If you have not but, comply with us on X (Twitter), Mastodon, or Bluesky to know once we put up new articles, and be a part of our Reddit or Subscribe to us on YouTube to take a look at our content material and work together with our superior neighborhood. Thanks for supporting us!
Admittedly, I’m not good at souls-like video games. Getting by means of extraordinarily powerful enemies and even more durable bosses requires lots of ability, exact timing, and coordination, and I’m not that nice at it. I nonetheless get pleasure from them, however when reviewing them, I’ve to play about 3x – 4x longer than regular to beat it. Nevertheless, again at Gamescom final yr, I used to be blown away by one upcoming souls-like that I used to be not solely capable of wrap my head round however was capable of even parry enemy assaults: The First Berserker: Khazan.
I used to be captivated by the beautiful cel-shaded world and tight mechanics, and whereas I assumed those self same mechanics can be my downfall, I used to be capable of benefit from them to mow down the highly effective foes. It was a blast, and I used to be advised whereas I used to be there that the crew was wanting to ensure the sport was playable on the Steam Deck.
So, after I heard a demo for the sport was launched right now, I used to be overjoyed. This was the second to search out out simply how optimized the sport was, a minimum of for this slice of the sport earlier than the total launch. As it is a demo, it is not indicative of the standard and optimization Khazan’s full launch could have, nevertheless it does give a pleasant sense as to what sort of expertise we will anticipate, and from the demo, I might say we will anticipate an excellent one.
The optimization of The First Berserker: Khazan is on full show right here, and I really feel like will probably be an excellent Steam Deck sport to play. The sport defaulted to the Medium high quality settings, which look pristine on the OLED display screen of the Deck, and saved the sport nicely above 30 FPS. Within the opening space, it nearly all the time caught above 40 FPS, nevertheless it did begin to drop as soon as I beat the massive boss Yeti and went right into a extra foresty-ish space.
It held the framerate every time I used to be in fight, regardless of what number of enemies I used to be dealing with. The one time I noticed it drop was one particular assault from the boss Yeti the place he throws a large rock at you and it explodes. In any other case, it was stable.
From this, I’m assured that Medium high quality will maintain 30 FPS with out situation, and with some decreased settings, I may see it attending to 40 with combined low/medium. I additionally testing the low high quality preset in those self same hard-to-run areas, and it appears like will probably be potential to get to 45 FPS, although there have been some slight dips into the 43-44 space. Even at low high quality, the sport nonetheless appears wonderful, and I really desire the sharper traces for cel-shaded video games like this. There’s some pop-in which may be distracting, however for a better framerate, it is nice.
Examine
Low High quality
Medium High quality
General, I’m strolling away impressed. The First Berserker: Khazan appears unbelievable and performs admirably. I wasn’t anticipating to get greater than 30 FPS, nevertheless it appears like even 40 and 45 are going to be potential with some compromises. This looks like will probably be one of many higher souls-like video games to play on the Deck the place it would not really feel like you might be sacrificing a lot to get pleasure from it.
And sure, the gameplay continues to be as nice as I bear in mind. I used to be parrying and dodging left and proper, taking down enemies, and exploring the frozen tundra that I used to be caught in. I actually just like the mechanics, particularly the ranged assault and ability tree, and though I did nonetheless die so much, I used to be having a blast. I can not look forward to this sport to be launched, and I can see myself not with the ability to cease taking part in it for some time, even when it takes me further lengthy to do it.
The First Berserker: Khazan may be pre-purchased forward of its March twenty seventh launch for $59.99, and a demo is accessible now to strive it out for your self.
Should you loved this text, try the remainder of the content material on SteamDeckHQ! We have now all kinds of sport opinions and information that can assist your gaming expertise. Whether or not you are on the lookout for information, suggestions and tutorials, sport settings and opinions, or simply need to keep up-to-date on the newest tendencies, we have you lined!
