For about so long as Chrome OS has existed, gaming has been one among its most notable Achilles’ heels. Most Chromebooks have lower-power {hardware}, and the OS is constructed on internet know-how, so taking part in AAA titles discovered on Windows has merely not been an possibility. The rise of cloud-based gaming providers like Google’s personal Stadia have helped the state of affairs, however maybe the most important advance in Chromebook gaming got here in late March, when Google introduced that Valve’s Steam platform was in an early alpha part on Chrome OS. Just as you may on Windows, Mac and Linux, this allows you to obtain and set up video games from the huge Steam catalog. As a Chromebook fan who additionally loves a superb recreation, I needed to give this a shot.

So Google offered me with one of many seven Chromebooks that may run Steam, an ASUS Chromebook CX9 with Intel’s Eleventh-generation Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of space for storing. These are hefty specs for a Chromebook, however Google specified that Steam required a tool with at the least a Core i5 processor and 8GB of RAM. While Steam could finally work with lower-powered units, it is clear that many Chromebooks merely will not have the ability to lower it. But should you do have the fitting {hardware}, the Steam expertise is fairly good, as long as you retain your expectations in verify.

I didn’t have any issues getting Steam installed, however it’s much more difficult than setting it up on a Windows pc. You’ll want to change your Chromebook to the Dev channel, so do not do that on a machine you depend on for day by day use. After that, you may have to allow a particular flag in Chrome and sort just a few instructions into the Chrome OS Crosh terminal. Once that is performed, Steam will obtain to your machine, at which level you may login and begin downloading video games.

Right off the bat, any recreation that’s supported in Steam for Linux might be put in with none compatibility points. As I’m an enormous Half-Life fan, the primary two video games I attempted out have been Valve’s personal Half-Life 2 and Portal 2 — two previous video games that do not require highly effective {hardware}. Both, unsurprisingly, performed like a attraction. There have been uncommon body fee drops, however the expertise felt similar to taking part in them on Windows or on a Mac.

At the exact opposite finish of the spectrum, I made a decision to get loopy and set up 2018’s God of War, initially launched for the PS4 and ported to Windows in January of this 12 months. It was a completely unplayable slideshow. That’s no shock, although, as God of War requires both NVIDIA’s GTX 960 or AMD’s R9 290X graphics playing cards with 4GB of reminiscence. The Chromebook’s built-in Intel Iris X graphics aren’t in the identical league. This is not any actual knock on the Chromebook, although, as a result of a Windows machine with the identical specs would not have the ability to run God of War, both. I used to be principally stunned that I used to be in a position to set up it in any respect.

To set up video games like God of War, or some other titles that don’t have a local Linux model, you’ll have to activate the experimental Steam Play compatibility instruments. Once I did that, although, I may set up nearly any recreation I got here throughout. Obviously, demanding video games like God of War aren’t going to work, however there are nonetheless tons of titles within the Steam library which can be price testing. Both Hades and Cuphead ran flawlessly, and Fallout 4 labored fairly effectively too. It wasn’t as easy as the opposite video games I attempted, however the first few hours have been undoubtedly playable.

The principal catch is that the primary time you run video games utilizing compatibility instruments, they’re extraordinarily gradual to load. Steam has to “process Vulkan shaders” for lots of titles, and this could take 5 to 10 minutes or extra on some video games (like Fallout 4). Fortunately, this solely occurs the primary time you launch a specific title.

Most of the video games I attempted have been from Google’s personal checklist of really helpful titles that had been examined on Chrome OS, and people experiences have been nearly all strong. The one recreation my Chromebook could not fairly sustain with was The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Google really helpful taking part in that one with graphics on low, and stated that solely Chromebooks with an i7 processor would work. Even then, body charges and management responsiveness was poor sufficient that I did not wish to play after a couple of minutes.

While Google and Valve will definitely enhance the Steam expertise from this early alpha, it is truthful to say that Chrome OS won’t ever be the place to play cutting-edge video games. Chromebooks simply aren’t constructed with that form of {hardware}.

But, Steam’s library is huge, and there are literally thousands of titles throughout any style that you can imagine. Bringing that catalog to Chrome OS is a large step ahead for many who love video games however do not essentially have to play Cyberpunk 2077 with settings on excessive. Whether it is for replaying older classics like Portal 2 or attempting newer releases like Hades, Steam for Chrome OS vastly expands the gaming you are able to do on a Chromebook. And should you actually wish to play The Witcher 3 or God of War, a streaming service like NVIDIA’s GeForce Now can plug the hole. So far, the alpha construct of Steam for Chrome OS is promising, and I hope that Google and Valve could make it work on extra Chromebooks earlier than lengthy.