Just when you thought the situation couldn't get any worse for the Steam Deck game rating system, Valve has just trodden on another rake. With Oblivion Remastered still somehow holding a Verified rating, despite widespread criticism of its performance, Valve has now changed the rating of Clair Obscur Expedition 33 from Uned to Playable, seemingly just because its settings have been locked on the Steam Deck.
While it may still be the Steam Deck and its rating system have come under fire multiple times in the last few weeks, and each time, it has all been entirely unjustified.
The rating change for Clair Obscur Expedition 33 actually happened a few days ago, but I gave Valve the benefit of the doubt and waited to see whether there was an Proton update that was going to somehow change the performance of the game on the Deck.
No such update has arrived, so now I feel safe in saying that this is yet another egregious mistake that's set to harm the long-term value of the Steam Deck game rating system. During my testing to determine the best Expedition 33 settings for PC and Steam Deck, I backed Valve's decision to set the game as Uned.
There was no way to get a reasonable or even stable 30fps frame rate on the Steam Deck, and no amount of settings tweaks was going the change this situation. What happened a few days later is pretty shocking. The Steam Deck settings for Clair Obscur Expedition 33 were locked, much like they are in Assassin's Creed Shadows.
The difference here is that, even with these locked settings, Expedition 33 is only playable on the Steam Deck in the sense that the game will boot, and you can technically play it, even if the experience is pretty poor.
Getting above 30fps without the aid of mods or external programs is virtually impossible. I was even shocked to see that the game had been rated Platinum on ProtonDB, but this is largely due to players using Decky Framegen, a mod that swaps DLSS for FSR in games that don't the latter, so you can at least get some sort of frame gen on the Steam Deck. There are even players who have outright rated the game as recommended while also saying "the Steam Deck doesn't do it justice with the degraded visuals."
I'm worried that a lot of people have lost sight of the main point of Valve's Steam Deck game rating system. It's supposed to be a clear signpost to tell gamers whether a game works well from the moment you boot it, with some settings tweaks, or can't be made to run well at all. In this case, I'm not sure who would happily play Expedition 33 at sub-30fps with fairly poor frame stuttering, especially when the game's combat has elements of quick time events where you need the game to be responsive.
With three controversial decisions back-to-back, I've all but given up on the Steam Deck rating system as a useful and informative tool. I'll continue to refer to ProtonDB, knowing that while the recommendations may require mods, this is clearly signposted thanks to the community's willingness to share their work.
If you would rather look at a different handheld gaming PC for your portable needs, you can check out our ROG Ally X review to see how these more powerful devices compare to Valve's Steam Deck.
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