Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered was provided by Crystal Dynamics for review. Thank you!
The Legacy of Kain franchise has had a boon as of late. With Soul Reaver 1 & 2 both receiving a remaster, a new prequel game in the form of Ascendance just being released, and the Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered launching last month. Defiance wraps up the Legacy of Kain series by being the last game chronologically.
The story in the Legacy of Kain series gradually ramps up, with Defiance being the culmination of all the key characters playing their final moves, and this is a highlight of Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered for me. The voice acting is again on point, especially for the time. The stakes are high, and it's great to see these characters interact with one another and wrap up their fates. If you've been following the storyline in previous games, then Defiance is definitely worth a purchase to enjoy the finale.
As regards gameplay, the combat feels quite fluid and smooth. The TK abilities feel great to use and allow you to throw your enemies around the room (such as throwing them onto torches to ignite them, or throwing them into other enemies), or drag them towards you and tie them up in a combo move. It doesn't feel as dated as you might imagine, and when facing multiple enemies at the same time, there are plenty of opportunities to do some satisfying combat maneuvers, such as throwing enemies into each other.
You will get to switch between Kain and Raziel as your main character as you progress through the game, with Kain having a more heavy and hard-hitting approach, whereas Raziel is more agile and dextrous. The characters don't feel too different, but it does help to switch up the gameplay a little in level design, which can get repetitive due to some backtracking. Raziel's gameplay tends to focus on simple puzzles and platforming, whereas Kain's chapters emphasize combat.
The visual improvements in the remaster are largely texture-based, with textures being run through an AI upscaler and then placed back into the game. In the AI disclosure on Steam, the developers state that they personally reviewed the AI upscaling before integrating it into the game, and that seems to be the case. Even still, there are times when it can be difficult to tell which is the remaster and which is the classic version.
A change that is far more noticeable, however, is the Remastered Camera option. This makes Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered a true third-person action game, with the camera following your character rather than using the classic fixed-camera perspectives. I would argue that this improvement is more important than the visual changes made to the game, as it markedly improves the gameplay and feel of the game.
With all that being said, it then begs the question: Is this remaster worth the price tag? As I said, the main upgrade, in my opinion, is the new camera system. If that bothered you in the original, it does make quite a difference here and definitely helps make the game easier for modern audiences, but if you were looking for a big improvement in visuals or any fundamental changes to the game, you will likely be left disappointed.
Hardcore Legacy of Kain fans should consider this remaster; it is the "best" version of Defiance, after all. If you already own the original and the camera mechanics don't bother you, or there are other things besides the camera that bother you, I would find it difficult to recommend this remaster, given the minimal difference it will make to you.
For those seeking the nostalgia factor, the enhancements are largely toggleable. You can play with the original textures and the original camera system if you wish to enjoy a more retro experience, or mix and match the two so you can play with the original camera and enhanced textures, or vice versa. There is, of course, the small bonus of getting to play some unreleased content for series fans, too.
As you might imagine, given the modest visual improvements over the original, Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered runs very well on the Steam Deck. There's no reason not to play the game at 90 FPS on an OLED model and 60 FPS on an LCD, since any battery savings from lowering the framerate would be minimal. There are also no video settings available to adjust.
The controls work flawlessly, and the game fills the Steam Deck's 1280x800 display. Because of all this, Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered definitely deserves a "Best on Deck" rating, as the game gives you the best experience it can on your first boot.
The power draw is around 8W-9W, so it doesn't stress the Steam Deck much at all. Expect a battery life of around 6 hours on a Steam Deck OLED and around 4 hours on a Steam Deck LCD. Temperatures were also low at around 50-55 °C.
You can apply a 7W TDP Limit if you want, but it has minimal impact on overall battery life compared to letting the Steam Deck manage it.
Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered doesn't have much in the way of accessibility, but it also doesn't need much. There are subtitles for the voiced dialogue, which is plentiful, and the game does have a lock-on/aim assist feature. It also has a hint system that guides you on how to proceed.
Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered offers slight visual enhancements, but the real upgrade is the new camera system and controls, which make the game much easier to play. Whether such a small change is worth the release of an entirely new game is up for debate, but series fans will probably want to check out the "best" version of Legacy of Kain: Defiance.
Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered works perfectly on the Steam Deck. There are no graphical options available, and the game will run at the maximum refresh rate of your model, be that 90 FPS or 60 FPS. Controls work perfectly, the 16:10 aspect ratio display is fully utilized, and battery life is lengthy.
このレビューはPC版に基づいています。
このレビューをお楽しみいただけたなら、SteamDeckHQ の他のコンテンツもぜひご覧ください！あなたのゲーム体験に役立つゲームレビューやニュースを幅広く取り揃えています。ニュース、ヒントやチュートリアル、ゲーム設定やレビューをお探しの方も、最新のトレンドを知りたい方も、ぜひご利用ください。
Mouse P.I. For Hire was provided by PlaySide for review. Thank you!
The time has finally arrived. I’ve been curious and following Mouse P.I. For Hire ever since the first trailer, which showcase it’s style that feels very close to old Mickey Mouse cartoons. Now, the game is here, and while I love the aesthetic and story, the combat just feels too generic to make me want to play for longer periods of time.
Now, the biggest attraction for Mouse P.I. is going to be the aesthetic, which I adore. There’s just so much personality and expression that is on display with the rubber hose animation the team uses. When it’s on screen, it easily captures attention while oozing charm. Whether it be death, animations, watching weapons reload or be upgraded, or finding secret collectibles (one of my favorites), it’s just a joy to watch.
It actually made me wish that more of the environments had the same animation style. While the bulk of the levels all fit in with the art style and still capture the 1930’s “Steamboat Willie” feel, it can also feel a little static. The game shines with expressive animations, so I was hoping to see more of it. So, I wouldn’t say it’s off-putting. It still fits the theme, and there’s a lot of variety with the different locations we go to, so it didn’t bother me as much.
Thankfully, the game has a fantastic cast help the characters feel more alive. Whether it be Jack Pepper’s one-liners from Troy Baker or hearing Tammy Tumbler talk about tinkering from Camryn Grimes, the cast did not disappoint. There will be a lot of times where we hear Jack speak, whether it be interrogating individuals or delivering relevant punch lines at just the right time, so I’m glad we have such a great voice behind it to make listening not harm the experience.
The game revolves around this aesthetic, and its story follows suit. It takes place in the 1930s in a noir-esque world. We play as Jack Pepper, a private investigator who is taking on some big cases. However, what starts as a case to find a missing person will evolve as the plot thickens and it goes deeper and deeper. I won’t reveal too much, but I was brought in further as more cases came in, and I started to see the links between them. I loved putting everything on our crime board to start seeing the links between them as it grows into a wider net that is all interconnected. It helps that Jack Pepper is a great protagonist who embodies the culture that Fumi Games is trying to capture here, but it’s an enjoyable story nonetheless.
While we will primarily follow the main story, there are some small side cases that we can take on. Most of these will just be finding things and reporting back to the people who asked, but it’s a nice way to get some extra currency.
Mouse P.I. is a shooter at its core, bringing us to a multitude of locations to investigate cases, and all of them will quickly turn into a shootout. We have a decent assortment of guns to use, with some of the basics we’ve come to know and love, like a pistol and shotgun, and some unique guns, like the acid shooter. All of them have their place, and I found myself swapping between them consistently through fights.
The shooting itself is solid, though I wouldn’t consider it groundbreaking. It’s fun, and there’s a lot of movement required to make sure we survive. The guns themselves are decent to use as well, and I found myself loving a couple of them and developing a strategy to use them. And the level design encourages moving around a lot, which keeps fights more engaging.
Still, I couldn’t help but feel the combat was a little too generic. It does the job, and it can be fun, but it never kept me hooked. The enemies can be a little too bullet spongy, swapping weapons wasn’t as fast as I like, and some of the animations could get in the way of the flow. Specifically, I didn’t like having to watch Jack drink a bottle every time we needed to heal. It was just a little too long, and it made me miss how health pick-ups are done in games like DOOM, where we just walk over them, and they immediately heal us. Take away the gorgeous aesthetics, and it feels like a cookie-cutter shooter. Again, it’s not bad, but it just doesn’t do anything special to keep me coming back for more, and I feel like I could play nonstop.
There is a simple progression system to make our weapons more powerful, and I actually like it. Every weapon has three tears, and you use schematics to upgrade them. The first upgrade unlocks an alternate fire, while the others will usually increase damage and the clip. It does show a noticeable difference as well, with the pistol going from an average of four shots to kill to 2-3 shots after 2 upgrades. Some of the alternate fires can really help, too, like the shotgun charging up to unload two bullets at a time.
However, I found it very hard to find enough schematics to upgrade my guns as often as I wanted to. Even when I was looking for secrets, there were a few levels where I found only one or two schematics. The second and third upgrades of each gun need three and five schematics, respectively, so it took some time to upgrade. It’s very possible I missed some, but I was looking around, so I would consider them easy to miss.
There are some little detours we can make, like playing the baseball card game and collecting tokens, but we will mainly be going from level to level, investigating cases, and getting into shootouts.
Mouse P.I. For Hire defaults to the Medium quality settings and 40 FPS, which actually worked quite well for it. The game looks great and feels smoother than it would at 30 FPS, striking a nice balance between the two. After testing and pushing to get the game to 60 FPS, I would say this is arguably the best way to play it. There are some unavoidable drops, even on the lowest settings, and these drops only affect framerates higher than 40. So, keeping it locked to 40 FPS on the gate almost every single framerate drop.
I also tried bringing up the quality settings to see if we can still play it at 40 FPS. The answer is yes, but it does come with a little bit of a higher battery drain, more drops when turning around really quickly, and the benefit of higher quality settings is minimal. Just going from the default Medium to High only really changed some slight shadows further away. Otherwise, the image was almost identical. Even comparing it to Ultra, the image just didn’t look very different. So, the default settings are actually the best right now.
Now, it’s going to be possible, and relatively easy, to get the game running at 60 FPS. We don’t have to change much, but there are gonna be a few sacrifices. It may seem as simple as moving the in-game framerate limit up to 60, but there are gonna be drops when spinning around quickly. This will be a nightmare in fights, so there are a few changes I recommend making if you want to try playing this game at 60 FPS.
After changing the framerate limit, I would set the rendering scale to 0.9 and move shadows down to low. This will negate almost all of the drops when moving around quickly, keeping fights at 60 FPS and feeling smooth as butter.
Honestly, this doesn’t change the visuals too much, but there are some drops that are completely unavoidable. Even with the lowest possible settings and the rendering scale down to 0.5, I would still get drops into the 40 FPS range when looking out in certain angles. If these were angles that I encountered when running around, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but these areas also happened to appear during battles. I would say 90% of the game can be played this way at 60 FPS, but there will still be some drops that can harm the flow during combat.
And just because I’m sure it will come up, you can use lossless scaling to make the game feel smoother, and it doesn’t have much input lag. However, it will be affected by the same exact issues that trying to play the game at 60 FPS has, so it isn’t really helpful. I would say playing at 60 FPS with the setting changes is a better experience than 90 FPS with lossless scaling frame generation, especially since visual changes aren’t that obvious.
Mouse P.I. For Hire is a solid shooter with a beautiful aesthetic and interesting story, but the combat can feel a little too generic. The expressive rubber hose animation works, wonders, and the great cast help bring the characters to life in this mystery thriller, but I found it difficult to stay interested for longer periods of time because it didn’t have that spark that other big shooters have. It’s still fun, and I had a good time, but it just didn’t do enough to keep me locked in for longer periods of time.
And despite some of the sacrifices, like having to play the game at 40 FPS, it is enjoyable on the Steam Deck. It can also be played at 60 FPS with a few changes, but if you want the most stable experience, I would stick to the default for this one.
このレビューはPC版に基づいています。
このレビューをお楽しみいただけたなら、SteamDeckHQ の他のコンテンツもぜひご覧ください！あなたのゲーム体験に役立つゲームレビューやニュースを幅広く取り揃えています。ニュース、ヒントやチュートリアル、ゲーム設定やレビューをお探しの方も、最新のトレンドを知りたい方も、ぜひご利用ください。
PRAGMATA was provided by Capcom for review. Thank you!
While I understand it, I feel like most big studios tend to play it safe with their releases. We see a lot of similar styles of games with similar gameplay mechanics that are normal for their genre. It’s not necessarily bad, because these are tried and true mechanics at work and make the games fun. However, I love seeing the studios try something new, and that’s exactly what Capcom has done with PRAGMATA. The structure and style are not abnormal, but the gameplay takes a different turn than what I have seen before. And ultimately, Capcom has created a perfect blend of puzzle and action that keeps the game engaging, and this might be my favorite game. I’ve played so far this year.
While PRAGMATA starts off in a predictable way, it diverges into a path that I did not expect as we continue playing. We enter the moon base as Hugh, who is part of a team to figure out what’s wrong with this corporate-made base. However, things quickly deteriorate as the entirety of our crew is killed, and Hugh is the only survivor. Ultimately, he will find Diana, a robot called a PRAGMATA, and they will work together to stop the rogue AI and get home.
I really thought this was going to be a similar-ish story to a lot of other games that do this, focusing on a crazy AI that is hell-bent on destroying humanity. But there is a lot more to it. I don’t want to spoil anything, but it becomes a surprising, emotional tale, where the dynamic between Hugh and Diana is what I came to fall in love with. The way they interact with each other, and the conversations that they have, are both enjoyable and hilarious, with Hugh warming up as a guardian and Diana fully embracing her childlike behavior. There are some legitimately hilarious conversations they have, but no matter the topic, it all feels fluid. None of their interactions or conversations felt forced, and they all felt like real conversations a parent and child would have.
Even though the story is a little bit on the shorter side, it had a good amount of surprises and emotion to it. I actually cried at the ending, with the development of the duo protagonists hitting hard. I also found the documents and reports that we could find throughout the levels actually very useful and provided a lot of details to parts of the story that may not be covered by skipping them.
I’ll admit, when I first saw PRAGMATA’s gameplay, I was a little worried. However, playing it at Summer Game Fest last year alleviated most of my worries. And with the full game, I got to see the combat with all the bells and whistles, and I fell in love with it.
The expertly combined real-time hacking puzzles and fast-paced action just feel better, and better the more I play with it. Generally, the combat loop will consist of hacking to open up the robot’s weak points, which we will then use our assortment of guns to shoot at it. If we don’t do this, our guns will barely do any damage, so it’s imperative to continually pay attention and hack to open them up. The swapping back and forth between hacking and shooting is wonderfully engaging, and it never got old the entire game.
Part of what makes it work so well is the movement when hacking. You don’t have to stand still to complete these puzzles; you can move around, dodge, and even use thrusters to fly in the air while you hack. They kept me on my toes and made each fight feel more dynamic. And even if we lose sight of our enemy, as long as we don’t get hit, our previous progress through the hacking puzzle remains. Successfully completing hacks also feeds into our Overdrive gauge, which is a giant attack that will hack every enemy around automatically and stun them, making them open to our shots.
On top of that, we can find hacking nodes that will appear on our puzzle. We have a limited number of them, similar to how temporary weapons work, and we can choose whether or not to use them when completing the hack. If we do, they will usually inflict some sort of debuff, like decreasing their defense or stunning them temporarily, or give us buffs, like healing some of our health. These will be dropped on the ground, and we can pick up and choose which ones to equip at will.
And then we have our arsenal. This was another point where I worried a bit, since we really only have one permanent gun, but I actually really liked the way. These temporary guns were implemented. Other than our main gun, we will be able to pick up three other types of guns to have in our loadout: one for dealing serious damage, one for tactical advantages, and one for defensive capabilities. Each one of these guns has limited ammo, and we will need to find new guns to replace them. Thankfully, there are so many of them to pick up, and with each one feeling balanced, I never felt overpowered or lacking in power.
If I had one criticism for PRAGMATA's combat, it’s that I sometimes found the slow recharge of ammo in my main gun a little too slow. With it being a permanent weapon, I relied on it a lot, but it has a slow recharge, which gets in the way. I understand that it’s there to encourage switching weapons and consistently cycling through the temporary guns, but there would be times I wanted to save them, and that means running around or dodging to recharge my ammo. It’s nice that we don’t have to try managing ammo for our main weapon, but the recharge is a little bit slower than I’d like.
But overall, the system feels fantastic. The dynamic swapping between hacking and shooting, being able to move freely, and the addition of hacking notes and temporary guns to give us an edge are just great. It encourages continually watching around and getting out of the usual comfort zone of what we may be used to or prefer. I look forward to every fight I get to participate in, and the nice variety of enemies just made an overall exciting experience feel even better.
Then there’s the progression, which is simple and to the point. There are only three components that we can upgrade for survival ability: suit, integrity, our permanent weapon, and hacking power. These use their own dedicated currency, which we will pick up, and it does feel impactful. Upgrade the suit integrity gives us more health and defense, upgrading. Our main weapon increases damage, ammo capacity, and hacking power, which increases how much damage it does and how long the enemy will stay vulnerable.
However, we can also upgrade our temporary weapons, hacking nodes, and even get new/upgrade abilities. By using the much more common blue currency, Lunafilament, we can upgrade our arsenal and expand our move set further, which can help a lot. Some of the abilities we can get are essential, like being able to use our thruster to get back up if we are knocked down and being able to scan the environment to see weak points on robots.
By upgrading these, we also unlocked them to add to our loadout. In between each of the levels, we will heal up and relax at the Shelter. Not only is this where we upgrade ourselves, but we will also be able to take on training missions for extra upgrade materials, unlock extras and cosmetics via bingo cards, and equip our loadout before heading to the next map. This is also where we will equip mods we find, which can further augment our capabilities. It could be something as simple as extra damage when fighting enemies closer up, or increasing how much of the Overdrive gauge we gain when successfully completing hacks. There are tons of these to find, and we can upgrade how many we have equipped at any given time to further fine-tune our playstyle.
I also want to praise the structure of the game itself. I like that we have individual levels that are a decent size, rather than one giant open-world map. Each level feels unique and has a great design, and I like that we can go back to past levels at will. In the first few levels, we went from a neon-filled recreation of New York to a terrarium with overgrown greenery to walking on the moon’s surface, and it’s just so cool seeing the differences. All the levels also have an assortment of secrets and goodies to find. The amount of each of these is listed in the menu, which is a nice way to keep track of making sure we’ve collected everything, and I felt that every single item to pick up has a worthwhile purpose. I found myself going back and getting these items not just because I wanted to, but because I felt they had real value that made taking the time to go back and find them worth it.
PRAGMATA’s default settings basically bring it to the lowest possible, with the only setting, not at the lowest, being the upscaling quality. However, because this is the RE Engine, the game still looks fantastic. There are a few noticeable issues here and there, like shadow quality in close-up cutscenes, but it does look good when actually running around and fighting. But there are some ways to improve the experience, and it’ll make it much more enjoyable to play.
I also want to quickly mention that the default Proton layer causes a D3D error, so we will have to force Proton Experimental to get the game to run without issues. Proton GE should work as well, but Experimental works all the same. There are also going to be some unavoidable drops here and there, no matter the settings, but it doesn't detract from the gameplay 99% of the time.
At these lowest settings, the game still looks good, but the upscaler is the big problem. The game defaults to FSR 1, which makes the game look extremely shimmery. Even with the upscaling quality on balanced, it still doesn’t look great. This completely changes by making the upscale FSR 3 instead. 95% of that shimmering is gone, and we get a much clearer-looking image.
The one downside is framerate. Because of FSR 3, the game will drain a little bit more power, which brings the framerate down. So, I recommend locking the game to 40 FPS. Granted, even with FSR 1 upscaling and the lowest possible settings, we won’t be getting over 45 FPS throughout the whole game. There are spots where we can hit 60 and above, but as soon as we get to open areas, it will dip. And this happens enough that we can’t just shrug it off.
Because of that, I preferred a clear-looking image with a stable 40 FPS, instead of a shimmery image at 45. I would also say we can keep the upscaling quality at balanced, since I didn’t see huge improvements changing it up or down. I also tried turning upscaling off completely, which makes the game look extremely sharp, even with anti-aliasing on. So, FSR 3 was my favorite to use.
Because of these more open areas, the battery drain will fluctuate, so I recommend not turning on any TDP limit. Most of the game will stick between 14W - 18W, but to account for those open areas, I recommend no limit.
Now, if you want to play the game with higher visual quality, it’s possible, but it comes at a cost. There were some essentials that I wanted to make sure looked better, including making sure hair quality went up, shadows looked more like their objects, Volumetric Lighting was turned on, and effects looked a bit better. Coupled with the upscaling brought up to Quality, the game shows some big differences in quality.
However, we will need to set a 30 FPS limit here. The open areas are not able to handle the extra load at a higher framerate, and it will drain high as well. But the game looks great, and once you get used to 30 FPS, it’s a good way to play.
Personally, I preferred having the higher framerate in combat, but it wasn’t bad after I got used to the lower FPS. But with similar battery life, and with the visuals still looking great with the higher framerate, I decided to keep my recommended settings with the higher framerate.
One issue I did notice is that whenever we talk to Cabin, visuals can jitter in conversations. Capping the frame rate fixes this entirely, but if you play uncapped, you’ll most likely notice this problem. Otherwise, the game is great to play on the Deck.
I don't give out perfect scores lightly, and I mulled over this for some time, but there was almost no part of PRAGMATA I disliked. The story had emotional weight and surprised me with its twists, and the combination of puzzle and action in real-time made fights engaging, and the temporary weapons continually made combat feel dynamic. The simple progression was enjoyable, and I felt that every single collectible I could find held meaning that made me more powerful. This is a must-have game. I even went back in to 100% it, which is not something I tend to do, and it's a testament to how much I enjoyed playing.
And even though there are some compromises, the game is wonderful on the Steam Deck. I had such a blast playing through on the go, even if I couldn’t hit 60 FPS. Thankfully, the RE Engine pulls its weight and keeps the game looking fantastic and optimized.
このレビューはPC版に基づいています。
このレビューをお楽しみいただけたなら、SteamDeckHQ の他のコンテンツもぜひご覧ください！あなたのゲーム体験に役立つゲームレビューやニュースを幅広く取り揃えています。ニュース、ヒントやチュートリアル、ゲーム設定やレビューをお探しの方も、最新のトレンドを知りたい方も、ぜひご利用ください。
When I first played Death Stranding when it came to PC back in 2020, I really liked Kojima’s bold and unconventional approach to the gaming industry. But even though the story was great and engaging, the gameplay felt too experimental. Now, one year after the initial release of Death Stranding 2, PC players can finally embark with Sam on a new journey filled with even more struggles, more content, and that signature Kojima-esque insanity, improving upon the experimental nature of the first game.
From the moment the game begins, you're thrown into one of gaming's most expansive atmospheres. A massive, mountainous landscape with almost photorealistic graphics, a goosebump-inducing soundtrack, and a strong sense of freedom. The game lets you know that you are about to embark on a journey that is going to be very special and truly one of a kind from minute one. No game has made me feel this excited and blown away right as we get past the main menu.
The story is set shortly after the first game. Sam has connected all of the UCA, saved the world from extinction, and moved on from his past life, now living a simple, quiet life with his former companion, now daughter, Lou, in a shelter near the Mexican border. But as you might expect, not everything goes according to plan, and he is forced back into his old porter life, this time in Mexico and Australia.
While the game’s narrative retains the predecessor’s mysterious, deep tone, it feels more grounded and clearer, thanks to more action-packed cinematics and a less confusing plot. This is a huge improvement, as almost half of the world’s lore in the first game was delivered through holographic, often dull dialogue. Now, you have clearer goals and more engaging conversations. The sense of loneliness that defined the first game is largely gone as well. This time, you have a crew and masterfully written new characters to accompany you.
Kojima’s infamous, unfiltered, awkward yet fun style also remains, but it feels less out of place and more organic this time. These “what the hell is this?” Kojima moments don’t disrupt the overall serious tone of the narrative; instead, they add a unique signature from the master himself.
The only criticism I have is that the overall story structure feels a bit too similar to the first game. Nevertheless, it’s still one of the most engaging scripts I’ve ever experienced in a video game.
I’m just going to say it without any exaggeration: the graphics in Death Stranding 2 are the best I’ve seen so far. Nothing else comes close. The attention to detail, lighting, and facial features is unmatched in the industry. It feels like mind-blowing witchcraft.
We already knew Decima was a powerful, optimized engine, but seeing this level of almost-photorealistic visuals feels genuinely surreal. Thanks to the game’s new day and night cycle, you can fully experience the beautiful sunny environments, gorgeous sunsets, and the insane blue neon chiral lights at night in every scene. The art direction and design team also deserve praise for turning post-apocalyptic Australia into a vast, incredible playground for us to explore every inch of. The motion-capture performances from well-known actors further enhance immersion, making this the most visually stunning game out there.
Much like its predecessor, the soundtrack and sound effects are also incredibly well done. The BT horror area audio design, in particular, has improved so much that it single-handedly turns these sections into a full-on horror experience. It's flawless.
The most radical and pleasantly surprising change in terms of gameplay is the main story design. In the first game, much of the experience embraced the walking-simulator and cargo-delivery style, while action, stealth, and horror mechanics felt like they were sprinkled in just to keep players from getting bored. In Death Stranding 2, it’s the complete opposite. Almost every main order turns into an encounter-driven sequence, while the traditional “delivery style gameplay loop” is mostly optional.
I’m actually one of the few people who enjoyed the delivery struggles, careful planning, and overall porter-style gameplay, but even I prefer the action-packed approach this time. The main reason for that is the new variety of enemies, which was nearly non-existent in the first game.
Instead of the classic “human enemy,” “a BT,” and “a large boss BT,” we now have a whole arsenal of different enemy types. There are countless BT animals, new BT variants such as Watchers that can see you, and dozens of different mech enemies and bosses. It all feels incredibly rich. And each type of enemy requires its own specific approach, tactics, and weapons, so the original “pre-planning” magic is never lost. If anything, it’s amplified in a different way.
There are countless new weapons, fun and useful tools, transports, customization options, and a massive new talent system that are unmatched in the industry. The new day-and-night cycle adds another layer, with different wildlife and stealth possibilities, along with new natural hazards and much more. The gameplay feels truly alive and fun. The game also offers more dialogue options and lots of fun Kojima-esque mini-games. It feels impossible not to get hooked thanks to the incredible amount of improvements and unique content.
One more thing I need to highlight is the boss fights, because they are genuinely exceptional. After the bullet sponge, amateurish encounters of the first game, DS2 takes a sharp U-turn and delivers some of the best-designed boss fights I’ve seen in years. Each one feels closer to an MMO raid boss, with unique mechanics, strategies, and even puzzle-like elements you need to figure out. They all feature clearly readable attack patterns and hidden weaknesses, rewarding observation and adaptation over brute force.
Especially on the new “To the Wilder…” difficulty, you’re pushed to refine your muscle memory and come prepared. Instead of relying on bloated health pools, bosses hit incredibly hard, often taking you down in just two hits. But because every attack is avoidable with proper positioning, timing, and tactics, the challenge feels fair rather than frustrating, making each victory satisfying.
However, the PC version came with some new features that the original release never saw. The best part exclusive to the PC version is the new “To the Wilder…” difficulty option. Unlike other difficulty settings, once you choose it, you can’t change it. Honestly, it feels like the best way to experience the game.
The spike in difficulty mostly affects the more realistic, simulation-focused aspects. Combat and stealth are largely unchanged. This means you’ll lose your balance more easily, your stamina and battery drain much faster, and natural hazards affect you more severely. If you don’t like auto-piloting through even the walking simulator sections and prefer to stay engaged, I highly recommend giving it a try. You won’t regret it.
The online section of the game largely remains unchanged, with the only new addition being the Aid Request system. If you want something to be built or need specific materials, you can place a request sign anywhere on the map, and other players can help you. Other than that, seeing and using other players’ useful structures still feels awesome. Linking your zip lines with those of other players especially amplifies the sense of “connection” to a whole new level. It was an awesome feature, and it still is.
When I first opened the graphics settings for Death Stranding 2, I saw a “Portable” preset and got really excited. But once I applied it and jumped into the game, I was met with a massive disappointment. Even with upscaling set to Ultra Performance, the game struggles to reach 30 FPS outside of cinematics, mostly hovering around 13–22 FPS with heavy compromises. And that’s not even the worst part. I encountered a whopping 40-second freeze, along with a separate crash.
Similar to the first game, it heavily bottlenecks the CPU, and sadly, the Deck just can’t handle it.
Still, the presence of a Portable preset gives me some hope for the future. But even with a stable 30 FPS, I wouldn’t recommend playing this on the Deck. The Portable preset looks terrible, and this is a game that needs to be experienced in full immersion. I’m all for minor visual compromises, but when everything looks like it’s from the PS2 era, that’s simply unacceptable.
I usually hate Frame Generation and never recommend it since it usually creates more issues while fixing FPS. I must admit that turning on XeSS FG makes the game ''somewhat'' playable if you are just building structures, doing side orders, or farming materials. Combat feels awful thanks to the input delay, so stay away from enemy territories.
There are some unofficial workarounds to improve the frames and gameplay, like the Eclipse mod. I tried them all, but they became barely playable, and still not worth the effort and risk. They never perform the miracles we need for fully stable gameplay.
Death Stranding 2 is everything I could have asked for in a sequel and more. Its incredible improvements, combined with insane visual quality and immersion, make it an outstanding experience from start to finish. Even if you were put off by the first game’s gameplay loop, the sequel’s more action-packed approach and more natural, engaging narrative make it feel fresh.
If the “delivery man” aspect of the first game put you off, and you really hated the idea of all the delivering and “walking simulator” elements, that core concept and gameplay loop are still very much here. However, there's a lot more action this time around, and the experience is far more accessible than before, but it still remains a very unique game that simply won’t be for everyone.
Steam Deck users should wait for a couple of patches to see if things improve. It can still be used for simple side orders while you’re away, like I do, but playing the main story with this level of visual flaws and performance issues is something I can’t recommend.
このレビューはPC版に基づいています。
このレビューをお楽しみいただけたなら、SteamDeckHQ の他のコンテンツもぜひご覧ください！あなたのゲーム体験に役立つゲームレビューやニュースを幅広く取り揃えています。ニュース、ヒントやチュートリアル、ゲーム設定やレビューをお探しの方も、最新のトレンドを知りたい方も、ぜひご利用ください。
Crimson Desert was provided by Pearl Abyss for review. Thank you!
Ever since its announcement, I have been getting more and more excited for Crimson Desert. It looked like a gigantic game, brimming with so much content on a huge map that looked so visually pleasing. It was clearly ambitious, with developer Pearl Abyss making a larger-than-life single-player action RPG. Honestly, I was even a little worried the hype would not be worth it. Yet here I am, with over 70 hours in the game, and I fell in love with the world of Pywel, despite some execution mishaps. Crimson Desert lives up to its expectations in more ways than one, even if what makes it incredible also harms the experience.
Visually, Crimson Desert is stunning. Through the forestry landscapes, snow-covered mountains, red-hued deserts, and futuristic islands, the world consistently looks incredible. I was blown away by how many times I had to stand still and just take in the sights, watching as the purple and white flowers blew back and forth with the wind on a mountain with a gorgeous backdrop of the town beneath me. I couldn’t count how many moments I was riding my horse and just had to take pictures to remember the beauty of the setting, and I can count the number of games on one hand where I had this compulsion. This is a world worth exploring, even if it’s only to see what the other side of the continent looks like.
And boy is Pywel massive. I spent the first 30 hours or so going around the giant town and its surrounding areas, completing side quests, and moving along the story across 5 chapters. It is a significantly large area covered, and I was sure it would primarily take place in this area. However, I could not have been more wrong. In those first 30 hours, I had only explored around 25% of the map, with gigantic regions that I still haven’t gone to. I was actually blown away when I was looking at the map and seeing how much area I had covered, which was only compounded when I saw the landscape from above in the abyss. That sense of wonder never disappeared, and I was so motivated to keep on exploring.
However, traversing the world, especially in the early game, was not enjoyable. Having to figure out how to find fast travel points and the scarcity of them early on meant running around or riding my horse. With so many places to go back and forth, and fast travel points not feeling close enough to where I needed to go, it started to feel like a chore to do side quests all in the same area. I didn’t mind exploring new areas, but I very much disliked backtracking in areas I already knew. This gets significantly better later on as we unlock more points and get new ways to go around the world, like the dragon, but early on, it wasn’t great.
Now the world is littered with secrets to find, and I would find myself hunting them whenever I could. They can be somewhat well hidden, though if we use the lantern, we can see a glimmering light where those secrets are. In these secrets could be entrances to puzzles, Sealed Abyss Artifacts, or those aforementioned fast travel points. Completing puzzles also turns into fast travel points, which does make it a little bit better, but it’s not something that will help a lot early on. Still, the rewards outweigh the issues heavily.
I was also pleasantly surprised by the story. It wasn’t anything new, but it was still entertaining with so much lore packed in through side quests. We follow Kliff, who, with his fellow Greymanes, is attacked by another group, the Black Bears. They are slaughtered and kicked out of their country, Pailune. However, we survive, and decide to start rebuilding the Greymanes in Hernand. But that’s not all. We are also selected by the Abyss to help balance the world, giving us interesting magical powers.
This is essentially what set us off on our journey. We face riddling defeat, get magical powers, and decide to rebuild and come back stronger to save Pailune. However, there are some twists and turns that I didn’t expect, and the game became significantly longer and larger than I had previously thought.
There’s also a wealth of side quests and extra content to give us much more insight into the characters and lore of the world, including multiple playable characters who all have their own story elements. Even at the 70-hour mark, there was still so much to unlock, so much to do, and it felt like I always had something to learn about. As far as the story goes, I was pleasantly surprised the longer I played.
Now let’s talk about the gameplay, which is arguably going to be the biggest part of this review. Crimson Desert has an overwhelming amount of content that exudes across all facets of the game. In the opening hours, it can feel pretty overwhelming, but once things settle in and open up a little bit more, more mechanics start to come to light and are understood, and it all just clicks. This is one of the big reasons it succeeds; it never gets to the point of significant overload and can still be very manageable.
One of the biggest draws to the game for me was the combat. Seeing it in action, just looked insane, with unique abilities, flashy effects, and ridiculous attacks like clotheslining and dropkicks. All of these attacks are indeed in the game and quite easy to use with practice. For the most part, combat is exhilarating. When everything works, fighting groups of 20 enemies with the diverse moveset we have, which includes our ranged attack in magical strikes, it’s the best. And it’s a system that gets significantly better further in the game once Abyss Cores (Abyss Gears) come into play.
However, it will take some time to get used to it, and while there are a lot of options for us to use, I would ultimately not use some of them or completely forget how to activate others. Most of the attacks we have are linked to one of many combinations of six different buttons, and it was sometimes very hard to remember exactly which does which. Even though it was one of the initial moves, I learned that I almost never found myself using Blinding Light, and I consistently forgot about shield bashing, grappling, the flying kick, and spinning slash. I love having options, and when I remember which attack to use, it’s awesome. But there are so many different combinations that do so many different things that I found myself getting lost and sticking to the basic attacks I memorized.
The controls and targeting can also feel really wonky. Even if I automatically lock onto an enemy, my attack will sometimes go in the wrong direction, or the game will automatically lock onto an enemy I’m not actively attacking. I also had trouble trying to aim my meteor kick, which is a giant kick that comes from above and can hurt a bunch of enemies around. Without any modifications, this kick needs to land a direct hit on the enemy, and I cannot count the number of times I have locked an enemy in the targeting ring and still completely missed.
Yet, despite all of this, I looked forward to every battle. There’s just something so enticing about the scale, the effects, and the abilities we have that just keep combat so entertaining. Remembering older attacks and finally utilizing them was exciting, but I would say the big reason to keep coming back to it is those Abyss Cores (Abyss Gears). Bosses could be a hit or miss, with some feeling a little too difficult, but with some grit and strategy, they were able to be destroyed.
Different parts of your gear have different sockets, and in the sockets, you can put in Abyss Cores (Gears). These can completely augment your abilities and stats, which can range from better attack, movement, speed, or even making it so orbs of lightning come out of your sword. The effects of these can range wildly, and make some of your attacks insane. On top of that, you can synthesize and craft more powerful cores, so you can keep getting stronger and stronger. This, on top of getting resources to refine weapons and armor, to make them more powerful, will be the crux of how we progressively become stronger. It’s an extremely compelling system, and I cannot overstate enough just how great playing around and combining Abyss Cores (Gears) is. It’s tough to get into it until later on in the game, but the wait is worth it, especially once we start playing with elemental powers.
It’s a genius system, complemented by Crimson Desert’s great skill tree. I was a little worried when I heard that this giant action RPG wouldn’t have leveling or any exp system, but my worries were unwarranted. Instead of the usual leveling, we have a skill tree reliant on Abyss Artifacts. The skill tree itself can give us a boost to three of our stats and unlock a wide range of new attacks. The tree, containing mostly new ways to beat down enemies, made it feel more rewarding to actually complete it. I would tend to get a little fatigued if the skills I want are locked and I have to go through multiple nodes that I don’t care about. However, that’s not the case here, and it’s great.
There are multiple ways to get these artifacts we will need, but the majority of them will come from random drops from killing enemies, side quest rewards, and completing different puzzles or challenges. All of the puzzles felt appropriately difficult, and they require some out-of-the-box thinking and logic. As for the challenges, which are found from Sealed Abyss Artifacts, they vary between different activities in the world, side quests, and special challenges with the weapons. With hundreds of these to do, it feels like a never-ending way to get the artifacts necessary to make us more powerful.
Which will be needed, because all of the characters we can play as have individual skill trees to go with their unique movesets and weapons. They do share the three stat upgrades, but there are going to be individual skills to unlock independently. With how many artifacts we can get, as well as random drops from time to time, it never felt daunting to complete them. If anything, I was more motivated to grind, knowing I was going for artifacts versus experience points.
Crimson Desert sometimes feels like a life-simulator RPG outside of combat with how much they throw at you. There is so much to do outside of combat, and they all feel beneficial. Not including side quests, there’s a full camp management system where we can send our crew to complete missions to get camp resources to take on bigger missions to give us more resources for personal use and even unlock new mounts. We will also be able to partake in tons of different little activities, like mini games for arm wrestling, fishing, mining, and logging for resources to upgrade our weapons. And of course, we have the puzzles, which can be scattered throughout the world and above.
On some level, the game gave me the impression that it was trying to do so much, but not mastering any of it. However, I never felt like I needed to do any of these. All of this stuff is optional, as we can find a lot of these resources off the bodies of bandits we kill, we can trade in unwanted weapons to get resources for our camp, and traveling gets much easier later on. Nothing felt forced, but everything felt worthwhile. And it helps that we unlock new abilities later on that can make some of this much easier. I also think it’s one of the coolest things that we can learn new recipes and information by scanning and reading books. It’s small, but I enjoyed picking up recipes and making sure I scanned them so I could cook them later on.
In the beginning, it was very overwhelming. It felt like there was so much I could do, and every part of me wanted to grind and explore. However, with how the game is structured, it’s best to follow along the main story for a while. There is an update for the game that fast-tracked some of this, including getting Abyss Cores (Gears) and a tutorial earlier, but there is so much that opens up the more you play that spending extra time early on to unlock more of the world will be more rewarding later on.
There will also be a Day 1 patch that drops as soon as the game launches, which does smooth out progression and fixes some key bugs. It doesn't change my thoughts on the game, but it is a welcome update.
There’s been a lot of speculation as to how Crimson Desert would run on the Steam Deck, but unfortunately, it’s an experience I can’t recommend. The reason this was posted so late is that the game did not work on the deck until a day before the embargo was lifted. Because of that, there was not enough time to test all the areas and fights that I wanted to, as well as the different settings we could try. Now, I’ve had that time, and there’s no way I can recommend playing this on the Steam Deck.
Before lunch, there were a couple of ways we could get the game running on the deck, but now it seems Valve pushed a fix to the Proton Hotfix branch, which is now the default. And it does work, so that is what I used primarily for testing.
For whatever reason, the game will boot up at the highest quality setting, possibly in an extremely high resolution. For me, the game was set to cinematic quality at 4K resolution. You will need a little bit of patience to get through the settings, as it sometimes takes a little too long to apply the new settings. I even had to restart the game once just so I could get to the settings, since it was taking so long just to apply the brightness filters.
After all is said and done, it doesn’t even matter how low the settings go; it will not hold a stable 30 FPS. Running across open fields, solving independent puzzles around the world and in the Abyss, and fighting small groups of enemies should hold strong at 30 FPS on the lowest possible settings with FSR 3 upscaling at Performance. There may be some minor drops here and there, but they’re relatively unnoticeable. We can also bring down the upscaling to Ultra Performance to keep it at a smooth 30, but the game becomes a washed-out, pixelated mess. Because of this, I do not recommend going lower than Performance.
Now, as soon as we get to larger cities, bigger fights with 20 or more people, and going around the world in a faster way than running, the framerate will drop. In these moments, I could see it get to as low as 17 FPS, which is horrible for combat, but just not enjoyable as a whole. Bosses and mini-bosses could bring it down even further because of all the visual effects that they have, making fighting them relatively impossible.
And for those who want to try frame generation or lossless scaling, please don’t. In most scenarios, the game will feel smoother with lossless scaling. However, it will not keep a solid framerate, stutters will appear in the areas where the framerate drops, and the input lag is atrocious. Even at just 2X for lossless, I was getting major lag to the point where I couldn’t dodge at the right time or execute attacks that I wanted to. This kind of lag is a death sentence for any major fights against harder enemies or bosses, and will immediately ruin the experience. It is not worth it.
So, when all is said and done, Crimson Desert is not a game I would play on the Steam Deck. There are too many compromises that make it nearly impossible to enjoy fully. Is it decent for exploration, puzzle solving, and secret finding to complement a more powerful rig that the game is mainly being played from? Yes, it is. I actually did this a few times, where I just focused on exploring the world on the Deck when I took a break from sitting down at my desktop. However, there’s no way I could see playing this through completely on the Deck. If you have a more powerful PC or a console like the PS5, it will be a better experience there. The game is also available on GeForce NOW to stream, so that is also an option.
After reading my review, you might be wondering why Crimson Desert has such a high rating despite a good amount of grievances. There is one big reason, and it’s that despite these grievances, I found myself craving more. I would go in to play for one hour, and I would come out four hours later, satisfied. It didn’t matter how frustrated I would get; the joy of playing through the game overtook it immediately. The sheer amount of content is overwhelming, but it never overloaded me. There was always something to do, and even if it was a little difficult at times, it was always fun. Pearl Abyss found a way to weave everything together in one glorious, large, monstrous package that is a joy to experience.
I didn’t think it was possible for a game of this scale to exist yet, and I don’t recall the last time I ever played a game that wasn’t designed to be replayable that hooked me for such a long time. But here we are. The game lived up to its hype, and even though it isn’t perfect, Crimson Desert is one of the best RPGs I have ever played.
このレビューはPC版に基づいています。
このレビューをお楽しみいただけたなら、SteamDeckHQ の他のコンテンツもぜひご覧ください！あなたのゲーム体験に役立つゲームレビューやニュースを幅広く取り揃えています。ニュース、ヒントやチュートリアル、ゲーム設定やレビューをお探しの方も、最新のトレンドを知りたい方も、ぜひご利用ください。
Demon Tides was provided by Fabraz for review. Thank you!
3D platformers have long been dominated by a few games, with the top of them being occupied by the Super Mario series. Nintendo has nearly perfected the mechanics, keeping Mario's moveset fluid and giving us sandboxes to utilize it in creative ways. While there have been a lot of excellent 3D platformers that have been released, it has been very hard for a game to come close to the level of excellence that Nintendo has commanded. However, Demon Tides comes closer than any other game I have played, and in some ways, exceeds what I would expect from a top-tier 3D platformer.
Movement in 3D platformers is key, and Demon Tides does not disappoint with the expansive moveset we have at our disposal. The staples of the genre that I would expect are all here, but they get pushed to the limit depending on how you use them. We have our usual jumps, which can go into wall-jumping and climbing, and boost to gain some temporary speed, but they can be complemented by a multitude of forms to push this further. We can turn into a bat to double jump, get into our Spin form to glide through the air, and hop into our Snake form to gain major speed across land or in the water.
But that's not all! Boosting while in the Bat form brings us into a dive, which bounces off the ground, we can jump as we leave Snake form to get some major air, and Spin form can turn into an extra jump, fast drill downwards, and even a cannonball that can be used as an attack on enemies around. It gives me Super Mario Odyssey vibes, with such a malleable moveset that gives us so many ways to tackle any of the many platforming challenges. Even though these challenges tend to have obvious ways to get through them, the toolset we have can break past that, and it's so satisfying.
However, we aren't finished yet! Throughout the game, we can also find Talismans to equip that further augment our abilities. Want to add a glide in Snake form to go further with more speed? Add a second jump to our Bat form? Allow our Spin form to create a whirlwind on the ground to get a nice jump boost from the ground? Just equip their respective Talisman, and your moveset immediately changes. Being able to modify your moves is the coolest thing, giving even more options for us to tackle challenges the way we want to.
In the beginning, it did take a little bit of time to get used to and learn all of the moves, but as soon as it clicks, it's just phenomenal. Despite some slight stiffness from time to time, using all of the moves in conjunction just feels great. I tend to have a high bar for these kinds of games after playing Super Mario, and Demon Tides just hits all the right marks. Fabraz has done an excellent job putting together a compelling 3D platformer that feels just right.
The game combines structured and unstructured progression, which can feel a little at odds. In general, we will swim fast through the ocean to discover small islands filled with currency to collect and challenges to conquer to unlock gears, Talismans, and outfits. Getting to the islands is completely freeform, relying on us to travel across the sea and find them. However, the sea is divided into three sections, and we will have to collect a specific amount of gears to unlock them. I understand why this is done, but it can still feel a little odd to make it so reliant on player-driven exploration, and then lock away sections to force players to find enough gears. It's not necessarily a turn-off, but I would have liked to be able to travel throughout the world without any walls.
Still, I find it hard to discover any negatives when it comes to Demon Tides. There are some minor nuisances that occasionally pop up, but I rarely feel them as I skate across the water, run along walls, and jump from platform to platform. There are also some nice little quality-of-life features, like pressing B to bring up an arrow showing where to go next, and even a photo mode. There is a checkpoint system, which is a little confusing, but it's nice to have as an option.
Story-wise, I was actually quite surprised by how deep it was. Beebz and her friends are invited to Ragnar's Rock by her absentee father, and after getting a very explosive welcome, gets caught in a war between her father, Ragnar, and revolutionaries who want to be freed. It was much more thought-provoking and meaningful than I expected, although some of the conversations can be a little cringy. It's a worthwhile story to experience, and a nice follow-up to Demon Turf (the previous game in the series).
As for Steam Deck performance, I was a little disappointed. I have seen how well Fabraz's games can run on the Deck, including the upcoming Bubsy 4D, so I expected Demon Tides to be better. Unfortunately, there are lots of compromises here that still don't hit the performance metrics that I was hoping it would hit.
Games like this feel amazing at 60 FPS, and at the beginning, it was able to hit 60. However, as I kept playing, I realized that it wouldn't be able to stick to it. The game has its own Steam Deck-focused graphical preset, but it doesn't fully utilize the GPU, which causes the framerate to throttle. We can fix this by forcing the GPU clock speed to 1600MHz, but it won't help in some areas, like Jester's Minery. Even on the lowest possible settings, it won't be able to hit 60 FPS.
So, there's really only one way to play in the most stable way throughout the entirety of the game. To keep it as smooth as possible, I recommend setting it to a 40 FPS/80Hz lock. It isn't as smooth as 60, but it still feels great at 40 FPS. I also recommend keeping the game at the Steam Deck preset to balance battery life. We can play at the Medium graphical quality, but the battery drain will go up to 18W with some slight framerate drops here and there, so sticking to the Steam Deck preset works well here (12W - 14W battery drain).
It's not perfect, and I do wish the preset didn't have so many pop-ins, but the game renders a huge world, and that could be affecting it a little too much. It's still very playable and enjoyable, but there are definitely some visual compromises to be made to fully enjoy the game on the Deck.
In the settings, we can toggle whether we skip cutscenes and the tutorial, hide some UI elements, and change the game speed and whether we are invincible or not. We can also turn on a first-person mode, which is interesting to use, change keybindings, and adjust audio volume.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions, cloud saves, and controllers. There are no HDR settings.
Demon Tides exceeded almost all of my expectations for this 3D platformer. The mechanics are tight and sound, with a great level of customization to modify our moveset in unique ways that cater to how we want to play. The open world and player-driven exploration make finding islands with platforming challenges more engaging, while the rewards for completing these were worthwhile and motivating. There are some minor issues here and there, but none of them take away from how well-built the game is.
The performance on the Steam Deck is a little disappointing, but it's still very playable and enjoyable on the go. 40 FPS still feels decently smooth, and the battery drain isn't bad for an open-world game like this, but the compromises are obvious, which can impact the enjoyment of the game.
このレビューはPC版に基づいています。
このレビューをお楽しみいただけたなら、SteamDeckHQ の他のコンテンツもぜひご覧ください！あなたのゲーム体験に役立つゲームレビューやニュースを幅広く取り揃えています。ニュース、ヒントやチュートリアル、ゲーム設定やレビューをお探しの方も、最新のトレンドを知りたい方も、ぜひご利用ください。
Styx: Blades of Greed was provided by NACON for review. Thank you!
Styx: Blades of Greed should have been the point where this series finally stepped out of the shadows of its own limitations. Instead, it feels like it’s clumsily stumbled backwards into them.
The earlier Styx games were rough around the edges, sure, but they had a clarity of purpose. They understood that tension comes from vulnerability, and they built tight, focused stealth sandboxes around that idea. Blades of Greed keeps the vulnerability but loses much of the control that made it satisfying. Styx still can’t win a fair fight, as expected, but here that fragility often translates into frustration rather than tension. Detection can feel erratic, patrol behaviours inconsistent, and when things go wrong, they unravel in ways that feel less like consequences of your decisions and more like systems buckling under pressure. It's an entirely frustrating experience, all in all.
Movement is where the cracks show most clearly. A stealth game lives and dies on how it feels in the navigate space, and despite the appreciated addition of a grappling hook and glider, traversal rarely feels fluid. Animations are stiff, transitions between climbing and perching lack smoothness, and there’s a persistent sense of input lag between intention and action. In a series that once thrived on carefully reading patrol routes and slipping between sightlines, that slight disconnect becomes exhausting over time.
The expanded environments should have been the headline improvement. They’re larger, more vertical, and visibly more ambitious. On paper, that sounds like exactly what Styx needed. In practice, the scale exposes how uneven the mechanics are. When the act of climbing a tower or moving across rooftops feels awkward, the sandbox's size becomes a liability. Instead of empowering experimentation, the game often makes you hesitant to engage with its own spaces because you’re never fully confident the systems will behave cleanly.
Abilities return and expand, with amber powers complemented by new quartz-based tricks. But rather than feeling like meaningful evolutions of the stealth toolkit, they often come across as compensatory. You’re not using them to create elegant solutions; you’re using them to patch over moments where AI awareness spikes unpredictably or where level geometry behaves strangely. That subtle shift, from creative expression to damage control, is telling.
Visually, Blades of Greed occupies an uncomfortable middle ground. It carries the budget and scope of a modern release, yet much of its presentation recalls mid-tier PlayStation 3-era AA titles, and not in a charming, throwback way. Character models lack nuance, animations feel dated, and environmental detail swings between impressive exteriors and oddly sterile - or, conversely, convoluted and "busy" - interiors. Lighting, crucial in a stealth game, sometimes struggles with clarity, making exposure feel arbitrary rather than readable. When stealth depends on trust between player and system, that lack of clarity chips away at the experience.
Even the tone feels slightly adrift. Styx’s sardonic edge once grounded the series, but here it rarely elevates the narrative or sharpens the tension. The story framework exists, but it feels functional rather than compelling, moving you between objectives without building much momentum. Combined with the mechanical frustrations, it leaves the whole experience feeling heavier than it should.
Performance on Steam Deck with Styx: Blades of Greed is, bluntly, a mess. Even with every setting dragged to its absolute lowest, shadows pared back, textures dropped, post-processing stripped out, the frame rate refuses to behave. In quieter interior spaces, it might flirt with the mid-30s, but the moment you step into a wider area or anything remotely busy, it nosedives into the low 20s before scrambling back up again. The fluctuations are constant and distracting, making stealth, a genre that lives and dies on precision and timing, feel oddly unreliable.
You can claw back something resembling stability by forcing a 30fps cap through the Steam Deck’s performance menu, and for stretches it does hold… technically. But even then, the image quality introduces a new problem. There’s a strange, warping shimmer across surfaces, as though every texture is subtly shifting or reloading in real time. It creates an effect not unlike watching a 480p YouTube video that never quite finishes buffering: soft, smeared detail with a persistent, crawling instability. It’s not just low resolution; it feels unstable. The result is a compromised experience that looks and plays worse than it should, especially for a game that isn’t exactly pushing visual boundaries.
That 30fps cap does come with one major upside, though: efficiency. With the frame rate locked, power draw drops significantly, falling from the low 20-watt range down to roughly 12W. In practical terms, that translates to an estimated 4 hours of battery life during testing, a genuinely impressive turnaround compared to the barely 2 hours of drain seen when the system is left to run uncapped. It’s a rare case where reining in the game doesn’t just stabilise performance but also meaningfully improves portability.
Unfortunately, technical issues don’t stop at frame pacing. Multiple crashes occurred during the review period, necessitating full restarts. Even when the game was running, it was far from stable. Audio would intermittently crackle during busier scenes, while on a handful of occasions it simply cut out altogether, leaving entire stretches eerily silent until a reboot. Combined with the inconsistent visuals and erratic performance, it makes for a version of the game that feels not just unoptimised, but fundamentally unreliable on Valve’s handheld.
Very few accessibility options are available in Styx: Blades of Greed, with the present few being able to change the Colour Vision Deficiency Type, and further changing the severity and shift colour spectrum of said setting.
What makes Blades of Greed disappointing isn’t that it lacks ideas. The ambition is visible everywhere, in its scale, its expanded systems, and its attempt to modernise traversal. But ambition without refinement magnifies flaws. Where previous entries felt lean and focused, this one feels bloated and less confident in its own fundamentals.
For a series that once carved out a respectable niche in the stealth genre, this instalment feels strangely dated and less polished than what came before. Instead of a confident evolution, it lands as a reminder that scale and new mechanics mean little if the core feel isn’t there. Blades of Greed isn’t just underwhelming, it’s a frustrating step down from a formula that, until now, had at least known its own strengths.
このレビューはPC版に基づいています。
このレビューをお楽しみいただけたなら、SteamDeckHQ の他のコンテンツもぜひご覧ください！あなたのゲーム体験に役立つゲームレビューやニュースを幅広く取り揃えています。ニュース、ヒントやチュートリアル、ゲーム設定やレビューをお探しの方も、最新のトレンドを知りたい方も、ぜひご利用ください。
Romeo is a Dead Man was provided by Grasshopper Manufacture for review. Thank you!
There are a lot of games that are released every year, and a lot of them have similar mechanics and styles to them. It makes sense why. These are tried and true implementations that have been proven to work. However, there are a few developers that break away from these traditions, and one of those is SUDA51. His games tend to break away from the norms, finding ways to create a compelling and enjoyable experience without needing to rely on the usuals. Romeo is a Dead Man is another great example of this, and while it is definitely my favorite SUDA51 game to date, it still has some fundamental issues that keep it from greatness.
It’s extremely easy to tell which games he has had a hand in creating, and Romeo is a Dead Man doesn’t shy away from his signature style. We constantly swap between multiple art styles, starting with 3D cutscenes, then comic book cutscenes, then going into our pixelated spaceship, and then swapping to full 3D models for the actual gameplay. Instead of it being jarring, I found the multitude of styles appealing and exciting. From the blood exploding every time we hit enemies and UI design, to the weird story and gameplay mechanics, it all feels characteristically SUDA51, for better and worse.
It’s kind of crazy to think about, but the story is a take on Romeo and Juliet that I never would have expected. We play as Romeo Stargazer, a deputy sheriff who finds a girl, Juliet, on the ground with amnesia. They strike up a romance, meeting at a diner, until she fails to show up and Romeo gets malled by a “White Devil.” With his face torn apart and arm ripped off, his grandfather, Benjamin, comes out of nowhere and fuses the Deadgear onto him. Now, with the power of the Deadgear, Romeo will join the Space-Time Force to take down threats across Space-Time, and hopefully find out where Juliet is.
If it sounds like a bonkers story, well, that’s because it is. I love weird stories like this, and boy, is this an interesting one. I was always curious about what would happen next and who Juliet actually is. The characters all have their own weirdness to them, too, ranging from our grandpa, who has become a 2D figure on our back, to our starship crew, which includes a humanoid cat, a scorched man, and a woman who is so snarky that we aren’t 100% sure what she even does. The crew also includes Romeo’s mother and sister for some reason, and there are some great conversations to be had with your sister throughout your playtime.
However, the actual storytelling feels disjointed, especially at the beginning. It starts off with Romeo’s dream where he is attacked and becomes Deadman, but then it goes into a comic-book cutscene detailing how he actually becomes Deadman, which is very different than his dream. Then, we skip ahead to where we are part of the Space-Time Force and taking down criminals who all seem to have some connection to Juliet. And as we complete these chapters, we get actual cutscenes of how Romeo and Juliet actually met and what they did. It wasn’t impossible to follow, but it was confusing to figure out what was actually happening and what wasn’t.
It all makes sense in reference to what Romeo is a Dead Man is about. We are traveling through space and going to different time periods to fight criminals, but it just doesn’t do enough to separate what’s reality and what’s not. This ultimately makes it tougher to follow along without extra questions about what’s actually happening.
Once we find our way to the dimensions to fight the criminals, we will mostly be spending our time in combat. The controls are pretty simple. We have the weak and heavy attack, as well as dodging, and an ultimate move. We can combo the weak and heavy attacks into each other to maximize our damage. We also have a gun that we can take into battle with us. Combat is flashy, with blood effects all around and dazzling lighting as we use our ultimate attack or even just switch to our gun. On one hand, it’s enjoyable to just see what happens as we fight.
On the other hand, the actual fighting feels stiff. There is no blocking or parrying in the game, so I would’ve expected the dodging to be more responsive and easier to use to make up for it. However, not only does it not feel great, but there were multiple times where I still got hit or died because the dodge wasn’t covering a long enough distance. The actual weapon swings can feel a little slow, and there were many times when I found myself surrounded and couldn’t move at all. I could still fight, but I would find myself getting attacked, which could ultimately lead to my death.
Bosses gave me mixed feelings as well. I enjoyed their design and liked the challenge, but it sometimes felt too challenging, and I had to rely on dying and coming back with a buff to beat them. The weakpoints some of them have are near impossible to hit, and need a lot of dodging to survive long enough to whittle them down. Some of the fights were manageable, but others were just obnoxious (Magrus is a nightmare).
There are four different melee weapons and guns to unlock, and while all of them feel unique from each other. I did have a preferred combination of weapons to use: Arcadia (Twin Spears) and Diaspora (Shotgun), and I liked the balance between using those. It was also nice being able to switch between them during combat as desired, which gave me a good feel of each weapon. However, I always found myself going back to my comfort zone.
To make things more interesting, we have Bastards. These are creatures that we grow like vegetables that we can equip and use special abilities. The best way I can describe it is a fusion between Personas and Pokémon. We will find seeds as we play, and once we get them appraised, we can plant them and equip them once they are ready to be harvested. Each Bastard has their own stats, and we have a Persona-esque fusion system to make them more powerful. With each having their own ability, like a suicide bomber or freezing the enemy, it can make combat more engaging, and despite some faults in general, I found myself enjoying the combat enough to keep grinding. There are also badges we can equip to augment our stats in some situations, but Bastards take the cake here.
If you are just playing through the game normally, progression can feel lacking, but there are some great ways to easily grind and get more materials and currency to get stronger. We will use our main currency from killing enemies to upgrade Romeo's stats from this Pac-Man-esque board, while we will use Sentry to increase our weapon stats. We won't get enough of these without grinding, but it's extremely easy to do. Dungeons can give us Sentry, while we can farm boss trials to get more of the main currency, and we can access both of these fairly early in the game.
While I wish Romeo is a Dead Man was playable on the Steam Deck, it unfortunately isn't able to keep a stable framerate. Even at the lowest possible settings with FSR 3 upscaling set to Performance, the framerate will drop in combat down to the low 20s or even the high 10s. It makes combat very difficult to handle, especially when there are a lot of enemies around. There isn't much we can do to improve the game on the Deck, so this will be one to avoid playing on the go.
Despite the issues here and there, Romeo is a Dead Man feels like a SUDA51 game through and through, which is a compliment. There aren't many games that challenge status quos when it comes to their mechanics and style, but SUDA51 does. Does it work? Not all of the time. Can it be frustrating? Sometimes. However, there aren't many games that embrace this style and structure that direct correlates what the norms are. Thankfully, despite the hiccups, the game is still a ton of fun, and if you are a fan of SUDA's other games, like No More Heroes and Killer, this is going to be a must-have.
I do wish it performed better on the Steam Deck. This would be a wonderful game to take on the go and grind, but there isn't much more we can do to make it more playable.
このレビューはPC版に基づいています。
このレビューをお楽しみいただけたなら、SteamDeckHQ の他のコンテンツもぜひご覧ください！あなたのゲーム体験に役立つゲームレビューやニュースを幅広く取り揃えています。ニュース、ヒントやチュートリアル、ゲーム設定やレビューをお探しの方も、最新のトレンドを知りたい方も、ぜひご利用ください。
Access to Arknights: Endfield was provided by GRYPHLINE for review. Thank you!
Arknights: Endfield doesn’t just step out of the shadow of its predecessor; it actively burns the bridge behind it. This is not tower defence with a new coat of paint, nor is it interested in gently onboarding you from the original Arknights. Instead, developer Hypergryph swings for something far bolder: a moody, deliberate action-RPG that trusts its audience to keep up, even when it’s being dense, bleak, or unapologetically slow.
From the moment you set foot on Talos-II, the game makes its intentions clear. This is a world that doesn’t care if you’re comfortable. Vast industrial complexes loom over scorched landscapes, technology feels barely under control, and every location carries the weight of something having gone catastrophically wrong. Endfield thrives on atmosphere, and it’s at its best when it lets environments do the talking rather than spelling everything out through exposition. Even standing still can feel oppressive, in the best possible way.
That tone carries directly into the story, which is equal parts fascinating and frustrating. You play as the Endministrator, a figure of authority navigating political tension, environmental collapse, and the consequences of industrial ambition. The writing is smart, but indulgent. Early on, the game absolutely loves the sound of its own terminology, and it’s easy to bounce off the sheer volume of names, concepts, and factions thrown at you. Stick with it, though, and the narrative slowly reveals a confidence and maturity that’s rare in the genre. When Endfield slows down and focuses on people rather than systems, it lands its emotional beats with surprising force.
Combat is where all that brooding energy finally gets to cut loose. Endfield’s real-time, party-based action is slick, weighty, and far more thoughtful than it first appears. This isn’t a button-masher pretending to be clever — success comes from reading enemy patterns, knowing when to swap characters, and committing to your decisions. Each character feels distinct, not just cosmetically but mechanically, and building a rhythm between them mid-fight is deeply satisfying. Yes, some encounters blur together over time, but the moment-to-moment feel of combat is strong enough to carry the experience.
Exploration strikes a smart balance between freedom and focus. Rather than dropping you into an overwhelming open world, Endfield offers tightly connected spaces that encourage poking around without killing momentum. Movement feels good, traversal options keep things snappy, and there’s a pleasing sense of forward motion that stops the game from bogging down between combat and story. It respects your time more than its early pacing might suggest.
Visually, the game is a knockout. Character models are sharp and expressive, cutscenes are framed with confidence, and the use of scale gives Talos-II a genuinely cinematic presence. The soundtrack quietly does a lot of heavy lifting too, underscoring the game’s melancholy without ever screaming for attention. That said, the interface can get noisy during intense moments, occasionally fighting the player for clarity when things kick off.
Being free-to-play inevitably brings baggage, and Endfield doesn’t pretend otherwise. Progression systems sit in the background like a low hum, never quite going away. While the game is generous enough early on and avoids constantly shoving spending prompts in your face, players with little tolerance for gacha conventions will still feel the friction over time. It’s not the defining feature of the experience, but it is a persistent one.
To play Arknights: Endfield on the Steam Deck, you will have to install it from a third-party. This could be from Epic using the Heroic Games Launcher or NonSteamLaunchers, or installing the launcher directly and adding it to Steam.
Arknights: Endfield performs better than might be expected for a visually dense, PC-first release. With sensible settings in place, specifically keeping it at the "Very Low" preset, albeit with an FPS cap of 60, the game is certainly capable of mostly holding that 60fps target, delivering a surprisingly smooth experience during exploration and combat alike. While there can be the occasional dip during busier moments, overall performance feels stable enough to comfortably justify a higher frame-rate cap rather than settling for 30fps, which helps the game feel more responsive on Valve’s handheld.
That performance does come at a cost, however. Power draw typically sits in the 22–24W range, putting sustained pressure on the Steam Deck’s battery. In real-world use, that translates to an expected battery life of around two hours at best, and sometimes less depending on brightness and background processes. It’s very much a “play near a charger” experience, but for shorter sessions, Endfield proves that the Steam Deck can deliver strong performance, even if endurance takes a predictable hit.
No accessibility options are available.
In the end, Arknights: Endfield feels like a game made with quiet confidence. It’s dense, occasionally stubborn, and absolutely uninterested in chasing mass appeal. That won’t work for everyone, and it doesn’t try to. But for players willing to meet it on its own terms, Endfield offers a richly atmospheric, mechanically engaging experience that feels rare in the free-to-play space. It’s flawed, sometimes frustrating, and often brilliant, a game that knows exactly what it wants to be, even if it makes you work a little to appreciate it. As with every GaaS, however, especially the Gacha-based ones, its survival is contingent on future content and on whether the systems implemented, both present and future, feel fair to the burgeoning playerbase.
このレビューはPC版に基づいています。
このレビューをお楽しみいただけたなら、SteamDeckHQ の他のコンテンツもぜひご覧ください！あなたのゲーム体験に役立つゲームレビューやニュースを幅広く取り揃えています。ニュース、ヒントやチュートリアル、ゲーム設定やレビューをお探しの方も、最新のトレンドを知りたい方も、ぜひご利用ください。
Big Hops was provided by Luckshot Games for review. Thank you!
I am not usually a big fan of platformer games, largely because of my considerable lack of skill with them. 3D platformers have a habit of making me plunge to my death, or at least the furry avatar that represents me in the game I’m playing. It is certainly a skill issue on my part! However, it has been a while since I played a platformer with as much heart as Big Hops. The last one I played I was a huge fan of was A Hat in Time, so it took just over eight years to bring me another game in the genre worth playing. It was a long time coming, and although Big Hops has a couple of small issues, it's a great start to the year for video games.
Big Hops makes a big leap forward from the get-go, and the game is easy on the eyes and fairly simple to understand. A family of cute frogs is doing typical family business when the siblings get lost. While the little sister manages okay, you (Hops) end up on a grand adventure across the world. Narratives in platformers are rarely a standout in gaming, but while it isn’t winning any Oscars for story, I liked the characters enough to stay engaged, and the dialogue and voice acting were both charming and entertaining.
Then, things take a drastic turn into the supernatural, completely taking me off guard. Hops gets sucked into a portal by a weird spirit thing called Diss that traps him until we help him acquire these ‘Dark Balls’. It completely drew me in, and the world really opened up as we helped gather supplies for an eccentric mechanic to build an airship to get home while navigating this strange new world.
The classic platforming mechanics are all here, although Big Hops has some unique mechanics, given that the main character is a frog. You navigate all sorts of puzzles and treacherous drops by using your long tongue, and the creativity this game shows with this single mechanic is impressive. You use the tongue to grab onto objects, collect critters for the completionist records, and eat things to gain health back. I must give developer Luckshot Games a bunch of credit for how realistic everything feels, and I was pretty immersed in the world.
Big Hops rewards exploration above everything else, and the gameplay leans heavily on that. That isn’t to say the game is easy, and some puzzles will frustrate players who don’t play these games often. Despite copious swearing on my part while trying to complete some challenges, the game does not punish mistakes much. Failing a jump and falling into oblivion only takes a sliver of health, and getting health back is easy with so many consumables around the world.
Growing mushrooms and trees to navigate platforming can also be eaten to get health back, and those respawn infinitely from what I’ve tested. This might sound like the game is deliberately making things easy, but the varied puzzles make a perfect balance. I occasionally got frustrated with puzzles, but the game gives you all the tools you need. As you progress through the game, you get access to shops that offer items to improve the incredibly low stamina bar and backpack space, as well as choose perks to add to your repertoire.
The best way I can describe the game’s presentation is that I treated it like an interactive cartoon. The graphics look great, with colorful biomes, and the music has a peppy theme that makes playing the game a joy.
I haven’t come across many bugs (the annoying video game kind, not the little ones you find in the world) apart from Hop occasionally getting caught up on a rock and the camera zooming up his bottom, but Big Hops has one major annoyance for me, and that’s the save system. The game relies on an autosave that doesn’t tell the player anything. There are obvious breather sections that look like checkpoints in other games, but I wish the game had a more reliable way to save. While I would prefer a manual saving system, I know platformers don’t usually use those.
Overall, however, Big Hops carries a lot of weight on its little green shoulders. The developer's clear joy in the game is evident, and the mechanics and exploration are very attractive to platformer fans.
Big Hops has received a Verified Badge by Valve just before the launch, which is good. Hopeful fans can hop to it, because Big Hops has been a great experience on the Steam Deck overall.
There aren’t many options we can play with in the game, unfortunately. With no adjustable controls or graphic options beyond screen resolution, this is one of those games where it is one size fits all for gameplay. Fortunately, Big Hops comes with full controller support, and the game runs great overall.
With our options limited, there is only one preset we can really use. With a native resolution, 60hz refresh rate, and default TDP, Big Hops holds a steady 60FPS even in the open areas. The controls are fluid despite there being no way to adjust them. I won’t be surprised to see Big Hops get the Verified badge on the Steam Deck.
With the full TDP running, I found Big Hops draws quite a lot of power. You will see an average power draw of around 13 watts, with spikes up to 16 watts during scenes with heavy on-screen action. This got me a little under 4 hours of battery life on the Steam Deck OLED. I tried tinkering with the TDP to improve battery life, and a 5-watt TDP kept the framerate around 30 FPS with a 9-watt average power draw. While this was an improvement, I recommend keeping things at their defaults for the smoothest gameplay. As Big Hops is a platformer, you need all the reaction time you can get.
Big Hops is available in English, Spanish (Spain), Russian, Portuguese, and Simplified Chinese, although only English has full audio.
This is a strange case where Big Hops has some good accessibility settings but is woefully lacking in others. Font scaling, Vsync, and controller sensitivity are nice to have, especially with the former on a smaller screen like the Steam Deck. However, there are no colorblind options, no way to change keybinds or button prompts, and no graphical settings that can be adjusted right now.
Big Hops did something interesting today: it charmed a player who is terrible at platformers into liking it. The gameplay offers plenty of variety with its different mechanics, and I’ve found the story and characters charming. It isn’t perfect, of course, with some irritating camera bugs, a general lack of customization for game settings, and some very frustrating moments at times. None of these are dealbreakers, however, and I can heartily recommend Big Hops as a solid game in its genre.
If you fancy a new platformer game with both charm and depth, and one that is a great addition to your Steam Deck library, this is a great way to kick off 2026!
このレビューはPC版に基づいています。
このレビューをお楽しみいただけたなら、SteamDeckHQ の他のコンテンツもぜひご覧ください！あなたのゲーム体験に役立つゲームレビューやニュースを幅広く取り揃えています。ニュース、ヒントやチュートリアル、ゲーム設定やレビューをお探しの方も、最新のトレンドを知りたい方も、ぜひご利用ください。
