No Rest for the Wicked First Impressions on Steam Deck

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A copy of No Rest for the Wicked was provided by Private Division for reviewing. Thank you!

The last two days have been increasingly busy, but it culminated today with the release of No Rest for the Wicked. The gorgeous Action RPG created by the studio behind Ori and the Blind Forest looks phenomenal, and as a souls-like fan, I am enjoying every moment in it. Before the release, the studio's co-founder, Gennaidy Korol, posted about it being playable on the Steam Deck, which is extremely exciting. Still, with the high RAM requirement, we wanted to check it out ourselves.

Now, after playing with it a bit, I do have some thoughts and maybe a couple of reasons why you may want to wait for more optimizations before getting No Rest for the Wicked if you are going to play primarily on the Steam Deck.

No Rest for the Wicked - First Impressions on Steam Deck

This is purely an impression based on the first couple of hours with the game. It may get better or worse as you play, and performance is subject to change throughout early access. The game was tested on the OLED Steam Deck. Our full review of No Rest for the Wicked will be coming in the next week or two.

No Rest for the Wicked is a ton of fun, and I really enjoy it, but the experience on the Steam Deck can be a bit spotty. Playing without any changes, I hit two crashes that I can attribute to RAM usage. The 4GB UMA Buffer + CryoUtilities seemed to help a bit, though I ended up crashing again regardless (just not as often).

As for the overall performance, I did find the game to stick to 30 in most minor fights, but the boss fights were a bit harder on the system. It can handle 30 FPS, but if there are more drops during the battle and some spots where it can drop massively below 19 FPS. I started off with the Performance quality preset but ended up turning the resolution scale from 80 down to 50. It did make the game noticeably blurrier and didn't completely eliminate the drops, but it helped. And luckily, on the small screen, it wasn't as horrible to look at. Cutscenes can't be saved; some even went down to 9 FPS.

With No Rest for the Wicked being an early access, I don't want to say it isn't a worthwhile investment. The game is a ton of fun (even though I suck), and the team cares about the Steam Deck and being able to play it portably. I believe the game will be very playable as it gets updated through early access, and Gennaidy mentions wanting to improve it. Still, it's a bit hard to play right now due to how important a stable framerate is for a very precise and intense game like this.

So, do I recommend it right now? Kind of. The game is fun and can stick to 30 FPS for the majority of the game, but the drops can creep in and happen the most in important fights, like boss fights and cutscenes. You also may experience crashes as the game eats up all of your RAM, and even the 4GB UMA Buffer + CryoUtilities can't save it completely. I do have faith it will get fixed up and optimized better, but it isn't there yet.

If you plan to play on a Desktop and can wait for Steam Deck or want to invest in something that will get better in the future, I highly recommend getting the game. But, if you are looking to play something right now on the Deck, it won't be the best experience.

No Rest for the Wicked is on sale now with a 10% off discount at $35.99 until May 2nd.

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