Early impressions show Wild Hearts can run on Steam Deck, but not well

Fans have hope that performance improvements will arrive soon after launch.

Image via EA

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Early impressions of Wild Hearts have started to flood social media, giving fans loads of information about the upcoming monster-slaying action RPG. One thing that’s clear from those who have access to the game is that it barely runs on Steam Deck, though they’re hopeful for the future.

Reviews, including our own, for Wild Hearts are slowly trickling out as critics outline their thoughts on the game. One thing that’s also becoming very apparent is the game’s underwhelming performance on Steam Deck. A few outlets have commented on how poorly the game runs on Valve’s handheld device, but the fact that it can run the title at all is impressive.

#WildHearts is running on the #SteamDeck! We are still testing, but this is a tough one to run.

Some initial findings: Wont hit a stable 30 FPS with all settings turned to low, no resolution below 1280×800 to use SteamOS FSR, and no in-game upscalers. Not great for performance. pic.twitter.com/0jsijbiGEK
— SteamDeckHQ (@SteamDeckHQ) February 14, 2023

Steam Deck enthusiasts such as Steam Deck HQ have been testing the game thoroughly to try to work out how best to run it without crashing the device. The general consensus seems to be that even with everything in the settings turned down to low, the game still can’t hit a stable 30 FPS and will crash after a certain point in the introduction.

However, the fact that Wild Hearts runs on Steam Deck at all is impressive. While the graphics playing it on the device have been described as Monster Hunter on 3DS, there seems to be a decent foundation for the developer to build on in the future. Indeed, the game’s executive producer expressed their interest in making it work on Steam Deck in a recent Reddit AMA.

We believe that on day one, Wild Hearts will register as “Playable” or “Unverified” on Steam Deck. This means that while you can load the game and get it to run, it’s not been optimized for the device or passed to Valve to be verified. If more work is done to help the game run on Steam Deck, then this may one day change to “Verified.”

One recent game that’s also had some issues on Steam Deck is Hogwarts Legacy, which was released last week. It’s a massive open-world game that Steam Decks could run from day one, but it’s been said that the game’s introductory levels have been heavily optimized to give the impression that the game runs well on the device. In reality, the performance drops considerably once you enter Hogwarts Castle, and the game struggles to run in the open world anywhere unless you pull most of the settings down to low.