DO NOT BUY Elden Ring on the STEAM DECK

Hello and welcome back to a new video. So

I recently just got my hands on a brand

new Steam Deck after waiting 7 long months

for my Steam Deck to come. I finally got

my Steam Deck, and as an avid fan of Elden

Ring, I just knew I had to install Elden

Ring on my Steam Deck straight away.

Actually, one of the main reasons I wanted

to buy a Steam Deck in the first place was

because I really wanted to be able to play

Elden Ring anywhere I went to. Even if I

went traveling to another country, I'd be

able to play Elden Ring. But after playing

Elden Ring for a few days now on my Steam

Deck, I have to say that unfortunately,

the experience has been rather

disappointing and lacking in luster. So I

finished Elden Ring about 5 times now on

my gaming laptop. I have a Razer Blade

Pro, RTX 3060 graphics card with 16GB

of RAM, with a 32-inch curved monitor with

a 144Hz refresh rate. So as you can

imagine, that's a pretty good gaming

setup, and obviously I wasn't expecting my

handheld Elden Ring Steam Deck experience

to be anywhere near as good as my

professional gaming setup to be.

Obviously I knew I had to sacrifice some

graphical fidelity in order to gain some

portability when I play Elden Ring on the

Steam Deck, but I just wasn't really

expecting to have to sacrifice this much.

But playing Elden Ring on the Steam Deck

has to be one of the most frustrating and

uncomfortable gaming experiences I've ever

had. The main problem I have when it came

to playing Elden Ring on the Steam Deck

has to be the Steam Deck's controller. I

just don't really like the controller

system on the Steam Deck. Look how far

apart your hands are when you hold the

Steam Deck. The Steam Deck is a really

wide thing. It's not really compact. It's

like holding a piece of wood at times,

and sometimes that can feel very

uncomfortable. And the weight of the Steam

Deck does start to feel very noticeable

when you've been playing Elden Ring on it

for hours and hours. When I first

originally played Elden Ring on my laptop,

I used an Xbox controller, and this

controller is really good. It's really

comfortable. And you know in Elden Ring

when you want to change between your

different potions and your mount, you

press down on the D-pad? But sometimes

you're fighting enemies and you want to

move around at the same time whilst

choosing your potion or flicking through

your different minion summons or your

different potions. And on the Xbox

controller, that's really easy to do. So

imagine I'm using the left thumbstick to

move about like that. I just reach over my

right thumb over to the D-pad, and whilst

moving around, I can easily press down on

the D-pad so I can switch between

different potions and stuff whilst I'm

moving. You can't really do that on the

Steam Deck because look, so I'm moving

around with the left thumbstick. How am I

going to reach my other thumb all the way

to the other side when this thing is so

gigantically wide. I can't. The only way

you could possibly do that is if you hold

it with one hand like that and then you

accidentally press all the buttons on the

back side, or you accidentally press the

trigger button. It's really hard to hold

this thing with one hand without

accidentally pressing buttons. There's no

space on it to really grip because the

entire surface is covered with trackpads

and buttons and thumbsticks. Even on the

other side, it's covered in more buttons.

And it's really frustrating because, for

example, I'm trying to get away from an

enemy, I'm nearly about to die, I need to

switch from my mount to different potions,

and I can't really do that without

stopping movement. And I have to stop

moving, press down on D-pad, and then I

risk getting hit in the face. And even if

I could stretch my thumb all the way from

this side all the way to the other side,

I have to cross over my thumbs like that

because the D-pad on the Steam Deck is on

the other side of the thumbstick. So I'd

have to cross my thumbs like that or use

the trackpad to press down like that. I

just felt really frustrated with the

control system on the Steam Deck when

playing Elden Ring. And I know you're

saying, you're thinking, why don't I just

plug in my Xbox controller into the Steam

Deck? Because yes, you can do that. You

can plug in pretty much anything into the

Steam Deck— keyboards, mice, monitors,

controllers, anything really. But then

what is the point of getting the Steam

Deck if you're just going to plug in all

this stuff? I might as well just play on

my gaming laptop. So if I wanted to use my

Xbox controller on my Steam Deck, first I

have to plug in a USB hub, and then I've

got to plug in the power USB into the USB

hub, and then I need to get a stand to put

the Steam Deck onto the stand so it stays

up so I can see the screen. And then the

screen is really tiny because I have to

put it on the table far away in front of

me because I can't hold it up in front of

my face anymore. So I've got the Steam

Deck on a stand next to my computer on my

desk with my controller, and then I need

to get a monitor because the Steam Deck

screen's so small. Then I plug in my

monitor. At that point, the portability of

the Steam Deck has completely been flushed

down the toilet. The whole point of

playing Elden Ring on the Steam Deck in

the first place is so that I don't have to

carry around all this extra gear. If

you're saying that I have to carry my

controller, my stand, a portable monitor,

maybe even a keyboard and mouse with my

Steam Deck, I might as well just brought

my gaming laptop with me at that point.

So yeah, the control system isn't exactly

ideal if you're hoping to play Elden Ring

on the Steam Deck for hours and hours and

hours. It's going to get very

uncomfortable. But the control system

isn't even the worst bit about playing

Elden Ring on the Steam Deck. The worst

bit I would say is the performance of

Elden Ring on the Steam Deck is not really

that mind-blowing or amazing. So I've got

Elden Ring booted up here, and first of

all, you can see the battery life of Elden

Ring is not great. I've got 94% battery

and it says I've got a projected battery

life of 1 hour and a half. That's pretty

rubbish. How can you expect me to only

play for 1 hour and a half before the

battery completely gives up? You're going

to have to have this plugged into your

mains or some kind of battery bank for the

whole time you're playing this game,

otherwise you're not going to be able to

play much longer than an hour before your

battery dies. Look at the percentage just

ticking down even as I speak. It's

literally been 20 seconds since I started

speaking and we lost 1%, and I'm not even

doing anything in the game apart from

standing here. But the main thing I'm not

very happy about with my experience of

Elden Ring on the Steam Deck has to be the

frame rate. So as you can see in the top

left corner, it says 25, 27. That is the

game's FPS, and that's pretty rubbish,

especially when you're used to playing on

a pro gamer laptop. And I used to get

about 60 FPS at all times when playing on

my gaming laptop. Going from 60 FPS back

down to about 20-something FPS really

feels terrible. And I do have the settings

on maximum right now. I'll show you

quickly. It says quality settings maximum.

So I do have it on maximum settings, and

the game looks, looks quite nice, I guess.

You have to say it does look pretty good,

but you sacrifice smoothness in the game.

So you watch the gameplay for a bit, I'll

show you. It just doesn't really feel that

great for some reason, especially when

there's a lot of enemies on the screen, a

lot of stuff going on. So I'll just run

through the camp, see if I can get some,

some enemies to follow me, and you'll

watch the frame rates at the top left.

Watch how it just starts dropping through

the floor, especially when you get minions

and you've got like 5 of your own summons

fighting 10 enemies all at the same time,

which I actually think I could do. See,

this is my problem that I was talking

about earlier. If I want to switch to my

minions, I've now got to stop moving and

risk getting hit just so I could select

the minions. So it's going to be pretty

dangerous. Watch my thumb. See, now I'm

getting hit while I was trying to choose

my minions and I accidentally chose a

flask. Nearly got stuck in a corner. Hold

on, I'm 2 button presses away. See, when

you play on Steam Deck, you really have to

prepare in advance. So frustrating. If I

was using my Xbox gaming controller, I

could just easily bring my other thumb

over to the other side and press down on

the D-pad, but I can't do that because the

Steam Deck is so wide. My thumbs are

pretty long, but they're not that long.

So here you can see we've got 5 summons

and we've got a bunch of enemies fighting,

and the FPS is about 26, 28.

It's so rubbish. It just doesn't really

feel very nice to play this game at this

kind of frame rate.

See, it's just kind of slow, kind of

laggy, doesn't really feel that great even

though it looks okay. So what you have to

do is you have to turn the graphics down

to low if you want to get any kind of good

FPS. You'll put it all the way down to

low, gonna put the graphics down to low,

and Go back, and then we

get the FPS to go up and stay above about

30. Sometimes it does get near to 40, but

really, even on low, you see the FPS

hasn't really gone up by that much. We

still struggle to stay above 30 FPS, and

it just feels kind of laggy, kind of

stuttery. And I'm gonna die. Got to

quickly get safe and then press down on

D-pad so I can choose my potion. And heal

up. So this is what the gameplay looks

like if you're wondering what Elden Ring

would be like on the Steam Deck. It's

okay, I mean it's playable if you turn the

graphics way down, but then the game looks

kind of rubbish. So you're going to have

to accept the fact that it's not going to

look great, but it will play okay if you

turn the graphics down and you don't have

high expectations. You can play Elden Ring

and have a pretty good Elden Ring

experience handheld. Just accept the fact

it's not going to look amazing and it's

not going to feel really fluid and smooth,

and the control system, um,

leaves a lot to be desired.

As you can see, I've lost about 10% of

battery and I've only been playing for

like 2 minutes just to film that short

video. 10% of battery gone in 2 minutes,

and they're saying I have an hour and 20

minutes projected life. I don't think so.

I don't think it's going to last longer

than 40 minutes at this rate. Also, as you

can hear, the Steam Deck does have its own

built-in fan on the back bit, so if

you put the Steam Deck on your lap,

you're going to get very hot very quickly

because it's going to be blocking this

vent. And you've also got vents at the top

which blow out the hot air. Which feels

quite nice if you've got cold hands, but

you do have to be careful because it gets

quite hot at the top. And there's been a

few times where I tried to grab the Steam

Deck like this and I forgot that there's

air vents at the top and it was a bit hot.

Also be aware that the fan can get quite

noisy, so I'm going to stop speaking so

you can hear the fan noise.

It's not as bad as my gaming laptop, but

it is pretty loud. So unfortunately, I

cannot recommend playing Elden Ring on the

Steam Deck, especially if it's your first

time playing the game. You really have to

play on a big screen with a nice control

pad on a nice computer or a nice console,

and that's how you get the best experience

of Elden Ring. If you don't care about the

graphical fidelity or the control system,

then sure, go ahead and play it on the

Steam Deck, but I personally would not

recommend it.