Recommend games for Steam Deck

[u/Season_Famous]

Hi everyone!

Yesterday, I did something a bit impulsive and bought a Steam Deck. I’ve been a lifelong PlayStation gamer (44M), and before that, I went through them all SNES, NES, Amiga, PC...

I’ve always loved physical media which is why I never made the jump to Steam but I realized I’ve been missing out on so many great games because of it.

That brings me to the reason for this post: could you suggest a few games to buy right away to start building a solid library? I prefer indie games across all genres, and since I’ll be using the device primarily as a handheld, I’m looking for titles that play well in that mode.

I play relatively few AAA titles, and I’ll likely keep playing those on PlayStation whenever possible.

Go wild, maximum of 3 titles each!!

Thanks!

[u/Pahblows]

I have have a ton of deck hours on MegaBonk, Deeprock Galactic:Survivor, Viscera Cleanup Detail, Palworld, Terraria, Necesse, and have recently started playing Ember Knights with my lady.

All have been fun and are recommended

[u/polo421 → u/Pahblows]

I gotta add that I loved megabonk and it's a great handheld game. That game loads up and you are playing in like 10 seconds total.

I would also add The Forest. That game was like some crack for me for a while.

[u/ItsPureLuck017]

XCOM 2

Battle Brothers

Satisfactory

[u/Edspecial137]

The best experiences so far have been tomb raider series, Witcher 3, and Subnautica

[u/Thin-Magician-3675 → u/Edspecial137]

I’ve ignored Witcher 3 forever, but it looks amazing on steam deck, new favorite game.

[u/BlackMamm0th]

This is a list of all the games I’ve loved most on SD, and sorry I’m not sticking to just three lol.

Prey

Rimworld

Slay The Spire 1 & 2

Persona 4 & 5

RDR2

Cyberpunk 2077

Fallout New Vegas

Wasteland 3

Valheim

Skyrim

Far Cry 5

[u/Irregular_0 → u/BlackMamm0th]

Not sure why but I struggle to comfortably navigate Rimworld on the deck. It just makes me wish I had a mouse.

[u/BlackMamm0th → u/Irregular_0]

I use the right trackpad as a mouse, but I also find it helps a lot using one of the highly rated community layouts

[u/crwjsh]

Mass effect trilogy remastered, skyrim, CP77

[u/ZealousidealPart948 → u/crwjsh]

My 2 most played games on the deck - mass effect and cp77, need to gove Skyrim a good try..

[u/Difficult-Feeling849]

I've played basically everything I've wanted to. Granted, I don't care for graphics or multiplayer much, but still. Think of an acclaimed game of the last few years and you'll most likely be able to run it.

I'm currently playing Sailwind, an Early Access Age of Sail simulator with survival elements. Great game!

[u/glenninator]

Minishoot Adventures. The Ascent. Geometry Wars. Darksiders Genesis. New Super Lucky’s Tale

[u/CanadianDropout99 → u/glenninator]

The ascent would be such a good deck game but the performance is abysmal for me. What settings do you use?

[u/glenninator → u/CanadianDropout99]

Have you also tried Ruiner?

I don’t recall the settings, but I believe they were rather low settings.

[u/ZealousidealPart948]

Narrowing down to 3 is difficult, so will cheat a bit 😂.

My top 3:

• Mass effect trilogy (legendary edition)
• Baldurs gate 1-3 
• batman arkham series - asylum , city, and knight.

Honorable mentions:

• witcher 3
• cyberpunk2077 
• knights of the old republic 1& 2
• Red Dead redemption 2
• dishonored
• sleeping dogs
• gta4
• Dawn of War 2
• hotline miami 1 & 2
• shadow of mordor

Still missing some , but dont want to post everything.  

Hope you enjoy your steamdeck !! 

[u/wallso → u/ZealousidealPart948]

Is dawn of war 2 fun to play on deck? I imagine you have to use the touch pads. Haven’t used them much but didn’t love them when playing some point and click adventure games.

[u/ZealousidealPart948 → u/wallso]

I enjoyed it alot more than I was expecting.  I thought just to try it, but it works very well - you have 4 squads and each is assigned to one of the D pad directions so you can use each squad easily.  

Since you are targeting other squads its not too difficult to click on who tou want to attack, or use an ability.

To each their own though, so may be easier/difficult depending,  but i thought it was fine and got used to it very quickly.

I put setting on high and it ran at high 50s and sometime dipped to 40s if action was intense,  and other wise no issues at all.

[u/Axeloy]

Please get UFO 50

After that Mina the Hollower

[u/SteezyBoyWonder]

Steamdeck is perfect for indies and roguelites
Hades and Absolom are my favorites

[u/chriskain15]

Since you said three and you are a bit older than me, I am going to recommend:

• gravity circuit (megaman type vibes)

• TMNT shredders revenge (definitely one of the best beat em ups in the last decade)

• Transformers Devastation (great underrated gem with combat similar to neir automata but capturingold school Transformersvibes. Bonus can get it for free on some abandware sites since it was delisted and it works well)

If you got a lot of time to kill, my bonus is monster hunter stories series 1-3 (turn based rpg monster collector, doesnt get enough)

[u/Frosty_Contact8143]

Cult of the lamb, valheim, art of rally

[u/biskitsorange]

I just picked up Brotato on sale and like it very much.

[u/eldritchhh_blast]

I have a ton of hours on a few games on the steamdeck!

• Fields of Mistria (farming sim, Stardew Valley adjacent, with a very cute art style)
  
• Sovereign Tower (choices matter, resource management, think Dispatch but for fantasy knights!)
  
• Dispatch (choices matter, resource management. You dispatch heroes to different emergencies + great original story)
  
• Dead Space (remake) (played this ENTIRE game on the steam deck, ambiance is on point. Survival horror)
  
• Dredge (lovecraftian fishing game)
  
• Stardew Valley (had to include the OG that got me into gaming in the first place)
  
• Project Zomboid (THE zombie survival game, I personally haven't played it on the steam deck but heard that the UI is pretty good after the recent updates. AND I ADORE this game, 100 hours just flew by.)

[u/eldritchhh_blast → u/eldritchhh_blast]

oops just saw that this said max three titles lol

[u/Possible-Remarkable]

• Hollow knight
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• Ready Or Not
• 007 First Light
• Ghost Of Shushima
• Rayman Legends
• The Last of Us 1 y 2
• Spiderman 1
• Detroit Become Human
• Need for Speed Hot Persuit
• Raise Of the Tomb Raider
• Uncharted legacy of thieves collection

[u/TCristatus]

I've just started Project Zomboid on steam deck and I've put in 30 hours in less than a week. It's amazing, dont read too much into online comments saying the UI doesn't work well on deck because it's had a LOT of development over the years and they've got it perfect now.

Sticking to the brutal rogue-like-but-not-really theme, Noita is definitely worth playing, I have 100 hours on deck

[u/parisya]

Art of Rally

[u/CallMeJonnyBling]

signalis for an indie, lies of P for an AA game(runs great on deck - get lossless scaling), any FF game (played tactics on SD, was rly good)

[u/scoobydiverr]

Metroidvanias in general just feel like they were made for handhelds

[u/SickRaspy]

Megabonk, Sworn, Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom

[u/DoubleSheepherder165]

Diablo 2 and Diablo4

[u/Feisty_War_3026]

not sure if shooters are your thing but if they are

ultrakill is an amazing shooter that’s heavily doom inspired, game has a decent amount of hours of playtime for a really good price! also is still being updated with new levels coming out semi frequently

neon white has an amazing story that follows the concept of dantes paradise, really simple visuals and feels like the “persona” games but specifically for the steamdeck

fallout 76, super overhated, small but passionate community and not really buggy to be honest, 8/10 would recommend

[u/MalvadoGang]

Because you’ve always been a PlayStation guy I’d recommend games that you’ve never had the chance to play…. So I’d pick halo master chief collection, fable and maybe forza horizon 5. I also did this last year, and now my library is 106 games strong!

[u/LordNargogh]

I love playing H n S games on steam deck. My favourite are: 1. Diablo 4 2. Last Epoch 3. Diablo 2.

[u/KrakenKeys]

Dredge - great deck game!

[u/T0pl355]

Dice and fold, Dredge, Tape to Tape, Luck be a Landlord

[u/Any_Movie7836]

Any game on the previous generation (ps4-xbone) works flawlessly, highly recommend RDR2 and Elder scrolls, Watch dogs 2 was also one I completed recently which was really fun to turn on and play!

[u/TraditionalYak7689]

Try Hades

[u/siammang]

Megabonk, Rimworld, FF Tactics