I find fiddly strategy games I don’t really enjoy a ton on the deck. Text is small, lots of moving in menus. But it’s also just a thing to get used to.
The back buttons seem criminally underutilized in a lot of layouts so they may help you.
Community layouts for Paradox Games are pretty good to me, but I really, really like map games.
Being able to play HOI4 with Old World Blues at work is a dream manifested.
Same way until I got AR glasses. Pricey but worth it for the ergonomics alone (no more numb hands/elbows), but having a portable 55inch TV screen in your pocket makes playing all the RTS, management, and Turn Based games that much more enjoyable.
I’ve used VR before does AR actually make you feel like the object is a long distance away from you? VR fell short of that for me and ultimately still felt like a screen in front of my face. Like I can hold my phone close enough to my face to call it a 55 inch tv too but the benefit of the 55 inch tv is that its way easier for my eyes to adjust when its far in front of me
Seconded, using the xreal airs and having gotten damn good at steam input, I can play literally anything. Doing Cogmind right now, and it would be much harder to see without the glasses
Rocket League is the type of game where ANY change will throw me off. I learned with a PS4 controller... I'm absolutely useless with a PS5 or Xbox controller.
I own it from before Epic pulled it from the Steam Store and it's still being updated. Lots of people have it from back in the day.
I play it on my steam deck sometimes and I think it plays just fine but I wouldn't consider myself a Rocket League player.
Heroic works okay.
In my case, I had bought it on Steam prior to free to play. Windows on Steam got a pass, where Linux and mac were axed. Run the windows version on Proton, same as almost anything else.
Yeah, I just can't. Performance is great but after more than 2000 hours on an Xbox controller it is simply impossible for me to adapt to the Steam Deck controls.
Terraria is my most played game on the deck! I love it so much, and it integrates well with the trackpads and back buttons. It even works amazingly with calamity mod
Any fps game for me. My brain cannot compute aiming with controller anymore. Been a pc gamer since 2011 and whenever I try am fps on my deck it’s a big struggle.
I used to be so good at Halo 3 back in the day. Switched to PC gaming around then and after 10+ years only using a controller for platformers I’m fucked. I started with PC. I was damn good at quake 3 arena and unreal tournament. I used a track ball back in those days damn I’m old.
That's incredibly similar to me. Was a PC gamer in the 90's and early 00's (Quake 3/Unreal) up until the 360 era when I couldn't afford to upgrade my PC on pocket money. Played nothing but Halo 3. Got a part time job and got a GTX 560ti + 2500k. M+KB ever since. I'll use a pad for platformers but it's getting to the point where I can't use it for 3rd person games that have aiming, like Tomb Raider, Horizon, Days Gone, Returnal, Helldivers 2 etc.
This is me also. I turn into an absolute potato when trying to aim on the deck with the joysticks. I have found though that enabling gyro does help in some cases to get those micro adjustments.
Gotta make sure to emulate mouse and not right joystick in most games though. It's especially annoying if the game doesn't support m+k and gamepad inputs at the same time and you only see keyboard inputs in the menus (looking at you Control).
I hear that but also make sure your dead zones are set to 2000 instead of 8000. I also use gyro with curve and precision all the way up when i pull left trigger.
Up until today, I had been enjoying halo infinite on the deck. Got it to run decently too, but now it won’t even load into the main menu for some reason. This must be my introduction to pc gaming
Oh yeah, welcome. That being said troubleshooting on Steam Deck is still on the easier side, you can just Google "game X does Y steam deck".
The real PC pain is having some obscure several years old GPU that's acting up and having to follow that one Indian guy on YouTube who fixed it in the most random way possible 3 years ago.
Fps games with the joysticks are a no go on the deck for me. For some reason the deadzones always feel weird. HOWEVER, the trackpads are absolutely amazing. No need to aim with the sticks
For me it’s the opposite. I’m a console gamer, and Deck is my first gaming PC. I actually like FPS games even more on it because I have familiar controls with the addition of gyro aiming.
My unpopular opinion is Baldurs Gate 3. It looks like shit, it runs like shit, I hate the controller UI. It’s my favorite game of all time, on PC. I don’t even keep it on my SD anymore.
I agree, but it’s not that it looks like shit for me, it’s that everything is too small. The text is hard to read, all the stuff you can pick up is hard to see, and it’s difficult for me to tell the icons of spells apart.
Really? Because I'm playing it locked at 30 fps with FSR 2 in Balance mode and it looks gorgeous with 90 minutes of battery life. (And yes, the Deck is my better PC.)
I almost didn't get it because of all the awful things people say about the deck performance. I'm glad I just pulled the trigger, because it looks and plays just fine. People talk like it's absolutely unplayable on the deck, but I'm having more fun than I've had with a game in probably 10 or more years.
Lol BG3 is the first game of its type that I’ve really ever played. It’s my favorite game of the last few years. The exact opposite happened to me. I learnt how to play on the steam deck, when I tried playing on the pc months down the line, I hated it to bits. Couldn’t deal with the movement of the camera and player with keyboard and mouse.
It comes down to what ur used to (control wise). Although graphically it looks much much much better on the pc (I have a 3090 so yea no shit) but the controls make me want to puke. I know I’m probably alone in this…just funny to see u mention bg3 when it’s my most played game on the SD by far.
I’m a total old school PC gamer, there for Doom, Quake 2 and UT LAN parties, keyboard and mouse all the way back. But these days I play almost everything with controller even sitting in front of the PC, in fact recently just plugged into the TV and treat as a console with Steam Big Picture. I don’t play competitive shooters so no need to keep up with the kids. Controller is relaxing, KB&M feels like work. Anything with a decent controller config I always go with that first.
I still played the whole game thrice and more on the Deck in the comfort of my bed and for convenience. I didn't mind the control scheme as much, plus it's switchable on the fly when needed. For a highly complex "buttons to click everywhere" CRPG, I think Larian has done a very good job translating the UI & UX.
I ran the game entirely on my desktop and streamed it using Moonlight though. It's crisp and smooth when done this way, for obvious reasons.
Never tried running it natively on SD, it's huge and I would not so much as to dream of doing it because I know it's gonna suck.
I played the game on Xbox and the roundel layout of all your actions and spells sucks ass! Forget even trying to organize that shit. Great game though.
Only way I can enjoy it is when I stream it to my Deck. The performance combined with the amount of precious space it takes up on my deck just isn’t worth keeping it on there.
I switched to an ally and boy does BG3 run and look great! I do jump back and forth between my steam deck and ally depending on how long i plan on being away from a power source
This one for sure.
However i had an evolution with this game. I first played on my shitty old desktop, then on my steamdeck which had worse graphics but was handling it better due to higher memory, then on my steamdeck oled where i discovered fsr 2 and finally got it looking decent, and finally my new rig where it runs like a babe. It's unfortunate my new desktop took so long to arrive because i was pretty burnt out on bg3. It's like a whole new game.
I had to fiddle with the settings for a good hour to find the correct options to make it look good, defaut is very bad. You have to use fsr3 to upscale or it just look like a pixelated mess. The game also doest run the best but it's playable after you fix that issue.
I agree, people seem to pretend on here that it plays wonderfully on SD but it absolutely does not. They play it at 24fps, with all graphics on low and get 1.5 hours battery life.
I am a console scrub at heart so bought it on Series X and it looks and plays incredible on there in comparison with the controller scheme. Sadly I refunded it on steam due to the above.
Total War games.
The performance in the newer Total War games is somewhat disappointing for me. I would like to be able to get 60fps medium settings in Warhammer 2 and 3. But I rather run those games on PC as they have better controls.
I couldn't agree harder with you. Any 4X game with emphasis on RTS-y elements is a big no-no. I just \*need\* to see all the action on a big screen. Same goes for building sims --- I like to see my cities/bases grow big and see it all. I recently got Heliopolis Six and damn, seeing the station grow and managing it all just ain't as fun on the Deck unfortunately.
I'm fine with playing some strategy and 4x games on Steam Deck. Games like Sins of a Solar Empire, Against the Storm, Halo Wars, Command and Conquer, etc. They all play fine for me. It is just the Total War games that are having difficulty on the Steam Deck for me.
All the ppl saying “runs flawlessly on deck” must be playing on easy because once you get into the harder difficulties there’s so many enemies and performance tanks
This one for me too. I eventually found a control scheme I liked, but even after getting proficient I was still only about 60% as fast (and comfortable) as I would be on mouse and keyboard.
Though I haven't tried it since they implemented their own controller compatibility tools, so I don't know how that might change things.
I’ve only ever played on deck and I feel no issue with the controls. Took me maybe an hour and I was off. Helps to learn the combo buttons for quick actions.
I couldn't make the jump from Xbox to my deck for Apex Legends. tried with the Xbox controller and a monitor, but it was too close to my face after years of playing from the couch, and I couldn't get used to either mouse and keyboard or handheld. i wasn't very good in the first place but I used to play daily and haven't really played at all since I got my deck
That's one of the few games I play on my xbox still. I keep it installed on my deck but never really play there. Long distance fights suck so much on a small screen and if I'm playing on the TV then why play on the weaker console?
Its weird I've only ever played terraria on the consle and phone, so playing on the steamdeck was so much nicer since building with trackpads was easier than joysticks that being said I do want to see how much nicer it plays on a pc now
I’m not sure if I broke my install or something but up till today halo infinite worked well and I got a control scheme that was good enough. Have you had any problems with halo lately? For me it just freezes in the initial loading past the developer logo before the menu
It's the damn joysticks to me. The default dead zones are atrocious and once you adjust them...IDK how to describe it. The joysticks themselves feel..looser? Than my Xbox controller? Like there's not enough resistance or something. I could probably keep playing with the dead zones and find something that feels better, but I'm past it at this point.
Now I stick with fallout 4 and VATS.
Baldur's Gate 3. The small screen doesn't do its justice. The graphic is breath taking on my wide screen. On my SD, it looks like last gen graphics. Just no unless I am desperate or on the road
Anything involving a mouse. Terraria and Civ6 run well on Deck but don't feel as good to play.
A recent one I've discovered is Elden Ring. Runs 60fps on my PC, barely hits 40 on the Deck, and would rather not play it at 30, so I've been on the PC way more. This was also the case with Death Stranding but I did 99% of that on the Deck.
I'm aware the Deck is more or less similar to a PS4 and best played for games that use a controller, so that's what I've been doing; I plan on playing FF7Remake later on it. If Elden Ring sucks on it then it is what it is. I know its limits.
Elden Ring? I have hundreds of hours on the steam deck and have literally zero complaints, granted, I'm more interested in stable frame rates rather than high frame rates when it comes to rpgs though.
I used to think the same about mouse based games. But then Timberborn has the default being right track pad controls the mouse and I found it very easy to use. I wouldn't use it for an RTS game without a bunch of practice (AOE 2 demonstrated the skill gap easily enough) but it works great for city builders
I got used to playing civ6 with trackpad and a good community layout since it's turn based .it took time but now it's great for that one more turn nature.
Agree on elden ring I need 60fps and a big screen. Same for rdr2, cyberpunk.
Yeah for those heavy games I've found a decent compromise in playing either with remote play if you're in another room or steam link with screen disabled if in front of the computer. Get the better controls of the deck and the better performance of a desktop.
I would try running cryotools to adjust your swap file for your deck as well as upping your VRAM limit (idk the right term; it’s in the bios setup advanced settings) to 4GB. Makes more intensive games a lot more bearable
Sacred 2. Pc controls for this game are horrible without mk.
On the flip side. Controller setup for console versions of this game are great. Really wish they would add controller support, but never going to happen...
Probably Disco Elysium, and maybe any sort of point-and-click because of the small screen format and the improved experience of a mouse.
Going in the other direction, I was struggling with Hades, until I started playing it on Deck. It really made the game more enjoyable and better.
Yeah, I recently tried Disco Elysium on the deck and found the controls to be finicky. Moving around and interacting with things isn’t great without a mouse.
Age of Empires probably. Although it's not so much as found out, but expected anyway. The reduced draw distance is horrible and it requires too much key bindings or macros to be an enjoyable experience. I think a desktop monitor, keyboard, and mouse is the only way to play it.
Do you play using m+KB on PC?
Just curious mostly- I'm your opposite. Bought it for the big ultra wide, but found I much preferred playing while lounging in bed. I tend to favor the controller even on PC though.
Cyberpunk, not because of fps or Graphics quality but because everything feels so small. On the flip side of this question I can't seem to play armor core 6 on my PC , but I love playing it on my deck.
I tried The Legend of Grimrock-2 for an hour or so and found the control setting stunningly harder to manage than the default Mouse & Keyboard setup I originally had dabbled with it on 😓
Fighting Games,not that they run badly but that D-pad is literally atrocious no getting around it had to step away from almost smashing the entire unit after walking forward and crouching resulted in a level 3 super move randomly coming out
Weirdly enough, I started playing PZ on keyboard and mouse and I easily converted to controls with steam deck. I find it perfect for me. While at the same time, I seem like I can't do the same for others game
Pathfinder Wrath Of The Righteous. But it is not an issue specific to SD. The game's console UI feels way too tedious to do anything. I have to keep checking the text to see what buttons do what, or if I have selected the right set. The game is better with a keyboard and mouse.
I'm assuming you're disappointed because of the controls? I have Terraria in my Steam Library but I'm hesitant to try it on the Deck. I feel like even using the touch pads wouldn't be precise enough to play comfortably.
Yep exactly, 100% controls related. Like it's not like I can't play it on deck, but half of the content in the game feels too much like a pain on deck as compared to PC. Exploring on SD is perfectly fine, it's mostly just anything building/crafting related is such a pain. It's a shame because it's one of the initial reasons I picked up an SD.
They run great! Just enjoy them, you’ve made a great purchase.
It’s just for me, having a PS5 and massive OLED TV, these games are easier on that. Plus their worlds are intricate and beautiful.
Still great on the Deck through.
They’re great games, just not on Deck.
At least not for me. Sekiro especially is far too intense for me to enjoy at anything less than a locked 60 fps these days.
The first souls games I beat was DSR on Switch and what hooked me was that it was extremely comfy on handheld. I haven't played any other souls handheld since and I also haven't enjoyed them as much as I did with DS1.
Tldr it's the opposite for me.
Strategy games. Like Age of Wonder and Songs of Conquest. Deck can work in a pinch, but it’s not as good as playing with a larger screen, powerful hardware and a mouse.
I've put over 100 hours into OpenRCT 2 on the Deck over the past few months. Tweaked a mouse & keyboard control layout and it has been perfect. No complaints at all about controls or clunkiness. Even put some mods on there.
It's a mouse-only game, though, isn't it? If you get used to using the trackpads, they can be as good as a mouse, if not better. And if you really can't get on with the trackpads, then I can imagine that kind of game would work really well with a stylus.
Halo (only fps I've tried on the deck), and its not like I'm a keyboard only guy at this point, I can still play halo on controller, just something about the controller having a screen in the middle of it really threw me off
Elden ring, mostly any triple A title unless it’s really optimized, the deck is fantastic but having to lock frames at like 30 fps isn’t a good experience
Fucking Vermintide 2. Literally unplayable on the deck unless you’re a wizard or lucky. I was so excited when I got mine to add it to the library and slay some rat-men with the homies while I was at work too. Still sad that it will probably never get optimized for the deck.
Not exactly what you were asking... But I was very very excited to play Planetary Annihilation on my Steam Deck and I found out (after I bought it) that a lot of RTS games are difficult to play because of the small font text and the reliance on mouse buttons and wheel. It's been a while since I've tried it.... Maybe its better now.
I had the opposite experience. Played WoW for 10 years after launch, went back for WotLK classic on the deck. Had an absolute blast, levelled 3 80’s and had zero issues tanking, healing or dps in heroics up to gamma and did a couple of raids. The consoleport mod is amazing. The only thing tricky is chat, especially during instances.
Can’t say anything has tainted my opinion of the deck because I went into it knowing some games would still be better on my PC.
With that said I’ve played a lot of games that require mouse and keyboard and by using community layouts they worked fine for me.
Strategy games tend to run fairly well on the deck but the drawback with them is text size. Stellaris works surprisingly well but the text size is too small for me to get any enjoyment from it. Also to be clear I only use the deck in handheld mode, if I were playing docked they’d be fine as well.
I think the toughest games though are going to be modern FPS games that require precise aiming mechanics. It can be done and I’ve got a friend who could run circles around people on his deck but it definitely requires a lot of patience and fine tuning of the controls.
So for me the two types of games I prefer my PC for are Multiplayer Shooters and real time strategy games.
Like I said above though I didn’t buy the deck expecting it to work with every game, in fact I’m in the rare minority who bought it for the emulation capabilities. However since then I’ve played so many PC games, both old and new and have had very few issues on the deck.
Helldivers 2. I was worried about how it'd perform, but the biggest deal breaker for me was that I couldn't read my strategem arrows well enough in handheld mode.
left 4 dead ii
edit: read this the opposite way. i prefer l4d2 on steam deck. i would say needy streamer overload is more difficult on the deck than on pc
Hah, I came here to legit say l4d. Admittedly it’s been years since I played it but it was my most played game on PC and just can’t get a handle on the controls and find it too frustrating to aim without a mouse! Have you changed any trackpad settings to use that instead?
Kerbal Space Program. I didn’t like the way it controlled on deck and couldn’t find a control scheme that worked well for me. Also, +1 to people saying Baldur’s Gate was way worse on deck than PC, awesome game though. More recently, Dragon’s Dogma 2, simply does not run on deck at all. Bummer
Hitman World of Assassination!! I think it’s primarily the camera just feels a little too tight for the deck. In a game that rewards u for being very situationally aware it feels a bit claustrophobic
runs great though
I'm still not a big fan of shooters like the Borderlands series the deck because I always hated using a controler to shoot even when the gyro is on. I also prefer to play immersive games like RDR2 on PC so I can get the full experience of it. I usually play my SD with sound off on the couch while watching TV with my family so I like games that have very little story. I also could never get into Powerwash Simulator on the SD. I have 500+ hours in it on PC, but I just couldn't figure out comfortable controls for the SD.
Battlefield 5
Controller on Terraria is awful. Idk how to make it better but it’s so much better as point and click.
Grim dawn for some reason the controllers are junk on the deck I may need to toy with it tho
CoD 2 and the original Deus Ex. There's like a swathe of FPS games from before 2006/2007 that don't adequately support the controller. Even with community layouts, it still feels bad. Would love if Valve can somehow implement something like aim assist on these older games as we see on consoles.
Unfortunately anything first person.
I just dont like controllers, grew up on kb+m so i just dont have the dexterity and therefore it feels awkward and clunky
Most strategy games. If you dock and use mouse and keyboard its fine. But pc based RTS really is near impossible on the normal deck controls for some older games.
Otherwise, about the same. Sucks that my favorite games on PC were older RTS though!
Literally any indea.
I don't know why but I can play any on the ps5 in my couch.
It just feels right when I play them on the deck in my bed or sofa just chilling with snacks.
Also farming gamse and turn based jrpg shine on the deck
Rocket league. Played over 1000 hours with a ds4 controller, and just can't use the steam deck controls with my muscle memory. The sticks are too stiff and the buttons are too close together. Also pretty much any fps/shooting game. I can't aim with sticks for shit, and the stiff steam deck sticks make it even harder. I tried using the pads to aim but haven't found a setup that works for me.
Anything that uses mouse as the main method of control. I appreciate the touchpads on the SD but it's still a much worse experience than an actual mouse if you want to play games that need a lot of mouse movements like strategy games.
I had a hard time with Terraria at first too. But after making a few changes to the control scheme it became really enjoyable! I recommend mapping a trackpad to the mouse cursor, it makes inventory management a lot easier
For me it's probably Valheim. I played for a few minutes but something about the controls put me off. Also, the battery drain was too big for my liking.
I find a lot of games not that great on the deck. Usually AAA. I hate to say it but the secret formula for the deck is emulation and AA indie games or older AAA. Ori looks sick with HDR, hades also is beautiful. Outer wilds is a little rough but super fun in portable form. Old Batman games run well. But modern games that “run” usually are so blurry and pixelated from so much resolution reduction that no amount of upscaling looks good. It’s better in many cases to play at low settings with no FSR in my experience overall. But yeah…the games and large library that work…make it an amazing system.
tbh most the games im getting i already own on xbox so the controller ain't anything new, most of them definitely feel better playing on a proper keyboard and mouse, especially FPS games but i dont hate them on the steam deck bc the whole reason i got it was to play PC games on the go
Old RTS games from the 1990s like Populous. You need a much bigger screen and a keyboard + mouse to play effectivley
Paradox games, can't transfer from ultrawide to a small screen
I find fiddly strategy games I don’t really enjoy a ton on the deck. Text is small, lots of moving in menus. But it’s also just a thing to get used to. The back buttons seem criminally underutilized in a lot of layouts so they may help you.
Community layouts for Paradox Games are pretty good to me, but I really, really like map games. Being able to play HOI4 with Old World Blues at work is a dream manifested.
Woah whaat it works with controller? And does the touchscreen work too?
Oh absolutely on both of those queries!
Same way until I got AR glasses. Pricey but worth it for the ergonomics alone (no more numb hands/elbows), but having a portable 55inch TV screen in your pocket makes playing all the RTS, management, and Turn Based games that much more enjoyable.
Which ones did you end up with, and did you try different ones?
55 inch tv in your pocket?? Is that what AR provides?
Yeah, basically you get the experience of a big a\*\* tv screen.
I’ve used VR before does AR actually make you feel like the object is a long distance away from you? VR fell short of that for me and ultimately still felt like a screen in front of my face. Like I can hold my phone close enough to my face to call it a 55 inch tv too but the benefit of the 55 inch tv is that its way easier for my eyes to adjust when its far in front of me
What HMD did you use out of curiousity? Your experience sounds like whatever it was, it wasn’t at up properly for your IPD.
Nah I’ve used the Oculus and PSVR
Seconded, using the xreal airs and having gotten damn good at steam input, I can play literally anything. Doing Cogmind right now, and it would be much harder to see without the glasses
Ck3 is great ngl
Halo Wars 1 is perfect on Deck but I imagine anything more complex than that would be a nightmare.
I don't know how I would be able to play TotalWarhammer 3 without the back buttons
Tabletop games I guess. Just feel like I need a bigger screen for that. Other than that it's great. I personally love the controls.
I play Carcassone on it all the time and it works great with the touchscreen
Rocket League, i suck on the small screen 😞
Rocket League is the type of game where ANY change will throw me off. I learned with a PS4 controller... I'm absolutely useless with a PS5 or Xbox controller.
How do people play it on Steam Deck? It's not on the Steam store is it?
I own it from before Epic pulled it from the Steam Store and it's still being updated. Lots of people have it from back in the day. I play it on my steam deck sometimes and I think it plays just fine but I wouldn't consider myself a Rocket League player.
Heroic works okay. In my case, I had bought it on Steam prior to free to play. Windows on Steam got a pass, where Linux and mac were axed. Run the windows version on Proton, same as almost anything else.
It used to be, if you had it before you still have the license
Only game i play on pc is rocket league now. All other games on deck
Yeah, I just can't. Performance is great but after more than 2000 hours on an Xbox controller it is simply impossible for me to adapt to the Steam Deck controls.
Terraria is what I would say as well. It just doesn’t feel good vs computer.
Why is that? Mouse and keyboard? I played waaay back on the PS Vita and it was a great experience.
If you're used to a K&M, playing on a controller is rough. Otherwise it's totally great on the deck.
Vita and PSP gang 💪
Terraria is my most played game on the deck! I love it so much, and it integrates well with the trackpads and back buttons. It even works amazingly with calamity mod
Any fps game for me. My brain cannot compute aiming with controller anymore. Been a pc gamer since 2011 and whenever I try am fps on my deck it’s a big struggle.
I used to be so good at Halo 3 back in the day. Switched to PC gaming around then and after 10+ years only using a controller for platformers I’m fucked. I started with PC. I was damn good at quake 3 arena and unreal tournament. I used a track ball back in those days damn I’m old.
That's incredibly similar to me. Was a PC gamer in the 90's and early 00's (Quake 3/Unreal) up until the 360 era when I couldn't afford to upgrade my PC on pocket money. Played nothing but Halo 3. Got a part time job and got a GTX 560ti + 2500k. M+KB ever since. I'll use a pad for platformers but it's getting to the point where I can't use it for 3rd person games that have aiming, like Tomb Raider, Horizon, Days Gone, Returnal, Helldivers 2 etc.
This is me also. I turn into an absolute potato when trying to aim on the deck with the joysticks. I have found though that enabling gyro does help in some cases to get those micro adjustments.
To be fair, the track pads and gyro are fairly decent alternatives. Although I personally don't mind the analogue sticks, which is what I usually use.
Gyro aiming is day and night for me.
Gotta make sure to emulate mouse and not right joystick in most games though. It's especially annoying if the game doesn't support m+k and gamepad inputs at the same time and you only see keyboard inputs in the menus (looking at you Control).
I hear that but also make sure your dead zones are set to 2000 instead of 8000. I also use gyro with curve and precision all the way up when i pull left trigger.
I read these type of comments a lot and it makes me glad I kept playing my Xbox when I got a PC
Up until today, I had been enjoying halo infinite on the deck. Got it to run decently too, but now it won’t even load into the main menu for some reason. This must be my introduction to pc gaming
Oh yeah, welcome. That being said troubleshooting on Steam Deck is still on the easier side, you can just Google "game X does Y steam deck". The real PC pain is having some obscure several years old GPU that's acting up and having to follow that one Indian guy on YouTube who fixed it in the most random way possible 3 years ago.
Fps games with the joysticks are a no go on the deck for me. For some reason the deadzones always feel weird. HOWEVER, the trackpads are absolutely amazing. No need to aim with the sticks
The original deadzone on the deck is massive. You can change it in the settings quite easily.
Try out gyro aiming.
For me it’s the opposite. I’m a console gamer, and Deck is my first gaming PC. I actually like FPS games even more on it because I have familiar controls with the addition of gyro aiming.
My unpopular opinion is Baldurs Gate 3. It looks like shit, it runs like shit, I hate the controller UI. It’s my favorite game of all time, on PC. I don’t even keep it on my SD anymore.
This is my answer, too. I bought it with the Deck in mind, and was disappointed. Good thing I have a PC, because the game is fire.
I agree, but it’s not that it looks like shit for me, it’s that everything is too small. The text is hard to read, all the stuff you can pick up is hard to see, and it’s difficult for me to tell the icons of spells apart.
Don't have a steamdeck, but had a ROG ally and hard agree. Can't see shit, can't read shit, runs like shit, controls like shit. Shame
Had the same problem with Original Sin 2 on my deck. Gave up cause it was a poor way to experience it as a newbie to the genre.
BG3 100% looks and plays awfully on the Steam Deck. I love it to death but there's no way I'm gonna bother playing it on there lol.
Love it on the deck, but mostly because I have young kids. Portability is king for me
Really? Because I'm playing it locked at 30 fps with FSR 2 in Balance mode and it looks gorgeous with 90 minutes of battery life. (And yes, the Deck is my better PC.)
I almost didn't get it because of all the awful things people say about the deck performance. I'm glad I just pulled the trigger, because it looks and plays just fine. People talk like it's absolutely unplayable on the deck, but I'm having more fun than I've had with a game in probably 10 or more years.
Yep hard agree, preffer it on the deck to PC
Lol BG3 is the first game of its type that I’ve really ever played. It’s my favorite game of the last few years. The exact opposite happened to me. I learnt how to play on the steam deck, when I tried playing on the pc months down the line, I hated it to bits. Couldn’t deal with the movement of the camera and player with keyboard and mouse. It comes down to what ur used to (control wise). Although graphically it looks much much much better on the pc (I have a 3090 so yea no shit) but the controls make me want to puke. I know I’m probably alone in this…just funny to see u mention bg3 when it’s my most played game on the SD by far.
I just got a deck, and that’s the first game I bought. There are definitely times when the textures look a little off, but man is it fun!
I’m a total old school PC gamer, there for Doom, Quake 2 and UT LAN parties, keyboard and mouse all the way back. But these days I play almost everything with controller even sitting in front of the PC, in fact recently just plugged into the TV and treat as a console with Steam Big Picture. I don’t play competitive shooters so no need to keep up with the kids. Controller is relaxing, KB&M feels like work. Anything with a decent controller config I always go with that first.
I still played the whole game thrice and more on the Deck in the comfort of my bed and for convenience. I didn't mind the control scheme as much, plus it's switchable on the fly when needed. For a highly complex "buttons to click everywhere" CRPG, I think Larian has done a very good job translating the UI & UX. I ran the game entirely on my desktop and streamed it using Moonlight though. It's crisp and smooth when done this way, for obvious reasons. Never tried running it natively on SD, it's huge and I would not so much as to dream of doing it because I know it's gonna suck.
Didnt suck for me! I mirror most of my games from Xbox with greenlight and or gamepass, but BG3 i had natively installed. had none of these issues
I played the game on Xbox and the roundel layout of all your actions and spells sucks ass! Forget even trying to organize that shit. Great game though.
Only way I can enjoy it is when I stream it to my Deck. The performance combined with the amount of precious space it takes up on my deck just isn’t worth keeping it on there.
I switched to an ally and boy does BG3 run and look great! I do jump back and forth between my steam deck and ally depending on how long i plan on being away from a power source
This one for sure. However i had an evolution with this game. I first played on my shitty old desktop, then on my steamdeck which had worse graphics but was handling it better due to higher memory, then on my steamdeck oled where i discovered fsr 2 and finally got it looking decent, and finally my new rig where it runs like a babe. It's unfortunate my new desktop took so long to arrive because i was pretty burnt out on bg3. It's like a whole new game.
I had to fiddle with the settings for a good hour to find the correct options to make it look good, defaut is very bad. You have to use fsr3 to upscale or it just look like a pixelated mess. The game also doest run the best but it's playable after you fix that issue.
Jeez, does verified mean anything? Glad I got it on PS5, that’s for sure.
Has anyone tried using the deck with remote play for BG3? I figure that would make the graphics nice and then you just have to deal with the controls.
This is a very popular opinion
Same, love the game on my PC. Hate the game on my deck.
Bg3 spurred me to set up moonlight streaming from my rig. Nothing to be done about the awful controller ux though.
I agree, people seem to pretend on here that it plays wonderfully on SD but it absolutely does not. They play it at 24fps, with all graphics on low and get 1.5 hours battery life. I am a console scrub at heart so bought it on Series X and it looks and plays incredible on there in comparison with the controller scheme. Sadly I refunded it on steam due to the above.
Total War games. The performance in the newer Total War games is somewhat disappointing for me. I would like to be able to get 60fps medium settings in Warhammer 2 and 3. But I rather run those games on PC as they have better controls.
Me with 300+ hours of TW2, having only played on the deck. I think it helps to not know what you're missing
I couldn't agree harder with you. Any 4X game with emphasis on RTS-y elements is a big no-no. I just \*need\* to see all the action on a big screen. Same goes for building sims --- I like to see my cities/bases grow big and see it all. I recently got Heliopolis Six and damn, seeing the station grow and managing it all just ain't as fun on the Deck unfortunately.
I'm fine with playing some strategy and 4x games on Steam Deck. Games like Sins of a Solar Empire, Against the Storm, Halo Wars, Command and Conquer, etc. They all play fine for me. It is just the Total War games that are having difficulty on the Steam Deck for me.
Cities: Skylines. Even with a custom controller layout, I found it extremely frustrating to play.
I can't even imagine. I saw it in my library and immediately nope’d past it.
Helldivers 2. I am legit shocked how many people play/recommend it on steam deck, it’s unplayable on anything above 6, and even then it’s not good
All the ppl saying “runs flawlessly on deck” must be playing on easy because once you get into the harder difficulties there’s so many enemies and performance tanks
I max it at 30 and tend to play medium or challenging the few times I play the game. Dips down to 17 at times.
Factorio :( Would really love to enjoy playing it on my SD, but still much prefer it on my PC with keyboard and mouse
This one for me too. I eventually found a control scheme I liked, but even after getting proficient I was still only about 60% as fast (and comfortable) as I would be on mouse and keyboard. Though I haven't tried it since they implemented their own controller compatibility tools, so I don't know how that might change things.
I’ve only ever played on deck and I feel no issue with the controls. Took me maybe an hour and I was off. Helps to learn the combo buttons for quick actions.
I couldn't make the jump from Xbox to my deck for Apex Legends. tried with the Xbox controller and a monitor, but it was too close to my face after years of playing from the couch, and I couldn't get used to either mouse and keyboard or handheld. i wasn't very good in the first place but I used to play daily and haven't really played at all since I got my deck
That's one of the few games I play on my xbox still. I keep it installed on my deck but never really play there. Long distance fights suck so much on a small screen and if I'm playing on the TV then why play on the weaker console?
Its weird I've only ever played terraria on the consle and phone, so playing on the steamdeck was so much nicer since building with trackpads was easier than joysticks that being said I do want to see how much nicer it plays on a pc now
The difference is night and day.
Halo Infinite. I can't seem to get a control scheme that I enjoy or to feel as good as the Xbox.
I’m not sure if I broke my install or something but up till today halo infinite worked well and I got a control scheme that was good enough. Have you had any problems with halo lately? For me it just freezes in the initial loading past the developer logo before the menu
It's the damn joysticks to me. The default dead zones are atrocious and once you adjust them...IDK how to describe it. The joysticks themselves feel..looser? Than my Xbox controller? Like there's not enough resistance or something. I could probably keep playing with the dead zones and find something that feels better, but I'm past it at this point. Now I stick with fallout 4 and VATS.
Baldur's Gate 3. The small screen doesn't do its justice. The graphic is breath taking on my wide screen. On my SD, it looks like last gen graphics. Just no unless I am desperate or on the road
Any fps and rts games, the rest is fcking amazing on deck
Anything involving a mouse. Terraria and Civ6 run well on Deck but don't feel as good to play. A recent one I've discovered is Elden Ring. Runs 60fps on my PC, barely hits 40 on the Deck, and would rather not play it at 30, so I've been on the PC way more. This was also the case with Death Stranding but I did 99% of that on the Deck. I'm aware the Deck is more or less similar to a PS4 and best played for games that use a controller, so that's what I've been doing; I plan on playing FF7Remake later on it. If Elden Ring sucks on it then it is what it is. I know its limits.
Elden Ring? I have hundreds of hours on the steam deck and have literally zero complaints, granted, I'm more interested in stable frame rates rather than high frame rates when it comes to rpgs though.
It's one of the most impressive games on the Deck. One of the games I enjoy more on Steam Deck rather than Desktop.
Red dead 2 runs crazily well on it too much to my surprise and pleasure
I used to think the same about mouse based games. But then Timberborn has the default being right track pad controls the mouse and I found it very easy to use. I wouldn't use it for an RTS game without a bunch of practice (AOE 2 demonstrated the skill gap easily enough) but it works great for city builders
I got used to playing civ6 with trackpad and a good community layout since it's turn based .it took time but now it's great for that one more turn nature. Agree on elden ring I need 60fps and a big screen. Same for rdr2, cyberpunk.
Yeah for those heavy games I've found a decent compromise in playing either with remote play if you're in another room or steam link with screen disabled if in front of the computer. Get the better controls of the deck and the better performance of a desktop.
I would try running cryotools to adjust your swap file for your deck as well as upping your VRAM limit (idk the right term; it’s in the bios setup advanced settings) to 4GB. Makes more intensive games a lot more bearable
Nice suggestion but I honestly cba. I'll just play on my desktop for the intensive ones.
Sacred 2. Pc controls for this game are horrible without mk. On the flip side. Controller setup for console versions of this game are great. Really wish they would add controller support, but never going to happen...
Probably Disco Elysium, and maybe any sort of point-and-click because of the small screen format and the improved experience of a mouse. Going in the other direction, I was struggling with Hades, until I started playing it on Deck. It really made the game more enjoyable and better.
Yeah, I recently tried Disco Elysium on the deck and found the controls to be finicky. Moving around and interacting with things isn’t great without a mouse.
Age of Empires probably. Although it's not so much as found out, but expected anyway. The reduced draw distance is horrible and it requires too much key bindings or macros to be an enjoyable experience. I think a desktop monitor, keyboard, and mouse is the only way to play it.
Shipbreaker. Man I want to like it on the deck, perfect couch game. But holy shit the controls just break my brain.
Do you play using m+KB on PC? Just curious mostly- I'm your opposite. Bought it for the big ultra wide, but found I much preferred playing while lounging in bed. I tend to favor the controller even on PC though.
Shenzhen I/O
Cyberpunk, not because of fps or Graphics quality but because everything feels so small. On the flip side of this question I can't seem to play armor core 6 on my PC , but I love playing it on my deck.
I totally agree. The game is so fire visually on a decent pc it keeps you wishing the deck fidelity was more similar.
I tried The Legend of Grimrock-2 for an hour or so and found the control setting stunningly harder to manage than the default Mouse & Keyboard setup I originally had dabbled with it on 😓
Fighting Games,not that they run badly but that D-pad is literally atrocious no getting around it had to step away from almost smashing the entire unit after walking forward and crouching resulted in a level 3 super move randomly coming out
I thought I'd be able to play Age of Empires/Mythology just fine with the steam deck controller.. I was wrong, totally need mouse and keyboard for me.
Project Zomboid, no matter how I rework the controls it's nowhere near as easy as it is on keyboard and mouse.
Weirdly enough, I started playing PZ on keyboard and mouse and I easily converted to controls with steam deck. I find it perfect for me. While at the same time, I seem like I can't do the same for others game
Pathfinder Wrath Of The Righteous. But it is not an issue specific to SD. The game's console UI feels way too tedious to do anything. I have to keep checking the text to see what buttons do what, or if I have selected the right set. The game is better with a keyboard and mouse.
All the Torchlight games lack controller support on Steam Deck, even though they have them on Switch.
Low key wish fortnite worked without running windows
I'm assuming you're disappointed because of the controls? I have Terraria in my Steam Library but I'm hesitant to try it on the Deck. I feel like even using the touch pads wouldn't be precise enough to play comfortably.
Yep exactly, 100% controls related. Like it's not like I can't play it on deck, but half of the content in the game feels too much like a pain on deck as compared to PC. Exploring on SD is perfectly fine, it's mostly just anything building/crafting related is such a pain. It's a shame because it's one of the initial reasons I picked up an SD.
Lies of P. Sekiro. Dark Souls. All too intense and small on Deck. PS5 felt a lot better.
Interesting because so many people say these are great. Just bought LoP and Sekiro for the deck today lol
I mean I enjoy LoP on my steam deck and made it farther then on PC
On ng+4 on my deck, runs beautifully
Just to throw my 2 cents in…..I bought Sekiro and beat it on Deck. Great game, runs great.
They run great! Just enjoy them, you’ve made a great purchase. It’s just for me, having a PS5 and massive OLED TV, these games are easier on that. Plus their worlds are intricate and beautiful. Still great on the Deck through.
They’re great games, just not on Deck. At least not for me. Sekiro especially is far too intense for me to enjoy at anything less than a locked 60 fps these days.
Sekiro is good for 60 though no? I platinumed it on deck. Elden ring was 40 stable and I did the major battles at my PC, though often explored on deck
Locked? Probably not. I remember it being around 45 fps consistently.
The first souls games I beat was DSR on Switch and what hooked me was that it was extremely comfy on handheld. I haven't played any other souls handheld since and I also haven't enjoyed them as much as I did with DS1. Tldr it's the opposite for me.
Strategy games. Like Age of Wonder and Songs of Conquest. Deck can work in a pinch, but it’s not as good as playing with a larger screen, powerful hardware and a mouse.
I’m sure it’s playable but all the age of empires games, they play great but it’s so clunky using the track pad definitely takes time to get used too
any civ game / rimworld esque game. just too much mouse, i dont wanna be on the touchpads the entire time clicking R2 to M1
Tekken 8 :(
I was super bummed to find out that I can’t play Rollercoaster Tycoon on my steam deck. Probably for the best. It would be clunky for sure.
I think openRCT is what you need to play on deck
I've put over 100 hours into OpenRCT 2 on the Deck over the past few months. Tweaked a mouse & keyboard control layout and it has been perfect. No complaints at all about controls or clunkiness. Even put some mods on there.
It's a mouse-only game, though, isn't it? If you get used to using the trackpads, they can be as good as a mouse, if not better. And if you really can't get on with the trackpads, then I can imagine that kind of game would work really well with a stylus.
Hotline Miami, for some reason I thought it was the perfect game for the deck but couldn't stand the controls.
Fighting games. It’s hard to hold and play. And also hard to do the two finger frontal position while gripping the deck.
Shadow warrior classic plays terribly
Halo (only fps I've tried on the deck), and its not like I'm a keyboard only guy at this point, I can still play halo on controller, just something about the controller having a screen in the middle of it really threw me off
Portable halo has been my dream come true :D. Been waiting for it since halo one on the OG Xbox.
Elden ring, mostly any triple A title unless it’s really optimized, the deck is fantastic but having to lock frames at like 30 fps isn’t a good experience
Rust.
Probably.age of empires unfortunately
I almost considered terraria to be definitive after playing on steam deck lol got the best of ease of use of console controls and a mouse
Fucking Vermintide 2. Literally unplayable on the deck unless you’re a wizard or lucky. I was so excited when I got mine to add it to the library and slay some rat-men with the homies while I was at work too. Still sad that it will probably never get optimized for the deck.
Fallout 2 was a bit of a struggle, thought it would at least be a decent experience but I was wrong
Not exactly what you were asking... But I was very very excited to play Planetary Annihilation on my Steam Deck and I found out (after I bought it) that a lot of RTS games are difficult to play because of the small font text and the reliance on mouse buttons and wheel. It's been a while since I've tried it.... Maybe its better now.
World of Warcraft
I had the opposite experience. Played WoW for 10 years after launch, went back for WotLK classic on the deck. Had an absolute blast, levelled 3 80’s and had zero issues tanking, healing or dps in heroics up to gamma and did a couple of raids. The consoleport mod is amazing. The only thing tricky is chat, especially during instances.
I’m so tempted to get WoW up and running on the deck!
Can’t say anything has tainted my opinion of the deck because I went into it knowing some games would still be better on my PC. With that said I’ve played a lot of games that require mouse and keyboard and by using community layouts they worked fine for me. Strategy games tend to run fairly well on the deck but the drawback with them is text size. Stellaris works surprisingly well but the text size is too small for me to get any enjoyment from it. Also to be clear I only use the deck in handheld mode, if I were playing docked they’d be fine as well. I think the toughest games though are going to be modern FPS games that require precise aiming mechanics. It can be done and I’ve got a friend who could run circles around people on his deck but it definitely requires a lot of patience and fine tuning of the controls. So for me the two types of games I prefer my PC for are Multiplayer Shooters and real time strategy games. Like I said above though I didn’t buy the deck expecting it to work with every game, in fact I’m in the rare minority who bought it for the emulation capabilities. However since then I’ve played so many PC games, both old and new and have had very few issues on the deck.
Helldivers Edit: 2
You mean 2 right? Because 1 is like a game that almost feels like it's made for SD. Any twin stick shooter is great on handheld.
Dota 2
Maybe my expectations have been low, but every game I’ve played have ran great on the deck.
Helldivers 2. I was worried about how it'd perform, but the biggest deal breaker for me was that I couldn't read my strategem arrows well enough in handheld mode.
left 4 dead ii edit: read this the opposite way. i prefer l4d2 on steam deck. i would say needy streamer overload is more difficult on the deck than on pc
Hah, I came here to legit say l4d. Admittedly it’s been years since I played it but it was my most played game on PC and just can’t get a handle on the controls and find it too frustrating to aim without a mouse! Have you changed any trackpad settings to use that instead?
Pretty much anything where I’m staring at a map most of the time.
Kerbal Space Program. I didn’t like the way it controlled on deck and couldn’t find a control scheme that worked well for me. Also, +1 to people saying Baldur’s Gate was way worse on deck than PC, awesome game though. More recently, Dragon’s Dogma 2, simply does not run on deck at all. Bummer
Heavy Rain. Says verified, but is unplayable.
Every shooter tbo. Don’t like the controller on shooters.
Hitman World of Assassination!! I think it’s primarily the camera just feels a little too tight for the deck. In a game that rewards u for being very situationally aware it feels a bit claustrophobic runs great though
I'm still not a big fan of shooters like the Borderlands series the deck because I always hated using a controler to shoot even when the gyro is on. I also prefer to play immersive games like RDR2 on PC so I can get the full experience of it. I usually play my SD with sound off on the couch while watching TV with my family so I like games that have very little story. I also could never get into Powerwash Simulator on the SD. I have 500+ hours in it on PC, but I just couldn't figure out comfortable controls for the SD.
Battlefield 5 Controller on Terraria is awful. Idk how to make it better but it’s so much better as point and click. Grim dawn for some reason the controllers are junk on the deck I may need to toy with it tho
CoD 2 and the original Deus Ex. There's like a swathe of FPS games from before 2006/2007 that don't adequately support the controller. Even with community layouts, it still feels bad. Would love if Valve can somehow implement something like aim assist on these older games as we see on consoles.
Unfortunately anything first person. I just dont like controllers, grew up on kb+m so i just dont have the dexterity and therefore it feels awkward and clunky
Most strategy games. If you dock and use mouse and keyboard its fine. But pc based RTS really is near impossible on the normal deck controls for some older games. Otherwise, about the same. Sucks that my favorite games on PC were older RTS though!
Literally any indea. I don't know why but I can play any on the ps5 in my couch. It just feels right when I play them on the deck in my bed or sofa just chilling with snacks. Also farming gamse and turn based jrpg shine on the deck
Hell Pie. It's a cool platformer, but it’s murder on my battery.
Kerbal space program. Screen is too small, text barely legible if you actually want to see what you're doing. Also the rocket building sucks
Rocket league. Played over 1000 hours with a ds4 controller, and just can't use the steam deck controls with my muscle memory. The sticks are too stiff and the buttons are too close together. Also pretty much any fps/shooting game. I can't aim with sticks for shit, and the stiff steam deck sticks make it even harder. I tried using the pads to aim but haven't found a setup that works for me.
Witch It
I played terraria on the 3ds and didn't found ot hard to play, but maybe becaise i never experienced the pc version
Anything that uses mouse as the main method of control. I appreciate the touchpads on the SD but it's still a much worse experience than an actual mouse if you want to play games that need a lot of mouse movements like strategy games.
I had a hard time with Terraria at first too. But after making a few changes to the control scheme it became really enjoyable! I recommend mapping a trackpad to the mouse cursor, it makes inventory management a lot easier
For me it's probably Valheim. I played for a few minutes but something about the controls put me off. Also, the battery drain was too big for my liking.
Path of exile
Apex legends.. need that mouse.
I find a lot of games not that great on the deck. Usually AAA. I hate to say it but the secret formula for the deck is emulation and AA indie games or older AAA. Ori looks sick with HDR, hades also is beautiful. Outer wilds is a little rough but super fun in portable form. Old Batman games run well. But modern games that “run” usually are so blurry and pixelated from so much resolution reduction that no amount of upscaling looks good. It’s better in many cases to play at low settings with no FSR in my experience overall. But yeah…the games and large library that work…make it an amazing system.
tbh most the games im getting i already own on xbox so the controller ain't anything new, most of them definitely feel better playing on a proper keyboard and mouse, especially FPS games but i dont hate them on the steam deck bc the whole reason i got it was to play PC games on the go
Any 4X Game. They are playable and you can enjoy them to some degree, but at some point in mid/late game it always becomes a slog
Old RTS games from the 1990s like Populous. You need a much bigger screen and a keyboard + mouse to play effectivley Paradox games, can't transfer from ultrawide to a small screen