Published , by Donovan Erskine
Published , by Donovan Erskine
When Valve announced the Steam Deck, pre-orders flooded in. It took months of the company slowly rolling out devices to those who reserved one before there was enough supply to just order them on a whim. All of that hype wasn’t for nothing, as the prospect of taking games from your Steam library on the go proved to be an excellent new way to game.
While there have been plenty of games ported to the Switch over the past several years, the Steam Deck gave us a way to play games on the go that were previously locked on stationary hardware. Games like God of War: Ragnarok, Cyberpunk 2077, and Marvel’s Spider-Man could suddenly be played in bed, in the car, and on the toilet, if that’s your thing.
It’s impressive how little the Steam Deck compromises quality and performance, too. It’s a beefy little machine, but players still have a full suite of settings to customize so that games run to their liking. Although your mileage may vary in regards to battery life, the Steam Deck can achieve some decent fps numbers without severely sacrificing visual quality.
There’s also something to be said about how Valve gives players full freedom to get creative with their Steam Decks. Its Linux-based OS allows users to browse the web, and even add non-Steam programs to the device. Some players have even turned their Steam Decks into an emulation machines for retro games.
The Steam Deck is surely just the first step for Valve into the world of gaming on the go, but it’s quite a good step. We look forward to seeing how this device grows and is iterated on in the years to come.
Check out our Year of the Games: 2022 article to see all of the other Shacknews Awards that have been announced so far.