System Shock 2 Remaster was provided by Nightdive Studios for review. Thank you!
Even by today's standards, I would still consider System Shock 2 to be one of the more interesting sci-fi RPGs I have played. The story behind it still intrigues me, and I love the amount of depth and intricacy that went into its gameplay systems. It's pretty amazing to still think of this 25-year-old title as one that could compete with the greats that are being released today, but age has caught up with it, and it isn't the greatest to play. Well, the game is officially getting the Nightdive treatment, and I am so happy to have another reason to play it.
For some background, System Shock 2 was originally released in 1999 and received critical acclaim with very positive reviews. Now, the cult classic action RPG has been given the Nightdive treatment, giving a reason to dive back into it after 25 years. This new remaster includes cross-play co-op multiplayer, additional mod support, better performance with higher framerate support, achievements, optimized controller support, enhanced visuals, and many quality-of-life improvements.
Nightdive Studios is quite dedicated to making sure the game looks and feels like the original, while updating it, and they did a great job here. As I was playing, I was in awe of how gorgeous and detailed everything looked without it feeling like a different game. The updates they added don't take away from the soul of the experience, and that's something I am always worried about with remasters. It is System Shock 2, just with better support and visuals, and a bunch of fixes.
It was a joy to run around the Von Braun starship again, trying to figure out exactly what happened. It turns out that the rogue artificial intelligence SHODAN has taken over the spaceship, and you have to figure out how to stop her. It's an intricate story that I still find endearing and fascinating to play through, even after all of this time.
But the real joy of System Shock 2 comes from its depth and complexity. The game starts out giving you three different career paths, which give bonuses to different stats, helping build out the way you want to play. Whether you want to focus on hacking and repairing, strength and melee/gun damage, or psionic abilities, you can. Each one feels very different from each other, which offers a nice reason to go back and replay the game and see how each approach changes. You are also able to boost your base stats with Cyber Modules to increase your abilities further, as well as gain new Psi powers.
While the game is a FPS-RPG hybrid, it definitely feels closer to an RPG. The detail in how you approach each encounter and situation varies wildly depending on the decisions you make, and how you build out your character and what core attributes you want to focus on. Someone who wants to use psionic abilities, like teleportation and freezing, will tackle enemies coming at you differently than someone who wants to focus on using a gun or melee weapon.
After trying all the options, I felt the Psi (OSA path) was the most enjoyable to use. I like the variety of the powers I could wield and the care I had to take when using them. Powers that cause direct damage could be overcharged, which damages myself, so it was fun to balance attacking and sneaking by enemies to complete the objectives I needed to. I appreciate that I could also change things up with OS upgrades and Cyber Modules upgrades, so I was able to give myself some strength to increase inventory capacity.
With this being an RPG focus, I wasn't as much of a fan of melee/gun combat. Using weapons directly just felt sluggish, and shooting guns felt rudimentary. I disliked having to use them, and it made me miss the more modern enhancements of this type of combat. Still, I would say this somewhat adds to the charm of this timeless classic, but I wouldn't choose to go this route.
There's also something to be said about the level design for System Shock 2. It definitely feels dated, but it is still engaging and rewarding to explore. Finding hidden items or a recharge station around the corners is exciting, and it makes me want to explore the creepy corridors of the spaceship. I enjoyed taking my time and scoping out the hallways and rooms, seeing who is where and planning on how best to effectively take them down.
I also enjoy the co-op multiplayer as an option, and having mod support out of the box is going to be essential for longevity. I can't wait to see the mods that people will create and the new missions to experience. It should be significantly better than playing the original, so I am excited. It may also be a little bit jarring for newcomers, especially those who were introduced to the series from the System Shock 1 remake. However, the longer you play, the more it will make sense and stick with you.
For the most part, I am happy with the controller support. Everything is accessible with the controller, and I never felt like I couldn't access what I needed to, but it is still a bit obnoxious to utilize. Nightdive's dedication to retaining the quality and feeling of the original works against it here. Accessing my inventory and using items in it felt cumbersome and confusing, and a lot of times it took me twice as long to do what I needed to do. I appreciate a screen with the controls staying up when I am in the inventory, but it just takes too long, and there are too many steps to just equip a gun or use different items.
Having to open the inventory with Select, move over to the item, pressing Y to bring up additional actions, and hit equip just feels like too many steps, and I found myself hitting A instead, which picks up the item to move around in your inventory. I did end up getting more used to it, but it definitely took me a minute.
Still, as I said before, it adds to the charm, and I am very happy this is all very playable on the Steam Deck.
As with almost all of Nightdive Studios games, System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster's performance on the Steam Deck is near flawless. The team has shown time and time again how talented they are when it comes to optimization and how malleable the KEX Engine can be. The game doesn't struggle at all to hit 90 FPS, and can stick to it with around 13W - 14W battery drain at the maximum. For those with a Steam Deck OLED, it's great, but bringing it down to 60 FPS can keep it around a 10W drain.
This held strong throughout the game without needing to change a thing, so I would say this is a Best on Deck game! I would still recommend going to a 60 FPS cap for the increased battery life without getting rid of the smoothness, but it's the dealer's choice. Regardless of how you choose to play, it's still going to be great.
We can change the view and weapon bobbing, difficulty, keybindings, language, camera speed and inversion, sensitivity, the aim scale, and volume bars.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions, as well as cloud saves and controller support. There are no HDR settings.
System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster is the definitive way to experience this timeless classic. It was an amazing feeling getting back into the world of System Shock without feeling like it lost any of the charm I had fallen for from the original. The depth of the gameplay systems is wonderful, and although some of the original's faults do peek through, it doesn't change just how great it is to play with all of the improvements Nightdive has added.
On top of that, it's a joy to play on the Steam Deck. It's definitely a Best on Deck game, and I can't help but enjoy playing it on the go. This is a great portable experience, and I can't wait for mods to come out!
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.
Creature Keeper was provided by Graffiti Games for review. Thank you!
Creature Keeper is one of a growing number of creature collection games that live on Steam, and the comparisons to Pokémon are impossible to ignore in this genre. And how can it not? Pokémon is the biggest entertainment franchise in the world, after all. However, it differentiates itself from its rivals in a multitude of ways, like real-time combat and strong world and character building. While the experience was an enjoyable one, it was marred by some troublesome issues that should hopefully be fixed by release or soon after.
Creature Keeper does not look like much on the surface, but it has a ton of self-awareness and mockery of the fantasy formula that intrigued me. As a Keeper in the fantasy world of monsters and taming, your first day does not start well. The tutors are lazy assholes who make the recruits pick weeds and do not care whether you like that or not. The game's dialogue is generally well-written and doesn't fall into the trap of other comedies. The introduction is hilarious, but the characters don’t feel like they are trying too hard to be funny.
After the hilarious tutorial sequence in which you pick your first critter pal and learn some combat against your childhood friend (and get stung many times by wasps), you set off on your journey. A strange force corrupts monsters, and the guy tutoring you is trying to take over as the village elder. After being given a bizarre pocket universe by an old couple, the game begins in earnest. You are correct if you think Creature Keeper sounds a little bonkers, and it can be a bit challenging to keep track of, but it oozes charm.
While being ‘just pixel art,’ the visual design is striking, with exploration taking on a Metroidvania style that suits the game quite nicely. There is a wide range of creatures to collect and fight, and I was delighted to find a codex in the menu that stores all sorts of information about the creatures. There are still ‘learning’ points you accumulate through encountering them organically through gameplay, which makes them easier to tame and improve their stats.
Unlike many collector titles, Creature Keeper offers a unique monster-taming experience. Instead of battling creatures into submission, you tame them with food, with each monster having specific preferences. This refreshing approach reduces the grind and makes creature taming feel immersive. It's a significant departure from the ‘pound the tar out of everything’ approach, adding depth and strategy to the gameplay.
The combat took me by surprise as well. Usually, in this ‘We have Pokemon at home’ genre, fighting is a turn-based affair, but Creature Keeper bucks this trend with a fast-paced real-time combat system. Your creatures still fight alongside you, but you can swing swords while dodging attacks, healing yourself and your pet by petting them, and doing combo attacks to increase damage. It is a perfect example of keeping things simple, and Creature Keeper is delightful when fighting, albeit slightly chaotic at times.
In the overworld, you can generally avoid combat if desired, except for corrupted creatures that will attack you. Occasionally, progress is locked until you defeat the encounter, but there's time to prepare. Creature Keeper respects the player’s time, and I greatly appreciate that! Remember the little pocket dimension? It is a little hub area to return to from fast travel points and a garden to grow fruits for more taming.
All these things sound great, and the gameplay loop is wonderful. However, I found some issues. While you can access the overworld map through fast travel points, there is no minimap or navigation during gameplay. You have to rely on memory to get through the routes. The hands-off exploration style is not bad, but I sometimes found it confusing where to go next. I ran into my first major problem early on when I had to locate a temple for a quest, and the map layouts looked identical. I preferred a minimap so I could navigate the world better.
Balance also needs some work. Some mandatory boss fights are challenging, such as the dragons, which are very early in the game. Even though I was over-leveled, I kept getting killed, though there was no penalty for defeat.
I also ran into some frustrating bugs. The game froze whenever I activated a fast travel point outside the Pocket Garden. It worked after waiting a couple of minutes, though I had to rebooting twice.
The performance could use some optimization. I saw frequent stutters and frame drops during heavy action scenes, and the settings menu occasionally brought the FPS down to the mid-10s. Sometimes, the taming interface would bug out and be cut off on the screen on my Steam Deck.
Creature Keeper needs some TLC and patches to reach its full potential, but the fundamental game design is on point, and the world will keep you entertained. The game respects your time with the main story while maintaining enough side content to satisfy most players.
Overall, Creature Keeper is a solid enough experience on the Steam Deck, although the lack of options and aforementioned stuttering detract from it.
The fundamentals are all working, and while I couldn’t rebind any controls, the game comes with full controller support.
As usual, I tried two default options. There is no way to tweak graphical settings in Creature Keeper, not even screen resolution, so we are limited in options. With the stock 90Hz refresh rate and a full TDP, Creature Keeper was stable at this setting, although it will dip during combat scenes when a lot is happening on screen. Locking the frame rate to 60/60Hz made things smoother, and there isn’t much point going higher than this from my experience.
The power drain is surprisingly high if you don’t limit the TDP, with power spikes to 17 watts standard. The power draw was much higher than I expected because while Creature Keeper’s visuals are nice, they are nothing groundbreaking. Unfortunately, even with the unlocked TDP, accessing the menu still tanked the framerate.
Despite these issues, Creature Keeper is enjoyable if you need more battery life while playing. Once again, the lack of options hurts us, but a 5-watt TDP, framerate lock to 30FPS, and 90Hz refresh rate resulted in a decently stable experience. You will see more instability in combat, and the menu will slow things to a crawl, so this won’t be optimal for a truly smooth experience.
Of course, the significant advantage of this profile is battery life. I saw an average draw of 8 watts, a substantial gain in battery life. Do not turn on Half rate shading, as this will make the text unreadable.
Creature Keeper is available in English, Spanish - Spain, Portuguese - Brazil, Simplified Chinese, and Japanese, although some languages have not yet been fully implemented.
Creature Keeper is one of those games with the bare minimum accessibility requirements. You can adjust the volume and toggle Vync, but that is it for accessibility options.
While I have been critical of Creature Keeper, I still greatly enjoyed it. Creature Keeper is one of the most well-written ‘comedy’ games I’ve played in a while, and it comes with a refreshing take on the creature collecting genre. Fighting alongside your growing collection of monster pets does not get old, and the dialogue kept me engaged.
Despite this, I come away from Creature Keeper frustrated. All the weird freezes and interface bugs put me off, and the game's lack of handholding is both a strength and a weakness. The game is a decent performer on the Steam Deck, though the lack of accessibility options brings it down. I am glad the developers are aware of and working on the problems.
Creature Keeper will be much easier to recommend with some optimization and bug patches, but it has great atmosphere and solid gameplay, and it will definitely be an enjoyable time down the road.
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.
Promise Mascot Agency was provided by Kaizen Game Works for review. Thank you!
When I first saw Promise Mascot Agency, I wasn't exactly sure what to think about it. It has an extremely weird premise about running your mascot agency and working with this finger-like mascot to boost your agency to be the best in the business, while also discovering the mystery behind your exile. It had the makings of a quirky story I could fall in love with. And for the most part, I did! It has some quirks here and there, but ultimately, this adventure is worth playing through.
Promise Mascot Agency's story is a bit wild, and it gives me a Like a Dragon/Yakuza-esque feel to it. You play as Michi, a Yakuza known as "The Janitor," who messes up a huge deal and is exiled from his family. Instead of being killed, he is sent to Kaso-Machi to run a Mascot Agency and make the money back that he lost. There, he teams up with a homicidal mascot named Pinky, and together, they will make the agency as profitable as possible to pay back the money you lost and uncover the secret behind the town and the events that led to his exile.
I loved this tale. The main storyline was intriguing and exciting, with twists I didn't consider. I was on the edge of my seat to see what the mayor had done or the secret behind the mines, and the culmination of it all was very fulfilling. However, the fantastic characters raised the plot a couple of notches.
Along your journey, you will meet different people and mascots to work with, and everyone feels like they have a defined, unique personality with motivations that make sense. It was a joy to learn about the town's inhabitants, from Sumire's desire for her mother's old knife set to Sato's love of a specific band. We find out more and more information about them as time progresses, and we find items for them scattered around the world. It's so enjoyable to see what they say next.
Then, we have the mascots, which are truly a colorful bunch, filled with charm. Pinky, our titular, moderately insane partner, sets the tone for the characters we will encounter. We can recruit 20 different mascots, ranging from a piece of Tofu named To-Fu to a cat in a suit, and all of them have some weird quirk that was just hilarious to discover. To-Fu is always crying and needs confidence, while Trororo, a Yam-covered cat, is obsessed with adult films. You can learn more about them by growing their Life Satisfaction bar and going through a small cutscene each time, but it's worth it. Getting to know the crazy mascots and seeing Pinky discuss how much she dreams about burying a dead body in the woods are easily some of the best moments in Promise Mascot Agency.
She contrasts Michi's more serious, somewhat innocent demeanor, making for some hilarious moments. I couldn't help but laugh whenever Michi had to talk Pinky down from committing serious crimes or make herself sound worse when she needed to earn public favor.
The aesthetic of the game also ended up growing on me. It has an 80s TV-show filter on it to make the game look more retro, while having a good combination of 3D models and 2D paper-styled portraits. It took me a little time to get used to it, since I usually like more vivid, sharper visuals, but it fits the context of the game nicely. I wouldn't say I would prefer this style now, but I feel developer Kaizen Game Works did a good job making it enjoyable.
While the actual gameplay feels great, some issues stopped me from fully enjoying the experience. Promise Mascot Agency is a mix between a business management simulator and an open-world collect-a-thon. On the business side, you will manage your mascots, send them on jobs, and make the bulk of your money. There are multiple ways to make money, like with mascot jobs, subcontractors, and merchandise sales, and utilizing them all effectively will net some big gains. Doing these will increase your fame, unlocking new, more profitable jobs.
I have a love-hate relationship with this system. I like how easy it is to manage all the parts of your business, and matching mascots with a job that provides extra benefits is obvious, but it can feel a bit monotonous as your agency grows. Sending 15+ mascots all out on jobs one at a time felt time-consuming, and making sure they had items to stave off incidents that occur was something I would end up forgetting, too. These incidents are like little minigames of their own, which utilize support hero cards, and while they are hilarious on their own (I love fighting against Normal Sized Doors). The incidents occur when you are roaming around the open world, so it can break up some of the flow when you start taking on 10+ jobs at once, but
Merchandise is another big money maker, and I liked it a lot. You get more merchandise through a crane game, and then send the merchandise to specific stores that have preferences and can be upgraded for more profits. This became my favorite way to make money, and I could make way more than I expected. Just like assigning jobs, it's a lot of doing the same thing, but I felt better coming back to Merchandise over jobs.
Then, we have the open-world part. You will drive around a solid-sized map to different points on the map to further the story, meet new characters, and find different collectibles spread throughout. There are some side quests to complete, and you can buy new items and upgrade to hero support cards, but for the most part, you will just be finding different items. These can unlock new merchandise, new mascots, upgrades for your truck, clean shrines, and persistent upgrades to get you more money and fans or increase your stamina recharge rate.
For the most part, it was fun to drive around with the slightly exaggerated driving physics and find these collectibles, clean up tons of trash, and destroy as many signs of the corrupt mayor as possible, but it can also get a bit tiring. Driving around got exhausting trying to get around all of the mountains, and there was a lot of going back and forth that felt like it took so much longer than it should. There is an upgrade that unlocks fast travel, which is nice, but finding these upgrades was hard, and I didn't get to them until towards the end of the game. Getting the launcher upgrade was easily the best and made collecting everything significantly easier, but it wasn't easy to find.
While almost all the collectibles you can find are marked on the map, upgrades weren't, and this made traversing take much more time than I would have liked. Still, it wasn't enough to stop me from enjoying the game, especially on the Steam Deck.
Apart from minor blemishes, playing Promise Mascot Agency on the Steam Deck is great. This feels like the best way to enjoy the game, and I can't imagine playing it any other way. However, I would make a couple of changes to get the most out of the experience and make it look a bit better.
For my time with the game, I wanted to balance smoothness, visuals, and battery life, and I feel like I found it. The game's default settings do a good job with visual quality, but the framerate can fluctuate wildly without a cap, so I made a couple of changes. I recommend turning the SteamOS framerate limiter to 40 FPS/80Hz for the most stable experience. There are some slight stutters here and there when traveling around the map fast, but this limit will curb any drops from more crowded areas.
I would also set Shadows to Ultra and change the upscaler to XeSS on Auto. While there is some minor pop-in from View Distance, it isn't as noticeable worldwide. However, seeing shadows load in as you drive is very prominent, so turning it to Ultra fixes that. As for the upscaler, the game defaults to FSR, which works, but I noticed some heavy blurriness in some instances and in the Merchandise Crane game. XeSS fixes these, and the game still looks great.
These changes should get us an average battery drain of 11W - 14W for 3.5 - 4 hours of battery life with some minor spikes up to 17W depending on how fast you're traveling and loading the world. I also didn't see much difference in performance between the DX12 and DX11 versions of the games, so I recommend just sticking with the default DX12:
Next, I wanted to see if there would be a comfortable way to play the game without using upscaling and with as high-quality settings as possible. I got it running decently with a mix of high and ultra settings and no upscaling at 30 FPS, but there are some minor caveats. There could still be some drops in crowded cities or when going around the world quickly, but it doesn't feel nearly as smooth as 40 FPS or higher, draining the battery a lot. Still, it looks great and it's nice not having the slight blurriness that comes from upscaling:
I also wanted to see how high I could comfortably push the framerate. While the lowest settings and XeSS upscaling at Performance can get the framerate to a near 60 FPS, it doesn't look great and has a ton of pop-ins. The compromise here is a medium preset with slightly lower settings in different areas with 50 FPS lock. The game looks significantly better and sticks to 50 FPS 99% of the time, but it does have some minor pop-in and drains the battery fast:
I did play around with the settings to see if I could increase battery life, but the sacrifices were a bit too much for my liking. I could get it to a TDP limit of 8 with minor drops, but it drains in the range that the recommended settings do, so I would say just stick with the recommended settings in this case.
Promise Mascot Agency has incredible accessibility settings to help you enjoy the game. You can change the font style to be more legible, have Open Dyslexic font, change dialogue text speed and animation effects, and enable tap to drive and jump. We can also toggle screenshake, full screen effects, UI animating background and noise overlay, camera recentering, pitch control, and place a dot in the middle of the HUD to avoid motion sickness.
But that's not all! We also have color correction for Deuternaopia, Protanopia, and Tritanopia, scale the color correction, turn on high contrast icons, increase interaction icon size, slow down the animal speed for those you have to chase, turn off traffic, and turn off timers. You can also turn off the Vintage Color Processing to make the game look more modern.
The game supports 16:10 resolutions, as well as controllers and cloud saves. There are no HDR settings.
Promise Mascot Agency is a great game with loads of charm that can feel repetitive the longer you play. The story and characters are fantastic, making the gorgeous town of Kaso-Machi more enjoyable to travel around and discover. The gameplay is enjoyable, and I like the open-world collecting mixed with business management, but it gets a little too repetitive as your agency grows, discouraging me from sending mascots on more jobs. Still, I had a blast playing the game, and it's definitely worth experiencing.
It also runs really well on the Steam Deck, which is a nice touch. It definitely has some wiggle room to enhance the experience, but once done, it's the best way to enjoy 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.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard was provided by EA for review. Thank you!
To speak of BioWare is to speak of some of the greatest RPGs of all time: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect 2, and Dragon Age: Inquisition. It's also to speak of Mass Effect 3, the epic culmination of Commander Shepherd's grandiose adventures, whereby the narrative direction - specifically more so at the end - caused untold amounts of ire across forums and social media alike. And, finally, it's to speak of Mass Effect: Andromeda and new-IP Anthem, two of the Edmonton-based studio's latest releases, back in 2017 and 2019, respectively. Put plainly, the trust has somewhat dissipated in recent years, and lesser expectations mar any announcement. Enter Dragon Age: The Veilguard, née Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, the long-anticipated follow-up to 2014's aforementioned Dragon Age: Inquisition. Dramaticism aside, the stakes could not be higher - both in Thedas, the world where Dragon Age is set, and for the waning fans back home.
It's imperative to know that the story in The Veilguard takes place 10 years after the revelations at the end of the Trespasser DLC for Inquisition. It was undoubtedly an essential moment in time when Solas, a long-standing ally for the 100-plus hours spent facing what the Breach, a break in the boundary, known as the Veil, between the physical world and the Void, was revealed in the closing moments to be not only a deity but an outright enemy of the player.
Without having experienced that first hand, or even knowing that beforehand, much of The Veilguard's heavier moments will go to waste. Rather, they may do so initially until you find your footing in Thedas as Rook, the player character. With the character creator as impressive and extensive as it is, those first steps into this world in turmoil may take longer than expected.
In a world as rich and inviting as Thedas, it's only natural to have the desire to painstakingly craft your character that will carve their path through the many trials and tribulations that await you, and make no mistake, the tools available are more than capable of getting the job done. An almost overwhelming amount of customisation is here, with arguably some of the best hair ever to grace gaming since the 2013 Tomb Raider reboots or, more recently, Horizon: Forbidden West.
The "standard" assortment of tattoos, body sizes, and whatnot is available, but where The Veilguard is proud to stand out is where it truly matters, regarding inclusivity. Body styles are no longer tied to set pronouns and voices. It's incredible to see such representation, especially in such a high-profile game like this, and it is thankfully just a sliver of the support to come. The narrative also makes sure to be equally inclusive of trans and nonbinary characters, and it feels incredibly genuine and authentic in telling their stories.
Rounding out the character customisation is the standard trio of class tropes being available to choose from - Warrior, Rogue, and Mage - as well as four races: Human, Dwarf, Elf, or Qunari. Lastly, six origin factions determine various influences, conversations, related companions, and, naturally, the ever-important cosmetics much later.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard effortlessly impresses from the moment the campaign starts. The set piece in the opening hour, featuring Solas's attempts to open the previously mentioned Veil and our attempts to stop him, gives one of the better crash courses of RPGs in recent years. With that first set piece being as incredible as it is, it acts as a double-edged sword, where that quality forms a basis for the rest of your adventures. It is not necessarily representative of the stellar narrative, but the quality and consistency of the moment-to-moment writing tend to fluctuate wildly.
As was the case for Inquisition, Solas has some of the most exquisite and impressive lines, delivered beautifully by Gareth David-Lloyd, with gravitas and furthering curiosity unrivalled. Mere moments later, jarring lines grace our ears, with some notable examples being "The gates weren't keeping someone out, it's keeping something in," and the ever-popular "It's quiet... too quiet." While a minor blemish in the grander scheme of things, these otherwise inconsequential moments are far too regular for my liking and do nothing to elicit any response bar a dry, pained chuckle at the sheer gall so blatantly on display.
Thankfully, the gameplay doesn't suffer the same juxtaposing disparities in quality as the writing, and the Level design is a particular high point for the series. The Veilguard focuses on "smaller" instanced areas, smartly moving away from the older entries' open-world design. With such a change being made, it's rare to see an environment devoid of beauty and inspired intricacies in the winding paths and many layers of the ever-changing Crossroads or the moody, rainy city of Minrathous.
Likewise, character design is equally meticulous, from the physical appearance to their individualities. Whilst they start as fully-formed characters, they naturally grow further throughout the main scenario and each eventual tailored side quest. The growth displayed throughout the latter quests is substantial and elevates each character beyond expectations. This expertise is BioWare confidently doing what they do, cranked up to 11, and it's so welcome to see in a genre where caricatured and/or surface-level side characters have become all too commonplace.
Combat has equal levels of personality, although it manages to fumble some of what the individual characters worked tirelessly to achieve in its quest for breadth and an overall unified design principle. Simply put, your companions are left feeling secondary to the encounter. In what can be seen as anything other than an oversimplification of the best parts of Mass Effect and previous Dragon Age titles, the primary emphasis on tactics is sidelined in favor of a more standardized action-focused approach. Unique character skills are somewhat dissipated in their utility when you'll often be firing them off for their priming and chainable abilities, which all characters possess.
Furthermore, your comrades can no longer perish on the battlefield, rendering them mere cannon fodder. Only Rook's health matters, and once they are down, it's game over. The same harmonious relationships forged through dialogue aren't reflected in the synergies found when battling a swathe of fantastical fantasy staples, Lovecraftian monstrosities, and conniving cults, and that's a real shame.
Despite all this, combat remains fluid. It feels like a true 3rd person action romp, parries and all, and very dynamic and challenging. Each of the three class archetypes controls beautifully and has its distinct playstyle, all whilst feeling equally viable across the various combat scenarios you face throughout your 40-hour or so adventure. As is par for the course in Bioware titles, expansive skill trees, both the player character as well as your comrades, allow you to create discernably different builds depending on the path you choose to go down, but the option to select one of three specialisations per class truly brings your Rook into a league of their own.
My favourite throughout my time with the Rogue was the Duelist, initially picked purely for aesthetic and power-fantasy reasons. This specialization focused on nimbly dodging incoming attacks, parrying when a dodge would otherwise fail, and striking at the most opportune moments with dual-wielding blades and looking as dapper as possible. The graceful dance employed by my Duelist would have the chance to be visually gorgeous, too, were it not for the technical limitations imposed by the Steam Deck's hardware.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is, at its best, a passable and enjoyable experience on Steam's little machine. Out of the box, the frame rate can fluctuate anywhere between the high 20s and low 40s throughout gameplay. Chaotic battles and cutscenes manage to punish the Steam Deck further and force it to the low 20s and even high teens, even with FSR being set at Ultra Performance. This also causes the game to have an unpleasant, almost watercolor aesthetic film over it.
Thankfully, changing the Upsampling method from AMD FSR to Intel XESS and setting it to Performance yields brilliant results compared to the former's output. Likewise, setting the render scale to 80% and the field of view to 90% gives us a few more crucial frames to play with and fundamentally makes the experience run considerably smoother, without having muddied visuals. With these changes, average frame rates are generally within the 35fps - 45fps range, with occasional brief drops sub-30fps. Setting the framerate limit to 30 FPS should keep everything as stable as possible.
It's not to say that any of these changes can make it pleasing to look at by any stretch of the imagination, though. The beauty of Veilguard's distinct visual style is almost lost in translation when played on the Steam Deck, and it does an outright disservice to the magic that BioWare has carefully composed and conducted. Still, stability, above all else, is crucial, and we can achieve such a result with relative ease.
There are next to no changes that can make a noticeable and positive impact on battery life, but with a game that still looks as good as this, it's to be expected. An average 22W draw will drain the OLED model's battery in around 2.5 hours. This could be considered adequate if you're at home or reliably near a charger, but it may not be enough if you're purely on the go.
Thankfully, there's plenty of scope here in Dragon Age: The Veilguard to amend accessibility options. The general portion of the settings contains a camera shake, which is fully adjustable via a slider, color vision deficiency, whether a persistent dot is visible, and an ever-appreciated toggle for disabling UI hold inputs. We can also change the Text Size and Accessibility SFX, which enables "audio cues to provide additional feedback for some visual mechanics", including "incoming attack indicators, target lock-on, and conversation wheels". Similarly, enabling Glint Ping SFX allows spatialised SFX to play at object locations when pressed Up on the D-Pad. Lastly, in the love-it-or-hate-it of modern game visual representations, there is a toggle for whether a Low Health Screen Effect is utilised.
Subtitles are fully customizable, as expected for a game released in 2024. You can tweak Subtitle Visibility, Size, Animation (whether they fade in or out, for example), Color, and Opacity to your heart's content. Lastly, your Steam Deck's vibrations are fully modifiable, with different vibration levels being set across the board or individually for Gameplay-based intensities, Environmental prompts, and Cinematic-focused buzzes. Similarly, the option to enable vibration assist is also present, and it acts as a physical alternative or additive version of the Accessibility SFX audible assist previously mentioned.
It's hard to believe this is the same BioWare many consider to be on the down and out. Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the most confident and masterful display of talent and expertise in their particular craft shown for nigh-on a decade and, with the odd dialogue choice here and there not-withstanding, is as cohesive and coherent as they come. It is everything it sets out to be and so much more: a continuation of the superb ending shown in Dragon Age: Inquisition, a new beginning for the events to come, and, dare I say it, hope for BioWare's future.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader was provided by Owlcat Games for review. Thank you!
cRPGs have been making a resurgence these past few years after their heyday back in the late 90s and early 00s, and now it's Warhammer's time to get in on the action. Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader brings the legendary franchise to the cRPG genre, and you'll probably be left wondering why it took so long for a game like this to come about! A franchise famed for deep lore seems like the perfect fit for a cRPG, specializing in deep conversations and gameplay mechanics.
The story of Rogue Trader puts you in the role of... well, a Rogue Trader. After the ship you're on suffers a mutiny and the current Rogue Trader is assassinated, you are placed next in line to inherit the title and the ship. With your new ship and crew at your command, it's up to you to continue to explore the outer reaches of Imperium space and to carry on the legacy of your predecessors. It's a decent story, and the rank of Rogue Trader given to the player character means you have more freedom, rather than sticking strictly to Imperium guidelines.
The Rogue Trader (the player character) will always be in your party, but you can have up to 5 other party members accompany you on your journey, made up of officers from your crew and companions you'll meet along the way. Of course, if you are playing a co-op game, your friends can join you as party members instead.
Throughout your journey, you'll be given plenty of choices on how to handle certain scenarios. Do you want to stick close to the Imperium's strict rules, or would you rather show some leniency and mercy to gain the loyalty of others? They impact the game and how events proceed; if there's an immediate effect, the game will show you what that is. You might expect this from a cRPG, but seeing it used and executed well here is great.
While similar to a cRPG, the game's combat reminded me greatly of XCOM. Weapons have damage ranges that they can do, ranged weapons have a percentage to hit chance, and various environmental objects provide half or full cover from enemy fire. It's a great combat system that works well in this universe where ranged weaponry is common. However, it still has that old XCOM feeling of missing a 90% chance to hit the shot.
There are still melee classes, and they can function quite well even against ranged opponents thanks to some generous movement speed. It's quite common to be able to run across a third of a battlefield and do a melee strike all in one turn, meaning it's a good idea to keep ranged units back from the action and try and keep your melee units near the front, but ideally still in some cover until they can charge the enemy and do some high damage attacks.
Aside from these straight-up attacks, there are also abilities, which play more into the cRPG side of the game, where you can give your party members buffs or your enemies debuffs. Or just use some action points to unleash a powerful attack on your foes.
Regarding combat difficulty, the game leans toward the harder side. Even with Normal difficulty, you'll still need to think tactfully and plan your moves to win battles, especially when encountering tough bosses. The bosses were a bit of a bugbear for me, though, as they use game mechanics that aren't disclosed beforehand, such as regenerating all their health from environmental objects, resulting in losing if you don't figure out what you need to do immediately. Because of this, the game can feel a tad unfair at these moments, and you may need to "save scum" as it were to beat a boss here and there.
There is also space combat, which is a bit more simplified compared to regular combat, but does have some neat mechanics such as requiring your ship to move in a certain way, meaning you'll want to plan so you can maneuver your ship's shields and weapons to keep yourself safe while keeping enemy ships within your firing arc. It's still turn-based and takes place on a grid, so it's not a big departure, but it is a neat additional take on the combat.
The game's UI can be a little daunting initially, but the menus are quite functional once you've wrapped your head around the UI design. The progress tree for leveling up characters is shown in a circle. While it takes some getting used to, it's a great way to display the information, as once the circle has been filled, you get the chance to prestige into your next class to further your specialization.
The aesthetic of the Warhammer world is presented well here, with all its intriguing designs on display. Your ship essentially functions like a city in space, with open and luxurious rooms in parts, with the rest of the ship and a great deal of the environment being very utilitarian. Candles light the corridors and are strewn about. It would all look out of place in anything but Warhammer, but Rogue Trader pulls it off to keep a cohesive feeling game and allows you to immerse yourself in the world.
Rogue Trader does, however, lack almost any voice acting and is very text-heavy compared to something like Baldur's Gate 3. So you had better be prepared to do plenty of reading for this one. Fortunately, the font size is large and easy to read, even on a Steam Deck screen.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is a solid cRPG. The storyline is interesting, and the game presents the player with choices that actually affect the game. The combat mechanics are solid, requiring proper planning and tactical thinking to succeed, and the game does a great job of making you feel like you are playing a role in the Warhammer universe.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader leaves a decent first impression on the Steam Deck. It supports the native 1280x800 resolution that the Steam Deck uses, so there are no black borders and great controller support for gameplay and the menus.
The game also has a default graphical setting for the Steam Deck, which appears to target 30 FPS, but you have to make sure you configure your SteamOS settings correctly to hit that target.
Set the SteamOS frame rate limit to 60 and no TDP limit.
The "Steam Deck Preset" chosen by the game seems to largely favor putting the game on Medium settings. However, if you set your SteamOS Frame Limit to 30, it tends to lock the game to 24 FPS in intense scenes, so we need to keep the SteamOS Frame Limit to 60 to get a 30 FPS experience. You can use the in-game frame rate limit to lock the game to 30 FPS and save some additional battery life.
Some environments may drop into the mid-20s at times, which you could fix by dropping one or two settings, like Shadows or Lighting, but I just powered through as 25 FPS is still an ok experience for a turn-based game.
Power draw varies greatly depending on the environment. In quiet areas, it can drop as low as 13W; however, in more intensive areas, it often reaches 19-20W. Temperatures also vary from around 60C-65C to up to 75C, depending on the area.
Because of this, you can expect around 3 hours of battery life from a Steam Deck OLED and around 2 hours from the LCD.
Unfortunately, reaching 60 FPS is impossible on the Steam Deck, so we're stuck with a 30 FPS experience. Fortunately, cRPGs are still perfectly fun to play at 30 FPS, so we can tick Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader as a good game to play on the Steam Deck.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader has many accessibility options, such as the ability to disable blood/gore, auto-pausing when major events happen, and detailed tutorials on each gameplay mechanic.
It also features very adjustable difficulty settings allowing you to change things such as how beneficial cover is and the dodging chance of enemies etc.
There are also filters for those with color blindness.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader successfully brings the Warhammer universe to the cRPG genre. An intriguing storyline littered with choices for the player to make, coupled with the chance to play through the game with friends and an accomplished combat system that borrows from the playbook of tried and tested tactical strategy games, means that Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is a game to look into for cRPG fans.
As for how the game performs on Steam Deck, Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader runs pretty well on the Steam Deck. Its graphical preset holds 30 FPS for the majority of the time, and its good control scheme allows full control of the game without the need for the touchscreen or touchpads.
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.
Drova: Forsaken Kin was provided by Deck13 for review. Thank you!
This review was created using an LCD Steam Deck. OLED testing will be carried out at a later date.
Drova: Forsaken Kin might be my most surprising game of 2024. Before diving into a dark, gothic-inspired RPG with little hand-holding and a love letter to classic RPGs, I didn't know what to expect. That always makes me nervous, as games like this often have many challenges to overcome. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug, after all, and that comes with expectations that can be impossible to manage.
However, you can breathe easily tonight because Drova: Forsaken Kin is brilliant. It might be my Game of the Year. If that is not tempting enough, Drova is a great experience on the Steam Deck. Developers Just2D have put massive effort into their game, and their passion shows in every corner.
Drova: Forsaken Kin is an experimental RPG, and it can take a little while to get used to it. You start with nothing in a large, dangerous world, and everything will kill you if you aren’t prepared. Set in a world heavily inspired by Celtic mythology, Drova reminds me most of the Gothic and Risen series but without many of my annoyances with those games. It feels like a modern version of these games that are challenging for their core game design rather than frustrating controls. When all those pieces come together, the result is something spectacular.
This does not mean that Drova lacks frustrating moments. Sure, I got killed more times than I can count, but most of my deaths were my fault. Rushing into a swamp filled with frog demons with nothing but a stick is a terrible idea. While the combat is not the best, the progression feels great. The ‘zero to hero’ philosophy is in full effect here, and turning my broken, weak figure into a growing menace to nature that commands respect is engaging.
The story premise is pretty cool. Upon entering a new realm, and after my companion dies to crazy spirits, it is my job to uncover the answers behind this mysterious, dangerous world. Society has discovered the power of a dead empire, allowing them to capture the spirits that control nature. However, the anger of the remaining spirits has divided mankind into two warring factions.
Everyone you meet has ambitions and a reason for existing. They don’t just let you into their favorite club because you smell of ‘Main Character Syndrome.’ Respect has to be earned. They don’t know who you are, so until you prove yourself, you aren’t worth much to them.
Drova: Forsaken Kin’s world design might be the best I’ve seen, especially with exploration. You don't know anyone in this world, and characters are not named unless they decide you are worthy of their name. There is no fast travel, and locations/places of interest can be marked with ink, which you must buy from vendors.
Cartographers will sell you their professional maps if needed, and navigating the world always feels rewarding. The map is not particularly large, but it doesn't need to be. Too many open worlds mistake width over depth, but Drova bucks this trend. People will follow their routines as taverns come to life. You can also pet cats and dogs, so the best part of life is present.
I appreciate how much thought they have put into making the challenge organic rather than shoving health sponge enemies down my throat. People might get nervous seeing the ‘Soulslike’ tag on the Steam page, but that is only to emphasize timing and picking your fights carefully. Most of the time, you can muscle through fights without being punished. This isn’t Dark Souls, don’t worry! Some enemies are powerful, but the open-ended world gives you the freedom to return to it later.
Even the leveling system is immersive. Rather than picking perks and abilities in a skill tree, Drova engages the player in seeking out mentors to learn their tricks of the trade. Some mentors will do it for free, and some require hard-earned gold. When I learned to extract important materials from dead animals, the game gave me great dialogue as my mentor taught me how, which is wonderful for world-building.
One of my favorite moments in Drova was getting drunk with a random lass in a tavern. There she was, being all flirty and promising a great night. Because my character is lonely, he was happy to go along. The twist was coming a mile away, but it made me laugh as she led me into the nearby woods. To my lack of surprise and amusement, I was knocked out by goons and dragged to a huge, underground labor camp! What followed was a few hours of great storytelling, and that is just part of why I’m so drawn in.
It’s a mark of a good game when I’m racking my brain for things I’m not fond of. I can imagine that some players might not love the lack of handholding the game provides, and while I enjoy the combat, it is a little clunky at times. More than once, I lost a fight because I dodged an attack too late, though that is my fault more than an issue with the game. You can change several difficulty settings at any time, so if you’re dying too quickly or want to focus on the story and world, you can adjust the challenge whenever you wish.
I have tried to keep this as spoiler-free as possible because I believe Drova: Forsaken Kin is one of those games that you’re better off experiencing blind. Above everything, the developer oozes competence and a love for creating great games. A roadmap of additional features was announced recently, adding even more to the game, all for no extra cost. Drova: Forsaken Kin is gaining more attention across the industry for good reason. It is a captivating and refreshing RPG with a great world to explore. For $24.99, you will struggle to find a game as good as this for the price.
According to Valve, Drova: Forsaken Kin has an Unknown status rating and a Native rating through ProtonDB. While the visuals and environmental effects pack a surprising punch, the performance on the Steam Deck is great all around. However, I have made some interesting observations over the past few weeks.
Drova has come out of the gates swinging, bringing an almost complete experience out of the box. It works very well without any adjustments to TDP, refresh rate, or locking frames. Despite the somewhat dated visuals, it looks gorgeous with the diverse biomes and character animations, and I found it a solid 60FPS across the board. While there is much text to read, I had no problems making it out on the Steam Deck’s screen. The game is blessed with accessibility options, including a font scaler. It should automatically be set to Large font size; if not, it is an easy click away.
The default control scheme works great, although I saw a small bug when using investigation mode. This feature allows players to study interesting locations or uncover footprints like Witcher 3’s senses. It is an awesome mechanic, but I found that I was unable to move the cursor around and investigate properly with the controller. While the mode functioned, it was stuck vertically to where my character was. It is a bizarre issue, but control rebinds are in the game thanks to a recent patch, so it is an easy fix.
There aren’t many graphical settings you can tweak in Drova: Forsaken Kin, but this is a well-optimized experience. I recommend turning off the autosave function or setting it every 30 minutes. The game will stutter and freeze for a few seconds while saving, which is most noticeable when it autosaves. For a smoother experience, I left the toggle off. It has plenty of manual save slots, including quick saving, so turning the autosave off should not be a problem.
The Steam Deck can handle Drova: Forsaken Kin and chews through even the most demanding scenes on stock settings (Unlocked TDP, 60hz Refresh Rate, 60FPS lock). We are limited in how much we can change within the settings. Apart from a few minor drops during a loading screen and the aforementioned saving freeze, this is smooth sailing. The only graphical options of note are toggling dust particles and the screen resolution, neither of which made much difference to the framerate or battery. I turned off dust particles while keeping the resolution native, but leaving it on makes little difference if you like the former.
The power drain has been like a rollercoaster ride. Between the different updates, I have experienced a bizarre range of power draws that are nearly impossible to put down. Ultimately, we must stick to the newest update that most people are on, 3.6.19, which drained at around 10 - 14 Watts. This translates into about three and a half hours of gameplay on the LCD Steam Deck. This is still a decent time and comes with no significant drawbacks. For those who want to get as much battery juice out of their Steam Deck, Drova: Forsaken Kin is still fairly playable at low TDPs.
Before the 3.6.19 update, Drova: Forsaken Kin scaled well, even at a 3-watt TDP. While the frame dips were more common during intense fighting scenes, it maintained a fairly stable 30FPS with half rate shader turned off, the frame rate capped to 30 in-game, and the refresh rate locked to 40hz. With the new updates, that is no longer an option, as it dropped to 15FPS on average. While this was irritating, turning the TDP to 4 brought the performance back up to what it was previously. However, the power draw stabilizes between 8 and 9 watts on average.
This brings the average battery life to around 5 hours on a single charge, which is a moderate bump in longevity while sacrificing some stability.
Drova: Forsaken Kin is available in English, French, and German. It has impressive accessibility features, although it lacks colorblind support.
For gameplay, players can change the difficulty, toggle tutorials, deactivate minigames with mechanics such as fishing and mining, change the text display speed, auto-assign items to the quick bar, equip ammunition automatically, and draw their weapon automatically. For the interface, players can freely turn off HUD elements on the screen and toggle character notifications when they act, such as picking up an item or gaining a level.
Organic and honest is how I would describe Drova: Forsaken Kin. It combines the best parts of what made me fall in love with RPGs into a brilliant package. Great worldbuilding and lore, challenging combat without feeling like it's mocking the player for trying, and surprisingly gorgeous visuals blend in wonderfully.
This is an absolute bargain for the quality, even at full price.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this article, check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that will help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got you covered!
VED was provided by Fulqrum Publishing for review. Thank you!
With a name like VED, you're not able to glean much from just the title, so what exactly is VED? Well, to use the developer's own words, it's a hand-drawn, story-driven RPG with turn-based combat. And it's one of the more unique games I've had to review as a video game journalist.
The basic premise of VED is that there exist two worlds: the one in which humans reside and another magical world where spirits, demons, and other fantastical creatures live. Our protagonist, Cyrus, can traverse between them. By your dialogue choices, you'll then decide how the story progresses, which faction Cyrus will end up with, and who his friends will be.
VED falls into an interesting position where it's quite hard to define exactly what genre it is. It's heavily story-driven, with a good chunk of time spent in cutscenes in the Human World with voiced dialogue and critical choices to be made, which will affect the story and your relationships with various people and factions. It plays quite similarly to a visual novel.
But you will be teleported to the Magic World at points in the story, introducing more RPG and rogue-lite elements to the game. When you are teleported, you are confronted with your "base," a small village run by Troglodytes. Defeating enemies in the Magic World grants you Energy, which you can spend to build structures in the village, which grants Cyrus new abilities to use in battle. It's very basic, and a simple level-up system could have easily done the same here, but it's quite neat to see the village being built up and interacting with some of the Troglodytes there.
Once you've set your abilities in the base, you can head out into the Magic World proper, where the game allows you to travel along branching paths with events and battles. The events are straightforward and will include choices that rely on your Magic, Strength, or Dexterity abilities, done in a very Dungeons & Dragons-esque manner with a D20 die.
The combat in the game is entirely turn-based and relies on the abilities you selected while at your base. This is the most interesting part of VED, with your player character changing position on the battle grid with each move. You need to think tactically about what attacks you will use and in what order. Abilities must be put in 1 of 4 positions, and some abilities only work in certain positions. Hence, you need to work out what position an ability will put you in so you know what abilities you can use next. The game's difficulty is also pretty tough.
There is an option to enable a "Story Mode" difficulty, which makes combat incredibly easy, but as the combat is the highlight of the game for me, I wouldn't recommend that you use it. This option also makes it almost impossible for dice rolls to fail.
Unfortunately, the story in VED fell pretty flat for me. The game places you in a world with very little world-building and quickly introduces the game's 4 factions without establishing much of a backstory. It's all surface-level stuff, and it's hard to decide what faction you wish to support when you don't know the reasons behind their actions for a good portion of the game. You aren't even sure why Cyrus should care about any of this.
Pacing is a huge issue with VED's storyline, with remarkably little information presented to the player at certain points, even when crucial choices need to be made. Then the game loves to lore-dump you with a several-minute conversation explaining a ton of backstory with dialogue that cannot be slowed down or paused. It's just a bit too much, and it feels like the developers didn't know as and when to give the player certain information that they had prepared. The game is shorter, and I think the developers had a bigger story to tell, but only a few hours to fit it all in.
The game also suffers from being a bit disjointed, with Cyrus able to switch sides between chapters and the characters seemingly being perfectly fine with it. It creates a confusing situation to try and figure out whose side they are on. For example, I could side with a faction late in the game despite having terrible relationship stats with their leader. Even the timestamps when the scene changes make no sense, often using a 12-hour clock, others using a 24-hour clock, and using AM or PM is also sometimes incorrect.
Cyrus is also supposedly meant to be blind, or at least severely vision impaired, which is why I presume the human world is presented in such a bland manner, and the magic world is so vibrant, as he has his sight in the magic world. Despite this, however, Cyrus' vision impairment almost seems to come and go as and when it's convenient to the plot for him to have the issue or not.
Cyrus himself remains an enigma. He is teleported to the Magic World early on in the game and seems remarkably chill. Fighting demons, meeting a race of Troglodytes whom he helps build a village, and then returning home to the Human World and proceeding to go and book a job interview. It's just a standard day for Cyrus! Just who is this guy? It's hard to care about a character who seems hard to relate to.
Some of the dialogue also borders on... being rather strange. A conversation between Cyrus and a woman a few chapters in is quite cringe-inducing to listen to, and although the woman does comment that Cyrus is being a bit weird, she seems far more ok with it than anyone I know would be. It makes Cyrus come across as a bit obsessive, and he's like it with other female characters, too, and you start to wonder just what his backstory makes him the way he is. But just who Cyrus is is never explained to the player.
All of this isn't helped by the fact that the game's voice acting at some points is... just not very good. I thought that the voices were AI-generated at first, so I went and checked the game's credits and saw that several different people were listed as voice actors for the game. But, the voices distracted me from enjoying the game's story. Emphasis is frequently placed on the wrong words, some words (and the subtitles) are spoken/written incorrectly, and the intonation in the sentence structure can often be wrong as if the voice actor sounds like they intended to say more when the sentence has finished.
It's possible the voice actors were reading a script and aren't native English speakers, as sometimes, the subtitles are written in poor or incorrect English, and the voice actors say it word for word despite it being quite a glaring grammatical error to a native speaker. The game is also available in Russian voices, possibly voiced better than English if you can understand it. You can also disable voices in the settings menu, but it's paired with the rest of the sound effects, sadly.
Visually, the game has an interesting hand-drawn art style. It really shines in the Magic World, with vibrant colors, beautiful visuals, and animations for the combat. Sadly, the Human World is depicted as very drab, almost presented in a monochromatic style. I would assume this is done to portray Cyrus' view of the two worlds, but I find it harms the world-building even further when you can't see the world you're in. The title screen depicts Micropolis as a neon-lit city, but you won't find a neon light anywhere once you're in the game.
VED is a story-driven game where the story just lacks the power to pull the rest of the game with it. The combat is fun, but it's a minor part of the game, and I'm not even 100% sure why we're in this magical world fighting all these fantastical creatures and building a village for the Troglodytes. We didn't even know any of this existed 24 hours ago! That sentence alone pretty much sums up VED. It's a solid premise for a storyline, but the game rushes the story along and provides only shallow explanations for everything.
VED is a bit of an interesting one on the Steam Deck. It has excellent controller support, so you have nothing to worry about. The game does allow you to select 1280x800 as a resolution in the settings, but it seemingly just runs at 1280x720 with black borders anyway. At one point, the game did seem to randomly change to 1280x800 after a transition, but it scaled incorrectly and cut off some UI elements, so I recommend you just play at 1280x720.
We're setting the SteamOS frame rate limit to 60, and we can get away with a TDP Limit of 8W.
VED has a simple "Graphic Quality" option in the options menu, which we'll set to "High."
With these settings, the game should hold 60 FPS for the vast majority of play. There are slight dips here and there, but given the nature of the game, they don't affect play at all.
The power draw is kept pretty low. When the game is just showing a pre-rendered scene, such as the many story sequences in the game, expect a draw of around 7W. In the gameplay segments, such as the turn-based battles, the power draw rises to around 10-11W. Very rarely, it can spike up to 13W.
Temperatures are low, mostly in the 55-60C range, and the fan never becomes audible during play.
There are no accessibility options in VED, although all dialogue is subtitled. You can also enable a "Story Mode" difficulty, making the game's combat much easier.
VED has an interesting premise both for the storyline and for the gameplay mechanics. Sadly, the story suffers from poor pacing and inconsistencies. It really feels like the game would benefit from being a slightly longer adventure, not an 8-hour one, but I suppose the developers have to draw the line at some point. Poor voice acting and somewhat repetitive, if well-drawn, art also let the game down for its world-building.
One thing you can't fault VED on, however, is how it runs on the Steam Deck. It provides an essentially flawless experience with great battery life, even on the highest settings. Controller support is also top-notch here.
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.
Beyond Galaxyland was provided by United Label for review. Thank you!
Beyond Galaxyland has been described as a cinematic space RPG, compared to the likes of the Final Fantasy games of old. While it may not compare to a Final Fantasy game in its length and epic scale, Beyond Galaxyland is definitely a story through space that's worth experiencing.
After encountering a mysterious infection destroying Earth known as "The End " and being saved by a mysterious race of aliens, our protagonist, Doug, and his now-sentient Guinea Pig, Boom Boom, are off on a space adventure together to discover just what happened to their beloved home planet and who, if anyone, was responsible.
Beyond Galaxyland takes place on various planets, each roughly representing its own biome, with deserts, lush forests, snow-capped mountains, and mysterious alien vessels all appearing here. The game keeps things pretty fresh, and if you focus on the story and ignore side quests, you'll probably be traveling between biomes every couple of hours or so, bringing a whole new set of enemies, so the variety is there.
Combat takes place in the form of turn-based battles. Similar to older JRPGs. A turn timer dictates when characters take their turns, with each participant in the battle acting independently (so the turn order may be friend > foe > friend > friend > foe, etc.). You'll have access to your basic attack granted by your weapon but also special abilities to give or remove status effects or deal massive damage. In a somewhat unique move, the game also adds "Summons," previously captured enemies that you can call back to fire off a special ability during battle.
There's also a timed element to the battles, requiring you to time button presses when an enemy attacks you in order to defend. You will also need to press a button to swing your sword or fire your gun when attacking. This makes the combat feel much more involved than it otherwise might if you're just giving orders and leaving your characters to it.
You'll face various foes in your travels, from robots to sandworms, cows to mystical elementals. This again helps the game to feel fresh and requires players to change up their equipment, swapping out trinkets that protect them from poison to ones that help defend against electrical attacks, for example.
You'll also occasionally be confronted with a puzzle. These usually take the form of platforming or figuring out what "generators" to power to put the correct platforms in place to proceed. They're usually fairly simple, and the more difficult ones I encountered eventually gave me a prompt to skip them, which is appreciated.
The highlight of the game is the storyline. The creator wanted to make a space epic, as it were, and I think they've done a pretty good job of it. You'll meet an intriguing cast of characters as you progress through the game, and even several hours after meeting them, you'll still be wondering about their motives and just whose side everyone is on.
The build-up to the big mystery of what happened to Earth and what caused all of these catastrophes to happen to these planets is quite thrilling. The game does a good job of not giving anything away too early while simultaneously not being frustrating with its coyness. There are twists and turns to be experienced, and I thoroughly enjoyed them.
The flow of the game is good, and while I think a couple of planets outstay their welcome in the game's design, I rarely found myself getting tired of what I was doing. The main example is that the game has a galaxy map allowing you to travel between planets. But if you follow the storyline, there'll be a point where you play for several hours either on one planet or traveling between planets without interacting with the galaxy map, which is a shame, as it's a nice feature to have in the game, but perhaps slightly overlooked in the game's design.
In terms of the game's visuals, Beyond Galaxyland has a pixel art style mixed with modern visual niceties. The pixel art is nicely done, and the addition of modern techniques such as dynamic shadows, depth of field, and reflections add to the game. The blend of these styles matches beautifully. When walking through the desert, expect the sand to glint in the sun, and in the urban cities, you can see a bloom effect reflecting off the neon lights. It ends up creating a nice-looking game, plus it's easy to meet the system requirements, too, which we'll get to in a bit.
One point I wasn't too keen on in the visual department is that some of the areas in the game can get pretty dark. While it's atmospheric, it can become genuinely difficult to see where you're going at times.
The sound design is also up there, with catchy beats playing in the background but not overwhelming the senses. Sound effects feel more on the traditional side of what you'd expect from the JRPGs that inspired Beyond Galaxyland.
Beyond Galaxyland is a good time. A well-paced storyline is key to an adventure through space like this, and I think it pulls it off really well. The combat is engaging while challenging, and the visuals and sounds all come together to make this game a complete package. While not on the scale of a Final Fantasy game, I think the enjoyment could be on par with one.
Beyond Galaxyland is a great experience on the Steam Deck. ... Oh? Did you want more information? Ok, I guess I can do that.
As far as controls go, there's nothing to complain about here. You should play the game with a controller or gamepad, which works perfectly with the Steam Deck's controller. The game also supports the 1280x800 native resolution of the Steam Deck's display, so you won't have to contend with black bars here.
Beyond Galaxyland also performs well, so I can offer two presets for it: one focusing on quality and another on getting the most out of your battery.
If you want the best visual experience from the game, then you're in luck because the Steam Deck can offer that. You can enable all the graphical settings in the options menu and set your SteamOS settings to 60 FPS / 60 Hz, with a TDP Limit of 11W.
Using these settings, the game looks great. I'm usually not a fan of Depth of Field or Motion Blur, but they add a nice, hazy look to the game, which really adds to the ambient feeling of the game. So, even if you're usually put off by such options, try them out and see what you think. The game holds a pretty consistent 60 FPS, too.
The power draw is around 14-18W, depending on the scene, so it isn't a terrible drain on the battery even with all these settings and a 60 FPS experience. Expect around 2.5 hours of battery life from a Steam Deck LCD, and you might squeeze 3 hours from a Steam Deck OLED.
Temperatures hover around 70-75C, and the fan does ramp up occasionally.
If you want that extra battery life to stay on your space adventure for as long as possible, I'd recommend lowering the SteamOS Frame Rate Limit to 30 FPS / 60Hz and that TDP Limit down to 5W. Then, in the in-game settings, you can turn on every setting except for Depth of Field and Motion Blur, as they're the two performance hitters.
You lose a couple of nice visual effects, and you're running at 30 FPS now, not 60, but the game still holds up pretty nicely, and given the turn-based nature of the game, 30 FPS isn't a deal breaker at all.
The power draw has dropped to 8-11W now, so even a Steam Deck LCD could manage 4 hours, with Steam Deck OLED owners potentially seeing 5 hours of playing time from a full charge.
Temperatures are cooler on these settings, mostly holding around the 60C mark.
There are no voiced lines in Beyond Galaxyland, so all dialogue is subtitled. There is also an option to make the racing minigames easier, although you don't play them often. Besides that, there are no accessibility options.
Beyond Galaxyland is an adventure worth embarking on. The game has an intriguing, well-paced storyline with enough twists and turns to keep you on your toes. Characters are shrouded in mystery, even ones that you thought you knew could surprise you. This, backed up by solid gameplay, visuals, and sound, combine to make one of the better RPGs I've played in recent memory.
To top it all off, Beyond Galaxyland plays great on the Steam Deck, with great controller support, 16:10 aspect ratio support, and good performance. This allows us to choose between visual niceties and extra battery life. It's worth noting, however, that the game doesn't appear to support Cloud Saving right now, so switching between playing on a PC and your Steam Deck might be an issue.
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.
Towerborne was provided by Xbox for review. Thank you!
The game is in early access, so there may be changes as the game develops. Treat this more as a preview of the launch state of the game, and we will review once it launches into 1.0.
I wasn't sure what to expect when starting Towerborne. Having seen the trailers and a 2.5D beat 'em up, a genre I have little experience in, I was excited to see what was on offer. For better or worse, I was pretty surprised when I eventually got into the game. And I'll preface this review by saying Towerborne is an online-only game. You need to be connected to the internet to play. This means you can't pause the game, even in solo play, and you may experience network lag, even when playing alone.
The basic storyline is that monsters have invaded the realm and destroyed the primary city of mankind, causing its residents to flee to the "Belfry," a large tower now acting as a haven for humanity. As an "Ace," you will protect the people of the Belfry from the encroaching monster forces and take back the realm.
After playing the prologue, you'll end up in the game's lobby/hub. From here, you can see what jobs are available. These are generally secondary tasks you complete during missions. You can also find the game's characters here, accept their main story quests, and upgrade your weapons and gear at the forge.
The Belfry is also an online lobby; you're still technically in an online lobby, even traveling to the world map. Unfortunately, and very strangely, I couldn't find a way to communicate with other players beyond the emote system the game has. Towerborne doesn't appear to have voice or text chat support in the game, which is baffling for an online-only game with a heavy co-op focus. Whenever you start a mission, it prioritizes playing in a group over the option to play solo, so it's a little confusing that you can't communicate with your team.
Once you leave the Belfry and go to the world map, you'll be placed on a hexagonal map, with each tile representing a mission. They are all largely similar in how they play out. Once you select a tile, you can choose the difficulty mission you want. The basic tiles aren't repeatable, but the boss tiles, such as Snaggleshire shown below, can be replayed multiple times.
The combat is perhaps Towerborne's strongest point. With different classes to choose from, various weapons to equip, and upgradable gear, you're always on the lookout for that next piece of equipment to give you the edge in a tough combat situation. The game starts pretty difficult, but once you get some good gear, it falls into the range of challenging but not tough. Different gear can have different traits, and I tried to keep gear equipped that gave me life regen and life stealing, which meant I could stay alive much easier.
As the Sentinel class, one of 4 available to you, you'll have a light and heavy melee attack and the ability to dodge and block with your shield. This was my favorite class to play. With my life-regen/steal build, I could heal between battles, which was invaluable since there was no other way to heal. Taking hits early on in a mission can be a death knell, leaving you vulnerable if stronger enemies emerge later.
You can also hit enemies into the air with certain moves, allowing you to "juggle" them. However, I am no fighting game player and was terrible at this. I found that putting myself in the air, which stops you from being able to dodge, was a death sentence, and I died attempting to juggle. I also discovered that if you get knocked down when a large group of enemies is nearby, you'll get stun-locked into oblivion and die. Fortunately, you do get extra lives to respawn.
Aside from your weapons, you'll be followed by a creature known as an Umbra with special abilities. Your starting Umbra will fire a bolt of energy at an enemy you are facing, which can be a good way to deal that extra bit of damage or help control the crowd, especially if you've just been knocked down. The second Umbra I got was able to deploy a static orb that dealt massive damage to enemies that walked into it.
Enemy AI is what you'd expect from a beat 'em-up. They do their job well enough, and I can't say I noticed them doing anything "stupid."
Towerborne is very much built around its gear system. Not only do you have your character level, but you also have a gear level, showing how good the gear you have equipped is. As you explore the world, missions you take on will have a recommended gear level, which increases the further you are from the Belfry, so you must always be finding or upgrading gear. Gear can also have traits that make building a set that suits your playstyle interesting.
Although Towerborne will launch as a paid game, the aim is to make it Free-To-Play and fund the game via micro-transactions, which are already in the game but are largely just emotes and cosmetics right now. Buying a founders pack gives you access to the game now, while it's in early access, as well as some cosmetics.
I can see Towerborne as a game that, upon its final release, will be intended to be played for 100+ hours, with an ever-increasing amount of content to keep players involved, similar to how Hoyoverse runs games like Genshin Impact. This "live service" game has promised seasonal content and a changing world map.
Visually, the game has a nice art style, mixing an almost anime-like look with 3D elements. It works pretty well, and new equipment does reflect your character's appearance, which is always a nice touch. The game's music is also pleasant, ranging from calm piano music in the lobby and world map to tense battle music when on a mission.
Towerborne has some good potential, and I enjoy the combat and the gear system. I'm just worried about the game that surrounds these two things. It's a little rough around the edges, with strange UI and control decisions for keyboard players, no local map for the Belfry, which can take a little getting used to. The game sometimes tells you to speak to a certain person but does not tell you *where* that person is. The game's content is also repetitive, with environments and enemies staying the same long before you find something new.
But, if you're using a gamepad and you have some friends to bring along with you and a better way to communicate, such as Discord, Towerborne should probably keep you entertained for a while.
Sadly, the game does not boot on the Steam Deck right now and crashes as it attempts to load the main menu. I contacted the developers, who said the game had worked correctly on the Steam Deck, but a recent update had broken compatibility. They couldn't offer a timeframe on when the game might be fixed on the Steam Deck but did say that they want to achieve Steam Deck compatibility.
Strangely, Towerborne has an accessibility button right on the main menu. When you click on it, you get taken to the accessibility menu, which has two options: the font size and the ability to disable the camera shake. It's oddly prominent, considering there isn't any accessibility in the game. The font size was a bit smaller, even on my PC, so I would bump it up a tad.
Towerborne has the potential to be a mainstay title, with an increase in the variety of content, such as different mission types and objectives, perhaps some improvement to the multiplayer communication method, and some polish, such as adding certain missing quality-of-life features.
I did enjoy the game for the first few hours. Still, after playing solo for all that time, I started to wish I had friends to play with me, and I quickly started just trying to beeline progress so I could explore something new rather than taking my time finishing the world map missions. In a group of friends, I imagine the game is more enjoyable for longer, with you and your friends discussing the new loot you got at the end of the mission and trying out different combinations to see what works well together.
You can't fault Towerborne's amount of content, and I just question whether the variety of content is enough to keep players hooked for the amount of time the game wants from you.
Sadly, the game doesn't function at all on the Steam Deck, crashing during the opening sequence of logos, so, at least for now, this is one you'll need to play on another device. I tested it on the ROG Ally, and the game is perfectly playable at 60 FPS with a 15W TDP in lower graphical settings.
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.
This game was tested with a Steam Deck LCD. OLED testing is coming soon.
It's taken a little while to get around to reviewing Baldur's Gate 3 for the Steam Deck, but there are a couple of reasons for that. The game has received major updates since its release, including the much-awaited FSR2 support, and Baldur's Gate 3 is such a big game. With such varying environments and depth, a full gameplay and performance review needed to be done right. And the long awaited day is here, let's talk about Baldur's Gate 3.
If you somehow missed it, Baldur's Gate 3 is rightly considered one of the best games of all time, winning almost every Game of the Year award that it was nominated for. Why does it deserve such acclaim, you ask? Well, in my opinion, it's down to the clear passion and love the developers have put into this game. There is attention to detail everywhere. It is a true role-playing game.
Many people love the idea of Dungeons & Dragons, but organizing a game night and having someone awkwardly play a Dungeon/Game Master can be overwhelming. Baldur's Gate 3 is probably the closest I've seen a video game get to offering you the freedom of a true Dungeons & Dragons experience. Sure, there's only 1 "campaign", and you are following a set storyline, but there are so many choices to make, branching paths that can lead to numerous outcomes, there are even "choices" that aren't obvious that you can even make! To truly experience all of Baldur's Gate 3, you would need hundreds of hours.
We haven't really discussed any gameplay mechanics yet, have we? So let's get into that. I'll start with the combat system. As you can imagine, Baldur's Gate 3 bases everything on Dungeons & Dragons, so we have familiar mechanics at play here. The game plays out battles turn-based, with turn order based on an initiative roll all participants take instantly at the start of combat.
Certain attacks, whether with weapons or spells, deal damage within a range. The target can do a "saving throw" to perhaps mitigate or nullify the damage/effect received from such an attack; of course, these dice throws are all done behind the scenes in the game to keep progress steady. It all works and flows beautifully, but you might well expect that for a system that has been around for literally decades and has gradually been refined.
The combat is satisfying; when you position yourself properly on the battlefield and have that spell available that will do just the right amount of damage to defeat that enemy and the attack hits, there's no feeling quite like it. Especially if you're in a cooperative game with friends and everyone in your party cheers because you got some good RNG on your hit!
Dice rolls are handled somewhat differently when out of combat, and I'm a huge fan of this fact. While simulating every dice roll in a combat scenario would be tiresome and ruin game pacing, simulating dice rolls during conversations or when trying to complete a skilled task is a different story. Trying to persuade or charm someone so you can avoid a fight and watching the dice roll around the screen, everyone in your party on voice chat holds their breath as they await to see what number you roll. And then... it happens... the fated 1 appears on the screen, and "Critical Failure" flashes along the top. Before you know it, your entire party is in a fight for their lives.
In case you haven't worked it out yet, even though I'm not a huge Dungeons & Dragons fan myself, I am in awe at how Larian Studios has successfully brought mechanics from a tabletop game to the video game medium. Other games, such as Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, did use D&D mechanics behind the scenes, but it was never so obvious as it is here, and it works so well. If you have played Larian's last game, Divinity: Original Sin 2, a lot of this will feel very familiar.
I won't go into too much detail on Baldur's Gate 3's storyline here, as it's best experienced yourself, but it is well crafted and introduces interesting characters who are well voice-acted. It's key that a game like this nails the storyline because the whole point of participating in the combat, of making your character stronger, is to reach the next plot point. I'm glad that Baldur's Gate 3 rewards players' progress with a detailed and branching storyline that can go in multiple directions depending on your choices throughout the game.
The visuals are no slouch either; they aren't world-class, but they do the job very well, and the game is quite scalable, fortunately for us Steam Deck users. They allow you to get immersed in the world, with different environments standing out clearly from one another, ranging from pleasant to unnerving. Characters are also well-detailed, expressing themselves with their body and the tone of their voice.
As mentioned during this review, Baldur's Gate 3 lets you experience all this with your friends. The game supports up to 4 players in cooperative play, meaning you don't have to awkwardly assign one of your friends to be a Dungeon Master and cringe as you listen to them try and play 10 different characters. You and 3 of your friends can now go on an adventure together, listen to professional voice actors, have the computer do the mathematics for you, and have a good time while doing so!
Baldur's Gate 3 gets off to a good start. We have 16:10 aspect ratio support, including support for the Deck's native 1280x800 resolution. We also have a well-scaled UI that's easily readable on the Steam Deck.
The game's HUD/UI changes entirely when using a gamepad compared to a keyboard and mouse. Well-designed radial menus allow you to select all your attacks/abilities and navigate all the menus in a fairly simple fashion. It handles it beautifully, considering that when using a keyboard and mouse, there can be upwards of 40 buttons to click on the screen.
Given the GPU, and at times CPU, intensity of the game, I'm only offering 1 preset for settings today, but it should serve you pretty well!
Please note: While the game does have split-screen support on the PC, the developers disabled it on the Steam Deck, so I will not be covering split-screen performance in this review. You can enable it yourself by following our guide, but it will negatively impact performance.
Set the Frame Rate Lock to 30 FPS / 60 Hz in the SteamOS menu, and we'll need all 15W of TDP that the Steam Deck can deliver for Baldur's Gate 3.
Then, in the in-game settings, do the following. Set FSR 2.2 to "Quality," then you'll want to select the "Low" Preset, as most settings will need to be at their lowest possible so we can maintain 30 FPS. Dynamic Crowds can be left on, as when testing in a crowded area, it seemed to have no performance impact for the Steam Deck anyway.
You can technically run the Texture Quality above Low. I tried Ultra for a while, but it does introduce frequent stutters. The textures still look good on Low, so I opted to stick with Low and avoid most stuttering.
Here are the settings I used for reference:
Using these settings, the game runs at an almost constant 30 FPS, which was a really pleasant surprise for me. There are occasional stutters, mostly when entering cutscenes when the camera does a quick cut between angles and sometimes when an attack first hits. I also noticed some slight slowdown in very specific areas, but this was to about 28 FPS and wasn't very noticeable as you had to be in very specific places for it to occur, so if you are walking, it only represented about 1-2 seconds of play.
FSR 2.2 does cause some slight artifacts, most specifically around the hair. If you are a druid and change into a wolf, for example, there is noticeable ghosting when moving due to the amount of fur the upscaling is trying to cope with.
Battery drain varies wildly depending on your environment. You'll likely only draw about 13-15W from the battery in smaller interior areas. Outside, you'll likely draw 17-20W. There are some exceptions to this, which I'll cover in a moment. You should expect around 2 hours of battery life from a full charge.
Temperatures will be pretty toasty throughout. During a battle in an outdoor area, the temperature range was between 75-85C. In less intense situations, however, you can see drops to 70C. You should expect the fan to be somewhat loud for a fair amount of the game, though, so I would recommend playing with headphones to mitigate that.
If you've followed Baldur's Gate 3, you'll probably be familiar with Act 3 and its performance. Act 3 is essentially the most intensive part of the game performance-wise. Since then, the developers have patched the game with some optimizations, which have helped, but it remains the most difficult part of the game to run, CPU-wise at least.
So, how does the Steam Deck's CPU hold up? To be honest, it still struggles. In certain areas of Act 3, I expect to see drops to the mid-20s. I noticed drops to 22 or 23 FPS occasionally, with the frame rate often hanging around 27 or 28 FPS. Do bear in mind, however, that this is a specific area in Act 3, and not the entire Act runs like this. Because of the game's turn-based nature, whenever any critical moments happen (such as combat), the frame rate doesn't have a huge impact on gameplay, and I found the game to remain perfectly playable on the Steam Deck.
As you would imagine with Baldur's Gate 3 and its extensive settings, it has plenty of accessibility support. I'm going to list them based on the number of options available.
When adjusting UI/Text size, a preview image is also shown so you can get an idea of the size of the text.
Here are some screenshots showing all the accessibility options available, as well as the preview feature for text sizes:
In case you haven't guessed it yet, I was very impressed with Baldur's Gate 3 and what it offers cRPG fans. Having played Larian's previous games (Divinity Original Sin 1 & 2), I had an idea of what to expect here, but in my opinion, it surpasses those games by some margin. The polish the game has received, as well as a superior storyline and characters, set it apart.
What I'm most impressed with, however, is that our plucky little Steam Decks can run this absolute gem of a game. You might think that a large, possibly overwhelming to some, cRPG might not lend itself to playing on a portable device with a smaller screen and a battery life to consider. But the whole thing just works like a charm. The UI and controls are optimized so well for the gamepad that it seems like the game was designed for it from the get-go.
If you can live with the occasional dropped frame and minor performance issues during Act 3, you should not hesitate to pick this up for the Steam Deck if you've been considering it, Baldur's Gate 3 is the ultimate cRPG experience, right in your hands!
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.
