Two of the best indie strategy games are now Steam Deck verified
Engrossing games to play this Christmas
It's nearly the holidays, which means some of you might be looking for something to play on your Steam Deck while you're away visiting family. The choice just got a little harder: beautiful early access tactics game Songs Of Conquest and clever fantasy citybuilder Against The Storm are both now Steam Deck verified.
Valve's verification system tells you what to expect when you boot up a game on Steam on their handheld PC. "Playable" means just that - it'll run, it'll work OK, you can get by. "Verified" is the stage above: it'll work well, with appropriate UI, performance, and controls.
That's what changed for both these games via recent updates.
Songs Of Conquest has been revised via recent updates to support gamepads, so you can navigate its menus with the Steam Deck's default controls or with an Xbox controller. There's also now a new large font UI option for use with the small Steam Deck screen, and they've optimised the game across all platforms so it runs better, including a battery-saving system just for the Deck, as the Verified announcement explains.
Against The Storm's announcement likewise mentions support for gamepad input, increased font size, and revised UI elements to support 16:10 screens. Unlike Songs Of Conquest, however, Storm's developers note that it has a "rudimentary version of basic controller functionality (for Steam Deck only)" and so playing on gamepad isn't perfect.
And yet: long, tactical, self-paced strategy games are in many ways perfect for the Steam Deck, but there's plenty of them that don't work well with its small screen and controls. It's great to see these two putting the effort in to correct that. It's particularly good news in this instance considering Sin called Songs Of Conquest "a comfortable, satisfying tactical RPG with lots of potential for fiendish spellcasting tricks" in her early access review last year, and a Bestest Best was bestowed by Liam (RPS in peace) in his Against The Storm review earlier this month.