One feature that doesn't get mentioned or appreciated enough is the perfect sleep capability. I have 2 young kids and busy work/family life so I struggle to dedicate gaming time. I might get 20min or I might get interrupted in 30s after I sit down. No problem! You hit the power button and it sleeps instantly, and whenever you have time next you seamlessly and perfectly pick up where you were. This removal of overhead for booting and loading the game makes a massive difference for people like myself.
Otherwise, its interface is great and gets out of the way. There is any number of awesome games available and I've found I've played games I might not have on pc anyway. And a lot of games have seamless cloud saves too - for example I'm playing witcher 3 now and I can play here and there during the day on steam deck and then if I have time for a bigger session I pick it up on pc.
Games I've enjoyed on it include outer wilds (CANNOT recommend that one enough!), steam world dig 2, Dex, into the breach, backbone, and a lot of others.
Edit / p.s.: for me it's size is a plus btw. With Kishi+phone, Nintendo ds and even Nintendo switch, my fingers tingle and wrists hurt after a while. The wider and more natural spacing / angle of the larger steam deck means I can play with no such ergonomic issues.
Outer Wilds gave me plenty of enjoyment, but isn’t a favorite. I got through nearly the entire game on my own. Near the end there were two sequences (the collapsing ground area and the sandy/thorny area) where I knew roughly where I wanted to go, but making a single mistake meant restarting from scratch, then sitting and waiting about eight minutes for the stars to align so I could try again. I finally resorted to a guide to navigate those two paths.
Later, I found the final sequence so frustrating that I gave up and watched the rest on YouTube—and was glad I did, because that ending would not have landed for me, at all. It reminded me (to its detriment) of Majora’s Mask, a game that actually did a good job of convincing me to care about the NPCs and their situations over the course of the story.
Funnily enough, Outer Wilds has been on my mind lately, because I just played through Tunic, a different (and for me, much more enjoyable) take on the “play the game blind” concept.
Fair Enough! I agree with you there, and I did drop the game once for a week or three because I couldn't nail platforming sequences. My memory just erased those bits and focused on fun parts :->
Can you let me know about Tunic? I first heard of it literally yesterday when I googled for "Zelda but on Steam Deck"...
I found the world and exploration very fun, but the “platforming” challenges were extremely frustrating for me, and I didn’t enjoy the random messages and the miscellaneous details that you translated. Basically the gameplay loop was filled with things that didn’t quite ring with me, even though the overarching design and story were compelling.
Interesting; I found the baseline Outer Wilds one of the most original and fascinating adventures of last few years. I can't wait for my kids to get older so we can (re)play it together - I want to see them make the same connections and their eyes light up and feel all clever! :->
(It is a bit of a slow burn; but if you've invested time and it doesn't quite meet the hype, fair enough :)
I don’t mind the slow burn at all! I however did not like being forced to do frustrating platforming / movements while having to start from scratch every time I run out of time or die.
One feature that doesn't get mentioned or appreciated enough is the perfect sleep capability. I have 2 young kids and busy work/family life so I struggle to dedicate gaming time. I might get 20min or I might get interrupted in 30s after I sit down. No problem! You hit the power button and it sleeps instantly, and whenever you have time next you seamlessly and perfectly pick up where you were. This removal of overhead for booting and loading the game makes a massive difference for people like myself.
Otherwise, its interface is great and gets out of the way. There is any number of awesome games available and I've found I've played games I might not have on pc anyway. And a lot of games have seamless cloud saves too - for example I'm playing witcher 3 now and I can play here and there during the day on steam deck and then if I have time for a bigger session I pick it up on pc.
Games I've enjoyed on it include outer wilds (CANNOT recommend that one enough!), steam world dig 2, Dex, into the breach, backbone, and a lot of others.
Edit / p.s.: for me it's size is a plus btw. With Kishi+phone, Nintendo ds and even Nintendo switch, my fingers tingle and wrists hurt after a while. The wider and more natural spacing / angle of the larger steam deck means I can play with no such ergonomic issues.