Death Stranding 2 is a bridge too far for Steam Deck

by

The original Death Stranding worked really well on the Steam Deck, so players were eager to see if the sequel, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, would run just as smoothly. Let’s take a look and find out!

We tested how well Death Stranding 2 performs on PC to help you decide where to play. Given the amazing performances from the game’s actors, you’ll want to experience it on a system that can deliver the best possible visuals.

Just a heads-up: if you’re hoping to play Death Stranding 2 on the Steam Deck, you might need to consider upgrading your hardware. Let’s take a look at how the Steam Deck performs with the game.

Can the Steam Deck run Death Stranding 2?

Sadly, you will need something with a bit more juice than Valve’s Steam Deck.

I was really hoping for a smoother experience, even with the newer OLED Switch. Honestly, even using the settings designed for playing on the go, we had trouble getting the game to run at a consistent 30 frames per second. It just wasn’t as smooth as I’d hoped!

As we mentioned in our preview of the Death Stranding 2 PC port, the game uses PICO, an image upscaling technology developed by Guerrilla Games for their Decima engine. This is similar to how Epic Games’ TSR works with Unreal Engine 5 – it improves the game’s visuals.

PICO offers a visual advantage on handheld devices like the Steam Deck and ROG Ally. Because these devices don’t support advanced upscaling technologies like Nvidia’s DLSS or AMD’s FSR4, PICO can deliver noticeably sharper and clearer images, especially in demanding games.

Interestingly, the PICO setting was initially set to ‘Balanced’. Switching it to ‘Performance’ gave us a few more frames per second, but made the graphics look slightly worse.

Want to see this content?

This page uses a security feature called Google reCAPTCHA. Before it loads, we need your permission because it might use cookies. If you want to see the content, please select ‘Accept and continue’ to enable reCAPTCHA.

During actual gameplay, the framerate stayed consistently above 30FPS only during indoor cutscenes or in enclosed areas. When playing in open environments like mountaintops or large plains, the framerate generally fluctuated between 24 and 28FPS.

When approaching intensive effects such as flash floods and rivers, the framerate takes a nosedive.

The game unexpectedly started to slow down when music began playing during gameplay. This occurred while the player was near a river during a storm, suggesting the Steam Deck may have been having trouble loading everything it needed at that moment.

We didn’t have a chance to test other handheld devices, but we expect newer models – anything released after the Steam Deck – will likely perform significantly better, or at least maintain a steady 30 frames per second.

If you’re hoping to play Death Stranding 2 on your Steam Deck, streaming it from a PC is your best bet, assuming you have one. However, this game truly shines on a large, high-quality display.

Death Stranding 2 works with Steam Input, meaning controller buttons will display correctly on your screen. However, it won’t offer any special features specifically for the PlayStation DualSense controller.

If you really want to use SteamOS, you might need to wait for the next version of the Steam Deck or the new Steam Machine, both of which should provide a good experience.

Authors

Cole LukeFreelance Writer

Cole Luke is a freelance journalist and video creator who works with TopMob Gaming. His work also appears on websites like Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, and Network N.

  • Visit us on Twitter

Read More

2026-03-19 18:43