The Asus ROG Ally is my preferred base of operations for PC games, but part of me still warms to the Steam Deck. Both are fantastic pieces of kit, but for my ongoing Call of Duty needs, Valve’s handheld loses the fight more often than not. It shouldn’t have to be this way for games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, but I fear the Steam Deck will continue to be its own worst enemy.
Despite a whole new wave of devices taking their place as the best portable gaming consoles, the trusty Steam Deck keeps on trucking. Technology evolves daily, frequently leaving hardware in the dust. Yet, the Steam Deck’s welcoming ‘pick up and play’ design and modest hardware give users the tools to run something like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 or Cyberpunk 2077 – albeit with plenty of compromises. Black Ops 6 is just one piece of a bigger crack in the Steam Deck’s armor: anti-cheat measures.
Modern-day titans like Grand Theft Auto 5 were once Steam Deck compatible, but you won’t be venturing beyond the open-world game’s story on Valve’s platform. Rockstar Games’ stance on the matter defers all queries to Steam itself, as the game’s FAQ clarifies that “GTA 5 and GTA Online are not officially supported on Steam Deck and all technical support questions should be directed to Valve’s Steam Deck support content and community.”
Elsewhere, Epic Games seems indifferent about bringing Fortnite Steam Deck action to the masses. This scenario applies to dozens of multiplayer gems, but it isn’t because these games are awful performance-wise. In the case of Black Ops 6, it actually runs impressively well on the Steam Deck.
That’s if you’re dual-booting Windows 11, though. You’ll need to flick most of the settings to the lower end, but with AMD’s almighty FSR 3.0 frame generation tech, Black Ops 6 easily soars beyond 55 fps, sometimes reaching the 100 mark. Unless you’re into tinkering with hardware and jumping through Linux’s hurdles, most Steam Deck owners won’t see Treyarch’s fantastic Call of Duty entry working. The appeal of the Steam Deck is, at least for me, its simplicity. Turn it on, get your Team Deathmatch fix, then turn it off. Comparatively, churning the undead into bloody butter or obliterating maps like Stakeout on the Asus ROG Ally is painless.
As Ricochet anti-cheat poses no threat here, installing and booting up any recent Call of Duty title is virtually guaranteed to work from the get-go. There’s not too much difference on paper between the two handhelds on a granular level. But as it stands, Black Ops 6’s Steam Deck battle – without Windows 11 – can only be won through the power of cloud gaming. Luckily, the Steam Deck isn’t completely hopeless on the anti-cheat front.
Steam itself said in January 2022 that “our team has been working with Epic [Games] on Easy Anti-Cheat and Proton support over the last few months […] alongside our BattlEye updates from last year, this means that the two largest anti-cheat services are now easily supported on Proton and Steam Deck.”
Speaking to Automaton last year, Steam programmer Pierre-Loup Griffais expressed that “we have been monitoring the trend of games requiring kernel-level access for their anti-cheat technologies and not supporting Steam Deck as a result,” and reiterated that the company is “extremely aware of the critical need for countermeasures against cheating in online games, but are also considering options carefully.” But when will multiplayer juggernauts be able to shine properly outside of a Windows device?
One of the most underrated FPS games, The Finals, doesn’t require any workarounds. Tranquil social experiences like No Man’s Sky are bliss with friends on the small screen. Forza Horizon 5 brings you and fellow racers together easily. Helldivers 2 is a bona fide liberty-fest on the Steam Deck. But a handful of multiplayer games sticks out on a mostly single-player roster on the Steam Deck charts.
Valve is more concerned about shepherding players into the Steam OS experience, whether you have a Steam Deck or not. In a move not dissimilar to Xbox’s recent multi-platform strategy, Steam OS is rolling out onto other consoles, appearing on the Lenovo Legion Go S display – the first third-party handheld PC to feature it. The solution seems to be moving away, rather than working toward a viable solution. A potential Steam Deck 2 release date could see a revamped iteration ironing out the dents. I can hope so, at least.
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