The Monster Hunter: Wilds Open Beta Is A Bit Of a Mess on Steam Deck

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Monster Hunter: Wilds is easily one of my most anticipated titles coming out next year, and I really can't wait for it. Every chance I got to play it at an event, I took it, and I fell in love with it more and more each time. It takes the best parts of both Monster Hunter: Worlds and Rise, and combines them into one addicting package. Even against the odds, I was really hoping this would run on the Steam Deck, but the Open Beta suggests it may not be all sunshine and rainbows.

Sadly, it was one problem after another that I ran into with Monster Hunter: Wilds' open beta. Booting the game, I was met with a black screen and could only see the UI. This persisted into the full game, which ended up crashing. I found that turning off upscaling completely fixed it temporarily, but as soon as a mission started, black screen was back. I did end up figuring out that having FSR 3 at Native AA fixed this, but it also tanked performance even more.

Sadly, there really isn't any way to bring performance into a playable state no matter what. Even at the lowest possible settings, with FSR 3 at Ultra Performance, could not get up to 30 FPS. There was no way this would run at 30 FPS without insane sacrifices, which isn't really fully possible. I even forced the resolution down to 800x500 and was only able to get to 26 FPS while standing still (also at Ultra Performance). Having Native AA on did make it so I could see the game, but unfortunately, it was running in the 10-17 FPS range.

The lowest settings also make the game look a little bit ugly, and while Native AA helps a little, textures and models will still look very unflattering.

Now, this is a beta, which means it could get a bit better when it is fully released, but I don't know how much better it could get. This is a huge game, and while I expected it to be hard on the system, I do feel it won't be playable. I do hope I am somehow wrong, but with the minimum specs being so high, I am not hopeful. It is an awesome game though, and if you have a more powerful machine, I highly recommend keeping a close eye on it!

Monster Hunter: Wilds can be preordered for $69.99 on Steam ahead of its February 27th, 2025 release.

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