Draugoth
Gold Member
When I first tried Monster Hunter Wilds on Steam Deck through the initial open beta, it was unplayable with sub 20fps performance at the absolute lowest settings. Even when enabling Frame Generation, it never felt good to play. The second beta had similar issues, and when I tried the PC benchmark, I was almost certain Monster Hunter Wilds would not be a good experience on Valve's handheld. After getting access to the final game for working on guides and other features, I was curious to see how it would feel.
When launching it for the first time, it took about 15 minutes to get done with optimizing (compiling shaders). After that, the title screen's logo for Monster Hunter Wilds didn't load correctly. The gold portions were black as you can see in the opening image of this article. I retested the game across Proton Experimental (bleeding edge), GE-Proton9-25, and the default Proton version on Steam Deck with no luck. Beyond that, the d-pad didn't work correctly for menu navigation and the game sometimes didn't recognize inputs correctly, requiring use of the touchscreen or a mouse. I fixed this by using Capcom's official layout for use with the PlayStation 5 controller rather than the default for Steam Deck.
Once I got into the actual game and loaded up my character, it was clear that even with the latest PC build, Monster Hunter Wilds is unplayable on Steam Deck. Just exploring maps like the Scarlet Forest without any sort of action on screen results in sub 20fps gameplay with the game running at 720p while using FSR 3 Ultra Performance, all the graphics options at their absolute lowest possible settings, and Frame Generation disabled. Frame Generation introduces some latency, but using it when your source frame rate is almost always below 20fps is never going to be a good experience. Sure, the number on the frame rate counter is in the 40s or even higher, but it feels awful to play.
One thing to note is that even some in-game assets don't load correctly like the Begin Quest or Quest complete screens. Some backgrounds or assets when you aim your slinger and gather items also seem bugged on Steam Deck.
A positive so far is that cross platform multiplayer does work on Steam Deck. I tested this across platforms with both the PS5 and Steam versions on Steam Deck working fine with friends and randoms.
Based on how it plays right now, I don't think Monster Hunter Wilds will ever get to a playable state on the current Steam Deck. I don't consider a game running below 20fps at the absolute lowest settings (with heavy upscaling) in the early game during less intense moments as playable by any means. I know this is disappointing news, but don't bother wasting time trying to play Monster Hunter Wilds natively on Steam Deck right now.
If you do have a more powerful desktop PC or laptop at home, I recommend playing it there or streaming it from there to your Steam Deck if you have a good local network setup like the one I cover below for PlayStation Portal.
