Atomfall: Review and Best Settings for Steam Deck

We put Atomfall through its paces: performance, best settings, and what to expect.

We recently noted how good Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 looks and how surprisingly well it runs on the Steam Deck, thanks to its use of an old, yet well-optimised engine. Well, we now find ourselves praising another game for similar reasons. Atomfall, a new survival shooter with RPG elements from Rebellion Developments (the studio behind the Sniper Elite series) follows a similar path.

So what makes Atomfall a prime candidate for Valve’s infamous “Deck Verified” rating? Let’s find out.

Welcome to the British Quarantine Zone

Atomfall successfully blends mystery, folk horror, and Cold War paranoia with open-ended storytelling and survival mechanics. At first glance the setting seems welcoming enough: rolling hills, quiet villages, and dense woodlands. But beneath the surface, something is deeply wrong. Ruined buildings, underground bunkers, and long-abandoned military sites hint at a catastrophe that was never meant to be uncovered.

Players must scavenge for resources, interact with eccentric and often untrustworthy characters, and piece together the truth behind the disaster. Supplies are scarce, and combat is desperate. Firearms and ammunition are limited, making every encounter a high-stakes balance between marksmanship and brutal melee combat. A stamina and heart rate system adds another layer of tension, forcing careful endurance management to ensure your ability to land a critical blow at the right moment.

The story unfolds through exploration and interaction rather than linear cutscenes. Conversations, environmental storytelling, and hidden clues gradually reveal a larger mystery, inspired by a real-world disaster of the 1950s and infused with elements of science fiction and conspiracy thrillers. Rather than guiding players through a predefined narrative, Atomfall encourages them to uncover its secrets at their own pace. The more I explore, the deeper the mystery becomes, offering answers, but also raising unsettling new questions.

It’s a refreshing gameplay loop that I’ve enjoyed so far. The narrative offers plenty of twists, and the way to approach encounters, whether dealing with factions or forming alliances and rivalries, feels meaningful. All of that, and Atomfall runs impressively well on a Steam Deck.

Atomfall Performance on the Steam Deck

As mentioned earlier, Atomfall is “Steam Deck Verified,” a label that can sometimes be misleading. But in this case, I was genuinely surprised. During my first hour of play, my expectations were shattered by just how well the game runs on Deck.

Of course, I’m fully aware that the game still uses Rebellion’s in-house Asura engine, an engine long past its prime. So, in hindsight, it shouldn’t be too surprising that performance holds up well. Still, the overall fluidity and visual quality seen on Valve’s handheld is downright impressive. Out of the box, the game reaches performance targets of up to 60 FPS, depending on the chosen graphical settings. In fact, during the early bunker sequence, it even runs at a locked 90 FPS, at least until you step out into the semi-open world, where the dense environments demand more from the hardware.

By default, the game runs on the stock Medium preset, mostly staying between 50-60 FPS during exploration, though dipping into the mid-40s during intense combat. Dropping to the Low preset allows for a more stable 60 FPS experience, making it a tempting trade-off.

However, Atomfall’s world is so well-designed and striking on the OLED Steam Deck that it’s hard to justify sacrificing too much visual fidelity. The biggest downside, though, remains the abysmal aliasing of the Asura engine. Veteran Sniper Elite players will immediately recognize the issue: the game lacks modern antialiasing and upscaling features, resulting in a frustratingly fuzzy look, especially in foliage and distant objects. Tweaking the antialiasing settings can help, but it never truly resolves the problem. Image clarity always falls short of what you’d expect from modern rendering techniques.

If you can live with that, however, Atomfall offers an incredible experience provided you optimize the settings accordingly. Luckily, I’ve done the testing for you.

Best Settings for Atomfall on Steam Deck

After extensive tweaking and trying to balance visuals with performance, aside from the ever-present mentioned aliasing issue, I’ve come up with two distinct setting configurations, one of which will likely suit your individual needs: a performance preset with a 45 FPS target and a quality preset aiming for a locked 30 FPS while delivering the best possible visual results on your Steam Deck.

I personally prefer the latter, as exploration, survival, and conversations with the many interesting NPCs make up a significant part of the game. Besides, the 30 FPS lock doesn’t feel like a drawback during combat either, thanks to the OLED Deck’s 90Hz panel.

For the performance preset, I deliberately chose not to aim for 60 FPS, as I couldn’t achieve real stability without sacrificing too much visual fidelity. And let’s be honest: anyone and their grandma could otherwise just set everything to low and call it a day. Right?

With these settings in mind, you can expect a battery life of up to two and a half hours.

Now you’re ready to explore the world of Atomfall on Steam Deck. 

Pre-purchase Atomfall on Steam

A nuclear disaster has left an area of Britain in tatters. Atomfall, a new survival-action game, will see you explore, scavenge, craft, barter and fight your way through beautifully recreated scenery in search of answers.

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