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