Zero Parades: For Dead Spies Steam Deck Impressions – Recommended Settings, Performance, and More
ZA/UM's Zero Parades: For Dead Spies launches this week for PC (Steam). Ahead of its launch, I've been playing it on Steam Deck OLED and LCD to see how it scales on Valve's handheld, my Zero Parades Steam Deck recommended settings, whether the Disco Elysium camera issue returns, and more. These impressions are based on the opening hours with the full game.
Zero Parades: For Dead Spies Steam Deck impressions
Since the Steam Deck is my favorite way to revisit Disco Elysium, I was hoping Zero Parades would be good on it. Zero Parades has gotten patched pre-release, but my impressions of it on Valve's handheld are mostly positive. The main issue present right now is some hitching in specific locations when running around outdoors. This is listed as a known issue so I hope it gets fixed soon, but there isn't anything else to note when it comes to playing Zero Parades on Steam Deck. It runs at 16:10, delivers a mostly solid 45fps at 90hz experience on the Steam Deck OLED and 40fps experience on the Steam Deck LCD. Weather effects cause drops below these targets. You can opt for a 40fps at 80hz experience on the Steam Deck OLED if you want a more stable experience throughout.
I was a bit skeptical of the text size since it took Disco Elysium multiple patches and ports to finally get it right. Zero Parades has a few text scaling options that apply to all text including menus. The Extra Large option is perfect for handhelds. I've included some comparison images for the different text size options. The Extra Large and Large options do have some text elements getting cut off in some menus though so keep that in mind. Hopefully this is addressed close to launch or soon after.
Zero Parades: For Dead Spies Steam Deck recommended settings
For launch, my Zero Parades Steam Deck recommended settings are using the high render quality option, leaving the in-game frame rate at unrestricted or 60/90 depending on your Steam Deck model, running at 1280x800 (16:10), and the extra large text size. Note that you should use the Steam Deck's Quick Access Menu to limit the frame rate and refresh rate rather than relying on the in-game cap. Zero Parades defaults to the high settings on Steam Deck and turning the render quality down to low doesn't help much with performance. You will not be able to get a locked 60fps experience on Steam Deck right now. My settings will give you a solid 45fps at 90hz experience with some drops, but nothing major.
Zero Parades: For Dead Spies Steam Deck recommended control settings
Zero Parades has full controller support and it works well, but since the Steam Deck has access to the touchscreen and trackpads with back buttons, I recommend using a combination of the default controls, setting the right trackpad to mouse, one of the back buttons to left click, and then playing. This gives you precision cursor movement if you want with the trackpad, full controller support, and the option to use the touchscreen for clicking and moving or selecting points of interest.
Zero Parades: For Dead Spies ROG Ally impressions
On my ROG Ally (Z1 Extreme at 25W turbo mode), Zero Parades delivered a 30-40fps experience at 1080p on the low preset. When playing at 720p on the same low preset, the frame rate was a lot higher, but it still dropped regularly to the 40s or even high 30s with a lot of hitching. The Steam Deck has some hitching during movement between parts of the big map, but nothing as bad as what I experienced on ROG Ally. I played for about an hour only on ROG Ally since I was hoping to get a locked 60fps experience here given how it runs on Deck, but that isn't possible. I will revisit this through updates and note if anything major is addressed.
As of now, Zero Parades is a great experience on Steam Deck with a few caveats. It is definitely in a better technical state than Disco Elysium and I'm glad it doesn't suffer from Disco's Unity issue that still has not been fixed on any platform. While Valve hasn't rated it yet, I fully expect Zero Parades to get Steam Deck Verified very soon.
Stay tuned for our full review of the game. Zero Parades: For Dead Spies is set to release on May 21 for PC (Steam). A PlayStation 5 release will follow later in the year.