Enshrouded is another big Early Access open-world game to arrive on Steam, and it's already doing some big numbers. So how does it run on Steam Deck / Linux? Here's an initial starting report for you.
On both Steam Deck and Desktop Linux (Kubuntu 23.10) it works out of the box with Proton 8.0-5, and all parts of the game I can tell so far work as expected. So the good news out of the way — yes it does run. This is great, because it's another popular game with currently close to 70,000 people playing it.
For Steam Deck (tested on the Steam Deck OLED), it runs and gamepad input works just fine and the character name input even brings up an on-screen keyboard. The developer also seems to have given it tweaked graphics settings, so it appears some testing was done prior to release. That's where the good news stops. The performance is just — poor. Even on the lowest possible settings, you're not going to get anywhere near a smooth 30FPS even at the basic start of the game with nothing going on. Add some buildings, more action and more players in co-op and it gets worse.
Here's my Steam Deck initial report video:
Direct Link
For now, on Steam Deck, I simply won't recommend it at all.
As for Desktop Linux testing with an AMD Ryzen 5800X and an AMD Radeon 6800XT, testing on the "Balanced" graphics setting at 2560x1440 its performance seems to be reasonably okay. Ranging between 80FPS to 100FPS depending on what you're doing. Very much playable you would think.
Something still feels off with it though. Even though that should be enough to make it feel smooth, it doesn't feel like it's actually anywhere near that when running around. It's performance is just odd, which I've seen repeated by players on Windows too.
It's Early Access, so of course that means it's unfinished and will have plenty more time in the oven to fix up issues and add in new content. The developer plans for at least one year in Early Access, so hopefully plenty of performance improvements will come during that time.
You can buy it on Steam.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Dana Souly Jan 25
I had big trouble with the demo some months ago, and protondb is not yet updated with positive reports.
That said, it seems pretty good so far. It's got good bones and a pretty satisfying gameplay loop. The fog mechanic is interesting and it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. Worth keeping an eye on, for sure.
I find the base building very interesting, although I'm more of the "4 walls, a door, floor and a roof" builder. It's an interesting game where one can spend quite some hours, but I'm personally not sure if the current gameplay loop is fun enough to keep me interested more than 20-30 hours - as of now. Building/Equipment progression is walled behind quests - you get a quest to do something, come back, build something new, get a new quest, rinse repeat. Fighting is fun, though and exploration is too, somehow. I hope they improve on the gameplay loop and maybe add base raids or make it even more interesting.
Overall another game that is perfectly playable on linux on release day, what a time to be alive. :)
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