s&box Is A Cool Experience That Isn't Great On Steam Deck So Far

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I cannot exclaim how big Garry's Mod was for me with PC gaming. It’s the game that got me started on my PC gaming journey, with it being the first purchase I ever made on Steam (along with Counter-Strike Source). It’s an amazing game, and it made me even more excited for the studios’ spiritual successor, s&box. The game officially released earlier today, and while it doesn’t have the most content yet, I can see it getting better and better as the community starts to build for it.

The game released with an Unsupported rating for the Steam Deck, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to try it out. I was curious to see if the successor to the ultimate sandbox game would be able to play on the go. While I can definitely see it getting there, it just has a few too many problems that stop it from being a good portable experience right now.

I decided to start off small and just go into my own sandbox world to run around in. The default world is quite barren, but even on the low settings, it would fluctuate. Looking out into the open areas would easily hit 60 FPS above, but looking at the house would drop it down into the 40s. This isn’t bad in itself, but bringing up the menu to spawn in new items would cause stuttering and some errors. The items I wanted still spawned in, but it would take a little bit of time. And the stuttering was pretty bad, which made the entire game feel like it was shaking a little bit.

Still, I would say playing this way is doable. It’s not the greatest experience, but it’s definitely okay. Not something I would generally recommend, but I could see myself goofing around in sandbox mode. However, trying to do anything else, or even play on more complicated maps, is almost impossible.

I initially tried playing a game mode online called Mow the Lawn, and after I had loaded in, I was met with sub-30 FPS, constant stutters, and graphical artifacts. It was a nightmare to just move around at all, and I wouldn’t recommend even trying. I started to notice that even at the loading screen or when selecting a new game mode, I would encounter artifacts consistently. I even tested the game on other Proton layers, including GE-Proton, and nothing changed.

On top of that, s&box doesn’t have controller support yet, so it will take a little bit of adjusting and magic from Steam Input. The default controller configuration for the game isn’t usable, so you will have to manually change it to the keyboard and mouse layout, or just make your own immediately. But because of all the graphical issues, stutters, and artifacting, I wouldn’t say it’s worthwhile to attempt it.

So, for right now, I would avoid playing this on the Steam Deck. I really do hope it gets better in time. I love how this game feels and looks, and I can’t wait to dive into the magic of the spiritual successor for one of my all-time favorite PC games, but I can’t see myself doing it on the Steam Deck.

s&box can be purchased on Steam for $19.99.

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