Remnant 2 is Steam Deck verified, according to Valve. The declaration of the Soulslike shooter’s newly awarded status came just before its launch, and while Steam Deck owners rightly believed this meant the game would run well on the PC gaming handheld, the reality is a little more complicated.
Owners of the handheld have stated their grievances online with the performance of Remnant 2 since its recent launch. While the game has been declared as verified by Valve, its dismal performance is making some users lose faith in the reliability of the compatibility process.
YouTube Channel Steam Deck Gaming disagrees with the game’s verified status entirely. While playing the game on the handheld, not only did they discover illegible text, but playing the game on the default settings created horrible results. “Under 30fps with graphics that make me want to vomit is not verified status in my book,” they proclaimed.
Our personal findings weren’t too dissimilar. While trying to run Remnant 2 on the Steam Deck, we found it difficult to maintain a frame rate above 30fps at native resolution, and it looked awful to boot. Even with the use of upscalers like AMD FSR, and Intel XeSS, the frame rate still dipped. This isn’t an experience you’d expect from a verified game.
Seeing a ‘verified’ game on Steam is meant to instill confidence that a game should run well. In order to receive the declaration in the first place, games must be “fully functional”, and the default graphics settings should perform adequately enough. As we now know, that definitely isn’t the case for Remnant 2.
Remnant 2 isn’t the first verified game to raise questions, either. While Last of Us Part One is Steam Deck verified, its performance has been heavily criticized. This isn’t unique to verified games, either. Some of the best anime games, like Dragon Ball: Kakarot, run superbly on the Steam Deck. Yet, the official Steam page for the Namco Bandai title is currently listed as ‘unsupported’, which could leave some to ignore an otherwise amazing game.
Those at Steam Deck HQ have opened the floor to discussions about improving the compatibility process already, and it’s something we agree with. Users of the Steam Deck subreddit have also proposed for the addition of verifying a game at different frame rates, e.g., “verified at 30fps”. Whatever the solution, we hope that Valve is already looking to a way to streamline the verification process.
Check out our list of the best microSD card for Steam Deck to get that extra room to play all of your favorite games. If you’ve already got plenty to play, check out our best Steam Deck accessories and give your handheld the touch up it deserves.