directly into Steam’s Big Picture mode rather than to the Windows desktop.
When you use Shadow on a phone, you can pinch to zoom and drag with two
¿QJHUVWRPRYHDURXQGWKHGHVNWRSZLWKWKHVWDQGDUGWDSVDQGGUDJVHPXODWLQJ
PRXVHFRQWUROV7H[WLQSXWLVSHUIRUPHGWKURXJK\RXUSKRQH¶VRQVFUHHQ
NH\ERDUGVRGRQ¶WH[SHFWQHDUO\DVUHVSRQVLYHDQH[SHULHQFHDV\RXZRXOGZLWK
a physical mouse and keyboard. The app also lets you put a virtual gamepad on
the screen so you can control games using your thumbs—but like all touch-
screen controls, they work well for only a small subset of games. But you can
connect a mouse, keyboard, and gamepad to your phone or tablet over
%OXHWRRWKWRJHWWKHVDPHH[SHULHQFHDV\RXZRXOGZLWKWKHGHVNWRSDSS MXVW
on a smaller screen).
PERFORMANCE
,LQVWDOOHG2ULJLQ6WHDPDQGWKH;ER[DSSRQP\WHVW6KDGRZDOORIZKLFK
IXQFWLRQHGH[DFWO\DVWKRXJK,KDGSXWWKHPRQDORFDOFRPSXWHU7ZRIDFWRU
LGHQWL¿FDWLRQZDVDSSOLHGRQP\DFFRXQWVWKDWXVHLWDQGYDOLGDWLQJWKHUHPRWH
3&UHTXLUHGWKHVDPHSURFHVVRIHQWHULQJDVHFXULW\WRNHQDQGFRQ¿UPLQJWKDW,
authorized the system. After that, each game store opened and let me access my
libraries without prompting.
,LQVWDOOHGDIHZVPDOOHUJDPHVRQP\6KDGRZWKURXJK6WHDPDQG;ER[*DPHV
3DVVDORQJZLWK$SH[/HJHQGVRQ2ULJLQ'RZQORDGLQJDQGLQVWDOOLQJHDFK
game was fast, with speeds around 50 to 60Mbps (from the game stores’ servers
to Shadow, not the connection between Shadow and my local PC).
$OOWKHJDPHV,SOD\HGRQ6KDGRZIHOWVPRRWKDQGUHVSRQVLYH$SH[/HJHQGVLV
WKHPRVW¿QLFN\WRUWXUHWHVWIRUJDPHVWUHDPLQJDVLWUHTXLUHVH[FHOOHQWLQSXW
lag to both feel good to play and prevent motion sickness, and as an online-only
game, that requires immediate response when encountering enemy players. I
H[SHULHQFHGRQO\RFFDVLRQDOKLFFXSVWKDWPDGHP\LQSXWRUWKHJUDSKLFVMXPS
slightly, but it felt about as responsive as when I play on a local system. The
graphics looked smooth at 1440p resolution on a computer monitor, and game
audio came through clearly.
0RRQOLJKWHUDQLQGLHDFWLRQDGYHQWXUHJDPHVLPLODUWRD'7KH/HJHQGRI
Zelda, also played very well on Shadow. Controller inputs were responsive, and
,FRXOGVPRRWKO\DQGFRPIRUWDEO\GXQJHRQFUDZODQG¿JKWPRQVWHUVZLWKQR
noticeable lag.