By Bodycam just got a huge update, so I went back and retested it on Steam Deck, then took it for a spin on the Steam Machine to see how much better it can look. It’s officially unsupported on Steam Deck, but whether you actually play it there comes down to personal taste rather than anything technical, because it does run. It’s also available on GeForce Now if you’d rather stream it, and I’ve got some footage of that further down.
Steam Deck: rough around the edges, but genuinely playable
On Steam Deck I ran it at 800p with the low preset, XeSS on balanced, and motion blur off, and landed under 30 frames per second most of the time with a bit of fuzziness to the image. That’s still enough to actually play the game. Aim takes some getting used to regardless of platform, since it’s a slow, deliberate shooter where holding your sights steady through gunfire matters more than flicking around, and you’ll want to watch for the kamikaze drones that wander into close-quarters fights. I’d skip frame generation here specifically, since the frame rate is already low enough that it doesn’t do you many favors, though you might pick up a touch more smoothness if you turn it on from the start rather than toggling it mid-session. Overall it’s a decent showing for an unsupported title, and honestly better than some games that do carry Valve’s verified badge.
Steam Machine: stunning at 1440p, punishing at 4K
The Steam Machine is where this game really gets to show off. At 1440p on the medium preset with XeSS on quality, it looks photorealistic on a big screen and holds a steady 60 frames per second with only occasional dips, though I didn’t initially realize frame generation was switched on by default until I noticed how smooth everything already felt. Turn that off and push for 4K on the ultra preset, though, and you’re down to around 10 frames per second just standing in the lobby, gorgeous but unplayable the moment you try to move. Dropping to the low preset at 4K barely helps; you’ll roughly double your frame rate to around 20, but it’s still a jarring experience. 1080p at ultra fares a little better in the lobby, but drops back into the sub-20 range once you’re in an actual match, so I’d hate to see what 4K does under the same conditions. 1080p at high is the first setting that clears 30 frames per second consistently. The lesson across all of this: medium is the preset to build around on Steam Machine no matter what resolution you’re running, since the amount of graphical effects in this game hits higher presets hard.
Where frame generation actually pays off
At 1440p on medium without frame generation, I was getting a solid 40 to 50 frames per second, which climbs closer to 50 during the busier moments with gunfire and effects flying everywhere. Switch frame generation back on, though, and it’s a different game entirely. I dropped XeSS to balanced for a bit of extra headroom and landed a rock-solid 90 frames per second at 1440p medium. If that’s more than you want, you can dial it back to a lower multiplier or cap it at 60 to cut down on the artifacts, but I was having a genuinely great time running it at 90.
Worth diving into?
If you’re after a genuinely competitive shooter on Steam Deck or Steam Machine, Bodycam delivers that. One thing worth flagging: even with over 20,000 players active, plenty of my lobbies still had bot players mixed in on both teams in deathmatch and versus modes, so keep an eye on the player counts if you want a fully human match. And if you’d rather run the ultra preset on Steam Deck or get an even smoother experience on Steam Machine without eating into your storage, GeForce Now streaming at 1440p ultra with DLSS on quality is a solid shout, and I’ve included some footage of that so you can see how it compares. Let me know in the comments if you’re jumping into Bodycam and where you’ll be playing it.