects. This leads you down into a curious case that is somehow connected to you, and could reveal the sinister purpose behind the company and the sentient AI that runs the show.
I love these kinds of stories. A futuristic, dystopian world, sci-fi machines that can do crazy things like diving into people's memories, and discovering what is wrong in this new society. The game also explores some pretty heavy themes in unique ways, making me question my role in what was unfolding and whether my actions were harming people more or trying to get to the bottom. And the core story itself is one I wanted to know more about as I played, which is great for this kind of experience.
However, I was not a fan of how the story was told. The first hour or so almost completely confused me as to what was happening, and while I got little hints here and there, it didn't all click until the end of the game. I don't mind not knowing the full story and having to piece it together as I play, but it felt a little too outlandish to do that in a pleasant way.
For example, one moment, I was in a clerk's office, and then the next, I ran down a hall and found myself in a red cloth-draped room. After running through, I was in the mailing room. I wasn't diving into anyone's mind then, and I am still not 100% sure how this happened. I understand why it happened, since it gave me some backstory on a character, but since I was in the real world, I can't say how it played out the way it did. The ending did help piece much of it together, and I started to understand why some things were off just a little throughout the game, but it didn't answer all of my questions, including the final scene before the credits.
Thankfully, thanks to the gorgeous visuals, I had a lot of eye candy to enjoy. Every scene in the game felt wonderfully detailed and hauntingly beautiful, especially when diving into brains. It got crazy with some of the scenes, but they all had some deeper meaning behind them that related to the person we dove into. The entire scene could change as the story was told, giving us insight into their psyche and showing more unique scenes with completely different art styles than I expected.
Combined with the soundtrack, KARMA has a fantastic atmosphere that I can't help but love. There are some little nuisances I have, like the near-constant intense breathing that comes from the characters in cutscenes, but it does help emphasize the distress these people are in. It's one of the more beautiful games that I have seen recently, and I enjoy the abstract visuals that help emphasize the story beats.
The gameplay is on the basic side, but it gets the job done. You mostly walk through different scenes, solve puzzles, and interact with objects. With KARMA being a cinematic experience, I am not surprised that the gameplay is more of an addition than a main attraction. There are a couple of areas where you do have to run, though I felt the running was too slow. Still, I didn't mind in the end since it wasn't the main focal point for this game.
Going into KARMA: The Dark World, I was wary that it would run on the Steam Deck at all. The minimum requirements ask for a hefty CPU and GPU that borders on being too much for the Deck's hardware. I was a little hopeful, considering these were the requirements for a 1920x1080 resolution at 30 FPS and didn't take upscaling into account, but I was still a little worried. However, after playing the game, I would say it is playable on the Steam Deck, but it does require some compromises.
There are a lot of areas in KARMA that can hit above 30 FPS, with some even getting to 60 when using low settings and upscalers, but there are also enough areas that will heavily drop performance. I noticed heavy drops at the Thought Bureau and in some crowded scenes, and it was enough that I felt I needed to adjust my settings for them.
After some testing, I came to two conclusions. First, we need to force the resolution down to 1024x640 and use SteamOS FSR at Sharpness 1. Both of these kept the game looking decent while also saving on performance to adjust for these drops. There were still some areas that couldn't be fully fixed, but this, along with a 30 FPS cap, kept the game mostly stable with a relatively low battery drain at around 12W - 13W average. This also makes some lines of subtitle text go off-screen, but it wasn't enough to negatively impact the experience.
Second, we would need to use upscalers and low quality settings. I ended up preferring to use XeSS over FSR due to making further away objects look better and the image overall to be less washed out. XeSS 2 on Performance also performed better than FSR 3 on Performance, so it was a win-win scenario here.
Is it the most enjoyable way to play? No. For a game like this, visuals are really important, and big compromises can hurt the experience. However, it isn't unplayable, and if you only have a Steam Deck to play (or its your most powerful device to play on), it can be played and still be enjoyable.
In KARMA, you can change field of view, sensitivity, crosshair size, camera shake, controller vibration, invert the camera, change subtitle language and size, and modify audio sliders.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions and has both cloud saves and controller support. It also recognizes HDR on the Steam Deck OLED.
KARMA: The Dark World is a beautiful and haunting experience that has a bit of trouble telling the intriguing tale that lies within. The world is gorgeous, and I love the abstract scenery paired with the solid soundtrack. The gameplay is on the basic side, but this is supposed to be cinematic, so I am not disappointed. However, the story is a mixed bag. I like the setting and the actual story being told, but I wasn't a fan of the way it was told, which was confusing throughout its run time. It was still worth playing overall, but I do wish it were easier to grasp.
I was shocked that the game was able to run as well as it did on the Steam Deck with some adjustments, but that doesn't mean compromising the visuals to run on the go. If you have no other way to play, this will suffice, but to get the best experience, I recommend using a device that can push the visual quality further.
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.
