3d ago

Recommend me a steam deck game

Hello peeps. Life’s thrown me some curve-balls recently, and I’d like a bit of an escape. Can anyone recommend a decent game in the vein of Skyrim, Fallout or Deus Ex/System Shock for the steam deck, that isn’t 25 or 30 quid please? Something on offer for less than a tenner would be ideal. I’m sure there are some great older RPGs out there that I’ve missed, the Deck is the first time I’ve got back into gaming for quite a few years, and while I’m sure I could quite happily just play Brotato for the next few years, I reckon there’s something a bit more immersive out there for me to find!

61 comments

Nobody recommended Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines yet. You should definitely try this one. It's a bit like old Deus Ex in gameplay, has excellent atmosphere and soundtrack. One of my top recommendations.

"Mark of the ninja" low sysreq sidescrolling stealth game, multiple routes/playstyles. lots of fun, should be cheap too
- I love these pixel-art sidescrollers, so I’ll definitely give this a go. One of the first deck games I bought was Expendabros, and I enjoyed it for what it was, and the nostalgia. It actually made me want to play Flashback again, and it just so happens that Flashback is less than a quid this few days, so that’s going to be me for the next few days!

Dave the Diver was fantastic and is perfect for the Deck.
Some other games I liked playing this year on the Deck:
Chained Echoes
Vampire Survivors
Eastward
Divinity Original Sin 2
Slay the spire
Balatro
Chrono Trigger
Stardew Valley
Inscryption (mouse and keyboard required)
Edit: I got them all below or around $10, but some of them are curently above.

both very elegant and gameplay-first, but also oldschool-cool:
chained echoes
it's absolutely lovely on the steam deck because the readability and contrasts are good even in sunlit environment, and the battery life will be good

Have you taken a look at TheDarkMod? It’s a Thief 1&2-like game with several fantastic campaigns.
- Mint, I’ll check that out. I liked the original Thief

I had the most fun with Vampire Survivors - addictive, relatively short bursts, but suitable for longer sessions. Dirt cheap.
I also liked MultiVersus.... before it became a micro-transaction filled abomination. The core gameplay loop is still great tho.
General recommendation: Pick single player games from 3-4 years ago and back. The ones you were really interested in when they came out, but did not yet get around to playing them. Due to their age, they are almost guaranteed to run well on Deck, and they provide hours upon hours of fun. That's my strategy at least :)
- I would recommend against Multiversus only because it's getting shut down in a couple months. Might be fun until then, though

I would strongly recommend Disco Elysium, which is a very unique RPG with excellent writing.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/632470/Disco_Elysium__The_Final_Cut/
- That does look mint, thanks!

Kingdoms of Amalur Re-Reckoning $9.99

Based on the games you listed, Morrowind! One of my absolute favorite old RPGs. Out of the elder scrolls games it's the one with the strongest world building, which paints a nuanced picture of a very strange and compelling world. Compared to Skyrim in particular it's more like a pen-and-paper rpg and less like an action game which gives it a higher barrier to entry. In particular, a lot of people find the combat frustrating at the start.
The modding community for the game is very active to this day. To begin with, there's OpenMW which is a re-implementation of the engine that runs natively on Linux and contains various bug fixes and quality of life features. There's also a fork of it, tes3mp, which allows you to play Morrowind in multiplayer!
There's also Tamriel Rebuilt which is a modding project that adds the mainland of Morrowind (the base game just takes place on an island called Vvardenfell) and adds maybe another game worth of content. Theres also Project Tamriel which has one project that recreates Skyrim based on Morrowind-era lore and one that recreates Cyrodiil based on Morrowind-era lore.
- That’s loads to get into, thanks

Cocoon
- Nice, same guy who did Inside, which is proving both entertaining and disturbing

This fits your price requirement and is a nice chill game to just lose yourself in and perfect for the deck IMO.
A Short Hike. Currently €6.59 in Europe.
Hope things improve for you soon.
- Thank you, it’s pretty tough all round for folks I think at the moment, at least I have the time to use the deck as a bit of escapism.
- One of the first games I played on deck and I look back on it very fondly, a perfect deck game.

Absolutely try Prey from 2017, it is an immersive sim that is now looked at as a modern cult-classic. You wont be disappointed.
Just wait for a sale if $30 is too high, it goes on sale regularly.
- That’s been on my wish list for a bit, good to know that it gets on sale occasionally
  
  There's still bundle on Fanatical, where you can get Prey and couple more games for like $5.
  https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-explosive-bundle

NieR:Automata and NieR:Replicant run great in the deck
- That looks pretty sick, I’ll check them on the watchlist

Caves of Qud is really good, but I don't know if it is fully compatible with the Steam Deck. Very good RPG though.
- Says it’s verified. Very different to everything else, but it looks really intriguing, thanks
- It works amazingly. Might be handy to have a cheat sheet of the button combos though

The Dishonored series is amazing and is usually pretty cheap when on sale. A couple bucks at most, maybe.
Another immersive sim to recommend would be Prey. The DLC is really good too
- I would like to second Prey. It is very cheap during a sale.
  It's currently on sale on epic store if you don't mind that/already have heroic launcher or similar on the steam deck.
  https://gg.deals/game/prey/
- The Dishonoured looks great, and I’ve had Prey on my wish list for a while, thanks
  
  My pleasure. Enjoy the escapism and get well soon 💜☺️

If you want a big open world game, I can recommend Mad Max, you can find it in fanatical (a legal and trusted store) for $2.49. I had a lot of fun with it and it will give you tons of hours of fun.
https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/mad-max
I actually recommend you that site for steam keys since they often do bundles very cheap to help your library grow without spending a fortune.
- I’m still fresh to the deck, so I’ve not tried all this steam-key-store business out, but from my quick peruse, that site looks good to know, and mad Max looks right up my street, or outback track as the case may be

Humble choice is a great way to discover gems https://www.humblebundle.com/membership
Monster hunter world and monster hunter rise run great on the deck
Cyberpunk also runs well enough on the deck
For the price sensitive gamer: https://isthereanydeal.com/
- Thanks, that deal website is a proper touch, I’m going to keep an eye on that

Balatro

Have you tried Deus Ex Randomizer? We have an unusually high number of Steam Deck players
https://mods4ever.com/project/DXRando

Yakuza zero has been great on the steam deck for me. I think it kinda straddles the line between immersive sim while mostly being a brawler.

Batman Arkham series runs well.
Maybe kotor? Knights of the old republic.
- Oh my god, I didn’t even think to look for KOTOR, what am I doing?! I loved that game! Brilliant, thank you
- I played through kotor 1 and 2 recently and experienced a lot of crashes. Eventually made it through, but prepare for some frustration.
  
  That sounds frustrating! I played through on original Xbox and thankfully it was smooth going.

Hollow Knight has not been mentioned

Have you played the BioShock series?
- I have, they were pretty good. The fist one properly shat me up the first time I played it!

I've really been enjoying Kingdom Come: Deliverance and swapping between my PC and SteamDeck. It runs pretty well on the Deck. Reminds me of how I felt playing Skyrim. Excited to get to the sequel.
- I was very impressed with KCD on my friend's steam deck. Very smooth for a mobile system
- My mate’s been playing this on his switch, and it was a bit janky. Good to know it runs well on the deck
  
  It's still kinda janky IMO, and there are some parts where the performance can tank. But I'm not really treating as a fast-paced action game so it doesn't really affect my enjoyment.

Shadows of doubt feels similar to old school Deus Ex. $30 normal price, so wait for a sale.
You run around a dark rainy city as an ex cop turned freelance detective.
Take up small side jobs, break into buildings, make phone calls, buy coffee, listen to jazz in your apartment, read about a murder in the paper, sneak into a bloody crime scene to gather clues, hack computers, make a tangled conspiracy board, drink stolen alcohol until you're staggering down alleys, have crazed monologues, get an epiphany, track down a suspect, accuse them of murder, arrest them, close the case, find out they were innocent after all, repeat
- That sounds mint, thanks

Dark and Darker is free and is basically if Oblivion, Dark Souls and Escape from Tarkov had a baby.
- Sold, that sounds perfect!

valheim and skyrim
i am a much more relaxed gamer on the deck and oh boy these games have such a satisfying layer to them when just vibing there. spent an hour hiking the mistlands for the vibe last week
valheim is a bit more on the expensive side but skyrim is often for sale at like 10 bux
- Mint, I’ve played Skyrim repeatedly, but never on something where mods work.
- Valheim is often on sale at $10 as well.
  Valheim is a great game to just relax, chilling in the meadows, building and exploring.
  
  For a second I got mixed up and interpreted your comment as
  chilling in the plains
  And I though “what kind of madman—“
  
  How good is Valheim for solo play? I’m on the fence about getting it myself for the deck.

If you like the settlement building in Fallout 4, Humble Bundle's got House Flipper 1+DLC on sale for five bucks.
House Flipper and Friends Bundle

61 comments