Today I had the opportunity to test out Nobody Wants to Die on the Steam Deck, courtesy of Deep Silver who provided us with a key. The game was released on the 17th of July and I wanted to see how it performs on the Steam Deck.
The good news is that it runs out of the box on the Steam Deck. However, being an Unreal Engine 5 game, it comes with frame time and frame rate issues on the Steam Deck. It's capping out at around 24-25 frames per second, even on lower settings.
After some tinkering and adjustments, we managed to push the frame rate to around 30 frames per second by turning off chromatic aberration, depth of field, and motion blur with XeSS balance. However, the visual quality suffers, and certain sections still experience frame rate dips. Without these adjustments, the game barely holds 15 to 20 frames per second, making it a less than ideal experience.
Fortunately, Nobody Wants to Die is available on GeForce Now, which runs smoothly at a solid 60 frames per second, even with enhanced graphics settings. This streaming option not only delivers excellent visuals but also consumes less power, offering a good 4 hours of gameplay on the Steam Deck.
GeForce Now offers a free tier and an upgradeable ultimate tier, which is equivalent to streaming directly to the Steam Deck at around £20 a month. This provides plenty of options for players to experience the game on the Steam Deck. If you're willing to tolerate the lower FPS, playing locally is an option. Alternatively, you can explore the smoother experience offered by GeForce Now.