Nice. I've been playing CRPGs on my Steam Deck for a few months. Been through Wrath, Divinity 2, and NWN Hordes of the Underdark. Honestly, I haven't even turned on my desktop in a couple of months, thats how much I'm enjoying it.
@@jacobroberts2764 Some frame rate slowdown, but that was true for the entire game. I ended up dropping back the resolution slightly (can't remember exactly what I settled on) and turned on fsr which helped frame rates and battery. Overall not bad.
@@majorgear1021 Its been about a year since I played NWN on the deck. I do remember it running perfectly, and I think I used the windows installer with proton, but I could be wrong. Controls were fine. I use the right touchpad for mouse controls and map the sticks to the camera. I went through both the shadows and hordes expansions on the deck. No issues. Its probably my all time favorite game.
I recently got a Steam Deck and it runs (so far) pretty much everything I throw at it. Elder Scrolls Online (non-steam) ? Yep - I could install it & played it. Divinity 2 Ego Draconis ? Yep It works too. The text is small, but readable. That is the only flaw I have found so far. Many older games have this issue when it comes to reading stuff. What I really love about Steam Deck is that it is probably the most versatile gaming device (and also a PC) that ever existed. Not only you can play pretty much every console game (up to PS3), but also pretty much every Windows PC game, while you just have a linux based system. Let it sink for a while. The fact that it all works almost flawlessly and you don't even need a Windows OS, just a free Linux OS is mind blowing. And just an observation - if you have some kind of USB hub or you will wait for Official Steam Deck Docking station - many of the control issues will be gone, as it will be more like a Desktop PC experience with Big Screen, mouse and keyboard.
What I like, and this applies to the Steam controller too, is that you can find layouts that other people have made and submitted and get voted on. So there are often player made setups that are better than the defaults.
Thanks a bunch for this. I, for one, would really appreciate more of this type of video for games you have already reviewed (in addition to your reviews going forward) - should you have the time/interest.
Amazing timing, and thanks for your thoughts on these games on the Deck! I just got mine 3 days ago, and been testing the games, CRPGs and otherwise that I own too, and I think my experience has been exactly like yours: most games have run somewhere between "very playable to great", and a few isolated cases of performance issues to the point that I'd probably just play those on my main rig (hadn't actually tried Solasta or Pillars 2 yet, but from what you've described, I guess I don't have to). Still getting used to the trackpads for mouse controls in games that need it, but I can very realistically imagine with a few weeks of practice, I'd be able to play that way for hours at a time like on a mouse and kb.
I'm currently playing Pillars on the deck and it's an awesome experience. I use the left touchpad as a mouse (i'm left handed) and the a button as left click. The touchpad is so accurate, it's crazy that I don't feel limited at all while playing a mouse reliant game.
Selfishly, I’d love to see more vids like this. Don’t have a PC but I do enjoy CRPG’s and tactical games that I can now play because of my steam deck :)
Great video! I’ve found that a lot of the games that run poorly on Steam Deck need to be bumped down in FPS and additional tweaks to get them in a runable state. But this video is great for new users to have some go-tos to start with.
I found many games that have vsync or FPS limiters in game will cause big performance drops. I always turn those off and use the Steam Deck settings to do those and so far so good.
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire was one of the first games I installed and was immediately offput by the controls and quickly uninstalled it. After a few weeks with it, I grew more familiar with it and gave it another shot. I was pleasantly surprised how well I was able to adapt to the controls. I still think all these CRPG devs need to add controller options. Some people prefer a controller over M&KB like myself even if I'm not on a Steam Deck. And the most frustrating thing is that some of these games have console ports so it seems like it's just laziness on the developers to not include them for PC.
Yeah after getting the steam I've found a new major gripe. All the games geared to towards keyboard and mouse on PC that literally have controller optimised ports on console, but you just can't get those controls on PC. It's always naive to think "the game is on console of course controller will work well". And unfortunately, in any circumstance where you are likely to care (games with UI and controls designed for km+m that will be annoying on controller), the more likely it is that the developers didn't port the console control scheme to PC because it likely had to be adapted a lot, meaning the versions of the game are too different for it to be worth the effort. This needs to become a standard thing in games with the Steam deck and the number of PC gamers who also have gamepads now, if you put the work to design a completely different controller scheme to make a game work on controller, please please also allow the PC versions to adapt between those control schemes.
what timing! i've been pondering buying Wrath of the Righteous for the last 12 hours or so, and the Deck is my only option for playing it. I'm gonna get it now!
Awesome breakdown, this kind of playability is what I've been waiting for on SteamDeck before buying. Glad to see it working for more of the games I love :)
Just a heads up for anyone wanting to play dos2 on steam deck: it actually plays great if you want to use the normal mouse and keyboard mode. The touchpads make the mouse controls feel great. Unfortunately, in controller mode, Larian forces you into 16:9 resolution so you get black bars (steam deck is 16:10) - they say this was on purpose even tho dos1 runs at 16:10 in controller mode. That said, mouse and keyboard mode in dos2 works in 16:10 on deck so you get the full screen. I personally much prefer normal m+k mode on deck
I've been considering a Steam Deck purchase and this is very helpful. Some of my favorite games are on GOG and I appreciate your addressing compatibility in detail.
I got myself a steam deck too, for one week now and some of the things you mention points to the same experience I got in other games: The steam deck is a pc, not a handheld console. You can start it up and play some games, especially those, that got ported from consoles are working fine for the most part. But as soon, as there is no green label (and thats like 80 % of my library) it requires tinkering around, sometimes like when you try to run skyrim with 200 mods. Nioh 2 for example was stuttering, because it set itself for 30 fps limit and low shadows. When you bump fps to 60 and shadows off, it runs smooth, but only on 60 fps, not on 30... It's wild for some games and you can never predict how it will run. It requires googling some settings but when it runs, it is pretty statisfacting. Especially the Heroic Games launcher is a godsent, for the dozens of free games on Epic.
WOTR now that the EE patch is out is great on the steam deck. I've been playing at low-mid settings at 40 Hz, full resolution, and exclusively using the new controller interfaces. Note: you need to switch it from the recommended controller layout to the standard controller layout + trackpad acting as an analog stick (makes using the mouse cursor feel pretty great when needed). The only cons are really that I had a weird bug where I couldn't respec Camellia without crashing, but I was able to do it on my desktop with my cloud save and then go back to the deck.
If you do more about deck gaming, could you please say which version of proton you find works best, game and deck graphics setting etc? Sometimes tweaking is essential and we don't know much about what you did or didn't try. Thanks ps for instance protondb suggests for deadfire to use the launch option "WINE_CPU_TOPOLOGY=3:0,1,2 %command%" to limit cpu cores and increase text size in the options to 130%.
One great thing about a lot of games designed for controllers/consoles is you can use the D-pad to move from UI element to UI element directly. A pet peeve of mine is console games that basically make you use a mouse cursor with a control stick. The footage at 6:22 is a great example of why I hate it. So yeah there are definitely compromises here that make the steam deck a lot less of no-brainer even for games that technically have no issues. YMMV
I love my steamdeck for when I’m on the go but generally, when at home and not able to be at my PC, I still prefer steam link with my iPad pro which fixes most of the negative steam deck call outs. The only down side with that approach is network stability.
I think it’s really important to emphasize that a lot of these are older games that often have issues even on a pc. Newer games like WotR, BG3 and games going forward should work great.
want to offer an update on Solasta: Controller support has been added and is very very nice! There are like, 3-5 very specific areas where the performance takes a HUGE nosedive (theres a spot with lava and a ton of particle effects that took it from like, 60fps to 20,) but outside of that it runs like a dream these days.
Another great rpg on the deck I've been playing is TemTem (if you're into pokemon style games). Runs great, great controls, and cloud saves (it's an mmo).
I just got my SD and started WotR. I couldn't believe how small the text was, but you can increase text size in game settings. It's very readable now. Good tips, thanks.
Thanks for doing this. It's exactly what I want to know. Although I would have wanted to know more about the controls and in comparison how it is to play vs PC. As lot of CRPG is mouse control, I'm still left wondering what are the tradeoffs here.
The trackpads aren’t as precise as a mouse and I am still getting used to using then as mouse buttons as well. But overall I enjoy it. But, to be fair, i play more turned based strategy and roguelikes or platformers on the deck than anything else
if you are use to a mouse, it can take getting use to. Myself.. I have used a thumb trackball for years, so the touchpad is like second nature and I am extremely fast and precise with it... so it just takes some getitng used to.
Personally I consider “playable” to be identical to green when the only issue is that you need to bring up the keyboard occasionally. I mean, it’s generally just for typing in your character name, that sort of thing, and there’s a shortcut to bring up the keyboard instantly.
Hey Mort, I'd recommend a capture card over using OBS for recording footage. OBS on the Deck can take a good chunk out of a games performance and you'll be able to record in either mode with a capture card.
I hear you and I considered it but decided against it simply because beyond this video all I really need is a few minutes of video of each game for reviews, and won't be recording on it for long periods of time. I definitely want steam deck footage for the reviews, but I don't need to record hours worth of video just to offer up my experiences with the games on it. If I planned on doing so I probably would get a capture card.
I've played Planescape Torment and IWD to completion on deck and I'm playing WotR right now (with custom controls, not using the default gamepad controls). No issues on my end, the trackpad is a great replacement for a mouse and the amount of mappable buttons means you can map the important keyboard commands. Cloud saves are awesome too, but you have to enable them specifically in the beamdog enhanced editions. The one caveat of the deck is it's very much a handheld PC more than it is a handheld console. If you're not the type to want to fiddle through settings I wouldn't recommend. Otherwise though it's an easy buy
I personally would try to play my roguelikes and Yakuza games on steam deck when I get one, but playing crpgs is actually great idea considering how long they are. Great video
it's perfect for most roguelikes. and stuff like Yakuza will probably run pretty decently, but the battery life will be something between 1-2 1/2 hours
I like the look of the steam deck quite a lot but do plan on waiting on the next iteration, just for software to mature and hopefully a performance bump
I'm not a first adopter, but I did get the deck in May. and quite frankly it's a very, very well rounded device already. I understand holding off for an update, but I can safely say that so far the deck is working great.
That feel when you say NWN2 isn't on steam and i go "yeah it is, i have the platinum editi- ohhhhh" as I realize it's not sellable there now. arguably gog's 'complete' is better because it has that 3rd expansion that platinum doesn't, but it makes me wonder whether the results might have been different or better with an account that had more direct access.
Divinity original sin 1 enhanced edition says unsupported, but it seems to work flawlessly for me + controller support. In regards to pillars 1 and 2, and solasta...i've heard that unity games kinda struggles on the deck. I'm no expert but that's been my experience on mine as well.
what grind my gears is that PoE does not port their Controller UI to PC version of the game. Asked Josh about it but no reply on twitter. ALSO, glad that I am not the one having strange problem with the cursor on WOTR (I play on Linux).
Did you find a good general controller layout for non turnbased crpgs. I'm definitely interested in playing more crpgs from other places in my house. I've been having good luck with trackpad and gyro for shooters but haven't found any good tutorials for crpgs.
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The initial loading times it's because it's setting up (compiling or downloading) the shaders for the game and also installing a proton instance suited/customized for that game (so it's copying a lot of files).
Good to hear it works mostly well. The only "crpg" (more tactics really) I play is Rome Expeditions on steam deck. The controls are ok: mostly they put a cursor in the middle of the screen and you use the analog sticks to move it around, and right trigger to select. I wish they had copied final fantasy tactics style controls, would've been more convenient I feel. Had to play around with the graphics - it started to chug really hard when there was a lot of fire in a battle.
Playing cRPGs on Linux is possible since a long time. Unfortunately, text heavy games are chore to play on small screen and although I love both RPGs and the Steam Deck I use it for more action oriented titles. It is not worth to hurt your eyes and ruin the experience of RPG.
Can you play these CRPGs in docked mode, with a mouse and keyboard ? Like treating the steam deck as a regular gaming PC. Thanks. Love your videos Mortismal!
Only two main reasons I’d get a Steam Deck: Wrath of the Righteous and BattleTech (which is still a turn-based CRPG in tactical clothing). VERY curious how BattleTech performs.
Been looking forward to this one, thanks! P.S. It's both a shame for Solasta, and honestly, kind of weird. Like, the Steam Deck can have performance comparable to the Series S (obviously weaker hardware, but similar output due to the lower settings) and Solasta has been released for Xbox and for the Series S, so it has controller layout developed and an extra tier of development done to run on consoles. It's surprising really, and disappointing, was looking forward to playing this one in particular on it.
I've noticed that Pathfinder Wotr always uses 100% performance of my RTX 3070. Limiting the fps to 90 in the Nvidia control panel fixed this issue and the game actually runs better now. So if it's possible and you need more battery life you could try to limit the fps.
Ok let me make you a question, one thing that wile about when steam controller was knew many dident know. Did you tried to turn on Gyroscope? I’m waiting for my steam deck to arrive but I have a steam controller and I must say Gyroscope is a must have for fps and for any game that is main mouse driven. With gyroscope you will use the pad for big moves and you rotate the controller or deck to make the small moves. It is really something that makes difference. Just try it.
Thanks Mortim 👍🏻 It looks like waiting for Steam Deck 2 was a good choice for me. I love my Switch despite its huge lack of performance power so the Deck is right up my alley but considering the games I play aren’t the most popular thus likely not as supported I would have to constantly fiddle with crap to get things to run. So Steam Deck 2 I’m all in but for now time to wait :)
Steam Deck 2 would be great, but I'd love it even better if they made modular upgrades for the current Steam Deck. In a way you can upgrade many things already even without voiding Valve's warranty, but I'd love it if they made the processor and GPU upgradeable even if the only non-warranty voiding choice is produced by Valve itself.
@@loz9324 Nah I can wait. Got every system and then my wife surprised me with a high end gaming rig so I don’t have time for all the games already lol I remember when there used to be maybe a half dozen high profile AAA game releases a year now great games are everywhere. Throw in indies and it’s just endless. So for me I’m happy to wait but I’m glad you’re enjoying it 👍🏻
To fix Fallout, either edit the launcher directly to include WINEDLLOVERRIDES="ddraw=n" or the prefix itself with either protontricks or winetricks to run winecfg and add ddraw as a library override as native. You can also run winecfg directly through terminal WINEPREFIX=/path/to/prefix/containing/Fallout winecfg. Because of the completely open nature of the Linux desktop, most issues you have can be fixed with the right knowledge. But it can be an uphill battle when you're starting out and know nothing. I would run Fallout 1 in it's native resolution of 640x480 on the deck, and scale it with gamescope. You would have to either launch it in gamemode and edit the launch arguments "gamescope -w 640 -h 480 -W 1280 -H 800 -b -n", or bind a button for super+n for scaling once you're in game.
If you're just playing at home, I can't recommend Moonlight enough for playing stuff that doesn't play well on deck. For me, it's smooth as butter where I've run into issues with the native remote play.
I'll give it a miss until Solasta run well on the Steam Deck. I've been attempting to get it to work through Steam Link on my Android tablet. I need to spend more time in getting the control scheme working.
I know it’s not a steam deck, but I got divinity original Sin two on my switch now, and it definitely feels like it would benefit from having a keyboard instead.
Since my PC hardware is mostly up to date, I would actually consider buying a PS5 or a Switch before buying a steam deck. But atm I can't really afford to buy anymore hardware at all, so for better or worse I doubt I'll ever have one.
I have had a steam deck for awhile. Most of the cRPGs I've tried haven't been that great of an experience to play on the deck unfortunately. I was hoping for better. Much of the keymapping in most games is wonky to change over sometimes. Some games don't work at all. Others are fine like Icewind Dale or Disco Elysium. I have the steam deck because on Saturdays my wife streams much of the day/evening and I am watching the young ones. We go into their room and they play games on the xbox while I play on my steam deck now. I sometimes play with them on the xbox when they want me to. I don't typically have the time needed to get games "working" as well as they can be on the steam deck. Which means if a game isn't really already ready to run well on the steam deck, I don't bother with it currently. My other big issue with older cRPGS in general is that most of them really need mod support to run well. Setting up mods is a whole lot harder to deal with on the steam deck than a PC.
The small text font used by almost all cRPG's on the deck would have been far less of an issue if the steam deck had a build in TextToSpeech function, I feel. There is an interesting mod for WotR out there called the SpeechMod which does just that. Sadly I haven't been able to get it working on either Linux or the Deck.
Its worth noting that if you use Heroic to install a game it downloads the game then installs is so you need size of download + size of install too get it on your Deck. I temp-broke my Deck by trying to install POE Deadfire on SD Card without enough space :( If doing Heroic it therefore makes sense to install by descending order of size (the installation files are removed after install of course)
I only have a few gripes with the deck so far. 1. the power button is messy. it can take a dozen or more attempts to make it work, and it's driving me nuts 2. background downloads eat a significant amount of resources 3. bluetooth connection is wonky af. sometimes my headphones connect, most often they don't. when it comes to playing though it's a freaking awesome device. from small indie titles to big AAA games, it can hold its own.
maybe something is wrong with yours... the power button works perfectly on mine. Bluetooth I've only used a couple times for keyboard/mouse in desktop mode, and just for testing in game mode, and they always seemed to work perfect, so maybe just some problem with bluetooth audio?
Thank you. I want a steam deck for crpg's and a few other games that I am hooked on but to be honest, it cost too much for me. Especially considering I probably wouldn't play it as much as I want since I will be on the computer most of the time. But if it drops in price a bit, I might try to get one eventually.
for me the deck nearly completely replaced my gaming desktop. it's just so convenient and fun. I now only go back to the desktop for graphically demanding titles or straight up shooters and the occasional RTS which the deck is not great for.
I know you don't tend to use mods (at least when reviewing) but given that you reviewed Temple of Elemental Evil somewhat recently and called out semi-mandatory mods for that (Circle, Temple+), did you try getting those or any other mods (for any game) working on the Steam Deck during your testing, and if so how did it go? Mods have seemed like a relative weakness of the Deck for me. I have a lapsed WOTR playthrough I'm probably going to pick back up on my Deck before long, and I still haven't gotten to Deadfire, so I don't know why I'm tempted by TOEE...
I didn't test it specifically but a quick google search tells me it runs fine on Linux if you download WINE, so I dont see why it wouldnt work on the steam deck.
Welcome to Linux gaming! I volunteer myself for any linux support on the deck you need, I'm also a writer at the boilingsteam site. On steam I'm patolinux if you want to add. Besides my two linux gaming PCs I have two decks. BTW: the excellent driver sc-controller now has an AppImage for the steam deck. I use it more than Steam itself. It will allow you to map the controls better than the steam driver.
Baldurs Gate... Now there's a classic. I'm going to try another classic shortly, once I've finished setting up my Steamdeck, which arrived just this afternoon. I'm going to try Elder Scrolls Morrowind, perhaps the best Morrowind game ever made.
Wish you could do chapters or list the games so I can go look at them again, I am looking for a "new" rpg for steamdeck to play and would make it easier 🙂
Great video but all the issues with the older titles is kind of par for the course. I think its great Valve has had a success with the SD but will never replace my gaming laptop I have had for 8 yrs and while still can play everything shown, starting to see some hic cups.
Solasta just doesn't have great controller support. I completed it on Game Pass, but found myself fighting the controls the whole way on Series X. It's frequently unresponsive when changing to a different party member or menu screen. I played on PC also and those issues don't exist there. Thankfully cloud saves allowed me to switch between both.
Pillars of Eternity and Tyranny have both played extremely well for me on my Steam Deck. I’ve put about 5+ hours into both and had very little issues - mostly just in terms of small icons and text which can be mitigated with the zoom feature. Otherwise, they’ve run smooth and looked fantastic. Great video!
This video is proof for your accountant that your Steam Deck is a tax writeoff.
Nice. I've been playing CRPGs on my Steam Deck for a few months. Been through Wrath, Divinity 2, and NWN Hordes of the Underdark. Honestly, I haven't even turned on my desktop in a couple of months, thats how much I'm enjoying it.
How was Wrath in the later chapters on the deck?
@@jacobroberts2764 Some frame rate slowdown, but that was true for the entire game. I ended up dropping back the resolution slightly (can't remember exactly what I settled on) and turned on fsr which helped frame rates and battery. Overall not bad.
Super happy to hear this. Mine is on the way :)
so NWN ran natively, no issues? How about controls?
@@majorgear1021 Its been about a year since I played NWN on the deck. I do remember it running perfectly, and I think I used the windows installer with proton, but I could be wrong. Controls were fine. I use the right touchpad for mouse controls and map the sticks to the camera. I went through both the shadows and hordes expansions on the deck. No issues. Its probably my all time favorite game.
I recently got a Steam Deck and it runs (so far) pretty much everything I throw at it. Elder Scrolls Online (non-steam) ? Yep - I could install it & played it. Divinity 2 Ego Draconis ? Yep It works too. The text is small, but readable. That is the only flaw I have found so far. Many older games have this issue when it comes to reading stuff.
What I really love about Steam Deck is that it is probably the most versatile gaming device (and also a PC) that ever existed. Not only you can play pretty much every console game (up to PS3), but also pretty much every Windows PC game, while you just have a linux based system. Let it sink for a while. The fact that it all works almost flawlessly and you don't even need a Windows OS, just a free Linux OS is mind blowing. And just an observation - if you have some kind of USB hub or you will wait for Official Steam Deck Docking station - many of the control issues will be gone, as it will be more like a Desktop PC experience with Big Screen, mouse and keyboard.
Hell yeah! A direct and to the point review, exactly what I want/needed for the Steam Deck. Thanks bro.
Just finished Wasteland 3 on the Deck and it was a great experience!
Great to hear. I haven't tried it yet on the deck. Wasteland 3 ended up being my favorite Wasteland game
Great to hear… my deck is coming and looking forward to W3…
How did you get the controls to work? I really struggled to do anything
@@TheSavageGentlemenShow It's an xbox branded game surely not another one where the controller optimised controls are not on PC?
Then you should also try the mutant zero road to eden
What I like, and this applies to the Steam controller too, is that you can find layouts that other people have made and submitted and get voted on. So there are often player made setups that are better than the defaults.
Deck is brilliant man... 100% worth the price
Thanks a bunch for this. I, for one, would really appreciate more of this type of video for games you have already reviewed (in addition to your reviews going forward) - should you have the time/interest.
Amazing timing, and thanks for your thoughts on these games on the Deck! I just got mine 3 days ago, and been testing the games, CRPGs and otherwise that I own too, and I think my experience has been exactly like yours: most games have run somewhere between "very playable to great", and a few isolated cases of performance issues to the point that I'd probably just play those on my main rig (hadn't actually tried Solasta or Pillars 2 yet, but from what you've described, I guess I don't have to). Still getting used to the trackpads for mouse controls in games that need it, but I can very realistically imagine with a few weeks of practice, I'd be able to play that way for hours at a time like on a mouse and kb.
Thanks for you prompt response. Happy to hear that P:WOTR and DOS2 run well as I am getting my Steam Deck this month.
It would be a great idea to revisit this video. Steam Deck compatibility and performance has improved a lot.
Super informative video for those of us who enjoy CRPGs and just recently purchased a Steam Deck :) Appreciated!
I'm currently playing Pillars on the deck and it's an awesome experience. I use the left touchpad as a mouse (i'm left handed) and the a button as left click. The touchpad is so accurate, it's crazy that I don't feel limited at all while playing a mouse reliant game.
Have my SteamDeck for 3 weeks now ... THIS Video is 100% what I need now! Thank You Very Much 👍👍
Selfishly, I’d love to see more vids like this. Don’t have a PC but I do enjoy CRPG’s and tactical games that I can now play because of my steam deck :)
Great video! I’ve found that a lot of the games that run poorly on Steam Deck need to be bumped down in FPS and additional tweaks to get them in a runable state.
But this video is great for new users to have some go-tos to start with.
I found many games that have vsync or FPS limiters in game will cause big performance drops. I always turn those off and use the Steam Deck settings to do those and so far so good.
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire was one of the first games I installed and was immediately offput by the controls and quickly uninstalled it. After a few weeks with it, I grew more familiar with it and gave it another shot. I was pleasantly surprised how well I was able to adapt to the controls. I still think all these CRPG devs need to add controller options. Some people prefer a controller over M&KB like myself even if I'm not on a Steam Deck. And the most frustrating thing is that some of these games have console ports so it seems like it's just laziness on the developers to not include them for PC.
Yeah after getting the steam I've found a new major gripe. All the games geared to towards keyboard and mouse on PC that literally have controller optimised ports on console, but you just can't get those controls on PC. It's always naive to think "the game is on console of course controller will work well". And unfortunately, in any circumstance where you are likely to care (games with UI and controls designed for km+m that will be annoying on controller), the more likely it is that the developers didn't port the console control scheme to PC because it likely had to be adapted a lot, meaning the versions of the game are too different for it to be worth the effort. This needs to become a standard thing in games with the Steam deck and the number of PC gamers who also have gamepads now, if you put the work to design a completely different controller scheme to make a game work on controller, please please also allow the PC versions to adapt between those control schemes.
Been waiting for this particular subject to pop up on TH-cam. Thanks.
what timing! i've been pondering buying Wrath of the Righteous for the last 12 hours or so, and the Deck is my only option for playing it. I'm gonna get it now!
Awesome breakdown, this kind of playability is what I've been waiting for on SteamDeck before buying. Glad to see it working for more of the games I love :)
Thanks for Steam Deck Game Reviews and stuff.
I am allways watching for games that i can Play on my Steam Deck.
So thanks alot
Just a heads up for anyone wanting to play dos2 on steam deck: it actually plays great if you want to use the normal mouse and keyboard mode. The touchpads make the mouse controls feel great. Unfortunately, in controller mode, Larian forces you into 16:9 resolution so you get black bars (steam deck is 16:10) - they say this was on purpose even tho dos1 runs at 16:10 in controller mode. That said, mouse and keyboard mode in dos2 works in 16:10 on deck so you get the full screen. I personally much prefer normal m+k mode on deck
Can we get a 2023 update? Or maybe one about the best controller support? Stuck on my deck for a few days and will be in the same spot for Christmas
Set the magnifier to one of the buttons underneath the deck and the keyboard to another, will make life a lot easier.
Got the deck the same day you uploaded this! Thanks for the video : )
I've been considering a Steam Deck purchase and this is very helpful. Some of my favorite games are on GOG and I appreciate your addressing compatibility in detail.
Great video, Mortismal! Extensive but concise at the same time.
This is the first video I watched from you, and you now have a new subscriber :)
I’ve had my steam deck for 5-6 weeks now and I love it for crpgs. Been playing wasteland 3, wrath of the righteous, pillars 2. All have been great.
Perfect timing! My Steam Deck arrives today
Awesome, looking forward to more steam deck videos or mentions in your videos
Been waiting for this video. I’m sorta addicted to my steam deck and am just getting into crpg’s.
great video 🙂, as a steam deck owner myself I was waiting for this
Thanks for this video. Have a steam deck oled incoming and this video answered multiple questions i had.
I got myself a steam deck too, for one week now and some of the things you mention points to the same experience I got in other games: The steam deck is a pc, not a handheld console. You can start it up and play some games, especially those, that got ported from consoles are working fine for the most part. But as soon, as there is no green label (and thats like 80 % of my library) it requires tinkering around, sometimes like when you try to run skyrim with 200 mods. Nioh 2 for example was stuttering, because it set itself for 30 fps limit and low shadows. When you bump fps to 60 and shadows off, it runs smooth, but only on 60 fps, not on 30... It's wild for some games and you can never predict how it will run. It requires googling some settings but when it runs, it is pretty statisfacting. Especially the Heroic Games launcher is a godsent, for the dozens of free games on Epic.
WOTR now that the EE patch is out is great on the steam deck. I've been playing at low-mid settings at 40 Hz, full resolution, and exclusively using the new controller interfaces.
Note: you need to switch it from the recommended controller layout to the standard controller layout + trackpad acting as an analog stick (makes using the mouse cursor feel pretty great when needed).
The only cons are really that I had a weird bug where I couldn't respec Camellia without crashing, but I was able to do it on my desktop with my cloud save and then go back to the deck.
Been hoping to see you do this video!
If you do more about deck gaming, could you please say which version of proton you find works best, game and deck graphics setting etc? Sometimes tweaking is essential and we don't know much about what you did or didn't try. Thanks
ps for instance protondb suggests for deadfire to use the launch option "WINE_CPU_TOPOLOGY=3:0,1,2 %command%" to limit cpu cores and increase text size in the options to 130%.
I like that Valve is freeing us from Windows
One great thing about a lot of games designed for controllers/consoles is you can use the D-pad to move from UI element to UI element directly. A pet peeve of mine is console games that basically make you use a mouse cursor with a control stick. The footage at 6:22 is a great example of why I hate it. So yeah there are definitely compromises here that make the steam deck a lot less of no-brainer even for games that technically have no issues. YMMV
I'm glad you said something about GOG & epic, I've been wondering about that
I love my steamdeck for when I’m on the go but generally, when at home and not able to be at my PC, I still prefer steam link with my iPad pro which fixes most of the negative steam deck call outs. The only down side with that approach is network stability.
This is the video I was hoping for!!
I think it’s really important to emphasize that a lot of these are older games that often have issues even on a pc. Newer games like WotR, BG3 and games going forward should work great.
want to offer an update on Solasta: Controller support has been added and is very very nice! There are like, 3-5 very specific areas where the performance takes a HUGE nosedive (theres a spot with lava and a ton of particle effects that took it from like, 60fps to 20,) but outside of that it runs like a dream these days.
Oh, I've been waiting for this. :)
Another great rpg on the deck I've been playing is TemTem (if you're into pokemon style games). Runs great, great controls, and cloud saves (it's an mmo).
I just got my SD and started WotR. I couldn't believe how small the text was, but you can increase text size in game settings. It's very readable now. Good tips, thanks.
Thanks for helping me decide whether I want to buy one of these. I will probably pick one up once my gaming laptop explodes
Thanks for doing this. It's exactly what I want to know. Although I would have wanted to know more about the controls and in comparison how it is to play vs PC. As lot of CRPG is mouse control, I'm still left wondering what are the tradeoffs here.
The trackpads aren’t as precise as a mouse and I am still getting used to using then as mouse buttons as well.
But overall I enjoy it. But, to be fair, i play more turned based strategy and roguelikes or platformers on the deck than anything else
if you are use to a mouse, it can take getting use to. Myself.. I have used a thumb trackball for years, so the touchpad is like second nature and I am extremely fast and precise with it... so it just takes some getitng used to.
This is exactly what I was looking for. Looking for something more casual to play on the SteamDeck
Personally I consider “playable” to be identical to green when the only issue is that you need to bring up the keyboard occasionally.
I mean, it’s generally just for typing in your character name, that sort of thing, and there’s a shortcut to bring up the keyboard instantly.
is Heroic the recommended launcher for GOG games? I've got quite a few games on GOG (mainly CRPGs) that I'd really love to try out on the Deck...
For steam deck, yeah
Hey Mort, I'd recommend a capture card over using OBS for recording footage. OBS on the Deck can take a good chunk out of a games performance and you'll be able to record in either mode with a capture card.
I hear you and I considered it but decided against it simply because beyond this video all I really need is a few minutes of video of each game for reviews, and won't be recording on it for long periods of time. I definitely want steam deck footage for the reviews, but I don't need to record hours worth of video just to offer up my experiences with the games on it. If I planned on doing so I probably would get a capture card.
I've played Planescape Torment and IWD to completion on deck and I'm playing WotR right now (with custom controls, not using the default gamepad controls). No issues on my end, the trackpad is a great replacement for a mouse and the amount of mappable buttons means you can map the important keyboard commands. Cloud saves are awesome too, but you have to enable them specifically in the beamdog enhanced editions.
The one caveat of the deck is it's very much a handheld PC more than it is a handheld console. If you're not the type to want to fiddle through settings I wouldn't recommend. Otherwise though it's an easy buy
I personally would try to play my roguelikes and Yakuza games on steam deck when I get one, but playing crpgs is actually great idea considering how long they are. Great video
it's perfect for most roguelikes. and stuff like Yakuza will probably run pretty decently, but the battery life will be something between 1-2 1/2 hours
So aptly timed, as mine is out for delivery as we speak.
I like the look of the steam deck quite a lot but do plan on waiting on the next iteration, just for software to mature and hopefully a performance bump
I'm not a first adopter, but I did get the deck in May. and quite frankly it's a very, very well rounded device already.
I understand holding off for an update, but I can safely say that so far the deck is working great.
That feel when you say NWN2 isn't on steam and i go "yeah it is, i have the platinum editi- ohhhhh" as I realize it's not sellable there now. arguably gog's 'complete' is better because it has that 3rd expansion that platinum doesn't, but it makes me wonder whether the results might have been different or better with an account that had more direct access.
Divinity original sin 1 enhanced edition says unsupported, but it seems to work flawlessly for me + controller support. In regards to pillars 1 and 2, and solasta...i've heard that unity games kinda struggles on the deck. I'm no expert but that's been my experience on mine as well.
what grind my gears is that PoE does not port their Controller UI to PC version of the game. Asked Josh about it but no reply on twitter.
ALSO, glad that I am not the one having strange problem with the cursor on WOTR (I play on Linux).
Did you find a good general controller layout for non turnbased crpgs. I'm definitely interested in playing more crpgs from other places in my house. I've been having good luck with trackpad and gyro for shooters but haven't found any good tutorials for crpgs.
The initial loading times it's because it's setting up (compiling or downloading) the shaders for the game and also installing a proton instance suited/customized for that game (so it's copying a lot of files).
Good to hear it works mostly well.
The only "crpg" (more tactics really) I play is Rome Expeditions on steam deck.
The controls are ok: mostly they put a cursor in the middle of the screen and you use the analog sticks to move it around, and right trigger to select. I wish they had copied final fantasy tactics style controls, would've been more convenient I feel.
Had to play around with the graphics - it started to chug really hard when there was a lot of fire in a battle.
Playing cRPGs on Linux is possible since a long time. Unfortunately, text heavy games are chore to play on small screen and although I love both RPGs and the Steam Deck I use it for more action oriented titles. It is not worth to hurt your eyes and ruin the experience of RPG.
Can you play these CRPGs in docked mode, with a mouse and keyboard ? Like treating the steam deck as a regular gaming PC. Thanks. Love your videos Mortismal!
Only two main reasons I’d get a Steam Deck: Wrath of the Righteous and BattleTech (which is still a turn-based CRPG in tactical clothing). VERY curious how BattleTech performs.
Not particularly well :(
you can get it running decently with the right settings, but you are stuck with tiny text, and using magnifier a lot.
Thanks for the video. Helped me out !
Been looking forward to this one, thanks!
P.S. It's both a shame for Solasta, and honestly, kind of weird. Like, the Steam Deck can have performance comparable to the Series S (obviously weaker hardware, but similar output due to the lower settings) and Solasta has been released for Xbox and for the Series S, so it has controller layout developed and an extra tier of development done to run on consoles. It's surprising really, and disappointing, was looking forward to playing this one in particular on it.
Have you seen the previews for homicidal All-stars? They are framing it as the running man as a trpg. Looks interesting
I've noticed that Pathfinder Wotr always uses 100% performance of my RTX 3070. Limiting the fps to 90 in the Nvidia control panel fixed this issue and the game actually runs better now.
So if it's possible and you need more battery life you could try to limit the fps.
Ok let me make you a question, one thing that wile about when steam controller was knew many dident know. Did you tried to turn on Gyroscope? I’m waiting for my steam deck to arrive but I have a steam controller and I must say Gyroscope is a must have for fps and for any game that is main mouse driven. With gyroscope you will use the pad for big moves and you rotate the controller or deck to make the small moves. It is really something that makes difference.
Just try it.
Just got mine a week ago, lol. Great timing.
Thanks Mortim 👍🏻 It looks like waiting for Steam Deck 2 was a good choice for me. I love my Switch despite its huge lack of performance power so the Deck is right up my alley but considering the games I play aren’t the most popular thus likely not as supported I would have to constantly fiddle with crap to get things to run.
So Steam Deck 2 I’m all in but for now time to wait :)
Naw man. Ive been highly enjoying my steam deck - even with crpgs. Get one!
Steam Deck 2 would be great, but I'd love it even better if they made modular upgrades for the current Steam Deck. In a way you can upgrade many things already even without voiding Valve's warranty, but I'd love it if they made the processor and GPU upgradeable even if the only non-warranty voiding choice is produced by Valve itself.
@@DisFunctor I’d be all for it and happy to pay extra for those options. A screen upgrade option would be nice too.
@@loz9324 Nah I can wait. Got every system and then my wife surprised me with a high end gaming rig so I don’t have time for all the games already lol I remember when there used to be maybe a half dozen high profile AAA game releases a year now great games are everywhere. Throw in indies and it’s just endless.
So for me I’m happy to wait but I’m glad you’re enjoying it 👍🏻
To fix Fallout, either edit the launcher directly to include WINEDLLOVERRIDES="ddraw=n" or the prefix itself with either protontricks or winetricks to run winecfg and add ddraw as a library override as native. You can also run winecfg directly through terminal WINEPREFIX=/path/to/prefix/containing/Fallout winecfg. Because of the completely open nature of the Linux desktop, most issues you have can be fixed with the right knowledge. But it can be an uphill battle when you're starting out and know nothing. I would run Fallout 1 in it's native resolution of 640x480 on the deck, and scale it with gamescope. You would have to either launch it in gamemode and edit the launch arguments "gamescope -w 640 -h 480 -W 1280 -H 800 -b -n", or bind a button for super+n for scaling once you're in game.
If you're just playing at home, I can't recommend Moonlight enough for playing stuff that doesn't play well on deck. For me, it's smooth as butter where I've run into issues with the native remote play.
What are some of the top rpgs that run perfectly on the steam deck?
I was hoping for a few to be mentioned in the video.
I'll give it a miss until Solasta run well on the Steam Deck. I've been attempting to get it to work through Steam Link on my Android tablet. I need to spend more time in getting the control scheme working.
I know it’s not a steam deck, but I got divinity original Sin two on my switch now, and it definitely feels like it would benefit from having a keyboard instead.
Since my PC hardware is mostly up to date, I would actually consider buying a PS5 or a Switch before buying a steam deck. But atm I can't really afford to buy anymore hardware at all, so for better or worse I doubt I'll ever have one.
I have had a steam deck for awhile. Most of the cRPGs I've tried haven't been that great of an experience to play on the deck unfortunately. I was hoping for better. Much of the keymapping in most games is wonky to change over sometimes. Some games don't work at all. Others are fine like Icewind Dale or Disco Elysium. I have the steam deck because on Saturdays my wife streams much of the day/evening and I am watching the young ones. We go into their room and they play games on the xbox while I play on my steam deck now. I sometimes play with them on the xbox when they want me to. I don't typically have the time needed to get games "working" as well as they can be on the steam deck. Which means if a game isn't really already ready to run well on the steam deck, I don't bother with it currently.
My other big issue with older cRPGS in general is that most of them really need mod support to run well. Setting up mods is a whole lot harder to deal with on the steam deck than a PC.
This is going to be a great video
The small text font used by almost all cRPG's on the deck would have been far less of an issue if the steam deck had a build in TextToSpeech function, I feel. There is an interesting mod for WotR out there called the SpeechMod which does just that. Sadly I haven't been able to get it working on either Linux or the Deck.
That's the appeal of having more options available to users. I'd absolutely make use of TextToSpeech in text heavy games.
Its worth noting that if you use Heroic to install a game it downloads the game then installs is so you need size of download + size of install too get it on your Deck. I temp-broke my Deck by trying to install POE Deadfire on SD Card without enough space :( If doing Heroic it therefore makes sense to install by descending order of size (the installation files are removed after install of course)
Haven't tried it myself, but can't you add obs as a non steam game, run it and then switch to whatever game you want to record in game mode?
Xbox x cloud also works very well on the deck after installing edge on the desktop and some basic cli commands
I only have a few gripes with the deck so far.
1. the power button is messy. it can take a dozen or more attempts to make it work, and it's driving me nuts
2. background downloads eat a significant amount of resources
3. bluetooth connection is wonky af. sometimes my headphones connect, most often they don't.
when it comes to playing though it's a freaking awesome device. from small indie titles to big AAA games, it can hold its own.
maybe something is wrong with yours... the power button works perfectly on mine.
Bluetooth I've only used a couple times for keyboard/mouse in desktop mode, and just for testing in game mode, and they always seemed to work perfect, so maybe just some problem with bluetooth audio?
Oh good! I wasn't aware that Disco Elysium had controller support for the PC version.
Thank you. I want a steam deck for crpg's and a few other games that I am hooked on but to be honest, it cost too much for me. Especially considering I probably wouldn't play it as much as I want since I will be on the computer most of the time. But if it drops in price a bit, I might try to get one eventually.
for me the deck nearly completely replaced my gaming desktop. it's just so convenient and fun. I now only go back to the desktop for graphically demanding titles or straight up shooters and the occasional RTS which the deck is not great for.
When I saw the arrow fly up and pop the mob into an explosion of blood and guts, I knew it was Wenduag. 😂
I know you don't tend to use mods (at least when reviewing) but given that you reviewed Temple of Elemental Evil somewhat recently and called out semi-mandatory mods for that (Circle, Temple+), did you try getting those or any other mods (for any game) working on the Steam Deck during your testing, and if so how did it go? Mods have seemed like a relative weakness of the Deck for me.
I have a lapsed WOTR playthrough I'm probably going to pick back up on my Deck before long, and I still haven't gotten to Deadfire, so I don't know why I'm tempted by TOEE...
I didn't test it specifically but a quick google search tells me it runs fine on Linux if you download WINE, so I dont see why it wouldnt work on the steam deck.
Thank you for the response!
Welcome to Linux gaming! I volunteer myself for any linux support on the deck you need, I'm also a writer at the boilingsteam site. On steam I'm patolinux if you want to add. Besides my two linux gaming PCs I have two decks.
BTW: the excellent driver sc-controller now has an AppImage for the steam deck. I use it more than Steam itself. It will allow you to map the controls better than the steam driver.
Baldurs Gate... Now there's a classic. I'm going to try another classic shortly, once I've finished setting up my Steamdeck, which arrived just this afternoon. I'm going to try Elder Scrolls Morrowind, perhaps the best Morrowind game ever made.
Wish you could do chapters or list the games so I can go look at them again, I am looking for a "new" rpg for steamdeck to play and would make it easier 🙂
Great video but all the issues with the older titles is kind of par for the course. I think its great Valve has had a success with the SD but will never replace my gaming laptop I have had for 8 yrs and while still can play everything shown, starting to see some hic cups.
Solasta just doesn't have great controller support. I completed it on Game Pass, but found myself fighting the controls the whole way on Series X. It's frequently unresponsive when changing to a different party member or menu screen. I played on PC also and those issues don't exist there. Thankfully cloud saves allowed me to switch between both.
Pillars of Eternity and Tyranny have both played extremely well for me on my Steam Deck. I’ve put about 5+ hours into both and had very little issues - mostly just in terms of small icons and text which can be mitigated with the zoom feature. Otherwise, they’ve run smooth and looked fantastic. Great video!
@@silentword625We may never know.
If you ammend your cRPG controls on the Steam Deck, please publish them to the community for future ease of use.
Really helpful, thanks.
Thanks for taking one for the team - I think I will pass on this product.
Thoughts on Deck played Tyranny?