Sony may have stopped making portable gaming devices years ago, but Valve’s Steam Deck is quickly becoming a great way to play PlayStation games on the go. Big first-party titles like god of war, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Days gone by are now available on PC and have been verified for Steam Deck. PlayStation hits like Death Stranding and Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade are also verified. utilities Marvel’s Spider-Man Remasteredcoming out this week is one of the best examples yet of how the Steam Deck is becoming the new portable PlayStation.
I’ve only played a few hours, but as far as I know, everything that made Spider Man one of the best superhero games ever when it first came out in 2018 on the PS4 is still around. The swinging is still exhilarating, making it easy to traverse New York City by weaving from roof to roof. The city is still full of secrets to find and petty criminals to take out. I was even surprised that I got back into the story again.
When I first zipped through Spider Man on PS4, I mostly stuck to finishing the story as quickly as possible. I wanted to see what happened next! But on Steam Deck, I swing through all the alleys and climb every building to find all the secrets hidden in New York City. Sure, maybe that’s because I largely already know what happens in the main story. (Although Remastered packed in all Spider Man DLC packs, which include some new story scenarios.) But making a game portable makes me more inclined to play it in bite-sized chunks, and so I found myself using a few minutes here and there to pick up police antennas and unlock more of it. the card.
I remember feeling something similar while playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild; that game’s portability made it a more personalized experience and a lot easier to chip. Instead of feeling like I’m wasting valuable TV time searching the farthest corner of the map for a hidden secret, it’s easier to go on unexpected expeditions and make my own way on a portable device. In Zelda, that meant locating every shrine. In Spider Manthis means you have to climb one more building to find backpacks that unlock new collectibles.
On medium settings on my Steam Deck I feel like Spider Man looks a bit worse than I remember it did on PS4. There is also no ray tracing on Steam Deck; the option is gray to me even on very high settings. The frame rate generally ranges between 30 and 60 fps – although certainly at the lower end of that range as you meander through New York City. None of these are big issues for me, but the game kicks the Steam Deck’s noisy fan, which can get annoying.
That said, I enjoy playing Spider Man so much on Steam Deck I think I’m going to play it like this Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales for the first time when it coming to PC this fall. While Miles Morales was a signature PS5 launch title, it also came to PS4 the same day, where it doesn’t look much better than the original. Sony and Insomniac Games have not officially said whether Miles Morales is being verified to run on Steam Deck, but given that Spider Man was verified over a week before the official release I guess Miles Morales works fine on Valve’s handheld gaming PC.
I’m not the first to suggest the Steam Deck could be a spiritual successor to the PlayStation Vita, but I’m starting to think that Sony’s support for Steam Deck could make it a better PlayStation portable than the Vita once was. Not only does Sony difficulty convincing developers to make games for the platform, but also lacked its own first-party support. While many gamers remember Gravity Rush, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and Persona 4 Goldenonly the first two were Sony games – and both arrived in the handheld’s home screen. Just three years after the release of the handheldSony has basically left the Vita without a single Gran Turismo.
With the company’s growing support for Steam Deck, Sony has already brought several exclusive flagship games from its home console to a handheld device. While the games available now usually arrive years after they were first released, Sony seems to be shortening that window for future titles.
Spider-Man: Miles Moralesreleased in 2020, will be out this fall. Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, which came out in January is scheduled for this year. The remake for The last of us is scheduled for September and is already in development for PC. There are even hints that Sony can bring Returnan exclusive PS5 from last year, to PC.
Sony has not yet said whether these will support Steam Deck. But given the company’s current lineup of Steam Deck-verified games, public plans to invest heavily in PC games and PlayStation exec Shuhei Yoshida’s Open tension for the Steam Deck, the lineup of Sony titles that work on Valve’s handheld gaming PC should get even better in the future.
If the ports turn out to be like this: Spider-Man Remastered on Steam Deck, we’re in for a treat. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go find another backpack.
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered launches on PC on August 12. You can get it on Steam or the Epic Games Store.