Two years on and Elden Ring remains the Steam Deck's best game
Nothing can come close to the feeling of exploration while on the go like FromSoft's fantasy epic, Elden Ring. Here's why you should play it on Steam Deck.
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The Steam Deck is one of my all-time favourite consoles, but there's one game that captures its magic better than any other - Elden Ring.
FromSoft's action RPG is one of the best games of the last decade, and whatever build you go for, and however you choose to approach its challenges, you'll be able to do it on the bus, the train, in bed, or just about anywhere else.
In fact, Valve and From seemingly worked overtime to get Elden Ring running on the Steam Deck from the moment the console launched - on the same day as the game, no less.
Elden Ring is amazing on Steam Deck
In the same way that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom feel a little like magic, stuffing a huge open world like Hyrule into your pocket, Elden Ring on Steam Deck pulls the same trip with The Lands Between.
What works so well here is that you really can take Elden Ring at your own pace. I still find myself travelling ponderously through the starting area, Limgrave, just take it all in.
Of course, you can tackle bosses or more challenging encounters, but playing on Steam Deck gave me a whole new appreciation for the dungeons, with most having their own theming.
They run the perfect time for a train trip into London, making dropping into one feel like an ideal way to grind some levels when the opportunity presents itself.
What about Shadow of the Erdtree?
While the arrival of Shadow of the Erdtree did mess with the Steam Deck compatibility of the base game, it's back to being smooth sailing right out of the box now.
I've not got to the DLC yet, but my colleagues tell me that it can run at 40fps with minimal tweaking.
Is Elden Ring Steam Deck verified?
Elden Ring has the handy green checkmark so you know it's playable, but that doesn't mean there aren't ways to optimise it ever so slightly - depending on what you're looking for, of course.
We've been able to consistently get 40 to 45fps with the settings here:
- Texture Quality: High
- Antialiasing Quality: High
- SSAO: Medium
- Depth of Field: Off
- Motion Blue: Off
- Shadow Quality: Medium
- Lighting Quality: Medium
- Effects Quality: Medium
- Volumetric Quality: Medium
- Reflection Quality: Low
- Water Surface Quality: High
- Shader Quality: High
- Global Illumination Quality: High
- Grass Quality: Medium
About The Author
Lloyd Coombes
Lloyd is GGRecon's Editor-in-Chief, having previously worked at Dexerto and Gfinity, and occasionally appears in The Daily Star newspaper. A big fan of loot-based games including Destiny 2 and Diablo 4, when he's not working you'll find him at the gym or trying to play Magic The Gathering.
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This is part of the ‘Elden Ring’ directory
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