Will Exoprimal Run on the Steam Deck? - First Impressions

Exoprimal is out now and thanks to Capcom, we were given the opportunity to play around with the game a little early. So far, I have tested on the ROG Ally (as I was downloading Exoprimal while reviewing some other games) and got a first taste of the dino-demolishing game on-the-go. It is a lot of fun, especially if you are playing with friends, but it can be quite intense. Thankfully, with some tweaking and FSR 2.0, we can get the game into a playable state.

If you want to see how Exoprimal runs on the ROG Ally, you can check out our impressions here. Our full review of the game on Steam Deck, with a full suite of settings for battery, framerate, and quality, will be out in the next day or two as I need more time to test. Regardless, here is the experience I have had so far:

Exoprimal is a beast currently and even with FSR 2.0, getting to 40 during Dino Survival will be near impossible. On the lowest settings and FSR 2.0 on quality, the game struggled to maintain 40 while running through the match. With Variable Rate Shading turned on, more spots were able to hit it, but it wasn't able to maintain throughout the match. 30 FPS, however, gave us more leg room and I was able to play a match with it on low settings and FSR 2.0 on quality. But, there is an option I tested that actually gives a slightly nicer experience.

Using the SteamDeck Refresh Rate Unlocker from ryanrudolfoba, I was able to overclock the refresh rate of the Deck's panel and then set it to a 35 FPS limit. Exoprimal was able to hold this framerate without a TDP limit and feel a bit smoother than simply at 30. With Variable Rate Shading and FSR 2.0 on balanced, this held strong in 2 matches!

There is definitely more to test, but this will not be an easy game to run. It is possible this will get easier with the shared shader cache, but if you are planning to get the game now, this is what you should expect the max performance will be at this point. Honestly, it is still very playable and I personally had a blast throughout those missions. There are other maps and some are easier to run, but I am looking more at the big city, which is the hardest map to run with drops to 33 - 34 at times.

Exoprimal is available now on Steam for $60 and is rated Playable for the Steam Deck due to showing non-Steam Deck controller icons and small in-game text. The latter of which is definitely true, so beware!

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