Entry to Arknights: Endfield was offered by GRYPHLINE for evaluate. Thanks!
Arknights: Endfield doesn’t simply step out of the shadow of its predecessor; it actively burns the bridge behind it. This isn’t tower defence with a brand new coat of paint, neither is it serious about gently onboarding you from the unique Arknights. As a substitute, developer Hypergryph swings for one thing far bolder: a moody, deliberate action-RPG that trusts its viewers to maintain up, even when it’s being dense, bleak, or unapologetically gradual.
From the second you set foot on Talos-II, the sport makes its intentions clear. This can be a world that doesn’t care should you’re snug. Huge industrial complexes loom over scorched landscapes, know-how feels barely underneath management, and each location carries the load of one thing having gone catastrophically mistaken. Endfield thrives on environment, and it’s at its finest when it lets environments do the speaking relatively than spelling all the pieces out by exposition. Even standing nonetheless can really feel oppressive, in the very best method.
That tone carries immediately into the story, which is equal components fascinating and irritating. You play because the Endministrator, a determine of authority navigating political pressure, environmental collapse, and the implications of commercial ambition. The writing is sensible, however indulgent. Early on, the sport completely loves the sound of its personal terminology, and it’s straightforward to bounce off the sheer quantity of names, ideas, and factions thrown at you. Keep it up, although, and the narrative slowly reveals a confidence and maturity that’s uncommon within the style. When Endfield slows down and focuses on folks relatively than techniques, it lands its emotional beats with stunning pressure.
Fight is the place all that brooding vitality lastly will get to chop free. Endfield’s real-time, party-based motion is slick, weighty, and much more considerate than it first seems. This isn’t a button-masher pretending to be intelligent — success comes from studying enemy patterns, figuring out when to swap characters, and committing to your selections. Every character feels distinct, not simply cosmetically however mechanically, and constructing a rhythm between them mid-fight is deeply satisfying. Sure, some encounters blur collectively over time, however the moment-to-moment really feel of fight is robust sufficient to hold the expertise.
Exploration strikes a wise stability between freedom and focus. Somewhat than dropping you into an awesome open world, Endfield affords tightly linked areas that encourage poking round with out killing momentum. Motion feels good, traversal choices hold issues snappy, and there’s a lovely sense of ahead movement that stops the sport from bogging down between fight and story. It respects your time greater than its early pacing may counsel.
Visually, the sport is a knockout. Character fashions are sharp and expressive, cutscenes are framed with confidence, and the usage of scale offers Talos-II a genuinely cinematic presence. The soundtrack quietly does plenty of heavy lifting too, underscoring the sport’s melancholy with out ever screaming for consideration. That stated, the interface can get noisy throughout intense moments, often combating the participant for readability when issues kick off.
Being free-to-play inevitably brings baggage, and Endfield doesn’t faux in any other case. Development techniques sit within the background like a low hum, by no means fairly going away. Whereas the sport is beneficiant sufficient early on and avoids consistently shoving spending prompts in your face, gamers with little tolerance for gacha conventions will nonetheless really feel the friction over time. It’s not the defining characteristic of the expertise, however it’s a persistent one.
Arknights: Endfield – Steam Deck Efficiency
To play Arknights: Endfield on the Steam Deck, you’ll have to set up it from a third-party. This may very well be from Epic utilizing the Heroic Video games Launcher or NonSteamLaunchers, or putting in the launcher immediately and including it to Steam.
Arknights: Endfield performs higher than is perhaps anticipated for a visually dense, PC-first launch. With smart settings in place, particularly preserving it on the “Very Low” preset, albeit with an FPS cap of 60, the sport is definitely able to largely holding that 60fps goal, delivering a surprisingly clean expertise throughout exploration and fight alike. Whereas there could be the occasional dip throughout busier moments, total efficiency feels secure sufficient to comfortably justify a better frame-rate cap relatively than settling for 30fps, which helps the sport really feel extra responsive on Valve’s handheld.
That efficiency does come at a value, nevertheless. Energy draw sometimes sits within the 22–24W vary, placing sustained stress on the Steam Deck’s battery. In real-world use, that interprets to an anticipated battery lifetime of round two hours at finest, and typically much less relying on brightness and background processes. It’s very a lot a “play close to a charger” expertise, however for shorter periods, Endfield proves that the Steam Deck can ship robust efficiency, even when endurance takes a predictable hit.
Accessibility
No accessibility choices can be found.
Conclusion
Ultimately, Arknights: Endfield seems like a sport made with quiet confidence. It’s dense, often cussed, and completely bored with chasing mass attraction. That received’t work for everybody, and it doesn’t attempt to. However for gamers prepared to fulfill it by itself phrases, Endfield affords a richly atmospheric, mechanically participating expertise that feels uncommon within the free-to-play house. It’s flawed, typically irritating, and sometimes good, a sport that is aware of precisely what it needs to be, even when it makes you’re employed a bit to understand it. As with each GaaS, nevertheless, particularly the Gacha-based ones, its survival is contingent on future content material and on whether or not the techniques applied, each current and future, really feel honest to the burgeoning playerbase.
Our evaluate is predicated on the PC model of this sport.
If you happen to loved this evaluate, make sure to try the remainder of the content material on SteamDeckHQ! We now have all kinds of sport evaluations and information which are certain to assist your gaming expertise. Whether or not you are searching for information, ideas and tutorials, sport settings and evaluations, or simply need to keep up-to-date on the most recent traits, we have got your again.
