Can you play Dragon’s Dogma 2 on Steam Deck?

Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma 2 is the kind of game you’re going to want to sink many hours into. I’ve already settled well into my role as the Arisen in the sequel, and I’m having a blast battling hordes of grotesque denizens. That said, I found myself stuck playing DD2 on my desktop PC for the simple reason that it’s not rated or optimized for Steam Deck by Valve.

Fans who have taken the plunge and installed it on Steam Deck to play natively are reporting frame rates around the 10 to15 frames-per-second (fps) mark, which isn’t great. It means the game is virtually unplayable. That’s with the game dropped to the lowest settings, too. It’s no wonder considering how hard the game hits your CPU.

But it’s not a hopeless case. Indeed, if you’re not one to stand for dodgy frame rates on Valve’s handheld (and let’s face it, what kind of gamer would you be if you did?), you might want to try one of the workarounds which do offer a more optimized gameplay experience for DD2 on Steam Deck.

One way is a subscription to Nvidia GeForce Now. The game streaming service’s Ultimate tier is the one to choose for streaming DD2 on Steam Deck. It utilizes RTX 4080 SuperPODs which can stream more than 64 teraflops of graphics horsepower to your Steam Deck, after installing GeForce Now.

The reality of that is a little easier to understand: Subscribers have reported clocking between 50 to 60fps in Dragon’s Dogma 2 with only occasional dips on the service, which is essentially smooth gameplay. To utilize the service, you’ll need to own a copy of DD2 on Steam. GeForce Now’s Ultimate tier subscription costs you $19.99 a month, with lesser-powered options also available (including a free tier).

Alternatively, the open-source app Moonlight is a great option that won’t cost you a dime. Moonlight used to work with Nvidia’s GameStream software before the graphics card company removed it from the Nvidia Experience game client. But, you can still use it with another client, Sunshine. In fact, Sunshine lets you stream to AMD devices too, so it’s the more versatile option.

Moonlight is favored by many gamers over Steam’s own streaming client, Remote Play, because of its very low latency. Moonlight devs promise you can get up to 120fps in games, but you could expect less with a game like DD2. It also allows you to disable V-Sync, so it’s a great option for games as large as DD2. To use Moonlight to stream DD2, you’ll have to download and install both Moonlight and Sunshine.

Finally, if you own a PlayStation 5 you can also stream directly from your console to your Steam Deck using the Chiaki4deck app. Once again, you’ll need to own a copy of the game. This app can also stream at a comfortable 60fps for a much smoother-than-native gameplay experience for DD2 on Steam Deck.