25 Best Steam Deck Games To Play Right Now

in a very brief time the steam deck has become a staple of PC gaming as the go-to portable solution for many players if you've had one since launch or you're hoping to get upgraded to the new OLED version here's our Roundup of the 25 best steam deck games to play right now Elden Rings the lands between are vast and Rich with activities to undertake at any given moment you're a Stones throw away from a hidden dungeon a brand new area of the map or a challenging mini boss although the game tells you to seek the shards of the Elden ring and become Elden lord it's easy to spend dozens of hours doing other things instead the steam deck is a fantastic way of undertaking some of these shorter tasks in bite-sized chunks before returning to the main task at hand on a bigger screen with a beefier PC steam's ability to seamlessly upload and download cloud saves makes this functionality a breeze Elden ring runs very well no doubt because valve took steps to ensure the biggest game of the the year which launched around the same time as its steam deck actually worked Elden ring looks and plays excellent on the handheld so you can hop into the lands between whenever is most convenient for you part Dungeon Crawler part simulator Cult of the Lamb enlists you as the leader of a tribe of cultists as you try to gain the favor of a mystical being that saved you from death combat is fast and fluid with levels procedurally generated for replayability there are also tons of ways to enhance your skills giving you plenty of reasons to dive back in for another Quest when you're not swinging swords or slinging spells you'll need to manage your cult in typical Sim game fashion that means feeding your members giving them jobs and picking up their poop a video game with a side of eldrich horror dredge has you fishing the shores of Greater marrow to reel in big catches upgrade your boat buy better supplies and deal with panicked hallucinations you know normal fishing stuff as the story unfolds you discover cover more about the horrific sea monsters that lur below the surface giving the whole thing A Touch of lightly creeping spookiness arcade Paradise starts out unassuming enough as you go through the tedious work of managing an old laundromat soon you discover a few arcade machines sitting in storage in the back room and decide to open them up to the public as you start to develop your business you build up more and more cabinets converting more of the laundromat to a burgeoning arcade business while you need to manage your business you can also play all of your own arcade machines to your heart's content in effect this makes arcade Paradise a great miname collection letting you dabble in tons of different retro styled games and those Play Habits feed into the business management mechanics as well as your performance in the arcade machines increases their popularity and profitability card shock is an aptly named game that sees you slowly growing your repertoire of card tricks as you try to fool your opponents and grow your wealth things start out slow like learning to trade signals with your partner but quickly escalates like learning how to shuffle the deck in your favor if you perform any of these actions poly your fellow players will start to grow leery of your intent it's an intriguing premise and one that's pulled together with beautiful Graphics impressive dialogue and a soundtrack that'll be stuck in your head long after you put down your steam deck Spider-Man remastered is a game that shows just how well steam deck can handle a big budget AAA experience Marvel Spider-Man came out into 2018 but its remastered version helped push the power of the PS5 the PC conversion can run even better with a significantly beefy PC but the steam deck version runs impressively well with the right settings that means you can pack the greatl looking visuals and all the web swinging action into a portable package I like to think of children of mortar as an underappreciated gem in the Dungeon Crawler genre in it you play as the pixelated bergson family each member of which has their own unique fighting style and weaponry clearing out damp and dark caves around your Immaculate home is made even more engrossing thanks to a fantastic narrator carrying you off into a fantasy world on even the most tedious bus ride to work if you don't mind going into fits of Rage while riding the Subway or sitting in a cab consider adding curse to golf to your steam deck lineup this golf game is anything but leisurely as it tasks you with navigating a 2d course filled with ridiculous hazards such as TNT and teleporters although an assortment of useful powerups gives you impressive flexibility to complete each stage under par the goal is to clear all 18 holes in a single playthrough but you can break your round up into multiple playthroughs to make things more manageable tight controls adorable graphics and an everchanging assortment of levels make it easy to sink hours into the Indie regardless of where you're playing don't let its colorful cartoon Graphics fool you cuphead is a brutally difficult game you play as the aonomus cuphead as he battles a series of increasingly difficult enemies on his journey toward the devil battles play out from a 2d perspective and take place in a single room although each boss always manages to bring something new to the table Beyond its striking art style cuphead features some of the smoothest combat mechanics on this list making it a blast to face off against each new villain even if they might destroy you just a few seconds later toss in a variety of unlockable weapons and abilities multiple playable characters and the Stella delicious last course expansion and it's easy to see why cuphead remains so popular more than 5 years after its release it feels right at home on Steam deck and is a must playay for anyone who likes challenging action games on the surface Dave the diver is a cute Adventure Sim game in which you go spear fishing during the day and then bring your catches in at night to serve as the menu for a burgeoning sushi restaurant but like the big blue hole that you're diving into there's unexpected depth here Dave the diver ends up being a wild hodg pod of tons of different genre influences incorporating lots of different activities as it tells its lengthy story still the loop of catching fish serving Sushi and using your profits to upgrade your gear is so easy and compelling it's a perfect fit for the deck The Lovable Dave is a fun hero and the game is also home to some of the biggest and best pixel cut scenes we've ever seen disco alium is so text Heavy that it can feel like you're actually holding a Kindle when playing it on a steam deck but for fans of deep RPG experience es it's exactly what you're probably looking for the latitude for True role playing is vast and The Story Goes places that are both smart and unpredictable the painterly art style also looks great in handheld mode and may have fellow trained passengers looking over to see what it is you're doing which admittedly is a little awkward when you start the game hung over in your underpants the classic Final Fantasy series has been lovingly restored with the pixel remasters but its other available platform is less than ideal the mobile versions lack a lot lot of the customization options that you'll find on PC and they don't even support controllers so you're forced to use touch controls but these classic RPGs feel readymade for portable making steam deck the best place to play Not only can you grind levels while binge watching a show but it looks and plays great and you can even install mods to for example fix the font if you can only get one Final Fantasy 6 is an absolute Masterpiece Hitman 3 is the culmination of a half decade of hard work from IO Interactive and that is admirable but also on Steam deck it's a diverse World Tour of portable murder playgrounds and that's pretty neat too don't you think if you happen to have access to the earlier games in the Hitman reboot Series this third game houses every level weapon and ridiculous costume into one Central Hub giving Hitman fans the totality of the franchise's best entries all in the palms of their hands for my money into the Bree is one of the best designed games in recent memory and it's perfectly at home on Deck thanks to its turn-based nature and bite-sized missions as the previous switch release demonstrated the controls work perfectly well with the GamePad and the screen here is well up to the task of displaying all of the information you need performance is great it's not terribly demanding from a hardware perspective and it's a terrific game that you can sink hours into at a time or occasionally glance at while watching something on TV few games scream valve more than Left for Dead 2 so it should be a no-brainer for the steam deck and I'm happy to report that playing it on the handheld is actually even better than playing it on Console it runs very smoothly and the PC lobbies have always stayed active even after the Xbox Community largely fell by the wayside the controls are simple too so even if you've been playing for years on PC you'll quickly figure out how to pick up an ax and start chopping off zombie limbs with friends on the go monster hunter rise is another switch game that eventually found a home on PC making it well suited for steam deck the latest game in the franchise does quite a bit to move the series forward with the wire bug adding a new verticality to its maps and Rampage quests offering a chaotic break from your usual hunts Beyond those changes everything else that made Monster Hunter so popular is here in Spades whether you enjoy heading out on hunts with a group of friends meticulously crafting every piece of gear or trying to slay beasts solo Monster Hunter rise is bound to impress octopath traveler 2 is the sequel to its experimental first game featuring eight heroes with their own backstories and that core idea is still intact here but octopath traveler 2 is a vast Improvement in every way the repetitive process of gathering all eight party members has been streamlined and the roles and abilities are more differentiated characters also now have differing daytime and nighttime skills as well as latent abilities to use in combat it may be a little slow to get started but when all the mechanics and systems come together it sings the Metroid Vania genre fits like a glove on Steam deck and among these my favorite is the aie series while I haven't tested the sequel Ori in the will of the Wisps the original remains an Immaculate and tightly designed genre standout arguably one of the best of the past decade taking that on the go is already possible on switch and even via Xbox cloud gaming so you've maybe had opportunities to play it in handheld mode before but if you missed it until now the steam deck is the best of those handhelds thanks to it not requiring an internet connection like Xbox and its larger nicer screen than the switch this anticipated sequel has finally had a full release after an extended Early Access period and it might just be the ideal use case for steam deck Rogue Legacy 2 is a rogue light action game that has you once again battling through a castle as a cascading series of airs each with their own powers making incremental progress all the way as you inherit new traits and buy permanent upgrades the new 2D 3D hybrid art style looks fantastic on the steam deck screen and it's the perfect type of easy to pick up hard to put down experience that thrives on handheld if switch players get breath of the wild at least steam deck users get to have Sable this clearly breath of the wild inspired open world Puzzler for go combat of any kind in favor of a chilled out coming of age story set in a unique fantasy world full of quests characters and secrets the open-ended game lets you see its credits in as little as 3 hours or as many as 20 plus it's up to you to decide when your ride is over be that when your flight ends or perhaps months down the line the music is done entirely by Japanese breakfast 2 giving the entire game a meditative quality that is perfect for a long trip you might not otherwise be looking forward to sabotage Studio the creator of the Ninja guide and throwback the messenger made its own take on classic snar era RPGs with sea of stars even more astounding is that the Indie Studio has now excelled at two completely different genres sea of stars is technically a prequel to The Messenger but its own Chrono Trigger inspired combat is all its own at the same time sabotage has introduced new ideas to streamline the classic formula like like the ability to stagger your enemies by hitting a certain combination of attack types it also Sports some of the most beautiful pixel art we've ever seen so it's definitely worth trying out stardew Valley may be the most popular farming game on the planet created almost entirely by a single developer the amount of content packed into its adorable pixelated world is staggering what starts as a simple quest to rebuild your grandfather's Farm quickly turns into something much much more you'll chat with the locals and form relationships head out on dangerous mining Expeditions and watch as the quaint Pelican Town transforms through the seasons its laid-back Pace makes it a perfect fit for steam deck giving you a chance to stick your hands in the dirt no matter where life takes you unpacking is another one of those games that feels welcoming to short or long sessions alike in this 2021 wordless Wonder from witch beam you learn about unseen characters just by unpacking their boxes on various moving days spread across their life from childhood into much older age the point-and-click nature of the game game is welcoming to the steam deck's multiple input modes including analog sticks or the touchscreen vampire survivors is very simple and shockingly fun the single stick shooter has you navigate around hordes of enemies while your weapons fire off automatically building up experience to buy new weapon upgrades the deceptively simple premise gets increasingly fish and chaotic as more enemies join The Fray and your weapon upgrades get ever more destructive it's enough to tempt you to play just one more round Until you realize that oops it's 3:00 a.m. whenever you can take one of the best RPGs in the world with you on the go you've got to do it The Witcher 3 is also playable on switch but it looks and runs better on Steam deck in my personal experience the game may have come out in 2015 but it is still a benchmark in video game storytelling especially when it comes to those incredible side quests exploring the world meeting colorful characters and slaying monsters makes any train ride or picnic so much more interesting so there we have it the best games to play on steam deck right now for more make sure you stay tuned 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Length: 14min 19sec (859 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 08 2024