Games Happy

Forward of its launch as we speak, I have been enjoying medieval story-driven motion RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance II on each my Steam Decks and ROG Ally to see the way it scales on handhelds. Having not too long ago performed the primary recreation on Nintendo Swap after Xbox One X earlier than, I am fairly impressed with the way it seems and runs thus far, however given the scope of the sport, I have not been capable of check each single location. Having performed the sport by its pre-release interval and some patches on the best way, I can safely say that Kingdom Come Deliverance II may be very playable thus far on Steam Deck, however higher on ROG Ally. 

At any time when a giant RPG is introduced with its platforms confirmed as PC with present technology consoles solely, I fear about Steam Deck or common handheld efficiency. We have had some latest video games ship delivering poor experiences on Steam Deck, however some ended up shocking me. Warhorse Studios’ Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has been an fascinating recreation to play on Steam Deck and ROG Ally with how properly the PC model scales down. I haven’t got entry to the console variations to match, however the builders are assured sufficient within the recreation on Steam Deck to even put it up for sale on Valve’s handheld. Earlier than stepping into how the retail recreation with its day one patch runs on Steam Deck, I wish to cowl a bit concerning the PC launch.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II PC graphics choices

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II ships with decision choices (together with 800p / 16:10 assist), window mode choices, an general picture high quality preset, an fps restricted, an fps show choice, a v-sync toggle, horizontal FOV slider, gamma correction slider, digicam results, and determination scaling choices. The digicam results settings allow you to alter movement blur (digicam, object, off) and toggle close to depth of subject. On the decision scaling aspect, you possibly can allow or disable FSR (on Steam Deck and ROG Ally) after which alter the mode (Native AA, high quality, balanced, efficiency) and alter sharpness degree.

The general picture high quality presets in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II are low, medium, excessive, extremely, and experimental. I opted to make use of a customized preset. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II’s superior graphics settings enable adjusting the degrees (low, medium, excessive, extremely, experimental) for object high quality, particles, lighting, international illumination, postprocess high quality, shader high quality, shadows, textures, volumetric results element, vegetation element, and character element. This menu additionally has anti-aliasing choices which might be greyed out while you use upscaling.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Steam Deck efficiency and visuals

As a CryEngine recreation, I anticipated Kingdom Come: Deliverance II to be fairly heavy, however even on its low settings, it seems and runs fairly properly early on. Regardless of getting Kingdom Come: Deliverance II earlier this month and being impressed with the way it runs within the early hours, I’ve been retesting it during the last week following the day one patch being pushed to my assessment construct. To not say this modified a ton for Steam Deck, however given how the unique recreation was once I first performed it on console, I wished to verify my testing precisely displays (so far as attainable) the construct everybody else will play from day one. 

Proper off the bat, I used to be impressed with how Kingdom Come: Deliverance II regarded on Steam Deck with its default settings. I do know most Steam Deck customers are used to enabling FSR or XeSS upscaling in latest video games, however for Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, I like to recommend avoiding it as a lot as attainable as a result of this additionally impacts the beautiful interface together with textual content. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II’s textual content measurement is already a bit too small on the smaller display screen, however utilizing upscaling makes it tougher to learn. You even get a warning in the event you attempt to allow Efficiency upscaling.

Barring that, it seems superb even on its lowest preset, however the one actual visible subject is the draw distance. You’ll usually see foliage pop-in shut, however that is a small worth to pay for the way good the sport seems at 800p on the Steam Deck display screen.

Talking of 800p and the way Kingdom Come: Deliverance II helps 16:10, it additionally has Steam Cloud assist. I performed throughout each my Steam Decks and my ROG Ally throughout the assessment interval with no points. The one time I bumped into a problem was once I tried operating it at 1440p on Steam Deck related to my 1440p 144hz monitor. This pushed issues an excessive amount of (as anticipated) and resulted in a crash. 

One different side I wished to focus on is how Kingdom Come: Deliverance II controls on Steam Deck. Along with having full controller assist, I discovered myself having fun with it extra because of the paddles, however I used to be stunned at how a lot I used the correct trackpad to intention and only for digicam motion. The default controller configuration it hundreds with is definitely “gamepad with mouse trackpad”. Some video games block the trackpads or do not use them as properly, however Warhorse Studios did an ideal job with making Kingdom Come: Deliverance II management completely on Steam Deck

I put in over a dozen hours earlier than the day one patch was made accessible to my assessment construct, however began a brand new save file to retest the opening and open areas since. There is not a lot to alter, however I’ve discovered settings I am pleased with thus far on each Steam Deck and ROG Ally.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Steam Deck really useful settings thus far

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II scales very well on Valve’s handheld, and you may even squeeze good efficiency out of it with FSR, however there’s one subject you’ll run into. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II’s beautiful interface and stylized menus are additionally affected by the upscaling tech you utilize. This implies the small textual content (on the hand-held display screen) may have its readability affected while you use upscaling on the efficiency setting.

Due to this, I like to recommend enjoying with a 30fps cap so you should use FSR utilizing native AA slightly than rendering at a decrease inside decision. The opposite settings I used are a mix of the bottom preset with some tweaking. I set every little thing to the low preset in superior graphics settings. I used v-sync with a 30fps cap. When you’re enjoying docked, you’ll not have a very good time with the interface scaling points sadly at 720p. You’ll be able to attempt to run the sport at 1080p and use FSR efficiency or one thing, and whereas this can work for the precise gameplay, textual content readability is a matter. 

I do not suggest enjoying Kingdom Come: Deliverance II docked on Steam Deck until you are happy with the 720p visuals and efficiency. The most important subject with enjoying on Steam Deck and utilizing the low preset thus far is the pop-in, however in any other case it seems surprisingly good. If you wish to play at 40fps, I like to recommend utilizing FSR at balanced at worst. I bumped into dips from the 40fps goal when utilizing FSR at High quality. The 30fps expertise I had was much more constant so I caught to that.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II ROG Ally settings and impressions

Because the ROG Ally has a 1080p display screen and is extra highly effective basically, I made a decision to attempt medium settings, 1080p, and even 900p. The ROG Ally, just like the Deck, additionally has a smaller display screen so the textual content is a bit arduous to learn within the menus. That is additionally another excuse I averted utilizing upscaling initially. 

After testing Kingdom Come: Deliverance II on the ROG Ally (Z1 Excessive with the 5GB VRAM setting and within the 25W turbo mode) for a couple of hours each earlier than and after the day one patch, I discovered two attainable choices. The primary is a 30fps goal (with some minor dips). For this, you should use the medium preset however flip shadows to low and run at 900p with FSR set to efficiency. The textual content does not look unhealthy in menus and the sport nonetheless seems good all issues thought of. I observed some dips or hitching to the excessive 20s, however these could be loading associated.

For the next body charge goal, the low preset at 1080p sees body charges within the mid 50s usually, and the VRR show helps right here. Setting it to 720p, utilizing the low preset, and FSR efficiency ends in about 70fps in early cities and through open exploration. This is not good although for the reason that UI suffers quite a bit with textual content readability points and a few shimmering. I solely examined this to see how a lot the body charge would improve. Turning off FSR sees the body charge dip to the 50s right here. It is not unhealthy and is certainly extra playable than the Deck with the upper body charge.

Additionally for a stress check, I turned the sport to 1080p and the Extremely preset principally had the sport drop to 12-14fps. Positively not really useful, however it’s fascinating to see how a lot you possibly can push the ROG Ally right here. I don’t suggest making an attempt the presets above medium. 

I am trying ahead to placing extra time into Kingdom Come Deliverance II over the approaching weeks. For now, it has been fascinating to see how the PC port is and the way it scales on each Steam Deck and ROG Ally with really useful settings for each. All issues thought of, Kingdom Come Deliverance II is surprisingly good trying on Steam Deck and performs higher than I anticipated on Valve’s handheld.