Horizon Forbidden West works great on Steam Deck, surprisingly

Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition is now available on PC and fans were curious about how the game would perform on Valve’s acclaimed Steam Deck. While many were initially worried about the game, it turns out that this PlayStation exclusive runs pretty well on the handheld PC.

The folks at Gaming on Linux have confirmed that this Horizon sequel runs pretty well on Valve’s handheld, running at a consistent 30 FPS. It’s not a perfect experience, as the game’s Steam profile says they will work on more updates to make it more playable on these handheld PCs. Still, a good-looking game like this can run so well is a testament to the work Nixxes does for these ports.

The Steam Deck version of Horizon Forbidden West is more interesting because the game’s default compatibility is with Proton Hotfix. This version of Proton received an update recently, so fans will need this to be compatible with Steam Deck, at least for now. Updates will make the game more playable on Deck in the future, so they might eventually drop Hotfix.

Developer Nixxes has ported Sony’s PlayStation exclusives to Steam Deck well, as their work on Marvel’s Spider-Man and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart has shown. Nixxes also worked on the port of Horizon Zero Dawn and that game has managed to get the prestigious “Verified” rating. If things go well, Forbidden West could also end up getting that “Verified” rating as well.

Horizon Forbidden West came out to fairly positive reviews, building on the foundation of Zero Dawn and improving on everything else. While some have argued that the story of Zero Dawn is better, the improved combat and additional content does make it more fun to play. The fact that this version also comes with all the game’s DLC makes this even better.

Fans can check out Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition now on PS5 and PC. Thankfully, the game is also playable on Steam Deck and will only get better as updates come out.