23 games we love on Steam Deck

Because it launched in 2022, the Steam Deck has rapidly amassed a status as top-of-the-line, if not the finest, handheld gaming platforms in the marketplace at present— particularly when contemplating the advantages of the OLED model.

With a library of video games spanning a lot of Steam’s huge storefront, a docking station to play video games on TV and displays, and an rising variety of titles being optimized and verified for the Deck on daily basis, Valve’s proprietary handheld is an ideal instance of the viability and promise of transportable PC gaming. That’s why we’ve collected 23 titles that showcase what makes the Steam Deck so particular.

To curate the record, we’ve choose video games that profit essentially the most from the Steam Deck’s particular options. You’ll discover PC exclusives, Swap video games that profit right here from sooner load occasions, and video games that break aside properly into brief classes.

Don’t count on to see some presumed contenders on the record. Not each sport is appropriate with the Steam Deck, neither is each style an ideal match — we’re taking a look at you, RTS video games. And for now, this record additionally excludes emulation and cloud streaming.

We deliberately restrict our lists to keep away from overwhelming readers, so remember to share your private picks that didn’t make the reduce within the feedback.

Our newest replace added Hyper Gentle Drifter.

Picture: Coronary heart Machine

Final weekend, on a whim, I booted up Hyper Gentle Drifter on my Steam Deck for the primary time since taking part in it again in 2016. 9 hours later, I lastly managed to wrest myself from the siren-like name of its pixelated tableaus, blistering fight, and melancholic rating, having accomplished it once more and earned the sport’s secret ending. Such is the magnetic enchantment and energy of Coronary heart Machine’s debut even eight years after its launch.

Sport director Alx Preston and co. got down to create a 16-bit action-RPG that channeled the easiest components of the Legend of Zelda and Diablo sequence, with a narrative not a lot advised as it’s felt via its dialogue-less cutscenes that play out as in the event that they had been fugue-like visions of some doomed alternate universe. Hyper Gentle Drifter achieved all of that and extra, coalescing into an action-RPG that stands the take a look at of time. —Toussaint Egan

Picture: Sega by way of gamerjive

The Yakuza sequence spans lots of of hours throughout seven mainline entries, together with a handful of spinoffs. Which is to say, the transportable Steam Deck gives the most effective likelihood at seeing the whole thing of this Japanese gangster epic, particularly within the type of brief missions on lunch breaks. When you don’t have time for each sport, or simply want a spot to start out, we advocate Yakuza 0. A kind of prequel to the sequence, the journey takes place in Eighties Japan and gives a lot of colourful backstories. Don’t be fooled by all the violent fight and seedy locales; this sequence (and particularly this entry) has extra coronary heart and pleasure than 99% of video games from big-budget publishers. Hero Kazuma Kiryu needs to make the world a greater place, one metropolis block at a time. —Chris Plante

Picture: Large Monster/Devolver Digital by way of gamerjive

Deep breath: Cult of the Lamb is Animal Crossing meets Hades meets the darkish aspect of Catholic historical past meets Completely happy Tree Associates meets American cultism meets European occultism meets Darkish Souls meets Eighties Satanic Panic meets Fractured Fairy Tales meets the waking desires of Peter Molyneux.

Cult of the Lamb is sort of a stew. When you look intently, you possibly can spot all of those scrumptious particular person substances, however when slurped from an enormous spoon all you’ll style is one distinct taste. —CP

Picture: Mintrocket by way of gamerjive

There are few cell gaming experiences as serene and enthralling as Dave the Diver. Dave dives not simply to gather fish and cooking supplies for the sushi restaurant he staffs each night time, however to uncover historical secrets and techniques. No matter your goal, navigating the deep appears like a mix between Animal Crossing and a roguelike, the place you’re amassing higher instruments to uncover what (and who) is lurking within the depths.

Dave the Diver is a family-friendly sport (should you can look previous small clouds of blood if you harpoon a fish) that’s startlingly good at mixing many sport genres in a single. You swim; handle a restaurant; farm fish, veggies and extra; and are solely answerable for reversing a local weather change-inducing risk below the ocean. And on the Steam Deck, it’s a lot simpler to slot in only one extra dive session. —Cameron Faulkner

Picture: Black Salt Video games/Team17

You won’t count on Dredge to really feel at dwelling on the Steam Deck at first look, nevertheless it completely does. This haunted seafaring journey exams the protagonist’s psyche, and the gameplay loop is ideal for fast pick-up, put-down classes. To not point out, it’s a whole lot of enjoyable being let out to fish, clear up mysteries, and full targets earlier than the solar goes down. And should you dare, dredge the depths after darkish for some spooky surprises. —CF

Picture: MNKY/PixelJam by way of gamerjive

My love for the Star Fox sequence has evaporated with every new entry, to the purpose that I started to surprise if I ever actually loved these video games or if I simply preferred chunky ’90s 3D graphics. Ex-Zodiac’s creators have finished what Nintendo couldn’t for the previous couple of a long time: bottle the unique magic of the house flight franchise and add simply sufficient tweaks to make the journey palatable for our collective advanced tastes. (Hey, video video games have come a good distance for the reason that SNES!) Developer MNKY additionally created bonus ranges impressed by different retro classics, like House Harrier, emphasizing its knack for refueling as soon as thrilling genres which have spent method too lengthy gathering mud within the storage. —CP

Picture: BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive

Stray is a sport about being a cat. You don’t discuss like Garfield or wink on the digital camera like Bubsy. You stretch, scratch, and sometimes leap between ledges at perilous heights. Your cat participates in a harrowing journey set in a dystopian, cyberpunk underworld through which robots echo the lives of their long-dead human counterparts. However most engagement occurs in your behalf via an cute, English-speaking, artificially clever drone named B-12. The sport’s creators hold your cat’s direct involvement ambiguous. Is the cat the savior of a dying planet? Or is the cat only a cat who occurs to be the incidental shepherd of historic change? Like I mentioned, typical cat stuff. —CP

Picture: Group Ladybug/WSS playground, PLAYISM by way of gamerjive

I’m happy with the work we do at gamerjive, however each publication has its weaknesses. I’ve accepted that we’re not the go-to consultants for old-school side-scrolling shooters and shmups. That honor goes to our friends at Eurogamer, particularly Martin Robinson, who I belief extra with this style than I do any pundit with American politics. When he proclaimed Drainus is “essentially the most spectacular side-scrolling shooter since Gradius 5,” I needed to give it a strive. Is it the most effective? I mentioned I’m not an professional. However I can say, with confidence, it’s been a blast on Steam Deck, a scrumptious digestif after hours in a contemporary open-world sport, and an unusually accommodating entry level for a notoriously impenetrable style. —CP

Picture: Sq. Enix

Top-of-the-line video games of all time obtained top-of-the-line remakes of all time, and now you possibly can play its most full model every time and wherever you need. I imply, I may write extra causes you must play this sport, however let’s be actual — both you will have performed a model of Remaining Fantasy 7 already otherwise you’ve been advised numerous occasions to bump this one up your queue. Throw this suggestion on the pile. —CP

Picture: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco by way of gamerjive

Meet the Steam Deck’s killer app. It’s not good — I play on low settings and sometimes expertise body charge dips — however Elden Ring works, and that’s all I must farm souls (er, “runes”) in FromSoftware’s open-world growth of its Darkish Souls components. That is the sport that has saved me awake previous midnight. I promise myself that I’ll cease as soon as I see what’s on the finish of a moss-lined cave or over a burning horizon, however then I see some new curiosity, and abruptly, I’m pummeling my method via one other dungeon. The comfort of a conveyable gadget turns what I meant to be a 15-minute grind session right into a two-hour journey via a labyrinthine dungeon. —CP

Picture: poncle

So that you’ve dropped half a grand on a conveyable online game machine able to powering essentially the most advanced and costly 3D video video games on the planet. Now put together to burn dozens of hours on a $2.99 2D dungeon crawler that almost performs itself. Vampire Survivors is the unholy union of clickers, roguelikes, and Gauntlet. Runs take 10-Half-hour and pair properly with an audiobook or podcast. The builders have found the components for an ideal transportable sport, however in the intervening time, you possibly can’t discover this one on Swap or smartphones. —CP

Picture: Don’t Nod

Jusant has been my go-to chill-out sport of selection this yr, and I can’t think about taking part in it on something aside from the Steam Deck. The post-apocalyptic fantasy climbing sport from French developer Don’t Nod (Life Is Unusual) has so much going for it: a mysterious and compelling world with lovely artwork design, a shifting orchestral music rating, and tight controls which might be simple to be taught and gratifying to grasp.

It’s that final level that makes the Steam Deck my most popular platform of option to play Jusant. The satisfying sound and haptic suggestions of the Deck’s left and proper triggers makes the problem of climbing the cliff faces of the sport’s impossibly huge and looming tower as painless and pleasing as doable, and the visible and sound high quality of the Deck is terrific at rendering the beautiful vistas and ambient soundscapes of the world. When you’re searching for a soothing but thrilling journey sport expertise that performs nice on the Steam Deck, that is the one to play. —TE

Picture: Sq. Enix

One of the best place to play Dragon Quest 11 has modified through the years. The JRPG to finish all JRPGs first launched in 2018 on Steam and PlayStation 4, solely to be bested a yr later by a Definitive Version for Nintendo Swap, which included extra content material and could possibly be performed on the go. The Definitive Version then got here to Steam in 2020, however, in fact, it lacked the portability of the Swap model, forcing gamers to decide on between visuals and comfort. With the Steam Deck, of us can now have it each methods. —CP

Picture: PlatinumGames/Sq. Enix

My blurb for gamerjive’s finest video games of the 2010s applies to why Nier: Automata belongs on each Steam Deck:

Nier: Automata is the sport I most frequently discover myself desirous to play as an alternative of the numerous fine-but-forgettable shooters and open-world distractions that land on my desk. I give it some thought each week partly as a result of its soundtrack is my favourite writing music, partly as a result of its toys litter my desk, and principally as a result of it’s simply that good. Sure, it’s a must to beat it 5 occasions, however in hindsight, I want I had a purpose to play it one other 5 hundred. —CP

Picture: Sq. Enix

Whereas Paranormasight is on the market for Swap and iOS, it seems to be and performs finest (and is usually essentially the most inexpensive) on Steam Deck, whether or not you’re utilizing it in handheld mode or if it’s docked to your TV. This spooky, quite mature episodic visible novel is hard to place down, particularly if you start to uncover the way it progresses.

You assume the function of a number of characters, who’re all attempting to outlive a supernatural cataclysm that’s out for everybody’s soul. The story is advised to make you care about every one in all them, not understanding who’s about to chunk the mud on the subsequent flip of occasions. —CF

Picture: Volition, Kaiko/THQ Nordic

In 2009, Volition created an open-world terrorism simulator set on Mars. With a hammer and construction-grade explosives, a bald house bro destroys landmarks, authorities workplace complexes, and mining services piece by piece. The place its open-world friends targeted on realism and narrative, Pink Faction emphasised chaotic enjoyable. Writer THQ deliberate to transform Pink Faction right into a “transmedia” property, however little materialized past a mediocre sequel and a made-for-TV film. The closest we’ve seen to a non secular sequel is 2020’s Teardown, an indie heist sport that invitations gamers to bust via buildings made from chunky voxels. Talking of, I ought to set up Teardown on my Steam Deck. —CP

Zero Escape: The Nonary Video games

Picture: Spike Chunsoft Co.

9 Hours, 9 Individuals, 9 Doorways and Zero Escape: Advantage’s Final Reward had been two of essentially the most beloved visible novels on the Nintendo DS, 3DS, and PlayStation Vita. Sadly, Nintendo and Sony not help the DS and Vita on-line retailers, and the 3DS on-line storefront will shut in 2023. In the meantime, The Nonary Video games, which bundles the 2 titles, stays simply as accessible at present because it did when it launched on Steam in 2017, with no risk of disappearing anytime quickly. —CP

Picture: Mossmouth, Blitworks/Mossmouth

Spelunky HD saved my PlayStation Vita inside arm’s attain lengthy after Sony gave up on the cult handheld. Final yr, developer Mossmouth ported Spelunky and its sequel to the Nintendo Swap — and I lastly moved my Vita into its long-term dwelling in my storage bin of gaming artifacts. I gained’t say the Steam Deck is a greater dwelling for Spelunky than the Swap, simply that it’s one other transportable dwelling. And any transportable that may play Spelunky ought to play Spelunky. —CP

Picture: Worldwalker Video games

Wildermyth made gamerjive’s high 10 video games of 2021 record by reimagining the D&D expertise with out the necessity for a part-time Dungeon Grasp. The fight is intelligent sufficient (your magic can convert any object right into a lethal weapon), however I particularly cherish its creator’s dedication to characters. Get together members discover lovers and nemeses, they purchase weapons and battle scars, they age and ultimately die. Quests are damaged into 10- to 15-minute episodes of story and fight, ideally suited for filling any gaps in your day. The controls on Steam Deck do take a bit observe, however the sport has benefited from an lively neighborhood of modders and storytellers, so I wouldn’t be shocked if we see improved user-made management settings quickly. —CP

Picture: Valve by way of gamerjive

In 2004, Half-Life 2 helped launch Steam, attracting hundreds of gamers to Valve’s then-unproven online game ecosystem. In return for becoming a member of Steam, gamers may obtain a first-person shooter that was far forward of its time. At present, Half-Life 2 (and its pair of supplemental episodes) works as one other instance of Valve’s magic. I put in a PC sport I purchased practically 20 years in the past onto a conveyable laptop, and it solely took a couple of minutes to enter the streets of Metropolis 17. —CP

Picture: Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Leisure

What if Hideo Kojima made his magnum opus, however most individuals wrote it off as a tedious strolling simulator? Reader, it occurred! Loss of life Stranding is my private sport of the last decade, an astounding mishmash of all the pieces to seem in a Kojima sport: earnest critiques of capitalism and the ache factors of democracy, eerie premonitions of worldwide pandemics and a gig financial system pressured to hold society on its shoulders, and sufficient mommy points to justify a lifetime of remedy. Plus, the sport itself is enjoyable. Like, very enjoyable!

No, you don’t get to shoot a lot stuff, nor do you conquer the large open-world map. However you do make the world a bit extra manageable for you and different gamers, slowly constructing bridges, roads, and ladders that may inevitably be destroyed by nature. The place different video games ask you to turn into the ruler of their world, Loss of life Stranding reminds you that we’re all merely vacationers awaiting our one-way flight off of this rock. Did I point out the poop grenades?

Loads of of us didn’t give the sport a shot on PlayStation 4 or PC. Perhaps the Steam Deck will make the sport handy sufficient to win over a handful of curious individuals to make the leap into Loss of life Stranding’s sticky, inky depths. —CP