Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart Steam Deck verified
The Portal Instruments.
Insomniac Games has announced Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is Steam Deck Verified.
The formerly PlayStation 5 exclusive is set to release on PC later today (at the time of writing, Rift Apart's Steam page says this will be in less than an hour).
In anticipation of this launch, developer Insomniac Games has revealed the PC port of its portal-shifting game is Steam Deck verified.
For a game to get the Verified seal of approval from Valve, it needs to meet certain criteria. As per the Verified page at SteamDeck.com, these are:
Input - The title should have full controller support, use appropriate controller input icons, and automatically bring up the on-screen keyboard when needed.
Display - The game should support the default resolution of Steam Deck (1280x800 or 1280x720), have good default settings, and text should be legible.
Seamlessness - The title shouldn't display any compatibility warnings, and if there's a launcher it should be navigable with a controller.
System Support - If running through Proton, the game and all its middleware should be supported by Proton. This includes anti-cheat support.
Evidently, Rift Apart ticks all those boxes, adding even more distance from Insomniac's previous claims that Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart wouldn't be possible without the PlayStation 5's solid-state storage (SSD).
Steam Decks come in set sizes in terms of the internal SSD memory. While some Steam Deck models feature 256GB and 512GB SSDs as storage, the cheapest version of Valve's handheld PC only has 64GB eMMC storage, though memory can be expanded through microSD cards.
Digital Foundry has previously taken the PS5 version of the game for a spin on the absolute worst SSD money can buy for the PlayStation 5, and the end result was that it could run the game just fine.
Richard Leadbetter has said that because of this he believes it will be the hardware decompression capabilities that will be of most interest on Rift Apart's PC release. Be sure to keep your eyes out for the DF team's analysis of this port - Richard has promised they will be checking out the complete min spec experience at launch as part of the team's review content.