The Steam Deck stays a high-powered PC gaming handheld, greater than able to taking part in among the greatest AAA video games of the 12 months. Nevertheless, all know-how has its limits, and the cracks have already begun to indicate within the handheld’s potential to play Cities Skylines 2, and different huge releases of the 12 months.
Because the launch of the Steam Deck, its potential to play among the greatest PC video games has been referred to as into query. Whereas Valve itself places AAA releases and indie video games alike by means of its vetted compatibility course of, quite a few video games get labeled as ‘verified’ for the hand-held, solely to be slated for his or her poor efficiency, and a myriad of points when making an attempt to play on the go. Cities Skylines 2 isn’t any exception, and whereas its efficiency on PC has failed to fulfill even the developer’s expectations, issues are worse in the case of the Valve handheld.
When first booting up Cities Skylines 2 on the 512GB model of the machine, there are immediate indicators that the Steam Deck is going to battle. The sport’s launcher runs at a measly 12fps, chugging alongside as greatest it may well, ready for any indicators of gameplay to begin. In the event you don’t immediately change the in-game settings to make up for the actual fact you aren’t taking part in the city-builder on a high-end desktop PC, the warmth of the Steam Deck will get astronomically excessive. Temperatures of the GPU reached as much as 95°C in my exams, and it started to present off an odd plastic scent, with the fan whirring away frantically because it did its greatest to maintain issues cool.
Even by turning all of the graphical settings to ‘low’, and disabling extra results just like the Volumetric High quality Settings, the sport nonetheless solely runs at 20 fps on the Steam Deck. Whereas the battery of the machine isn’t the perfect anyway, with the settings on the lowest they may presumably be the Deck solely survived round one and a half hours of stagnated gameplay. Body fee drops are nonetheless prevalent, with the sport stuttering alongside when you do your greatest to form your would-be sprawling metropolises.
It’s not totally sudden for a sport as detailed as Cities Skylines 2 to not carry out nicely on the Steam Deck, however it’s stunning given its predecessor’s efficiency on the machine. Cities Skylines, the primary sport within the collection, performs nicely sufficient on the hand-held that Valve has formally recognized it as ‘playable’, and the Cities Skylines 2 system necessities aren’t too demanding regardless of their enhance near launch. Though city-builders themselves don’t lend themselves to being performed on the hand-held small display screen, particularly with there being so many minuscule menus to navigate by means of, there aren’t any egregious points that seem when working the primary sport.
Sadly, the identical can’t be stated about Cities Skyline 2. Its efficiency is a stark reminder that even simply almost two years into its lifespan, the Steam Deck might not be capable of sustain with among the subsequent huge PC releases. Upcoming video games, like Alan Wake 2, have system necessities which can be sure to make even high-end rigs sweat, making it probably that the Valve handheld might battle to play the sport in any respect. With rumors that Valve is cooking up a Steam Deck refresh, I can solely hope that the opportunity of a Steam Deck 2 is on the horizon, and that it’s higher geared up to deal with all of the graphical calls for of next-gen PC video games.
Take a look at the perfect Steam Deck video games, for a complete listing of titles that lend themselves to be being performed on the go. If you have already got a lot to play, choosing up the most effective microSD playing cards for Steam Deck provides you with loads of space for storing to obtain no matter you see match.
