Looking for those games that you may have heard about but never tried until you got a Deck. Or old games on systems you never had that you’re trying for the first time. Or new AAA games that just released in the last year or two that you picked up for the first time specifically to play on Steam Deck and have kept you glued to the device.
I’m trying to reinvigorate my old, nostalgic love of gaming and hoping to find the perfect Steam Deck + addicting game combo.
Hades, Binding of Isaac
The messenger and stardew valley are perfect steam deck games. I suspect hades is too but I put too many hours into it on PC before I got the deck.
Hades is a killer game for the Deck, I just can’t get used to using stick controls. I put like 280 hours into M+K, it’s a hard habit to break and Heat 11 isn’t exactly the best place to learn a new control scheme.
My partner loves it though. They started the game on the deck so the learning curve is easier.
I beat Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines for the first time on Deck. KBM controls bound to the system really did it for me and since it was a low spec game it ran flawlessly. And the game’s reputation holds up (well written and engaging but janky lol)
Ooh, I’ve never heard of this one. I’ll have to check it out!
Vampire Survivors
What is there to do in the end game? I’m at the point now where I can get 1000+ golden eggs and I don’t even know how much gold per run, if I want to, but the whole thing is just fairly easy and repetitive. No matter which character I get, I can use pretty much the same OP combo.
I guess I could just go back to making the game hard again by disabling eggs, the OP weapons, and other things, but then what’s the point since a lot of the fun is in unlocking things?
Or am I just “done” the game, now, and it’s time to move on to Soulstone Survivors or Brotato?
Dopamine go brrr
I really like Kingdom: Two Crowns on my steam deck.
I installed 1,000 old game ROMs for NES, SNES, Sega Genesis/Master System, N64, and PS1. I’ve been reliving all of my childhood games since I got it. Road Rash on the PS1 was one I never played (and forgot existed) until my wife told me about it. What a blast.
Just curious, did you get the Deck just for that? I think you can run all of those on like the Retroid Pocket, which is like 1/4 the price of the deck?
Oh, no haha. It was just nice to have them as categories in the Steam app alongside my 250+ PC games.
ohhh gotcha gotcha. gotta love the versatility of the Deck!
Nothing beats a whole library on its own on an SD card. Except multiple >:)
Have you seen road redemption? It’s a more modern rogue-lite spiritual successor.
I can’t promise it will scratch the same itch, and it’s not cutting edge technically or anything, but I got some mileage from it.
Edit: It’s bundled on Fanatical for a couple bucks right now.
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I have that. I was way too excited about it too. Unfortunately it’s more like a mobile quality version of road rash.
Yeah! I binged that game when I found it. Completed the whole story and then started another playthrough.
Same. Emu station has to be my most played app.
Snes games rock. They hold up really well in gameplay and artwork, and finished ones I never played before on the Deck.
Rom hacks are so great, too. I always look for bug fix, QoL, and “skip the grind” mods (like 5× experience gain in JRPGs).
Some completely change the style of gameplay, too, like the Turbo mod for Secret of Mana.
Had a good playthrough of Dishonoured 2 and Death of the Outsider on my Deck. They run extremely well on the Steam Deck and I found a control layout that I liked.
Dishonored 2 is on a 90% discount! Just picked it up, never having played it before.
What’s the control layout you found that works best for you?
I… can’t remember! It was a while ago and I’ve since cleared them off my Deck D:
Mostly I’ve used the Deck to continue playing my primary games on the couch or on the go. Elden Ring and RDR2 look and play fantastically once you tweak them a bit.
Smaller games usually run perfectly out of the box. The only ones I’ve played exclusively on Deck so far are Super Pilot (indie F-Zero), Ultimate Chicken Horse (Mario Maker-ish), and Mark of the Ninja.
Fallout 4 for me was great on the deck. I’ve had it for years but only when I got the deck did I actually play it.
Also streaming Baldur’s Gate 3 has been fantastic as well.
Oooh, I forgot you could stream from your PC to the deck!
State of decay 2. I never really got into it until I got the deck.
Factorio. Godanmed Factorio ruining my life.
Some friends and I once went to visit one of their families for spring break back in college. We made the mistake of starting a server.
The spring break ended. We left the room maybe twice a day to eat food, around 7pm and 4am. The factory grew. I think there was a family there, I can’t remember though.
The factory must grow
Did they release the controller setup?
Yep. Admittedly I couldn’t imagine an advanced player using the basic Xbox controller setup although I hear from the Switch players that it’s adequate. I could only play with the Steam Controller. It’s already verging on hard work playing it on a customizable multi button trackpad enabled controller that having limited controls would just break me.
This game is already addicting enough for me on PC, can’t imagine the addiction in a portable console.
And with the trackpad and back buttons and customizable controls it’s genuinely a treat to play. I don’t miss the keyboard/mouse. I even tracked down an old steam controller when I’m playing at home on the big screen.
My Steam Deck is pretty much a Vampire Survivors machine.
Probably shouldn’t mention Brotato and Holocure then. Oh, oops 😉
This happened to me recently. I’ve slowed down now that I’ve got all the unlocks, just a couple secrets to go though…
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Not a new discovery, but I rediscovered Torchlight 1 and 2. The Steam Deck controls make it a lot smoother to play than a mouse.
I’ve heard D2R is really good on the Steam Deck, so I think I’ll start with that one. Or maybe PoE.
I’ve ordered an OLED Deck and I’m looking for games with fun gameplay loops that don’t take too much attention since I’ll most be playing while watching TV with my partner. ARPGs seem like a perfect match.
Bloodstained is a top contender, I can’t say I first discovered it on the Deck, but it just feels right on a handheld, in a way that it didn’t with controller on desktop, and the Switch just isn’t good enough to run it at a passable framerate.
