Sea of Thieves on Steam Deck is surprisingly good (Impressions)

  • I recently got a Steam Deck and, of course, one of the first games I installed was Sea of Thieves! Sure, it's no match for my gaming PC but I'm very surprised at how well it runs for a handheld device.

    By default it applies the "Rare" graphic settings and I was getting around 45 FPS. I decided to cap it at 30FPS though to save battery and give a more consistent experience.

    Still, having a game running on a handheld that looks and performs better than a Day One Xbox One is very impressive. Unfortunately the ping isn't great, it's double what I'm used to and very likely down to the WiFi and using a 4G phone hotspot. It hovers around 120-140ms, which is still playable (EDIT: depending on WiFi signal and how good of a 4G connection there is, I am seeing pings as low as 80-90ms, which is a lot more playable!)

    The controls are okay, though a little fiddly if you are used to using a proper controller. But that's more a review of the system than the game itself. Another limitation of the Steam Deck is that it doesn't detect the difference between 3-pole and 4-pole 3.5mm audio jacks - what this means is that if you plug in a standard headphones without a mic, you can't use the onboard microphone. You can still use the onboard mic if you use Bluetooth headphones though.

    I won't be getting into PvP anytime soon on it but it's a nice option to have if I'm stuck in work, or away from home, and have time to kill that I can just pick it up and do some fishing or chill activities for a bit (got those milestones to chip away at now!).

    I don't know if Rare have any direct involvement in the Proton compatibility but whoever has been working on it has done a really good job.


    Update September 2022: There seems to be an issue with audio support on the latest Proton versions. If you experience a drop out of audio when you log into the game on Deck, then force the game to run under an older version of Proton. See my comment below detailing how to do this, if you are unsure.

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  • Maybe knock out the 100 hours of sleeping trinket on it?

  • Off topic but vs a Switch? Obviously the Big N has exclusives, but weight, battery life durability etc?

  • @pithyrumble said in Sea of Thieves on Steam Deck is surprisingly good (Impressions):

    Off topic but vs a Switch? Obviously the Big N has exclusives, but weight, battery life durability etc?

    It blows the Switch out of water in terms of performance, but that comes at a cost. It's larger, heavier, and the battery probably won't last as long - bear in mind though, that you can improve battery somewhat by tweaking settings.

    Yeah, Nintendo obviously has some great exclusives but Steam has a vast library of games already out that the Deck supports. Valve is always testing other games too. Sea of Thieves was in the "Playable" category, which is the second from top in terms of compatibility. But you can click on the information and see what problems a game might have.

    Steam also has free online play and has better and more frequent sales. I love my Switch, but I don't play it as often as I'd like because the exclusive games (the ones I would play on it) are rarely ever on sale.

    If you're already a PC gamer with a library, you'd likely find a lot of your games run well or great, and you can sync saves via the cloud.

  • @hijack-hayes I got an hour of sleep today using xCloud and touch controls.

  • That sounds excellent.

    If I got one my workplace productivity would probably achieve lows that I previously thought unthinkable.

    I wonder if my employers would be willing to take my Emissary grade into account during my annual reviews...

  • @boxcar-squidy They’d probably base it on milestones and you’d be screwed

  • @sn0kanon said in Sea of Thieves on Steam Deck is surprisingly good (Impressions):

    @boxcar-squidy They’d probably base it on milestones and you’d be screwed

    Unfortunately you've only slept for 60 hours of real time. You are being suspended while we perform an investigation into how many cheeses you have performed on other milestones.

  • @sn0kanon said in Sea of Thieves on Steam Deck is surprisingly good (Impressions):

    @boxcar-squidy They’d probably base it on milestones and you’d be screwed

    Lol. I can see it now.

    "No, our records show that you only just started working here"

    "What!?! I've been working here for the last 4 years, I say hello to you in the carpark every morning!"

    "Sorry, the computer has no records of any previous employment with us, are you sure you didn't just start here?"

  • @boxcar-squidy This pretty much nails what it would be like if SoT were an employer 😁

  • So about that I also just got my steam deck, and of course I got sea of thieves on it, but when I start up the game sound works great but as I click A and the game begains to load then all sound just stops. Got any idea.

  • @no-name12345612 said in Sea of Thieves on Steam Deck is surprisingly good (Impressions):

    So about that I also just got my steam deck, and of course I got sea of thieves on it, but when I start up the game sound works great but as I click A and the game begains to load then all sound just stops. Got any idea.

    Apologies for the very late response on this, I hadn't seen this comment until someone liked my OP. You may have already figured this out but, just in case...

    This seems to be a problem with the latest versions of Proton from 7.0-4 and Experimental. The solution to this is to force the game to run under an older version of Proton, such as 6.3-8.

    On the game page, click the settings icon (cog icon on the right, beside the controller icon).

    Go to Properties, then Compatibility. Select "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool" and from the dropdown menu select Proton 6.3-8. I believe this is the latest known stable version.

    When you run the game next, it will likely need to redownload that version of Proton and you will probably be also prompted to log in again.

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