ChiefBallsy
Published
I'm not sure if a typical gamer would enjoy this or not. Look, the game is excellent. However the performance on steamdeck is quite bad
Game has no text scaling, UI scaling option only increases the size of your skillbar and life/mana orbs
Game can barely keep a 30 FPS target with every setting on lowest, FSR on performance. Game looks quite blurry at playable frame rates
The game is really good, but steamdeck performance, visual fidelity, and the tiny in game text is a really sub par way to play the game. The game works, but it is at significant compromise. A platinum rating is far too generous imo, which is why I'm leaving a constructive review instead of recommending it like. It deserves bronze/silver at best until optimizations are made. It also requires manually turning all performance settings to their minimum, including textures, FSR on quality, and dynamic resolution needs to be off or the game becomes literal vaseline. If you're okay with 30 fps with dips into the 20s, poor image quality, and hard to read text, the game is still a masterpiece.
Class ability description text is a bit small, otherwise fine.
For stable fps, you need to either run the game on potato quality for 1280x800, or lower the resolution to 1152x720 or 960x600 and use the Intel XeSS upscaler with low settings. On potato quality, shadows are turned off which completely changes the look & tone of the game.
Need to sacrifice nearly all graphical fidelity to achieve 30 fps. Still dips into the 20s fairly frequently.
Other reports stating stable 40/45 fps aren't correct. This game has a bug with gamescope, if in-game v-sync is on, gamescope will report whatever your refresh rate is as the fps. Locking the game at 30 or 60 fps and setting a 40 or 45 refresh rate in deck settings is a stuttery disaster. Disabling in-game v-sync will report proper numbers.
Leave steamdeck settings default. Frame rate uncapped, refresh rate 60, linear scaling, everything else off.
In game settings: Full screen, 1152x720, motion blur ON, VSync OFF, framerate 30 fps, Upscaler Intel XeSS, Upscaler Quality QUALITY, graphics preset LOW, detailed shadows OFF
Going to 960x600 blurs text to the point it's unreadable, but it does fill the screen.
- Alternatively you can keep the game at 1280x800 and use graphics preset POTATO. Losing the shadows is a huge hit graphically, though, and none of the other options change much performance wise. Use this if the slightly blurred text from the lower resolutions drives you insane.
Hopefully a real optimization patch can help this games performance down the line, but it's playable right now and the game is enjoyable enough to compromise graphically.
Fantastic game. Terribly optimized. 30 fps avg with dips into the 20s, even on low/potato and/or lowering resolution.
Class ability text is small, otherwise fine.
The game struggles to hold 30 fps. Lowering the resolution and/or graphics to low/potato keeps it closer to an average of 30, but will still dip into the 20s.
I listed as not recommended due to the performance, but the game is so good and mostly playable as is that I'd recommend it to fans of the first game or those that only have steamdeck. Hopefully future optimization patches make it a masterpiece. NOTE - users reporting inflated "stable fps" numbers are incorrect. This game has a bug where if v-sync is turned on, gamescope will report your device's refresh rate. 40/45 refresh rate is an unplayable stuttery mess. Turn off v-sync for accurate numbers.
Steamdeck performance tab settings. Uncapped frame rate, 60 hz refresh, linear upscaling. Everything else OFF.
In game settings. FULL SCREEN, 1152 x 720, motion blur ON, framerate 30 fps. Intel XeSS Upscaler @ Quality. Graphics preset: LOW. Detailed shadows OFF.
This will give you 30 fps most of the time while preserving the games visuals. Will dip in certain areas, but didn't effect my enjoyment. Putting shadows on potato mode will help further, but the game looks real weird without them.
