How does the Monster Hunter Wilds beta run on Steam Deck?

Forbidden land: Maybe don't bother trying the beta for Capcom's upcoming Monster Hunter game on your Steam Deck

TL;DR — Not well.

Capcom's next entry in the Monster Hunter series is set to arrive in February next year, but an early open beta currently taking place is giving (lots) of players a chance to try Monster Hunter Wilds ahead of the full release.

However, those using a Steam Deck may want to give it a miss, as the beta of Monster Hunter Wilds does not currently run well on Valve's handheld, with the game being a touch buggy and sluggish.

Now, the game does actually launch, but once you've gotten past a lengthy 'Optimize Game Files' screen, you'll find the beta experience is pretty rough on the Steam Deck.

Whereas the main menu sits at an average 30 FPS, and the character creation screen is usable enough, once you get into the actual game your luck will drop.

The opening cutscene did not display correctly for me on first run — I could see on-screen subtitles and hear audio, but the cinematic was not visible at all, instead the screen was black.

Once I got into the playable section of the game my Steam Deck actually crashed and rebooted.

After some tweaks you can get things running — mainly by turning off Upscaling, but it's a generally a poor experience overall with the FPS regularly hovering in the low teens and the graphical detail looking a little muddy (see below). As such, I'd advise giving this beta a miss on Steam Deck.

The folks over at Steam Deck HQ have also taken the beta for a spin and note that there's "no way this would run at 30 FPS without insane sacrifices".

Yep, this is a beta after all, but looking at the required specs for Wilds doesn't leave us hopeful that come launch next year things will look much better for this Monster Hunter entry on the Steam Deck.