Steam Deck Review: A gaming console for the quintessential gamer

This new portable gaming device from Valve is a lot of fun. But maybe not so much if you're a casual gamer.

There's a hard-to-get new game console this year that's neither a PlayStation nor a Xbox. It is sold online only. Most casual gamers probably haven't heard of it.

It's the $400 Steam Deck, as utilitarian a console as that sounds. The handheld device, a chunky black plastic slab with an integrated game controller, has the guts of a supercomputer and a touchscreen. It's like a gaming computer and a Nintendo Switch had a child.

Valve, the Bellevue, Washington company known for its Steam online game store , started taking orders for the Steam Deck last year, and consoles arrived recently. The company hasn't released sales figures, but estimates suggest hundreds of thousands have been shipped. People who attempt to order one today will not receive the device until the fall.

In other words, the Steam Deck has become a viable alternative to traditional gaming consoles, unlike Google's cloud-based gaming platform, Stadia, which was a flop.

The Steam Deck is the result of Valve's ambitious effort to combine the benefits of modern gaming devices. This includes dedicated gaming computers; Nintendo's portable Switch, which focuses on family games; and Sony's PlayStation 5 and Microsoft's Xbox Series X, which are home consoles with faster computer chips for playing more intense games.

ImageThe handheld device, a chunky black plastic slab with an integrated game controller, has the guts of a supercomputer and a touchscreen.Credit... Jim Wilson/The New York Times< /figure>

The Steam Deck tries to be a jack of all trades. It runs Linux, the open-source operating system, which makes it capable of loading a huge amount of new games, including titles made for personal computers and some PlayStation and Xbox games. And just like with a computer, the Steam Deck can be customized to run older games by installing emulation software, which are applications that can run digital copies of games for older consoles.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0" > Having grown up with consoles up to the Atari, I decided to try the Steam Deck. The verdict: This is the console I recommend for serious gamers who don't mind tinkering to enjoy games new and old. But it has major flaws, and it's definitely not for people looking for the plug-and-play experience offered by a traditional game console.

Getting Started

Unlike normal consoles, like PlayStations and Nintendos which can play games stored on discs and cartridges, the Steam Deck is completely digital, meaning it only plays games downloaded from the internet. Players will primarily obtain titles through the Steam App Store. So, to start, users create a Steam account to download games.

From there, there are many options. Players can choose from Steam's library of tens of thousands of games, including popular games like Counter-Strike and Among Us. Some great titles that were previously e...