With so many triple-A titles proving their worth on handheld PCs like the ROG Ally or Steam Deck, my thoughts going into Code Vein 2 aren't negative. Could this be a solid experience? Or would it prove to be something in desperate need of a massive patch? Well, after spending some time in Bandai Namco's latest RPG, I'm not sure a quick fix can undo the damage here.
I always caveat these kinds of things with this note: I know these portable gaming consoles aren't high-end desktop rigs or PS5s under the hood. But if there's one thing we continue to learn about handheld PCs, it's that they can surprise us. ARC Raiders' Steam Deck and Battlefield 6's ROG Ally performance are a testament to that. Like Embark Studios' looter shooter, Bandai's latest Soulslike game also utilizes Unreal Engine 5. It's a notoriously tricky engine on any platform, but Code Vein 2 is another poster boy example for bad optimization.
Heading into Code Vein 2, my ROG Ally Z1e is already at 25W TDP with CPU boost enabled for extra juice. Usually, it's enough to at least push past the 40-45fps mark in most titles, depending on what graphical settings I choose. In this case, Code Vein 2 makes me feel foolish for even thinking that'd be an option. The first task the game gives you is to create a character in its creation suite. While it isn't quite as robust as the Dark Souls series, I wager plenty of players are making monstrosities already.
My custom hero, Paul Blart, is what happens when you cross John Wick with Gerard Way's wardrobe. I initially tried to forge myself a likeness akin to that of The Beatles, because the idea of anime-style Paul McCartney tickled me. It's a brief laugh, though, as even in a scenario that has no level assets or intense action, Code Vein 2 barely pips past 25fps here. As a result, menus stutter slightly, and there's a noticeable amount of input latency while toggling options. Good start.
With that done, I can finally start exploring the land, and more importantly, mess around with the game's settings. Everything is set to high by default, so I swiftly move that down to medium, with draw distance slightly reduced. We're still at 1080p and 25W TDP here, which seems reasonable. Does it make a difference? Absolutely not. We're still hovering around 30fps, and while that's normally playable at least, Code Vein 2 can barely stick around that number.
So, what next? Let's get everything cranked down to low. We'll take a visual hit, but maybe gain a few frames; that usually works, right? Apparently not. It's almost like the game is choosing to be stubborn. Despite trying multiple configurations with the ROG Ally Z1e's TDP maxed out, I'm still not making any headway. My handheld also boots up by default in Xbox FSE mode, which relies on a version of Windows that uses roughly 10% less RAM.
Even tinkering with Code Vein 2's onboard upscalers proves fruitless. In some interior areas, I'm lucky to jump upwards of a wobbly 30fps to around 38fps, albeit briefly. I've exhausted everything the game lets me tweak, so my last resort is old reliable: Lossless Scaling. Using the third-party tool is legitimately the only method of making Code Vein 2 run at a solid framerate right now. Of course, this comes with drawbacks for input latency, depending on how you configure it.
In the meantime, the studio is aware of the game's poor optimization. In a recent social media post, Bandai says that "we are planning continuous updates to enhance frame rates, address performance issues, and refine gameplay balance." Perhaps some meaningful improvements will come in an update, but the current experience just reeks of a foundational problem. If you're looking for games like Dark Souls to play on a handheld, this isn't one of them.