By There’s something uniquely thrilling about taking massive, chaotic historical battles and shrinking them down to fit right in the palm of your hands. Lately, I’ve had quite a few people reaching out, asking me to dive into Over The Top: World War I to see how it holds up on handhelds. It’s a game with massive ambitions, promising staggering 200-player skirmishes that aim to capture the brutal, muddy reality of trench warfare. Naturally, as someone who loves pushing portable hardware to its limits, I had to boot it up on my Steam Deck and see exactly what this early access title brings to the table.
The Ambition vs. The Reality
First, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: the current player count. When a game advertises 200 active players per battle, you expect absolute bedlam. Unfortunately, that massive scale seems to have driven some people away, or perhaps the early access jank was just a bit too much for the casual crowd to stick with. After being out in the wild for about a month, I’m just not seeing a huge amount of active players in the game. The biggest server I managed to load into had around 30 to 40 real people fighting it out.
But don’t let that completely deter you. You can easily jump in and play against bots if you just want to get used to the mechanics. Honestly, having functional bots is a really refreshing difference from many other online-only titles where empty servers mean a dead game. For now, bot matches might actually be where most of the player base is spending their time, and it’s a great, low-pressure way to learn the ropes.
Performance and Settings: Pushing the Hardware
Now, let’s get into the technical nitty-gritty. Performance is, to put it mildly, a little bit tricky right now. As someone who tests a lot of games on handhelds—whether it’s the Steam Deck or a beefier Windows device like the ROG Ally X—I’ve come to rely heavily on upscaling technologies to bridge the gap between visual fidelity and playable frame rates. Sadly, Over The Top: WWI is currently lacking in this department. There are no major upscaling techniques available out of the box. The only anti-aliasing option you have is standard TAA, and without any other upscaling options to lean on, we are forced to run this game at pretty much the lowest graphical settings possible.
Playing on these low settings means spotting your enemies across a muddy, gray battlefield is quite difficult. You really have to squint to see if that pixel in the distance is an enemy soldier or just a weird-looking tree stump. Despite dropping everything to the absolute minimum, the frame rate is still a bit rocky. We regularly dip under that golden 30 frames per second mark. It’s not an absolute blur fest, which is a relief, but it’s definitely a rough-around-the-edges experience that demands a bit of patience.
Janky Controls and Level Playing Fields
Then there are the controls. If you’re hoping for a seamless, plug-and-play console shooter experience, you might need to temper your expectations. Out of the box, there are virtually no native controller settings. Well, there are settings, but they feel exactly like a raw mouse and keyboard remap slapped directly onto the thumbsticks. The result? Very janky controls with a mouse-emulation sensitivity that is completely off the charts. Making precise micro-adjustments is incredibly tough.
Furthermore, we don’t really have a traditional aim-down-sights (ADS) mechanic. You essentially just point your rifle in the general direction of the enemy, factor in a massive accuracy window, and hope for the best. To actually land any shots, you have to stand completely still, and even then, sometimes you just have to get a bit lucky.
But here is the fascinating part: despite the graphical downgrades and the incredibly quirky control scheme, I actually had fun. I managed to snag quite a few kills and even leveled up a bit during my matches against real players. Because everyone in the lobby is wrestling with the same awkward mechanics and lack of precise aim, it ironically creates a fairly level playing field. You don’t feel like you’re being constantly out-gunned by a keyboard and mouse sniper from across the map, because they are likely struggling with the game’s inherent accuracy penalties just as much as you are. It turns the game into a slower, more methodical, and highly chaotic experience that feels somewhat authentic to the desperation of WWI combat.
The Final Verdict
So, what’s my final verdict? Is Over The Top: World War I playable on the Steam Deck? I would say yes—just about. Even though we regularly dip under that 30 FPS threshold and the controls require a steep learning curve, I was still able to get kills and enjoy the core gameplay loop. It’s playable in my book for sure, but I completely understand that it probably isn’t for everybody in its current state.
Looking ahead, I would absolutely love to see this game populated with much more people online. However, I do have a lingering concern. If the servers do eventually scale back up to hold 200 players, I can easily see the performance taking a further, much heavier hit on handhelds. Because this is still an Early Access title, there is plenty of room for improvement. My biggest hopes for future updates include some serious performance patches, the addition of dedicated upscaling tech to help out devices like the Steam Deck and ROG Ally X, and a complete overhaul of the controller support to make it feel less like a keyboard remap and more like a modern shooter. The foundation is there, and with a little bit of polish, this could be an incredible portable WWI experience.