By Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival is here, and thanks to Saber Interactive for providing a key, I’ve been testing it on the Steam Deck. Before anything else, a clear warning: this one is extremely graphic. It features intense violence and sexual content, which is quite a departure from what I usually cover, so if that isn’t for you, this is a good place to stop.
A gruesome, psychological horror
Hellraiser: Revival is a first-person action horror survival game in which you wield the Genesis Configuration puzzle box to survive a bargain with the infamous Pinhead. It is gruesome and very psychological on the thriller and horror front, with a few jump scares along the way, and it leans heavily into the BDSM themes the series is known for, far more than I was expecting going in.
The gameplay is interesting and takes some getting used to. There are puzzle sections, stealth sections and plenty of violence, plus some genuinely frustrating moments where you’re running away and trying to work out your route through mazes on the fly.
Performance on the Steam Deck
Graphics and performance on the Steam Deck surprised me even more than the content did. Out of the box, the game defaults to the lowest settings with TSR upscaling at 67%, motion blur on and a 30fps cap, and it actually runs pretty decently like that.
There’s room to tweak things. Switching to XeSS on Quality and uncapping the frame rate gets you somewhere between 40 and 60fps, but it’s better to keep the 30fps cap for a steadier experience. XeSS does a good job and, as is usually the case on the Steam Deck, looks much better than FSR, but overall I ended up going back to TSR.
Best settings and battery life
- Frame rate: 30fps cap
- Upscaling: TSR at 60%
- Motion blur: Off
With these settings the game looks gorgeous and stays very stable on the Steam Deck. Battery life comes in at about two and a half hours on the OLED model, and probably around two hours on the LCD.
Final thoughts
Overall, Hellraiser: Revival performs very well on the Steam Deck. It certainly won’t be for everyone given how graphic it is, but if you’re into Hellraiser, you’re going to absolutely love this game.
