I’m an avid Steam Deck fan, but I’ll happily admit that my use case for the device isn’t to play the latest and greatest AAAs. It seems I’m in the minority here, however, as the infamously poorly optimizedMonster Hunter Wildsis extremely popular on the Deck.
For performance purists in the audience, myself included, it may be downright unthinkable to play a game as ridiculously unoptimized asMonster Hunter Wildson the Deck, but that’s not stopping the community from enjoying the experience regardless. According toValve’s own listof the most popular games on the Steam Deck,Monster Hunter Wildsis hovering around the number 10 spot over the past month. Over on the Steam Deck subreddit, some users are about as perplexed as I am, asking what settings could people possibly be playing the game at for it to maintain a reasonable frame rate. With that in mind, I don’t think there’s anything “reasonable” about it. As Redditor NoxinDev puts it, “Crystal clear and smooth locked 10 fps (maybe a few dips) – Don’t knock it until you try it.” Sounds about right.
Poor performance is hardly an issue for Steam Deck fans of Monster Hunter Wilds
I’m obviously being half-cheeky here because I, too, started my gaming career on a device that could best be described as “humble” if I’m being polite about its capabilities. When a subpar gaming experience is all you can get, you’re going to take it and, heck, will inevitably end up enjoying the game if the gameplay loop is good enough.
On that note, there’s no denying the fact thatMonster Hunter Wildsis a fun game. Since we know for a fact thatSteam Deck users are extremely loyal to the device, broadly speaking, it shouldn’t come as a huge shock that they’d at leasttryto run Capcom’s fancy new flagship on it. There’s a trick to it, though, and it makesWildskind of playable on the Deck: it’sthe aptly titled “Little Engine that Shouldn’t” mod.
This mod, which I believe is an absolute must-have if you intend to seriously playMonster Hunter Wildson the Deck, takes the game’s graphics setting even lower than would otherwise be possible. According to the mod’s creator, “you should be able to maintain ~30fps with framegen enabled using this config and the tweaks on this page, at 1024×640 with Quality upscaling, or Balanced at 800p. If you use Lite Environment and enable all of its options, you may manage close to a solid 30 at 1024×640 without frame generation.”
If you’re not sure how Frame-Gen works and whether it’s going to feel right at sub-30 native frames per second, I highly recommend reading up onour primer on the technology. Personally, I’d advise against using it but definitely do give the Little Engine that Shouldn’t mod a shot if you’d like to playWildson the Deck. It doesn’t even look half-bad, all things considered!
Curiously, this whole thing brings up a point I made not long ago, that theSteam Deck isn’t nearly as outdated as some might believe. Whether it’s the only gaming device you have or if you justneedto have cutting-edge AAAs running on it, it very well can eke out a playable and enjoyable experience in most modern releases. Even if we’re talking about 30-ish FPS at ridiculously low rendering resolutions, that’s a worthwhile experience for a particular kind of user. So, power to the people!
