Can you play Resident Evil 4 Remake on Steam Deck?

Resident Evil 4 remake is playable on Steam Deck!

The Resident Evil 4 remake has finally released, allowing players all over the world to relive the classic misadventures of Leon “SesameSeed” Kennedy. There’s no doubt that this is an absolute stunner of a game on PC and modern consoles. But what if you wanted to play Resident Evil 4 on Steam Deck?

As of writing, the Steam Deck compatibility for the remake of Resident Evil 4 is officially listed as “unknown.” Of course, that hasn’t stopped other games from running on the device, and Capcom’s latest horror title is no different. However, you may need to jump through a few hoops to attain optimal performance. Here’s what you should expect.

Note: All screenshots featured here were captured via the Steam Deck. I slightly cropped each image to keep the FPS display visible.

How to fix the graphical glitches

Right off the bat, some players may notice awful black boxes all around Leon “Sock’emBopper” Kennedy and many other textures. While the game appears to otherwise run fine, this insane artifacting makes Resident Evil 4 Remake functionally unplayable. Fortunately, this has an easy fix.

To get rid of graphical glitches, update your Steam Deck to the latest version. To do this, press the STEAM button on the lower left side of the device. Scroll down to the “Settings” option and select “System.” Press “Check For Updates” and you should be prompted to download an update. You will have to restart your device to install the new files.

Afterwards, open the game again and the graphical errors should disappear.

The best settings for Resident Evil 4 remake on Steam Deck

The Resident Evil 4 remake should run okay by default at this point. However, you can make a few tweaks to further improve your experience.

First, you need to find the Options menu. You can access this from the main menu or in-game from the start menu. Right off the bat, under Controls, you want to select “Type B” under “Button Icon Type.” This will make all on-screen prompts match the button layout on the Steam Deck.

Second, scroll over to the “Graphics” tab using the right bumper. Most of these settings will be set to “low,” and I recommend keeping them there to improve performance. Personally, I turn Vertical Syncronization and Motion Blur off as well. Admittedly, many of these options are to taste. If you don’t mind sacrificing some frames to improve the picture quality, feel free to turn up the Texture Filtering and toggle settings like Volumetric Lighting.

Finally, though not related to your in-game settings, you can get a boost in performance by installing CryoUtilities. This made a very notable difference in my game’s performance, so I highly recommend clicking this link and following the directions to get these improvements. You may need to set a Sudo Password to finish the installation, which is created by going to your taskbar in Desktop mode and searching for “Konsole.” From here, type in “passwd” to set a password you can feed into the CryoUtilities program. Note that this is a third-party tool (albeit a reliable one), so exercise caution when giving anything access to your system.

How does Resident Evil 4 remake perform on the Steam Deck?

With all the above options in place, I maintained at least 40 FPS while playing the iconic village brawl. I can’t verify how the late game runs yet, but others have reported finishing the game on Steam Deck. The variable FPS may be jarring, but I find the smoothness preferable to a prettier picture locked at 30 FPS. Do note that this game will push the device to its limits, so expect less than two hours of gameplay before the battery runs dry.

Honestly, even with the settings turned low, Resident Evil 4 looks surprisingly great on the Steam Deck. The graphics really pop on the device, and the smaller screen generally obscures any imperfections. Would I recommend playing Resident Evil 4 on the Steam Deck over a modern console or a more powerful PC? Absolutely not. This is, by all accounts, a lesser way to experience this game. However, if you want to take your PC save file on the go or you just don’t have any other option, the handheld device will do the trick.

If you intend to play the Resident Evil 4 remake this way, feel free to customize the experience to your own tastes. For example, gryo aiming isn’t officially supported for the Steam Deck, but there already exists custom controller profiles that add the feature. Keep your eyes peeled for any mods or enhancements that come out in the future!