By Remedy’s Control Resonant is out now on Steam, and it is available to play on both the Steam Deck and the Steam Machine. Whether it is truly playable on the Deck is debatable, though. The action-adventure RPG, which sees Dylan Faden fighting a reality-bending threat across a warped Manhattan, is officially rated Unsupported on Steam Deck, while it is rated Playable on the Steam Machine, and it runs well there.
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Best Steam Deck settings
Getting Control Resonant running on the Steam Deck means going about as low as the game allows. These are the settings used for testing:
- Resolution: 800p
- Preset: Handheld (the lowest available)
- Upscaling: FSR, Balanced render resolution
- FSR sharpness: 30%
- Motion blur, depth of field and similar post-processing effects: Off
- Ray tracing: Off (turning it on under SteamOS crashes the game, and the settings then have to be reset to get it running again)
Steam Deck performance
With these settings, Control Resonant holds 30 FPS when standing still. Combat is a different story. Fights are frequent and frantic, and the frame rate drops into the low 20s, occasionally falling below 20 FPS. Frame generation might make things look smoother for some players, but it is not recommended here because the base frame rate is already so low.
Despite that, the game is playable. In the middle of a fight, the focus on hitting enemies, dodging and staying alive means the mid-20s frame rate is not too noticeable. There are some jerks and hitches, especially inside bases, and the game suffers from micro stutter on every platform right now, so it clearly needs some optimization. FSR also makes the image look a little too blurry at times, although character interactions still hold up well.
Overall, it is not unplayable, and it is not terrible. It is just not the most enjoyable way to experience a game that can look this good. For anyone with no other way to play, the Steam Deck still delivers a fairly decent time.
GeForce NOW: the full-quality option
Control Resonant was available on GeForce NOW from launch day, and streaming it to the Steam Deck is a completely different experience. Running at full Ultra settings with high ray tracing and the post-processing effects turned off, it looks like a very different game and is absolutely gorgeous.
Playing this way requires GeForce NOW’s Premium or Ultimate tier. The Ultimate tier, which runs on RTX 5080-class hardware, costs around $20 a month. The advantage of a subscription is that it only needs to be paid while playing: subscribe for a couple of months to finish the game, then go back to playing locally on the Deck, without spending out on an RTX 5080 of your own.
Verdict
Control Resonant can be played on the Steam Deck with the settings above, but frame drops in combat and general stutter hold it back until it gets further optimisation. The Steam Machine is the better local option, and GeForce NOW is the best way to see the game at its full potential on the Deck.