After months and months of rumors, the announcement of a Red Dead Redemption port on PC was finally revealed, bringing the modern classic to Steam and Epic Games Store players. When it was given a PC release date, we believed that the Red Dead Redemption would be perfect for Steam Deck, and fortunately, that seems to be the case.

Thanks to Red Dead Redemption's age, with the game being over 14 years now, it doesn't require the best graphics cards to run well. In fact, the best handhelds run it spectacularly, with the Steam Deck offering a smooth, beautiful way to experience Rockstar Games' end of the Western era.

Red Dead Redemption is a delight on the Steam Deck

With the launch of Red Dead Redemption on PC, there's no shortage of players diving into the Rockstar Games title, whether as a fan reliving everyone's favorite cowboy, John Marston, or as a newcomer who enjoyed the 2019 prequel, Red Dead Redemption 2. Most people are always wary of a PC port, which typically brings new or old issues up, but it seems like the Steam Deck is an excellent way to play the new port.

In a launch stream from Factor of Games, the performance looks great. In all ‘high' settings, with FSR 3 Quality mode on, and in 1280 x 800 resolution, it runs at a steady 60 FPS. Even in all Ultra settings with no FSR support, it looks and runs surprisingly well, letting you enjoy the action-adventure game without any issues. The Steam Deck even makes the Undead Nightmare portion look scarily beautiful.

On the r/SteamDeck subreddit, the opinion is the same. While there's a bit of disappointment around the $49.99 price tag for a game over a decade old, there's an appreciation for the port on handheld, including the HDR support for the game. Of course, it was available on handheld with the Nintendo Switch, but between the Switch and Steam Deck, we'd prefer to play on the latter.

Both Steam's storefront page for the game, and the ProtonDB listing for Red Dead Redemption, have Steam Deck's compatibility as ‘Unknown', meaning that we're waiting for official status and more users to come forward respectively. However, the first experiences are promising, and the game is sitting at ‘Very Positive' on Steam already, with most of the negative reviews focused on the high price.

Of course, if the $50 price tag is scaring you silly, you may want to wait for a sale. Alternatively, you could grab Fanatical's Frightmare bundle with plenty of Steam Deck-ready horror games for just under Red Dead Redemption's price. That being said, you do have the Undead Nightmare expansion if you're looking to play something spooky this Halloween (or you can check out this Steam Deck horror games list we compiled recently).

It's just a huge shame that multiplayer isn't returning, as I really miss throwing axes at other players racing around on their horses.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.