ASYLUM from Senscape released back in March 2025, and after dealing with Unreal Engine issues – they finally released the promised Native Linux version.
The Linux release comes with a big optimization to the size of the game, trimming off 20GB by a mixture of redoing their videos and do some fancier compressing of textures – which they said makes the game feel a bit snappier too.
Original trailer below:
About the new Linux version – in the patch notes on Steam the developer said:
ASYLUM now works out of the box in Linux platforms without the need for Proton. In my tests, performance was smooth all across the board. However, we’re defaulting to “Low quality” since some visual effects seem to be demanding for current Vulkan drivers. Feel free to experiment and let us know. We’ll keep working on improving performance.
There’s another caveat: at least on my PC, the game crashes on exit. And I do mean exit, after the entire process is out of our hands. Apparently this is a frequent issue between Vulkan and Unreal and not anything I can fix right away. Since all the rest is performing so well, we decided to release the build anyway. You may or may not experience this crash — please let me know.
And in regards to Steam Deck specifically:
We found that Proton is still more performant on the Valve device, so we let Steam decide what to install. Default settings are fine. If you still want to try the native Linux port, you must force a compatibility tool and choose “Linux Runtime”.
Also, the game defaults at 90 FPS (it will still be 60 FPS on the LCD device). See how this works for you — it’s super smooth but perhaps too smooth. You can set 60 or even lower as desired. I found that with the latest improvements, even at 90 FPS the fan is quiet and battery life stays healthy.
Sometimes the Deck (or rather Unreal) may incorrectly detect this setting when you open the menu and fall back to 60 FPS, so it’s a good idea to double check the setting you get.
Patch 1.5 changes:
New: Extensive optimization of game resources resulting in a far smaller download and disk footprint.
New: All cutscenes and movies are now in Bink format which is more lightweight and eliminates weird issues with certain platform setups.
New: Added an extra input for the Steam Deck so that you may walk and interact by clicking the trackpad. This is one of my favorite tweaks as I play all adventures on the Deck that way!
New: Added a post-credits scene that explains the ending of the story in great detail. Haha, just kidding.
Fix: Default game resolution and frame rate are now correctly calculated in the menu. Setting the desired resolution and frame rate should feel less glitchy.
Fix: The game should correctly detect the system language now when launched for the first time.
Fix: Frame rate defaults to 60 FPS on desktop platforms and 90 FPS on the Steam Deck.
Fix: Some German text strings had leftover English text or translator notes, but no more.
Fix: Sometimes videos of opening doors would show a brief instance of the door closed before walking, which shouldn’t happen anymore.
Fix: A glitchy door in the Low Risk corridor leading to the Low Risk Cell now looks better. Nobody noticed that, but it looked really odd.
Fix: Spanish game settings had an infiltrated line in portuguese. Nobody knows how that happened.
Fix: A very inappropriate tutorial on Mac featuring buttons that don’t exist has been removed.
Build string: version 1.5.0 (test with CTRL + V).
🌐 External Sources: store.steampowered.com
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
