Steam Link Reviews

by MacBook Pro Owner

I downloaded SteamLink trying to see if I could play Windows-only games on my Macbook Pro. I opened SteamLink and connected it with my computer, then while it was loading, my mouse started moving on its own and my screen started going up in contrast, like it was melting. After forcibly turning my computer off and then back on, I immediately deleted the application from my device. After signing back into my computer, everything seems normal (as of the time I am writing this), but I’m not sure if what happened then will happen again. I hope SteamLink didn’t do anything that would damage my computer, because I’ve already had to replace the hard drive on it once.

by Rydan313

So I only have one game right now that I care about and maybe the issue is just compatibility with that particular game but my experience has been awful. The game is Steins;Gate 0. When I start the majority of the time it will get stuck on “connecting”. Except it isn’t really. There is a pop up that appears on the PC. So I have to go over there and click the button with my mouse. Now the game will start on the iPad. But... half the time now the audio is on the PC and not on the iPad. And half the time the Steam controller stops working a few seconds in. If the game is full screen the it runs 10x faster than it should making it unplayable but only when using SteamLink. If it isn’t full screen then half the time the streaming misses just slightly so I see part of the desktop and part of the game. There are other issues but I’m running out of space. But when it works it works great, just requires around 5 tries and 10 minutes to get there.

by Timmy97236

So bought an Rotor Riot iOS (RR1850) MFi controller everyone recommended. Started up steam link and dark souls and everything worked well. But then tried to get into menu and the steam overlay kept popping up. Realized that the start/select button chords weren’t working. It’s like the menu button on the controller is hardwired to pop up the steam overlay. So tried turning the overlay off and than it’s like the menu button didn’t do anything in game. I know that the button works because it registers in iOS games and in the controller input check. This makes most games unplayable since the start and select button is quite important in most games and functions like an inventory and menu. So most games including dark souls is unplayable. I might try an Xbox controller but didn’t work with the recommended MFi controller. Hopefully this is just a easy software update fix.

by Meowser01

SteamLink streams games nearly perfectly in my experience, however, the controls are all over the place.

In some places, like your desktop, you can choose to use direct mouse control. It is intuitive and just like using a normal touch screen.

In many games however, it changes to a drag the cursor and tap to click mode. This makes it so point and click games become drag cursor to where you want, then click. This wouldn’t be so unbearable if it weren’t for the fact that you also click when you start dragging. Now if you are in a dialogue menu, you will always click the line where your cursor was last. Frustrating to say the least.

The other needed feature is to allow all controls regardless of what you are currently doing. If you are on the desktop, you can customize to have common buttons like ctrl, shift, esc. However, in game they aren’t available anymore. Games that have their menu accessible through esc now require external input.

Outside of those issues, streaming is great and if you have a controller gameplay is even better.

by Quickpull

I have been using this to play a number of PC games on my iPhone. In general it works very well, occasionally requiring a reset that usually fixes things.

My biggest issue with it is that there are a few commands hard coded into SteamLink that sometimes conflict with certain games. Most notably, holding down the Y button on the controller brings up the session manager overlay. However some games require you to hold down Y for various things, and SteamLink makes that input Impossible.

Sea of thieves is a good example, where you have to hold down Y to interact with lots of things, but doing so is impossible while playing through SteamLink. This function should be remappable, or at least moved to hold down start or something less commonly used in games.

by Hexley94

Streaming your games is definitely improving and becoming more of a viable option over time.

After comparing various streaming services, from GeForce Now to AMD’s Link on the same network, I cant help but feel the impact of the quality of the steam link service.

Granted, both aforementioned services rely on optimizations designed for their particular GPU’s as opposed to steam’s out of the box one size fits all approach.

With that in mind I don’t feel like the experience is truly on par with the previously mentioned services from Nvidia or AMD.

It’s not terrible, and it’s relatively smooth a lot of the time, but the hiccups and the recovery period of the stream during latency is kind of painful as opposed to being noticeably brief.

That coupled with the poor touch controls and obvious biased towards non steam hardware like the controller, also contribute to my average review.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d buy a steam controller in a heart beat if this service met the following standards:

1) improved streaming quality
2) remote access outside of your home network like the GeForce shield’s streaming setup I have.

Otherwise, it’s a good start. I hope they continue to update it and improve it over time.

by Iamhuman777

It needs to fix the lagging issue and have a simple set of buttons it still has some room for improvement a start would be to make a set of basic controls for a mobile game If it is something like gta having a dynamic thum stick or if it is civilization moving your camera with your fingers .tap to left click and double
Tap for right click or the other way around those just some ideas And examples for the developers of SteamLink to start they could do better

by Ilovehsn

For me the only controllers I own are some Xbox controllers. The problem is the lack of support for touch screen. I used to play a lot of touch screen games when I was younger. Now that I’m older; I’m fine playing them casually in another room. However, when trying to play games I found myself having no easy native controls. With me having to mingle with each game. SteamLink works perfectly. If you have good internet and a good computer. The result is very visually appeasing with close to no lag. To me steam should have built some more features. Like remote using of the PC. Like being able to use mouse and keyboard mode on the computer with steam minimized. You are able to do this as I clicked out of the game and had remote access of the PC. Additionally PC remote controls like turn on from sleep or turn off. I’m aware that other programs have these capabilities; Integration of these services with steam link would be a very impressive way to get people using SteamLink . Overall very satisfied. Would recommend to a friend.

-Zack Felcyn

by Cu$tomerN01

So in the last year I have found myself hopelessly addicted to a little pc game called Kenshi, it quickly surpassed all other titles in total play hours. I came across the steam link app and thought “why not let this game run my life completely, even when I can’t be around my laptop? I surely have nothing better to do.” So I set out to get this working. For those who don’t know Kenshi is a game you can essentially play on pause so perfectly suited to this very high latency format. It was about two days of being impressed by how nicely their editor lets you set up a control scheme, triple checking that I had saved it in every way I could think, and finding my setup gone on returning to SteamLink before… Some glorious serendipity of overlapping bugs allowed me to recall my settings! I was off! Also thrilled to find that it is workable even streaming across town over cell. In fact performance seems inconsistent no mater what network setup I've tried, even with a cable in the computer sitting next to the router. However, it has always worked well enough to get my fix in various levels of blurriness. Unfortunately SteamLink also crashes when taken out of focus and sometimes randomly. But still, pretty wild the ways we can waste our time these days, this must be meta. .? Keep trying valve, you are somewhat appreciated. Ken heads check my layout, I think it’s the only one

by Señorspacecookie112

Steam link is just absolutely great and i love it so much!! im able to play The Forest and Friday The 13th and its just so amazing but theres just one problem. i am unable to shift/Run when i play with my buttons on screen so it would be great if there was a button or maybe having to double tap and hold the joystick and is it possible for us to be able to play with our laptop offline and maybe being really really really far apart from our laptop because something like that would be really helpful when trying to play from another location on your phone instead of having to play while your at home 🏡 and okay now this will be the last thing i promise haha but um is there any possible way that the buttons on the controller can be customized in their size because if i have a small phone i wanna make sure i can see a lot of the screen and sometimes some buttons just cover most of the screen so if you guys could cover these things it would be amazing. Thank you so much for your time and you guys are doing amazing so keep at it

by WhatACoincidence

I am so happy SteamLink exists, I love being able to take my entire Steam library wherever I go. The versatility is so great, and it’s so much fun being able to play wherever I want with my friends. My only complaints are that the connection can get kind of shifty, but that’s to be expected with a cloud streaming app, so i don’t really give much fault to that. The other, and more major, one is that unless you have an MFI or some kind of controller, SteamLink is pretty much useless. The touch control registry for most of the games is nonexistent, and they only truly work with some sort of external controller. I have one and it works great for me, so I live using SteamLink all the time, but unless you have some sort of controller or MFI, SteamLink is useless.

by Akchuk

Valve has delivered decades of good software and has frequently extended support for their own and others' products. this app lets you play remotely and even use controllers remotely on older games which don't normally have controller support (might just be with Valve games). Most of the reviewers having a tough time with it are probably trying to access their home PC over LTE/5G and they should look up Port Forwarding on their Modems as well as their Routers, sometimes those are the same device.

by OniSock

Got SteamLink to see if I can control my PC with my iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard and it freaking worked! Steam allows my PC to read the keyboard’s inputs with, according to SteamLink , a “fair connection” level. They even allow you to disable the video stream. They even enabled gyro controls with the iPad. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! This is very well thought out and I’m just scratching the surface with the features. The trackpad on the Magic Keyboard just shoots the mouse into the top left corner. A mouse connected directly to my PC did the trick. Thanks Valve!

by Garfield7777

When I got this I expected it to be laggy and only support certain games that had the remote play tag. Boy was I wrong, you can run anything! Not only does it work while home away from the desktop, but I was able to play my ultra-modded skyrim during my break at work! It worked surprisiny well with no lag, but some big resolution dips over a bad internet connection in the break room. I use my Razer Kishi with this and strongly recommend it as the go-to controller for this!

by Mawthra

Been wanting a Steam Link app for macOS for SO long and now it's finally here! If all I want to do is stream my gaming PC to my MBP, I don't really need to install the full blown Steam and that's where this lightweight and easily installed/uninstalled app fits in perfectly... it works just like the Steam Link app on iOS, tvOS, etc... simple and does the job. THANK YOU, VALVE!

Now the icing on the cake is if they would put a version on the Microsoft Store for low powered Surface devices where you just want to Stream Steam and not install the whole client

by Stareye

Just played 2 hours of Batman Arkham Knight in beautiful smooth hi-res on my iPad Pro. Used a MadCatz controller I dug out of a box; threw two triple A batteries in synced it to Bluetooth and steam auto installed a very small audio driver to my pc. No problems. I bet with a newer controller or maybe a Steam controller it would be even better. As it is, it’s beyond my highest expectations-I purposely chose that title because it’s a hog with lots of different controls and I had no issues. I’ll try some more games and come back and edit if I have any big issues but otherwise it’s great.
Good job

by Dead Gig

I tried SteamLink a few months back and felt it just didn’t look or feel good enough to actually play games for an extended period of time on but today I tried again and was amazed what an incredible experience my wireless (no Ethernet) Apple TV was able to pull off. Was able to play the last 4 hours of resident evil 2 remake with no issues whatsoever today. No discernible input delay or major artifacting. Super clear font and all. I was seriously impressed. Not sure if they did something under the hood recently to make this much better or what but I plan on using this all the time now.

by JLImun

The idea of being able to play my games on my phone or other devices is in itself amazing. I’m absolutely blown away at this. Not only does this allow me some freedom in regards to proximity and the like, it gives new life to games I’ve shelved. For example, Stardew Valley: great game, I love it, but I’ve always felt it would be better as a mobile game and when I saw it on my phone’s App Store, I knew it would be fun but I wasn’t willing to buy it twice. This allows me to not only play Stardew Valley on my mobile but also treat it like I have felt it should be, something I check in on and play in 20 minute or so increments rather than dedicate hours to at a time. Brilliant idea, and the fact that it’s possible.... I can’t sing your praises enough.

by John D.R.

All things considered the fact that this allows you to remotely control and play your Steam games from your phone is pretty good. What surprised me the most was how actually decent the latency was. It’s still not something I’d recommend for all games, but the fact that I play actually fine in a fighting game (on single-player modes at least) is pretty remarkable.

The only real problem I see with it is that there’s no touch controls. Touching your screen can only control your mouse. If you have a modern wireless controller then chances are it can be connected to your phone through Bluetooth.

It’s a neat feature that wasn’t necessary for them to add, but it’s available anyway and actually works pretty well.

by Chasen54

Im an owner of the actual Steam Link hardware device and Steam Controller - but SteamLink had just changed everything for my PC gaming habits. When I come from work (being in front a computer all day), the last thing I want to do is play in front of one. So enter SteamLink. I’m now crushing through my library of unplanted games on my ipad like no ones business. Paired with the MiFi enable Steam Controller - it’s an absolute dream.

It’s actually now made me pick up my Nintendo Switch less...but hey I’m all about playing those games at the resolution they were supposed to be played at!

by Meshendo

Tried some games with SteamLink . Stream quality depends on your internet so your results may vary. Would like to bring up some things like not having Left stick click or right stick click. No d pad either. I could play fallout 4 on my iphone ( super impressed by that fact) but not being able to crouch, sprint, or access my quick slots really hurt the experience. The control layout is less than intuitive. Really works best when games already support and/or play better on an xbox controller. Otherwise not ideal for any other game.

by Ninfin1

Works best with a controller as sometimes with simulated mouse you can click off a game that you run windowed and get out of steam, because you can’t tab back in it makes things awkward, also you need to be on the same WiFi which is limiting but given that it’s effectively remote access it makes sense, would love to see a way to lock it to steam only access and allow cellular, overall it’s a great app that does exactly as promised. A little more freedom with what controls you can place at any given time would be nice but again that problem is null with a controller. 9/10

by Magusblanc

SteamLink itself functions as it should (at least with the games I’ve tried). Installation and connection process was smooth, simple, and intuitive. I already had my setup according to the “best performance” criteria so I can’t vouch for the stability and speed if a user weren’t to use that, but at the very least I would recommend having your pc connected to your router with an Ethernet cable. Overall, great app and added functionality to Steam. I don’t download much, if any, iPhone games anymore so this allows me to make use of my vast Steam library.