Mecha BREAK is out now on Steam - works on Steam Deck but blocks Desktop Linux

Pretty much as expected, Mecha BREAK is out now and it's Steam Deck Verified but the anti-cheat is a real nuisance.

I reported here on GamingOnLinux recently about it becoming Steam Deck Verified, and also back in February about how it's using Anti-Cheat Expert (ACE) which blocks Desktop Linux. The situation is unfortunately exactly the same now it has released. If you're on a traditional Linux desktop like Ubuntu or Fedora, the game simply won't progress past the launcher. You can hit Play and then it will wait a moment and do nothing. It's noted on our curated anti-cheat compatibility page.

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With it being Steam Deck Verified, I decided to take it for a spin just to see if it deserved the rating. The testing was done on my Steam Deck LCD with the default Proton 9.0-4 that it was verified with. Testing the online mode it all worked out of the box, including bringing up the on-screen keyboard automatically for entering in my nickname.

Mecha BREAK mainly focuses on online play with team battles in 3v3 or 6v6, and there's also a PvPvE Extraction mode.

As for performance, sticking with the defaults since Valve's rating of Steam Deck Verified notes the default graphics "performs well on Steam Deck" and it does appear to run reasonably well. Performance is usually around 30-40FPS even during intense action. It looks pretty rough due to the scaling on it but that's the price you pay to have a playable modern bigger game on Steam Deck a lot of the time.

It appears to actually deserve the Steam Deck Verified rating, if you can handle the rather blocky visuals.

I did have the game crash and quit to the launcher once during my testing, which might not be a Proton problem. It's a brand new game, it's expected to have a few issues here and there.As expected with a free game, it's proving to be quite popular with a 24 hour peak player count of 97,006. It has a Mixed user rating on Steam with players noting the monetisation is pretty expensive, customization has been reduced, technical issues and more problems.