Big Walk on Steam Deck: no official rating, and an open audio question
Big Walk has no Steam Deck compatibility rating on its store page, and players are still asking whether walkie-talkie audio works on Linux. Here is what is actually known.
The store page shows no Deck compatibility rating, and House House has published nothing about Deck or Linux. The walkie-talkie question raised on the Steam forum has no confirmed answer, and we are not going to invent one.
Do this first
The game runs, but nothing about the Deck is official. Press testing puts a stable 40 fps at Medium quality with render resolution around 80 percent, while the default High preset drops below 30 in forest areas. The open question is audio: players have asked whether the walkie-talkie is audible on Linux and no confirmed answer exists. If your group leans on the walkie-talkie for puzzles, test it before committing an evening to it.
What this page can and cannot tell you
- Whether the store page carries a Deck rating — it does not
- What framerate press testing reports, and at which settings
- What the official requirements say, given Deck is not on that list
- Whether the walkie-talkie works on Linux — unresolved, and we say so
There is no Deck compatibility rating
Valve's Deck ratings are shown on a store page when they exist. Big Walk's page carries none, which means the game has not been publicly rated rather than that it failed a rating.
House House has also published nothing about Deck or Linux in any announcement. There is no first-party statement to quote in either direction, so any site telling you this game is Deck Verified is making that up.
What press testing found
Steam Deck HQ reports a stable 40 fps with quality set to Medium and render resolution brought down to around 80 percent, and notes the default High preset drops below 30 fps in forest areas with heavy shadows.
That matches the shape of the problem on desktop, where shadow-dense forest is the worst case and render scale is the setting with the most leverage. We have not tested this ourselves — it is press measurement, labelled as such.
Why the official requirements do not settle it
The store page lists Windows and macOS only. Windows minimum is 12 GB of RAM with a GTX 750 Ti class GPU, while a Deck has 16 GB of shared memory and a custom AMD part, so the rows do not map cleanly onto it.
The Mac tier is the more useful comparison: it asks for 16 GB at both minimum and recommended, which suggests this game wants memory headroom more than raw GPU. On a Deck, where memory is shared with the GPU, that is worth knowing before you judge any setting.
The unresolved walkie-talkie question
A Steam discussion asks directly whether anyone on Linux or Steam Deck can hear the walkie-talkie. It has replies but no confirmed resolution, and there is no official statement either way.
This matters more than framerate. The walkie-talkie is how the game lets separated players talk, and several puzzles are built on exactly that. A Deck running at 40 fps that cannot carry radio audio is a worse experience than one running at 30 that can.
Our position: we do not know, and we would rather say so than guess. Test it in a low-stakes session — have someone walk out of earshot and talk over the radio — before planning a puzzle evening around it. If your group confirms it either way, that is the most useful correction you could send us.
Frequently asked
Is Big Walk Steam Deck Verified?
No rating is shown on the store page, which means it has not been publicly rated rather than that it failed. Any site claiming a Verified badge is inventing it.
What settings should I use on Steam Deck?
Press testing reports a stable 40 fps at Medium quality with render resolution around 80 percent. The default High preset drops below 30 in forest areas.
Does the walkie-talkie work on Linux?
Unconfirmed. Players have asked on the Steam forum and there is no settled answer or official statement. Test it with a friend before relying on it.
Can I play on Deck with friends on PS5?
Crossplay covers Steam, PS5 and Switch 2, and a Deck is a Steam client. Mixed-platform groups join by Join Code rather than through a friends list.
Does my Deck save carry over to my PC?
Steam Cloud is listed for the game, so your own client saves sync to your account. Group progress still lives on the host's machine, whichever device you host from.