Horizon Forbidden West is a game with a plethora of action and vast expanses of land for players to explore. Given the sheer size of the game, I'll let you know below if Horizon Forbidden West works on the Steam Deck.
How to play Horizon Forbidden West on Steam Deck
The Steam Deck is a breakthrough for most Steam games, as you can now play them comfortably from pretty much anywhere. Given the portability of the Steam Deck, it obviously has hardware limitations up to a certain point due to its size.
While Horizon Forbidden West does work on the Steam Deck, the main area where I witnessed it struggle is with the AMD Zen 2 CPU as it has a difficult time rendering. This, however, can be worked around if you are okay with playing the game on lower settings.
Best settings for Horizon Forbidden West on Steam Deck
Most of the settings matter here. However, if you don't mind losing a couple of FPS, you are welcome to turn these settings up. The main thing you want to keep in mind is to upscale the game using AMD FSR 2.2.
Best Horizon Forbidden West display settings on Steam Deck
| Display | Settings |
|---|---|
| Window Mode | Fullscreen |
| Display Resolution | Maximum |
| Aspect Ratio | Auto |
| Cinematic Letterboxing | On |
| Refresh Rate | 90 Hz |
| Vsync | Off |
| Dynamic Resolution Scaling | Off |
| Upscale Method | AMD FSR 2.2 |
| Upscale Quality | Balanced |
Related: Horizon Forbidden West Patch Notes
Best Horizon Forbidden West graphics settings on Steam Deck
| Graphics | Settings |
|---|---|
| Preset | Low |
| Texture Quality | Low |
| Texture Filtering | Trilinear |
| Shadow Quality | Low |
| Screen Space Shadows | Off |
| Ambient Occlusion | SSAO |
| Screen Space Reflections | Off |
| Level of Detail | Low |
| Hair Quality | Low |
| Crowd Quality | Low |
|
| |
| Terrain Quality | Low |
| Water Quality | Low |
| Clouds Quality | Low |
| Translucency Quality | Default |
| Parallax Occlusion Mapping | Off |
| Field of View (FOV) | 90 |
| Depth of Field | Medium |
| Bloom | Off |
| Motion Blur Strength | 0 |
| Sharpness | 1-5 |
| Lens Flare | Off |
| Vignette | Off |
| Radial Blur | Off |
| Chromatic Aberration | On |
As you can tell, you will need to play the game with most settings turned down or off. Whether this is a good trade-off for the convenience is up to you to decide. These settings will enable you to achieve at least 30-35 FPS, which I believe is sufficient for smooth gameplay on the Steam Deck.
For more on Horizon Forbidden West, be sure to check out How to upgrade Specter Gauntlet in Horizon Forbidden West and Best new Skills in Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores DLC here on Pro Game Guides.
Published: Mar 25, 2024 03:08 pm