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007 First Light was in early access at the time of this test, 24 hours early if you pre-ordered, and I started my device coverage with the Steam Deck OLED. Performance is pretty good. IOI is well known for optimization with the Hitman games, so I'm not that surprised, but I was kind of surprised the game wasn't Steam Deck Verified yet. I've played verified games that run in much worse shape than this.
- Tested at 800p with FSR Balanced and low/medium custom settings, frame rate unlocked, no Lossless Scaling for the main gameplay.
- Depending on where you are, I've seen anywhere from about 28 to 60-something FPS. Through the mission in the video, the overlay mostly read the mid 30s to mid 40s, about 31 at the lowest, and into the 50s and 60s in lighter spots.
- Frame times stay steady, and the game is pretty well optimized. There are some hiccups here and there.
- With Lossless Scaling 2x, a 30 FPS lock gives you 60 total, and with no lock the overlay read in the 70s.
Test setup
Not necessarily saying these are the best settings, but this is what's working well for me. Adjust a couple of things up or down along with FSR, and you'll get it dialed in to where you want it.
- Device: Steam Deck OLED (the overlay label shows 4GB VRAM)
- Resolution: 800p, V-Sync off, with resolution scaling on FSR Balanced. You could go Quality or Performance depending on what you want from FPS and visual quality.
- Settings: texture quality low, 16x texture filtering (it doesn't cost much and it helps), level of detail low, terrain quality medium, shadows low, fog medium, effects low, reflections medium (drop it to low if you need to) and all post effects off
- FPS numbers are what the on-screen overlay read in the video, checked every two seconds.
Gameplay at 800p, FSR Balanced
Each mission has a lot of different sequences, from the setup to the stealth part to the more action-packed ending, and inside versus outside and the number of NPCs really decide the performance you get. Even with that, things stay steady with nice frame times. Considering the Steam Deck's four cores and eight threads, it pulls this off pretty well for a newer game.
In the video, the opening drive read about 34 to 39, walking up the hillside stairs about 43, and the busy hotel lobby about 37. Most of the mission sat in the mid 30s to mid 40s, with the lowest readings around 31 to 32, and the later part of the mission ran mostly in the 40s and 50s, reaching the 60s near the end.
Lossless Scaling
I didn't get into Lossless Scaling a lot with this one, but you can use it to lock your FPS and maybe get something like 60 most of the time. In the short Lossless 2x section of the video, a 30 FPS lock gave 60 total, and with no lock the overlay read in the 70s, so there's a little headroom to play with. Locking to 30 or 40 without anything like Lossless is fine too. I like to run things variable to see what the performance is doing, so the rest of the gameplay is unlocked with no Lossless.
Verdict
It's definitely playable on the Steam Deck. It's clean enough and looks good enough on the smaller screen, and you can turn on HDR and mess with the settings enough to get what you want out of it, even though there's a maximum the Deck can pull. For a later look at 007 First Light on the Deck after a SteamOS update, see Steam Deck OLED: SteamOS stable 3.8 vs 3.7.
FAQ
Is 007 First Light playable on the Steam Deck?
Yes. At 800p with FSR Balanced and low/medium custom settings, it mostly ran in the mid 30s to mid 40s on the overlay with steady frame times, about 31 at the lowest in the video.
Does Lossless Scaling help 007 First Light on the Steam Deck?
It can. With Lossless 2x, a 30 FPS lock gives 60 total, and unlocked the overlay read in the 70s.
Want more handheld tests?
New Steam Deck, ROG Ally, Legion Go and Steam Machine performance videos every week.