Some time ago we wrote an article in which we talked about How to know if a game was compatible with the Steam Deck or not. In short, Valve stamps them as "Verified" if they work perfectly, "Playable" if they can be played with minor difficulties, "Not Supported" if they are not supported, and "Unknown" if they are unknown. The problem is that these stamps are becoming less and less reliable, and ProtonDB must be the real reference.
The Steam Deck is he presented in 2021, and Handheld pc It went on sale in 2022. Therefore, we could say that we're looking at a mid-range gaming PC from 3-4 years ago, also taking into account that it runs better on small screens. It can handle 2022 titles, but not the most demanding ones, or not with the best quality. Valve wants to attract people to its platform, and a good gateway is the Steam Deck. For that reason, it gives the "Verified" seal to everything it can.
Has Valve relaxed its criteria?
The gaming blogosphere and video game channels are full of content about People complaining about the "Verified" sealI think the first time I read this was about God of War: Ragnarok, a game that Valve marketed as "Verified" from day one, but the performance wasn't as good as it could have been. For my part, and so far, I've only experienced the opposite, that is, games marked as playable or unsupported that I've actually been able to run.
Until now.
I recently discovered Darksiders, which reminds me a bit of God of War 2005-2013 and a bit of Prototype. I liked it and got it cheap with a license key. Valve has given the remaster its seal of approval, and it's certainly not. It froze once, popped up a message I couldn't accept another time, and a third time showed the "test card"-like colors of a TV. As if that weren't enough, the videos only feature voices with no background sound, which is a clear flaw.
In fact, this is the first time I've ever answered "No" when asked if I found the experience good enough to warrant the "Verified" seal.
ProtonDB: Real User Data
Since I have an external SSD with Windows for these situations, I thought that if things get worse, I could play that title on the Windows operating system. At worst, on the PS3, but now "Caribbean." But the truth is, sound aside, I've spent a lot of time playing it without any problems. Also, on ProtonDB dicen which works with Proton 9. After testing with that version of Valve's compatibility layer, I think the sound issues have been resolved.
But if the user can't just put it on and play it, that game shouldn't be "Verified." A game with this seal is something like Horizon Zero Dawn: if you don't touch its battery consumption or TDP, it runs without touching anything at all. In fact, you can lower it to 6 TDP if you're happy with around 30fps. God of War (2018) is also a good one, although it doesn't look quite right because the Steam Deck settings start with FSR enabled, which is completely unnecessary. In fact, ProtonDB also has the best settings to improve performance.
- One "Not compatible" one is Guardians of the Galaxy, which can run perfectly, but only if you increase the VRAM to 2GB. Otherwise, it sometimes drops to 1fps or even less, making it impossible to navigate the interface. It would be more complicated, but I prefer that Valve adds another category, such as "Playable by increasing the VRAM" to leaving it as "Not compatible" for those that can be played with some tweaking and "Verified" for those that have problems with the audio or video.
But it's understandable. Valve wants to attract players, and its Steam Deck smooths the path somewhat. Maybe they should consider that those of us who keep it do know how to tweak it a bit, add more information, and not just hand out "Verified" tickets for the sake of it.