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Is RoadCraft a bad game? Not necessarily, I could see how some people might enjoy it. For me, the game doesn't have the feeling of "survival" that SnowRunner has, where you are constantly trying to plan your own route and trying to protect your vehicle and preserve fuel, and because of the frustrating traversal and nature of the tasks at times, it isn't relaxing like American/Euro Truck Simulator. The game just feels rather... shallow, with similar objectives that take an age to complete, that you have to do over and over. The best parts of the game are watching your AI Trucks use the path you built/cleared, and the off-road terrain physics and deformation remain as good as ever. Sadly, the terrain deformation is losing its luster after 5 games, and the rest of the mechanics RoadCraft introduces aren't robust enough to support the game. RoadCraft is also currently unplayable on the Steam Deck; for whatever reason, the game crashes when compiling shaders, regardless of the Proton version I attempted using.
The Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remasters should scratch that nostalgic itch you have for these games, but if you didn't play them when they were new, you might want to give these games a miss. They're products of their time and don't hold up too well with antiquated gameplay, lack of quality-of-life features we've come to expect nowadays, and visuals that still belong 20 years ago. However, the games perform flawlessly on the Steam Deck. They require very little power draw to achieve 60 FPS and have good controller support. The only flaw I found was that the map is too far zoomed in on the first game's map screen, but aside from that, everything works as you would hope.
VED has an interesting premise both for the storyline and for the gameplay mechanics. Sadly, the story suffers from poor pacing and inconsistencies. It really feels like the game would benefit from being a slightly longer adventure, not an 8-hour one, but I suppose the developers have to draw the line at some point. Poor voice acting and somewhat repetitive, if well-drawn, art also let the game down for its world-building. One thing you can't fault VED on, however, is how it runs on the Steam Deck. It provides an essentially flawless experience with great battery life, even on the highest settings. Controller support is also top-notch here.
came away from CLICKOLDING with mixed feelings. The atmosphere of the game excelled in keeping me unsettled, to the point I didn’t care how repetitive the clicking became. That is the whole point of CLICKOLDING, after all. For $3, it is hard to argue against trying the game at that price. The technical problems I encountered left a sour taste in my mouth. While it is certainly playable on the Steam Deck, the lack of accessibility options and settings brings down the experience for me.
Undisputed is an unapologetically complex fighting game. With controls that will take some getting used to and AI that will proceed to beat you down until you get used to them, this isn't a game for everybody. But if you are looking for a boxing game and you've been starving for a good one for some time, Undisputed is at least worth giving a chance and seeing if it's the one for you. The performance on Steam Deck is a little disappointing. We have to run at the lowest graphical settings to get the game up to 40 FPS, which is the minimal "playable" frame rate. Even then, we get dips close to 30 FPS on some arenas without removing all of the crowd. Undisputed can be played on the Steam Deck, but it's far from the best way to play it.
My primary feeling about Funko Fusion is confusion. Funko Pops and their design often appeal to children, and Funko Fusion feels like it should be a kid's game by its design. The game seems to tiptoe around the area of violence in some worlds, and then straight up lets you blow people's heads off with a shotgun and blood splatter a few moments later in another world. At this point, I wonder if Universal dictated to the developers what was and wasn't allowed to be portrayed concerning certain IPs. While this isn't a dealbreaker in itself, it highlights a problem throughout Funko Fusion: the game seems to have many half-baked ideas. Still, the dev team lacked the time or imagination to carry them out. The visual presentation and the technical aspects, such as movement and mechanics, work fine. The problem is that the puzzles are repetitive and tedious, the combat feels hollow, and many missions worldwide are variations on finding lost animals or defeating a series of minibosses. Performance on the Steam Deck is at least decent. You can play Funko Fusion at 40 FPS if you run the lowest settings, with the option to go down to 30 FPS to save some battery life. The controllers also work great, although some of the text in speech bubbles may be hard to read sometimes.
FBC: Firebreak has a lot of great elements to it, but not enough content to keep it going. The core gunplay is great, and I had a blast playing the wacky 5 jobs with friends in the gorgeous environments of the federal agency, but the lack of random variables in the jobs and linear progression system made it hard to stay interested. Still, I have hope that with future updates, this is going to be a great co-op shooter to enjoy. It's also amazing how well it looks and runs on the Steam Deck, and I think that's saying a lot. It deserves praise for its optimization, and I can happily say its one that shouldn't be any problem playing on the go.
Revenge of the Savage Planet does some things well. I like the movement, the combat is fine, if a bit basic, and the upgrades themselves are interesting and affect how you play the game as you progress. But from a game design perspective, I feel the game needed a lot more variety in how you progress the game, and every objective is just heading to a new location to find a new resource. It doesn't ruin the game, but it hampered my enjoyment. Steam Deck performance is alson't the best; we have to run on the absolute lowest settings possible, and even then, we only maintain a playable framerate. Fortunately, we do have good controller support, and I would say that the game can be played fully on the Steam Deck; you just might enjoy the experience more elsewhere.
Mudborne is a fairly complex puzzle game. If you're after a game that requires plenty of logical thinking and some planning, then you'll probably enjoy your time with this one. But if you're after a relaxing game that lets you settle down on an evening and enjoy some downtime, this probably isn't a game for you. It does, however, run beautifully on the Steam Deck, requiring no configuration to get working. With a low TDP Limit required for 60 FPS, you can't ask for much more.
Grimoire Groves is a refreshing take on the standard roguelike genre, and I genuinely enjoy the core gameplay loop. The visuals are nice, and while the game is simple, it plays to its strengths. I also really enjoy building up the little encyclopedia that catalogs what you find in the Grove. The lack of accessibility options and problems I had with performance was disappointing in the release build, but these can be fixed with time. Despite these issues, Grimoire Groves is still a good performer on the Steam Deck.
Two Point Museum is brave in that it takes aim at an industry that is usually not regarded as all that interesting and tries to make a fun game out of it. Unfortunately, this was attempted by injecting a lot of "humor," which just didn't pay off for me. I'd have much preferred a more authentic museum experience with real fish and exhibits rather than being hit with a joke-a-minute, which rarely pays off. If you can tolerate the comedy, the gameplay works well and there's still an enjoyable experience to be found here. That being said, Two Point Museum does run great on the Steam Deck, so if you have had your eye on this one and a bit of silliness doesn't put you off, you shouldn't hesitate to get it to play on your handheld.
Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered is a fantastic remaster of some of the classic Tomb Raider titles that makes them as playable as possible. Aspyr's enhancements have made these titles much better looking and easier to enjoy, with great new features like the wonderful photo mode and fly-by camera for cinematic shots. The original games do have some quality-of-life features to make them more playable, but there are still some issues with controls and speed that still keep them feeling more like a slog for newcomers. Still, this is easily the best way to enjoy the games currently, and they can be a ton of fun if you have the patience. They all run especially well on the Steam Deck too. The Last Revelation and Chronicles run better than The Angel of Darkness, but they're all a joy to play on the go with solid battery life and an easy 60 or 90 FPS.
Lost Records: Bloom and Rage has a lot of great moments with just a few outliers that keep it from being an amazing experience. The story is great, which is elevated thanks to a wonderful cast and an interesting way of telling it. The basic gameplay for these kinds of games is here again, but with an intriguing Memoir feature to record different objects to create your own mini-videos. I wish the magical elements and finale were a bit more impactful, but I feel the narrative had enough to keep me interested in how they would continue the tale. It is also playable on the Steam Deck, albeit with some compromises. I wish I could get it to a fully stable 30 FPS without major visual downgrades, but with a game like this, the short drops down below weren't the end of the world. This is still going to be an enjoyable portable experience, and I had a blast playing it on the go.
Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. could have been a great game. The core mechanics are solid, the fighting feels good, and there's plenty of depth to the combat system with all the combos you can learn, but all of this is marred by the fact that it's a primarily online game with a pretty terrible online system in place right now. Performance on the Steam Deck is good, holding 60 FPS throughout, and it has a great control scheme as well. The battery life is a bit disappointing, but Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. likely isn't a game you'll play for a long time in one sitting.
Sniper Elite: Resistance is a wonderful new adventure in the Sniper Elite franchise that doesn't break the mold the series has perfected, but it doesn't need to. The fantastic sandbox-like gameplay and excellently crafted levels make it feel like I could replay them multiple different ways, with it still feeling fresh and exciting. With customizable weapons, skills to unlock, different tools to use and set up traps, different collectibles, different game modes, and co-op and competitive multiplayer, there are many reasons to come back and play more. Resistance does feel a lot like Sniper Elite 5, with some aspects like the gameplay mechanics and UI being near identical. It does have different levels, story, and new tools, which do help make Resistance feel worthwhile, especially if you just want more Sniper Elite. I also encountered some bugs that ended up getting me killed, but it didn't happen often. Even with the glaring similarities, I had a blast playing Sniper Elite: Resistance and happily recommend it to fans of the series and someone who wants a great third-person Action-Stealth experience to enjoy.
Freedom Wars Remastered is a wonderful upgrade over the 2014 original, but there are a couple of components I wish had some quality-of-life changes to get rid of some of the stiffness. Fighting against giant robots and ripping them apart is a blast, and I enjoyed the story and setting of this totalitarian, post-apocalyptic world. However, navigating through menus, moving around, and fighting against the smaller bots and human fodder didn't feel as great, and how often you need to do all of that affected my enjoyment overall. Playing on the Steam Deck is my favorite way to play the game, and it fits right at home. It does seem like there may be some engine limitations for multiplayer, which are causing some issues with performance, but it's still playable and can be configured to save some extra battery, which I appreciate. Freedom Wars Remastered definitely won't replace Monster Hunter, but the pros outweigh the cons, and I still had a blast playing.
I went into Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island with modest expectations, and my needs for a comfortable gaming experience have been met. Despite my ambivalent feelings towards Alex, I was invested in the story. I enjoyed the dialogue minigames and getting to know the characters, and I kept laughing every time I spoke to Hermes. How that guy flew on those tiny wings is anybody's guess. I enjoyed the little collectathon mechanics, such as finding furnishings for my little home in the lighthouse, and when I needed a break from the game, I could sit on a mat and listen to the audio cassettes. The lack of challenge and simple gameplay won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but it is relaxing enough to play and a solid Steam Deck performer. If you have time to kill and want to explore an ancient Greek island without many stakes, Mythwrecked might surprise you.
Fairy Tail 2 is a simplistic approach to the JRPG genre. It has an easy-to-understand combat system, a fairly straightforward storyline, and minimal effort required on the part of the player to maximize the efficiency of equipment and items. It's a good compromise for someone who wants the gameplay and storyline of a JRPG without all the unnecessary party management. The story might be a little simplistic, but overall, the game is a good time. The game runs pretty well on Steam Deck. You won't be getting a 60 FPS experience here, but 40 FPS with the occasional drop was perfectly fine for my playthrough. The controls work beautifully, and although we do get black borders due to the lack of proper resolution support, the game itself plays fine.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is a solid improvement on the previous title. Whether or not the addition of the career mode, some new aircraft, and some new scenarios are worth the price tag of an entirely new game or not likely depends on how into this kind of game you are. If you are just into the free flight modes and seeing the world, the 2020 game edition does that almost as well. When playing on the Steam Deck, it might initially seem fine. If you're flying a single prop plane, a fighter jet, or even a small private jet, the performance can be fine, often staying above 25 FPS. But if you try to fly a jetliner, you'll often be playing at around 15-20 FPS, with frequent crashes making the game unplayable. Hopefully, this is just an issue with Proton right now and can be fixed, as well as Asobo optimizing the game, but I wouldn't purchase Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 to play on a Steam Deck.
Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster mostly stays true to the original, for better or worse. While some improvements have been made to AI pathfinding, visuals, and quality of life, a couple of 20-year-old relics remain. For old players, this might fuel their nostalgia; for newer players to the series, it might just prove a little frustrating. Regardless, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is not a game to be taken seriously, and if you can sit back and laugh with it, you'll have a good time. Performance on the Steam Deck isn't the best, but it's to be expected when you're dealing with large amounts of AI, given the Steam Deck's weaker CPU. Although we can occasionally see dips into the 20s, most of the game runs at 30 FPS, and you can play from start to finish on the Steam Deck and still have a good time. Controller support is also excellent.