Is Need For Speed Unbound Playable On Steam Deck?

"Need for Speed: Unbound" is the latest title to grace the beloved racing game franchise. It features a striking new graphic art style and more than 100 cars to cruise. It's one of EA's first games that's made exclusively for current generation consoles, including the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5. It's also a PC title, so anyone with the fairly recent hardware will be good to go as well.

"The developers have made an arcade racer here that reaches incredible heights of technical polish and presentation. However, the repetitiveness of its gameplay and slow progress in the story keep it from being a truly great title," writes Talon Homer in SlashGear's review.

But what about Steam Deck users? While "Need for Speed: Unbound" is not officially supported on Steam Deck, you'll be happy to know that there is a workaround to play it on the versatile handheld.

If you're looking to play "Need For Speed: Unbound" on your Steam Deck, you should know you'll be making some concessions. For starters, you'll want to turn the graphics quality setting all the way down to low, which tops you out at 30 frames per second. According to GameTechPlanet on YouTube, the game can actually run above 30 frames per second on medium during the prologue if you don't cap the frame rate, but performance can suffer significantly afterward.

You'll also want to ensure you're running at the lowest resolution possible, and turn off features like motion blur and dynamic resolution scaling for the best results. This is because the Steam Deck doesn't have enough power to play the game natively at its full fidelity without serious hiccups and frame drops (via GameTechPlanet).

Despite these measures, you'll still experience some frame rate dips in high action scenes, and the game can also take up to five minutes to load, which is a lifetime in today's gaming world. You may also experience a sudden crash – especially on the very first run.

While these might sound like annoying conditions to play under, you won't find a better way to play the game on a handheld that doesn't involve streaming, which can be equally problematic.

One of the easiest ways to install "Need For Speed: Unbound" on your Steam Deck is to download it on a Windows installation, which is ideal if you're planning to buy (or already bought) the game for another machine. That process is a bit more complicated, and there are valid reasons to shy away from doing so, but feel free to give it a go if you're interested. After you have Windows installed, try downloading "Need For Speed: Unbound" from Steam as you would on any other gaming PC.

However, there's an easier method if you don't mind buying the game directly from EA:

1. Download the Lutris app from the Discover store on your Steam Deck.

2. Launch Lutris and click the "+" icon to search for installers.

3. Download and install the EA App in Lutris. Here's a direct link.

4. Open the EA app and sign into your EA account. (If you're having issues with the app failing to load, YouTuber Gaming On Linux has the fix.)

5. Once you purchase "Need for Speed Unbound," download and install it from the EA App.

Now, hit the asphalt and enjoy racing on the go!