I just got a Steam deck after saving up for one. Please recommend games.
I haven’t had a console since ps3. I like story driven games. I do enjoy CK, AoE, Civ.
I liked Sicko elesium, any othercommie games to enjoy? What about for the people?
Outer wilds is probably one of the best single player games to come out in a long while. I'd rank it up there with disco elysium
These two games hit my emotions like no other, but in such different ways.
Play Outer Wilds and don't read any spoilers. It's a lovely exploration/puzzle game where you are an adorable little nonbinary alien archaeologist exploring the solar system. The rest you should figure out yourself.
::)
Dammit why did I read this thread I'm not even halfway done with the last of us but disco Elysium is the best game ever so now I gotta buy outer wilds.. thanks for the recommendation
i agree, they're easily two of my favourite single player games of the last decade. outer wilds is really an experience
Vampire Survivors
Other Survivors-likes I've enjoyed:
Nova Drift - more arcade style Asteroids type game with hundreds of different builds
Boneraiser Minions - vampire survivors but it's just minions and there are boner puns
20 Minutes Till Dawn - very close in style and gameplay to vampire survivors, but IMO the builds and the feel of the game is superior
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is also pretty fun
commie game
Have you played Workers and Resources: Soviet Republic? One of the most Marxist games ever made along with Vicky 3. It's pretty intimidating but it has a lot of difficulty features so you can start with just the basics and ramp up at your own pace.
I'm not sure WR:SR would work well handheld, just fyi to OP.
OP mentioned CK, AOE, and Civ - I think W&R would work about as well as any of those three. The Steam Deck's got the touchpad mouses.
It's cool that it isn't a carbrained game, but the party loyalty thing is very weird.
It's a bit strange, but a good excuse to plop Lenin statues everywhere.
Its part of “xaxaxaxa communist russia so silly” genre which has these reactionary elements to avoid being seen as “propaganda” in combination with appealing to soviet nostalgia to actually people from the former communist states, so it still has to be realistic.
Vampire Survivors and Balatro and Halls of Torment if you want to kill all the time.
And if you want to try an excellent Vampire Survivors-style game for free (actually free, not F2P), check out HoloCure on Steam
Fuck HoloCure!
I lost 100 hours of my life in like a week and a half.... It's so addicting
It's not a strategy game and it's not communist either, but if you like story then you gotta play Ghost Trick! It was originally released on DS but it got a remake for PC/xbox/switch/ps4 a while back that's good too.
It's a puzzle game where you play as a recently-departed spirit that's trying to solve their own murder. You accomplish this by possessing and manipulating nearby objects to change the course of events leading up to your death. Every level is like a Rube Goldberg machine and everything is animated beautifully. It has the most gripping plot I've ever seen in a video game and I binged the entire thing from beginning to end when I first played it. It's the game version of a page-turner. It's an A-presser.
Roguelite card games: Slay the Spire, Monster Train, Wildfrost
Did Wildfrost ever become not insanely difficult? I watched
and it looked swag but way too hard for me to enjoyThere's been a few updates since release which apparently made it easier. I only started it like a month ago and it's been tolerable on difficulty
i don't think i ever got a single win on Wildfrost, made it to the final boss once
shit was hard
West of Loathing and Shadows Over Loathing are quirky adventure games with surprisingly good writing that play well on deck.
Supergiant games: Bastion, Transistor, and Hades. All have good stories and play well. I'd bet Pyre too but I haven't played it.
Other games I think are good on deck but might not fit your criteria (mostly roguelikes of some flavor):
I remember the browser based kingdom of loathing
Does it still exist? I think I might giver ago , it's been so long
Dragonfable clears ez
I was obsessed with KoL back in high school! I think my first account from '04 still exists, there was some sort of miscode of one of the early Crimbo items that accidentally granted undeletable status to an account, so despite years of inactivity it was still there when I last checked almost a decade ago lol
Edit: my account still exists! Guess I'm gonna pick right back up on whatever a "BIG!" hardcore run is
Games I’ve enjoyed on steamdeck:
I also enjoyed Goroga it’s like a 40minute game but really good.
The most impressive story-focused games I got on Steam Deck are
Looks amazing on Steam Deck and runs really well, more story focused FPS though it has a mixed tone, it's $5 for a grey-market steam key from G2A. It's also available through a DODI repack on 1337x.to or Fitgirl
CW: Very dark and very violent despite its mixed tone, does not sanitize Nazi violence against queers and other enemies of fascists, has story sequences from POV of child abuse and forced animal abuse
One of the best looking games ever and runs well on Steam Deck. Haven't gotten too far into the story yet but it's really good.
Steam Deck verified, haven't tried it yet because I want a full week to get really immersed. It's a classic Fallout style game set in the Soviet Union and it's written by communists
You play as Norman Reedus doing sci-fi mutual aid to rebuild America through infrastructure by Hideo Kojima
Soviet FPS Fallout with survival horror elements, semi-open zones, story-driven, for train lovers and people that love the post-apocalyptic Soviet setting. You are incentivized to avoid combat when possible. Characters made positive comments about Mao and you are more or less part of a small commune, beautiful communist imagery and natural setting. (Doesn't support Steam Cloud Saves, requires manual backup)
It's Fallout New Vegas
Third person horror shooter inspired by classics like Twin Peaks and The Shining, made by Remedy, kind of reminds me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and other 90s cheese
This is the pack-in game for Steam Deck by Valve, but does not come pre-installed, teaches you about Steam Deck controls
The newer Resident Evil games run really well on Steam Deck and have more emphasis on their story and cutscenes
Takes some level of tinkering, low-medium settings with XESS enabled in the game settings to good 40fps performance but looks really impressive on Steam Deck
The themes are a miss but the cinematography and acting in this game is phenomenal
Side scrolling animated adventure, uses some gorgeous and innovative 2d animation systems, lots of eye candy I think it's like a Metroidvania somewhat
First person sci-fi immersive sim like classic Deus Ex, haven't tried it but it's a niche classic
Classic Fallout is available and playable, may take some tinkering with setting and controller settings
You play a 1930s New York Detective solving murders, by Rockstar Games
It's kind of like Zelda and the only really good games Ubisoft ever made, first game is like a fairy tale, later ones become more edgy
Fitgirl repacks on https://fitgirl-repacks.site/
DODI repacks on https://1337x.to/
Plus on for LA Noire that was a real banger
If you've never played Celeste, check it out. It's a challenging platformer with a very touching story, cute artwork, and a great soundtrack. Also has a vibrant modding community with thousands of third-party levels, including hundreds gathered together into collabs with consistent difficulty progressions and hours of original soundtrack. Greatest platformer of all time. You should be able to run the mods on a Steam Deck.
Also, look into setting up RetroArch on there (not the version distributed on Steam though - it lacks the function to download emulator 'cores' which you will need to play various games).
RetroArch
You can actually re-enable this in the Steam version by changing a cfg value, that said if you're already on Linux there's no reason to use the Steam version when your distro's app store almost certainly has it already.
There's especially no reason to use the Steam version on Steam Deck when you can just install Emudeck.
Ah that's good to know. I assumed they had this feature disabled at compile-time (there is also a compile-time flag). My only experience with the Steam version was one time on my friend's Windows computer before installing a copy straight from the RetroArch website.
Balatro, Vampire Survivors and Nubby's Number Factory
Balatro is so addicted I got it on my phone..
updoot for Nubby
-If you have more than 1x jumble from eating starfruit, the amount of jumbles you have remaining is displayed on the jumble button.
holy
FTL faster than light is one of the sites favorite games
The same people that made it made into the breach which is a fun turn based strategy game
There are some fun classics like Shovel Knight and Hollow knight which are fun
Also Katana Zero is really good
ive never used a steam deck but i cant imagine playing FTL without a mouse and keyboard, incredible game though, one of my all time favorites especially with mods
the turn based BattleTech sounds like it would be great for steam deck
FTL is so incredibly good
Last of us part one is blowing me away. Also ghost of Tsushima, cyberpunk, heck even old school far cry games, crysis 2 cheap as hell and extremely fun. Of course the best game of all time is disco Elysium
I'm having a lot of fun with subnautica and subnautica below zero. Plays well on the deck
Not really a story-driven game, but "A Short Hike" is a chill 3D platformer set in a peaceful mountain park, focused on exploration and relaxing vibes. You can finish it in just a few hours.
The remake of Age of Mythology plays great on it. I've also played Age of Empires I & III Definitive Editions on it a lot, but that required a significant amount of steam controller profile tinkering, and it's only good for slower single player turtle play.
A recent story game I played fully on it was Ys X Nordics. Great action and story game and tons of fun, and ran pretty well on Steam Deck. Ys VIII Lacrimosa of Dana also played well on it and is a long but incredible story, and Ys I & II Chronicles. All great story driven games I've played on Deck. I'm sure the other Ys games on Steam probably will also be good on Deck.
Some other good options I've played a lot on Steam Deck:
These I've also played tons on Steam Deck, but I think they required some tinkering to get running:
Peglin
Check out Tonight We Riot if you want a super short anti-capitalist beat em up
Inscryption and Dave the Diver are two games I really enjoyed
Return of the Obra Dinn, UFO 50
Civ 6 works ok on Steam Deck if you turn down the graphics (make the leaders into static pictures especially) and take some time to configure the inputs.
EmuDeck is awesome and I got an sd card and filled it up with games. Was able to get every emulator working that I wanted to use including switch, 3DS, PS2 (Burnout 3 plays great), GC, etc. Also has the capability of adding achievements through the retroachievements site. It's pretty great all around.
Other than that, been playing a ton of Persona 5 Royal which runs great on it. It has a pretty great story so far and the game itself is pretty addicting.
Hyper light drifter, Tunic, Fowl Damage, Nine Souls to name a few
No Man's Sky is great on the steam deck, I second 9to5's suggestions of Balatro and Vampire Survivors as well.
Dorfromantik, Disco Elysium (read up on the people who made it first because they got forced out of the company, and no longer own all of the rights, so they advise players to torrent it), Civilization games play well on the SD, The Ascent, Tunic...
Kitsune Tails, great SMB3-style platformer game.
The games my daughter and I have played on the Steam Deck with high levels of success:
Dave the Diver. Planet Coaster. Untitled Goose Game. It Takes Two. Ori series.
Dave the Diver so good on the deck
I just bought haste and have been playing that a bunch.
Kingdom hearts just feels right on the deck because I grew up only playing the PSP and DS games. Now I'm finally able to play the ones originally only released for home consoles
all the yakuza games run great on steam deck (i personally started from 0 and went up).
Balatro is also a fun one to play while watching some TV.
I’d recommend Victoria 3. It’s like Civ but with a much better understanding of how politics work.
I usually just try to go communist revolution for whatever country I’m playing lol
Does that really work well on such a tiny screen?
Civ 6/7 works really well, tried Vicky3 and it's too much for the decks screen
I was mostly just recommending the game I don’t own a steam deck yet unfortunately so can’t speak from experience but I’ve heard it runs good on it and with it being turn based it’s not too bad with a smaller screen. I’ve played Civ 6 on my phone and it’s doable without too much trouble.
It’s honestly the game that’s probably going to have me get one since I have kids now and don’t have the time to sit down and play on my computer anymore
What about victoria 2 (it’s cheaper)
Why are you buying them? fitgirl is right there
Victoria 3 i has a better functioning economy and politics, and AI that is only partially braindead
Vicky 2 has the far better war system
Haven’t played that one so can’t say how similar or different they are sorry.
I think the newer Paradox games actually have steam deck integration. You can run the older games but it might be a little clunky.
Opensource vic2 (katherina engine I think) is probably the best variantion.
Tonight we riot, Workers and Resources: Soviet Republic (maybe not on steamdeck), Citizen sleeper, China: Mao's Legacy, Democratic Socialism Simulator, They Came from a Communist Planet
, Fursan al-Aqsa, Luck be a Landlordrain world is pretty good, its sold on itch.io and on steam and it has a cute background story you have to piece together yourself. its a hard as balls physics based platformer/survival sim where you are a piece of very slippery and intelligent prey in the middle of the food chain.
It's not exactly commie, but the Borderlands series has a distinctly anti-capitalist undertone. I'd recommend Borderlands 2 if you have any interest in a looter-shooter, it runs great on the steam deck.
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion.
Makes a good on-ramp and warmup when getting back into gaming.
Spiderman: Miles Morales - it plays amazing on Steam Deck. Outstanding story, graphics, gameplay. Whole package. Game feels alive from first boot up and keeps going.
Also Hades. Hades is a must. It got me into rougelikes and super story deep which keeps expanding as you go. The charecters are super likeable. Has a nice slice of life component to it as well. There are story bits and music that just floor you.
I haven't tried it on deck, but if you like story i'd imagine the Telltale games would play ok on them.
I've been playing AfterLove EP just as a casual side. Slice of life story with some history behind it.
Oh Sakaguchi's last game Fantasian plays well on it. It was originally for Apple but the port is functional and plays much like old school final fantasy with some new mechanics. Uematsu has some bangers as usual, but as a whole I don't think it's his best. (They let you swap out soundtracks)
FF7 Crisis core
Ghostbusters The Videogame Remastered is really good if you're a fan. Bit dated but holds up.
Balatro is good up to a point. Very reasonably priced. Awards are well earned.