DOOM: The Dark Ages Earns The Steam Deck Verified Badge With Impressive Update

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When it comes to boomer shooters, DOOM is one of the best there is. The intense action, gory finishers, assortment of weapons, and gorgeous world all work together to create an experience that can't be beat. The newest iteration of the game, DOOM: The Dark Ages, continues the incredible series, and while I loved the game in my review, it wasn't very playable on the Steam Deck. However, earlier today, the game had its Unsupported rating upgraded to Verified, and I was quite surprised.

DOOM: The Dark Ages can be purchased on Fanatical right now for $38.56 on Fanatical with coupon code OMENVIP.

Not long ago, DOOM: The Dark Ages had its Steam Deck rating upgraded to Verified, which stunned me. The game was tough to enjoy on the Deck, regularly dropping below 30 FPS even on the lowest settings. It was nowhere near playable or enjoyable on the Deck, and its minimum system requirements are way too high for what the Deck can handle. So, color me surprised when that green checkmark appeared.

According to the newest patch, there were some optimizations added to it. It will auto-detect settings on whichever handheld PC you are using. The team also optimized general performance, effects, and some quality of life improvements for docked devices, like external controller detection. They also mentioned that there's a benchmark mode specifically for handhelds, and settings are stored on the device, so they don't conflict with playing on another, more powerful device. On the changelog, they also note that we should be getting 30 FPS at 720p with their default settings, and I just had to see for myself. I immediately downloaded the game, and went right in to see if it truly has improved.

And honestly, it absolutely has.

I immediately went ahead and tested one of the more demanding areas of the game, and it has definitely seen some improvements. Visually, there are still compromises, and we can see lighting taking a hit with grainy light rays, but the framerate was generally above 30 FPS. I saw it dip a little when the big fight started in The Siege Part 1, and it would sometimes go down to 28 FPS with one dip at 23, but it stuck to 31-32 most of the time, and it is a huge improvement over the last update.

While it still has some compromises when playing on a handheld, I am happy to say there are some big improvements that may have actually earned DOOM: The Dark Ages the Verified badge. It may not be the best experience at 30 FPS, but it's definitely playable and enjoyable, and I am overjoyed to see it. This may have been most likely done to coincide with the Xbox ROG Ally/X release, but as long as it also improves on the Steam Deck, I can't complain.

DOOM: The Dark Ages can be purchased for $69.99 on Steam. And if you want to save some money, it can be purchased on Fanatical right now for $38.56 on Fanatical with coupon code OMENVIP.

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