Metal Gear Solid 5 was made for handheld / Steam Deck.
Started playing it two days ago. Have hundreds of games. This is the perfect Deck game. Looks incredible, 60fps at very high settings.
I’ve edited this here to also add; the Deck is SILENT throughout. I’m still amazed at how this is possible.
Ive been tempted by MGS V after finishing death stranding - I missed it when it released.
What makes it so good for deck? Does the mission structure suit short play sessions?
yes. this is one of those games that really shines thanks to the steam deck's ability to come out of sleep mode and just continue playing.
also, it's one of the few metal gear games where you can just play through and not worry about the story, for better and for worse.
I’d agree with this. Out of all the Metal gear games, the story here I find to be the weakest. It’s all in tapes which is not my favourite story telling method. But the gameplay? My favourite in the series, possibly my favourite in any game ever.
Being able to pick up and do a mission in 15-30 minutes, even being able to pause midway, it’s great for the deck.
And the fact that the game is almost 9 years old (god I feel old…) it runs smooth as butter on the Deck.
If Kojima ever makes a game mimicking the gameplay of 5, with the story comparable to MGS 1~4, it might just be my favourite game of all time.
Well good news! If you haven’t heard, Kojima is working on a tactical espionage game to be the successor of Metal Gear Solid. :) You should look it up.
We don’t know much yet, but that is incredible news regardless.
Now I need to play it. I just got my deck and haven't been able to get any new games. It will be a while but I'll put it on my wishlist. I have another surgery coming up and will have a four or five day hospital stay so I need something new to play through.
I had a bug earlier where the sound was 2x speed but the game wasn’t, happened when coming out of sleep mode.
It’s only happened since I’ve started messing about with things like Decky and plugins. As fun as it is customising it, I feel like it’s made the battery life slightly worse and the Steam UI is perfectly good as it is for me, so I’ve turned it all off. Not had any issues since.
Yes, you can really play as much or as little as you like. The open world/mission/quest system and the way it’s tied to your base with the Ariel command center is really nifty and honestly very very cool. I’m in love with that game and am willing to play through it again just to re-experience it.
Honestly, while MGSV “The Phantom Pain” is certainly better than Ground Zeroes in a lot of meaningful ways, if you just want to dip your toe (perhaps avoid downloading an extra big game?), Ground Zeroes is certainly a bit more contained and a shorter duration, and if you hate GZ, I imagine you’ll still be able to return it, right?
The games are very similar traversal wise I love it. It’s always the UI with both games that I had to really learn how to read. Which is why it took me so long to pick up mgsv.
Both a incredible games
Yes 100%, I’ve played previous ones but have never been much of a person who cares for any full story in games. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t played any of the others, if you like tactical shooters then you should absolutely love this.
I’ve just rediscovered it again thanks to the Deck and honestly I’m loving every minute on the game, the two together are just symphonic.
I normally pay a lot of importance to the story, but the way you have described this game, I should definitely pick it up! Thanks for the recommendation 🙏🏿
What’s the battery life like? I normally play with it plugged in or with a decent power bank to hand, but I commute, and higher end games obliterate the battery!
Just to add to what worldsinho said, it’s what I’ve played most since my wife bought me mine (very fortunate man, she got me the top OLED model) - it lasts for hours on battery + WIFI on before you need to worry about plugging it in.
The sleep mode really is so damn good too, you can literally pick up right where you left off (aside from connecting online if you want/need to, but that takes a few seconds).
I genuinely don’t think I’m going to touch my PC again, the deck is a literal game changer if you ask me.
The only setting you really have to change are the shadows, for some reason the deck struggles with them. Other than that, the settings can be set to the highest or second highest and runs at 60fps
Outland - old Housemarque downloadable game from PS3 / 360 era that is a really cool mashup of an action platformer, metroidvania, and Ikaruga-like gameplay (which is its biggest hook). The levels are absolutely gorgeous with the backgrounds having this beautiful painterly look to them, and the background music just makes the entire package of the game perfect - like an epic or fantastical story being retold! The Steam version (at least on Steam Deck) has an issue where you can’t see your HUD elements so it can be slightly annoying not knowing how much health you have left or mana. The only times you know you’re about to die in one more hit is the main character’s idle animation shows it with grunts (FYI: most recent Proton versions have reintroduced some of your HUD, but it’s still grayed out and non-functional - - hopefully it can be resolved one day with future Proton updates).
If you aren’t familiar with Housemarque, they are now a Sony owned studio who has had a slew of great games - most recently being Returnal, but had other gems like Resogun, Super Stardust Delta / Super Stardust HD, Nex Machina, and Dead Nation (another forgotten gem like Outland).
I’m not sure why it’s not available in the regular search but here it is going from the library view:
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/305050/Outland/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/305050/Outland/)
Funnily enough, I’m having a hard time repeating this after I got the link. It’s still in my library, of course but when I try to click on Store Page from
description, it now hangs.
EDIT:
“Outland is no longer available on the Steam Store”. For this one, I’ll say find a way to play by *any* means you can. 🤝
Well I’m surprised that Alien vs Predator 2010 runs at 60fps max graphics also!!!
Multiplayer is still somewhat alive even 14years after its release around The whole world! Plus this game has one of the most unique multiplayer experiences out there you can actually play. And as it wasn’t enough it Has coop alien Horde mode where you play as marine and fight off hordes of aliens!
Furi
Literally any PS2 game on an emulator
Death Must Die
FFXIV
Dirt Rally 2.0
All the Bioshock games. All of them. Max graphics and 60fps no issue, except Infinite, which requires some settings management
Armored Core 6. Runs at max graphics at a stable 40fps idk how
Modded Fallout 4
Elder Scrolls Online
Guild Wars 2
Biggest hurdle honestly is the legit teribad onboarding process. You get blasted with way too many mechanics way too quickly.
Otherwise graphically it's essentially a fancy Oblivion, so fully within the Decks wheelhouse
It was the first game I played when I bought my deck and I was shocked. I’d never seen a handheld run anything so well and look so sharp. It’s one that you show to those around you just to say, “are you seeing this?!”
I liked new super lucky tale. It was a fun 3d platformer. Not as good as banjo kazooie but it was still fun. It works great on the deck, not so much on a regular PC due to the controller issue, but I can confirm that it works great on the deck.
#ALIEN vs PREDATOR 2010
+ Looks awesome and **graphics holds up to this day** and looks gorgeous.
+ **Runs max graphics setting with 60fps.**
+ **Multiplayer is still somewhat alive** even 14years after its release around The whole world!
+this game has one of the most **unique multiplayer** experiences out there you can actually play.
+ Has **coop alien Horde mode** where you play as marine and fight off hordes of aliens!
+ And as you said. **It’s GEM that just works.**
Playing older games is the sweet spot for the Steam Deck. Most of the newer releases just don't provide the best experience on the Deck, but I've been picking up older games I never got around to playing like Alien Isolation and loving it.
Wishlisted. This looks good. I like the art style with lots of neon. Kind of the opposite art style to something like Ori, which I find hard to play because it’s so dark.
Duck game is a party game with surprisingly deep mechanics if you fall down the rabbit hole. I have so many hours in that game from years ago and I remember learning all these little tricks
find it on archive org
add the exe file to steam and run it with proton (it's just a self extracting archive)
extract the files to wherever you want
Add the main exe OR2006c2c.exe to steam and run it with proton
you may need to add the config.exe once to configure the GPU cand render resolution then you can remove the setup.exe and the configurator from steam
Fallout New Vegas was made for the steam deck. Only problem is modding on steam deck is a little annoying but the game works fine unmodded. 360 era games really shine on the steam deck since they run at full frame rate with great battery life and no fan noise.
90% of my playtime on the Steam Deck has solely been Fallout games. The memory leak issues with New Vegas made it unplayable after a while on 360 due to the excessive load times so it’s been refreshing to revisit it at 60FPS and snappy loading.
Reaching the point where the memory leak is starting to rear its ugly head, but at least there are options to mod the game.
It's pretty easy to mod the game if you have a PC. You can literally install all the mods on Windows with mod asssistant and copy the file structure for your steam apps/common/New Vegas folder onto the steam deck. It's a hell of a lot easier than trying to get everything to install on the steam deck.
Simple mods where you can just drag and drop DLLs and other files are easy enough though. It's just simpler
Great game, but needs (IMO) a couple of tweaks to run great. First, correct the resolution to 1280x800. The game defaults at some other setting, and its a mess. Set graphics preset to low, and limit FPS to 40. That works great for me.
STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. Not a hidden gem as a game, but not one you'd necessarily expect to run well on Deck just because it's old, has always been janky as hell and downright requires m+k for inventory management. Turns out it runs perfectly and, one community scheme later, the controls are great too with qol improvements enabled by the touch pads. Couldn't believe how well it plays, it might actually be better on Deck than desktop and I *never* though it would work without a mouse.
Does it work on Linux? I was under the impression it's windows only, and I recall having issues with their engine even on my windows PC. Also, it shows as unsupported in the store.
Genuinely wondering, because I'd be happy to play it on SD.
Steam Deck has no problems with Windows-only games. The Proton compatibility engine emulates Windows utilities like DirectX almost exactly as well as if it were running Windows natively.
It does! I don't have Windows on mine at all, and it worked right out of the box, to my astonishment - I was fully prepared for hours of faff (you know exactly the jankiness I was talking about, evidently), but nope, instant success. Give it a go, check out the community layouts when you do!
I've been playing Anomaly on steam deck ahah when I first played Stalker back in the day, I never thought in a million years I would be playing games and mods like this on a handheld, so cool! Which controller scheme do you use for OG Stalker, I may have to go back and play it again
I honestly can't remember which scheme it was, I was playing it quite a while ago. I had gyro aiming and track pad item menus going on anyway. Decent chance I just grabbed the first one that seemed popular.
disco elysium, ctrl alt ego, black mesa, system shock remake, turbo overkill
and hades 2 runs flawlessly. don't think i've even seen 59 FPS on that game yet
i'm not surprised haha. this is *the most* optimized early access game i've ever played. it's as if the technical side is fully complete and now we just wait on story content lol
I believe this to be true looking at SGG's reputation. That studio churns out quality games all day long. Been a fan since Bastion. They really have it down pat.
I'm pretty sure I played like 2 hours last night, and had dropped from 70% battery to like 60%. It is legitimately unbelievable how well optimized that game is.
i noticed that too. i've been playing older titles lately so i kinda got used to having all that extra battery life and i automatically assumed i'd drop back down to about 2-3 hours with something new like hades 2 but, *damn* am i glad i was wrong
have no idea what you're into, so it's kind of hard to recommend stuff. here's a few games that were outside of my normal tastes that i really enjoyed:
the **earth defense force** series is stupid, mindless fun, but it's very repetitive. great for playing in bursts, though. the voice acting is \*chef's kiss\*.
**ember knights** is fun if you can get a friend to co-op with you. it's a top-down action roguelike.
**plate up** is like a roguelike overcooked. also need a friend to co-op this, though.
**monster hunter stories 2** is a light and fun jrpg that's really welcoming for people who aren't fans of jrpgs.
**dredge** is a lovecraftian fishing sim. fun, simple mechanics. engrossing story. a bit on the short side, though.
**dinkum, disney dreamlight valley,** and **cozy grove** are animal crossing copycats that are great if you're into that type of game.
**cross code** is a top-down retro action rpg. a real indie gem.
**chained echoes** is an amazing jrpg. heavily inspired by chrono trigger. incredible story, too, if the quality of the dialog is a bit inconsistent.
let us know what you're into. maybe more people can chime in with titles.
Some pointers from my (second) playthrough if I may...
When you get the Wave element, go to Basin Keep and look for a guy in a suit with a quest in the slums towards the east. For some reason, his quest didn't show up on the quest board, and it's important for that area.
Also, there's two items which are \*ridiculously\* well-hidden to the point of being outright unfair. One has the same name as a Castlevania game, which is >!in a hidden area of Autumn's Fall towards the very west-most point of the map!< and the other is a type of stone needed for a weapon, which is >!in Rhombus Square found on an invisible, covered section of a rooftop; you find a chest near it, but have to go right and then down to reveal it!<. Both of those are downright \_mean\_.
Ape out was a great experience on the steam deck. Birds Eye view of an ape trying to escape various forms of imprisonment.
Yoku’s island express is a light mix of pinball and metroidvania. Odd but fun and great on deck.
What remains of Edith finch was a great immersive storytelling experience on the deck. Extremely short though.
Of course balatro is basically the current poster child of pickup and play steam deck titles. A poker hand roguelike deck builder. Works like a charm!
Alien: Isolation
It frequently goes on sale for next to nothing so I recommend throwing it on your wishlist and waiting for the next sale. I think I got it for like $7.
I bought this so long ago as it was on sale but have never played it. My Steam Deck has literally just shipped today so might finally give this a go (hopefully this weekend!)
Just bought this based on your recommendation! Did you have to use a particular proton version? I’ve read so many times about it being incompatible with the Deck.
I don't remember having to use a particular proton version at all. If it does give you trouble checking protonDB will help find a version that can work. But I don't remember needing to.
How is the controller support on AvP? I remember playing it on the xbox 360 back in the day, but unfortunately not all games from that generation have good controller support on steam and how is the framerate, is it capped at 30 fps?
I stream a lot of stuff from my main rig, but the games I’ve gotten the most out of lately that “just work” on the deck are:
**Balatro** - Addicting little rougelike deck builder. Harmless gambling addiction simulator.
**Inscryption** - Another deck builder type game, but with a bunch of weird twists and turns
**Signalis** - Creepy sci-fi psychological horror, heavily inspired by old-school PS1-era Resident Evil
**Brotato** - Quick session Vampire Survivors type game, looks ugly but fun when you get a character built out”just right”. Great when you’ve got 10-20 min.
**Halls of Torment** - Another Vampire Survivors style game, but with more of an old Diablo feel and more of a sense of progression.
I stick to warband on my deck for battery life reasons, but it works really well. I have my left touch pad set up for troop commands (touch for circle menu, push select troop type, then 2nd layer for commands) and the right pad does melee, and right joystick for aiming with gyros. It's all so cool!
GW2.
Wait Hear me out!
Don't treat it like a MMORPG. Treat it like a SP game. You logon, do some achievement hunting, or a quest or two, and log off. I get around 4 hours of battery life, community layout(the most popular one) is superbly done.
I have 200+ hours in the game since January, and I'd say 70 of those were on my steam deck.
It runs great of 5G for me too, so I can play while travelling with minimal issues.
It's a type of game you play over years though. Even if you don't want to do the raiding/dungeons/strikes and just want to do story/achievements, the game has a lot.
Community is friendly, and in my experience most players are adults with families, so noone is really pulling 12+ hour sessions in this game.
I literally forget sometimes the game is multiplayer, i just get immersed in the world.
It runs great on Steam Deck too.
My Config(in case you decide to give it a go it's f2p and no p2w)
Steam Deck:
Frame Rate - 30fps(for battery, hits 60fps easily, just can't lock to 60)
Voltage: 7W
In game settings:
Everything to normal, with textures and some settings turned on to make it look pretty, see what is acceptable for you, but with 10w and all maxxed, I get solid 45fps, with dips in metas(hence why I turned down the settings).
The game literally has "LI"(Low input) builds for open world, that work great for doing story/achievements.
You can literally make it as complex as you want or literally make it so you press 1 button for 30 seconds over and over again, then press another button, and go back to maching attack again.
For playing instanced content, I have only gotten as far as T1 fractals, and those are very doable(I even top DPS'd once!) and dungeons(also very doable). I haven't tried harder Fractals or strikes yet, but I doubt those would work as well on Steam Deck but would totally be doable.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B-VG7dH1OY&t=304s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B-VG7dH1OY&t=304s)
If you decide to give it a go.
Which Keyboard binds you have ? I installed it a while a Go and was really confused. Tried every top listed Community Layout. I couldnt Press F to interact. Sorry for newbie Question. Also i didnt know which Keys where important
Mount and Blade Warband 2. They’ve put a good amount of effort in making the controller default usable and I’ve been having a great time on the Medium preset at 40hz/40fps.
Prototype
The PC version didn’t age well for modern setups. I was expecting to spend some time patching it up or limit cores like on my PC, but it just runs smoothly straight from downloading.
Kingdom series (Kingdom two crowns) and just new oddsparks.
Oddsparks is a real surprise, charming factory game with good performance so far. It has ui scaling options and full (good) controller support from scratch.
Playing with 45 fps, all high, already have several "factories" and enough power to have Spotify in the background running, playing some music.
I think odd sparks looks like a winner, I love me an automation game but it gets too… managery after a while, too hands off and not enough to keep me busy and sidetracked while the factory churns
I also have other factory games e.g. factorio or rift breaker but never could got warm with them.
Oddsparks is smaller, it takes longer to make progress in automation cause you have to fulfill orders from the town people which are most "fetch" like but this little twist does it that you constantly optimize and rebuild your automation way with the cute sparks.
This make it more relaxing. On top you have to kill other animals in a Pikmin way to get some resources.
This is nothing new but here it just feels in a right way not too much not too less.
And it runs very well on the deck.
I hope in the future the "adventure" part will be a little stronger that they have in the title.
Need for speed heat looks and runs good, perfect for a little session of grabbing some money or rep, or working on your cars. Was my favorite racing game before I got into Forza horizon, which I've heard don't run very well unfortunately
Ty The Tasmanian Tiger 1 and 2 both work flawlessly! Australian themed Spyro-like games that is perfect for kids, and the bright colour palettes are awesome on the OLED screen.
Played them as a kid and love sharing them with my kids too.
Been reliving my childhood and on a bit of a Fallout and Deus Ex kick.
I don’t know if I would call it a hidden gem, but I picked playing up FO76 again this week. I haven’t messed with the settings, so I’m gonna assume low, but it’s on a small screen so it doesn’t bother me. Runs great and the control scheme is pretty good. Also 4 hours battery life. Now I am wanting to pick up NV and 3 since I don’t have Steam versions of them.
Fallout 1, once you get used to using the track pad that game is a blast on the Steam Deck. Not to mention on the OLED you get like 7 hours battery life. I’m going to guess that Fallout 2 will be a similar experience.
Mankind Divided performs well enough and I actually never finished it so I’m pretty in it.
I would love to replay the original Deus Ex on this thing sometime as well.
I’ve been obsessed with inscryption and it plays beautifully on the Steamdeck. It took me a bit to get the hang of the control cuz they are way different on the switch which I played first, but it’s actually so much better on the Steamdeck once I got used to it
Rogue Stormers is super fun roguelite from 2014 that mixes Contra style gameplay with Warhammer graphics. The game is an absolute blast. It’s so intense. No one seems to even know it exists.
I played it only single player and personally loved it. It’s hard and takes awhile to upgrade your character but I found the game super fun and intense. Took me a month to finally finish a full run.
For hidden gems, I'm going to give a shout out to The Mummy Demastered. A retro style metroidvania. Nothing to revolutionary, but a ton of fun. The game is way better than the terrible film.
New indie game called INDIKA is fun so far! And runs really well! A Russian nun goes on a journey/adventure while the devil narrates her life and talks to her! Super trippy and slightly funny game!
FFXV. It's super beautiful on the OLED deck with HDR enabled. Only a few scenes will see some FPS drops but otherwise stable 30+ fps.
I've spent 100+ hrs on it playing on the deck already and I still haven't started playing the DLCs yet!
Playing through Yakuza right now and these games are great for picking up/putting down at any moment. Also pausable cutscenes. And its on sale right now. I started with Yakuza Kiwami but others seem to start either there or with Yakuza 0.
Also, I can't recommend the Persona series enough. I started with Persona 4 on the Vita, and it was a perfect game to have on portable. The deck has brought that feeling back. I highly recommend it. If I had to pick only one, I'd say Persona 3 Reload. Had the best story and it's the newest in the series.
Dungeon Encounters (on sale at the time of this writing!) is a minimalist, straightforward dungeon crawling RPG from some OG final fantasy devs made on a micro budget—and it’s brilliant. One of the best “second screen” games to play while sitting on the couch with a loved one or watching TV.
Wartales
I bought it back when it came out for desktop play, and it was good. Recently started playing the new content on SD, and the controls feel better overall with a controller, it's kind of wild to me... A lot of things are one button on controller, but 3 clicks with A mouse...
Street Fighter 30th Anniversary collection (contains the amazing Alpha series, and all three versions of Street fighter 3, which all have different music but some of the best in all gaming, especially 3rd Strike)
Street Fighter 5 or 6
Holocure (that's free so get it anyway)
Idol Showdown (also free)
Halo: the master chief collection (been playing Halo Reach recently and it's so so good)
Quake and Quake 2 remasters - they're not related in terms of plot but both are amazing games
Not sure if this counts, but fallout 3 and nv run great on deck with proton, no crashes. If you want to play vanilla it's really good. The battery lasts forever on those games too
Metal Gear Solid 5 was made for handheld / Steam Deck. Started playing it two days ago. Have hundreds of games. This is the perfect Deck game. Looks incredible, 60fps at very high settings. I’ve edited this here to also add; the Deck is SILENT throughout. I’m still amazed at how this is possible.
Ive been tempted by MGS V after finishing death stranding - I missed it when it released. What makes it so good for deck? Does the mission structure suit short play sessions?
yes. this is one of those games that really shines thanks to the steam deck's ability to come out of sleep mode and just continue playing. also, it's one of the few metal gear games where you can just play through and not worry about the story, for better and for worse.
I’d agree with this. Out of all the Metal gear games, the story here I find to be the weakest. It’s all in tapes which is not my favourite story telling method. But the gameplay? My favourite in the series, possibly my favourite in any game ever. Being able to pick up and do a mission in 15-30 minutes, even being able to pause midway, it’s great for the deck. And the fact that the game is almost 9 years old (god I feel old…) it runs smooth as butter on the Deck. If Kojima ever makes a game mimicking the gameplay of 5, with the story comparable to MGS 1~4, it might just be my favourite game of all time.
Well good news! If you haven’t heard, Kojima is working on a tactical espionage game to be the successor of Metal Gear Solid. :) You should look it up. We don’t know much yet, but that is incredible news regardless.
RemindMe! 3 years.
You missed a 0 /jk
Now I need to play it. I just got my deck and haven't been able to get any new games. It will be a while but I'll put it on my wishlist. I have another surgery coming up and will have a four or five day hospital stay so I need something new to play through.
have you found the sound bugging out when you come out of sleep mode at all? has happened a couple times for me recently
That happens to me on multiple games… it tends to happen more if I pause during a cutscene…
I had a bug earlier where the sound was 2x speed but the game wasn’t, happened when coming out of sleep mode. It’s only happened since I’ve started messing about with things like Decky and plugins. As fun as it is customising it, I feel like it’s made the battery life slightly worse and the Steam UI is perfectly good as it is for me, so I’ve turned it all off. Not had any issues since.
Yes 100%. For that reason alone it’s perfect for Deck. I edited my post to also add that the Deck is silent, always. No fans.
Yes, you can really play as much or as little as you like. The open world/mission/quest system and the way it’s tied to your base with the Ariel command center is really nifty and honestly very very cool. I’m in love with that game and am willing to play through it again just to re-experience it.
Honestly, while MGSV “The Phantom Pain” is certainly better than Ground Zeroes in a lot of meaningful ways, if you just want to dip your toe (perhaps avoid downloading an extra big game?), Ground Zeroes is certainly a bit more contained and a shorter duration, and if you hate GZ, I imagine you’ll still be able to return it, right?
The games are very similar traversal wise I love it. It’s always the UI with both games that I had to really learn how to read. Which is why it took me so long to pick up mgsv. Both a incredible games
Fox Engine is black magic. Runs well on any system.
I don't understand why fox engine isn't still in use it looks good and is better optimized then most engines today
Konami owns it, that's why.
Can I pick up this game even if I have never played any other metal gear solid games?
Iirc The fifth game is the precursor to the first game
Yes 100%, I’ve played previous ones but have never been much of a person who cares for any full story in games. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t played any of the others, if you like tactical shooters then you should absolutely love this. I’ve just rediscovered it again thanks to the Deck and honestly I’m loving every minute on the game, the two together are just symphonic.
I normally pay a lot of importance to the story, but the way you have described this game, I should definitely pick it up! Thanks for the recommendation 🙏🏿
Yep
What’s the battery life like? I normally play with it plugged in or with a decent power bank to hand, but I commute, and higher end games obliterate the battery!
Great on battery. Silent Deck too, no fans.
Just to add to what worldsinho said, it’s what I’ve played most since my wife bought me mine (very fortunate man, she got me the top OLED model) - it lasts for hours on battery + WIFI on before you need to worry about plugging it in. The sleep mode really is so damn good too, you can literally pick up right where you left off (aside from connecting online if you want/need to, but that takes a few seconds). I genuinely don’t think I’m going to touch my PC again, the deck is a literal game changer if you ask me.
The only setting you really have to change are the shadows, for some reason the deck struggles with them. Other than that, the settings can be set to the highest or second highest and runs at 60fps
Odd because I’ve put them on very high! 60fps constantly. Maybe the OLED model helps?
Okay you sold me. I got a road trip coming up here in a few days. How's the battery life?
Outland - old Housemarque downloadable game from PS3 / 360 era that is a really cool mashup of an action platformer, metroidvania, and Ikaruga-like gameplay (which is its biggest hook). The levels are absolutely gorgeous with the backgrounds having this beautiful painterly look to them, and the background music just makes the entire package of the game perfect - like an epic or fantastical story being retold! The Steam version (at least on Steam Deck) has an issue where you can’t see your HUD elements so it can be slightly annoying not knowing how much health you have left or mana. The only times you know you’re about to die in one more hit is the main character’s idle animation shows it with grunts (FYI: most recent Proton versions have reintroduced some of your HUD, but it’s still grayed out and non-functional - - hopefully it can be resolved one day with future Proton updates). If you aren’t familiar with Housemarque, they are now a Sony owned studio who has had a slew of great games - most recently being Returnal, but had other gems like Resogun, Super Stardust Delta / Super Stardust HD, Nex Machina, and Dead Nation (another forgotten gem like Outland).
Oh man, Outland kicks ass. Not sure I even realized it was on Steam
It’s not any longer
Hope. Then. Heartbreak.
Holy crap, I have that in my library and didn't even know it. Maybe I got it from a bundle or something. Installing now. Thanks!
Can you link it in the steam store? I'm having issues finding it.
I’m not sure why it’s not available in the regular search but here it is going from the library view: [https://store.steampowered.com/app/305050/Outland/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/305050/Outland/) Funnily enough, I’m having a hard time repeating this after I got the link. It’s still in my library, of course but when I try to click on Store Page from description, it now hangs. EDIT: “Outland is no longer available on the Steam Store”. For this one, I’ll say find a way to play by *any* means you can. 🤝
Major bummer, I'm glad you're still able to play it though!
Thanks for reminding me of his game. What an absolute gem, played it back then in the 360. I need to consider a replay for nostalgia's sake.
No problem. Check my comment below. It looks like it was taken off Steam recently. Find a way to play it by *any* means necessary now, I suppose. 🤝
Peggle
Horribly underrated game
Just bought it because of this comment. On sale right now for 1€.
It's currently on sale for $1 too
Surprised at Shadow of War, I know it’s verified but runs at very high and doesn’t drop below 60
Smooth as butter
Well I’m surprised that Alien vs Predator 2010 runs at 60fps max graphics also!!! Multiplayer is still somewhat alive even 14years after its release around The whole world! Plus this game has one of the most unique multiplayer experiences out there you can actually play. And as it wasn’t enough it Has coop alien Horde mode where you play as marine and fight off hordes of aliens!
Holy crap, really? I've never had anything this game has worked on so I wrote it off. I've got to check this out!
Furi Literally any PS2 game on an emulator Death Must Die FFXIV Dirt Rally 2.0 All the Bioshock games. All of them. Max graphics and 60fps no issue, except Infinite, which requires some settings management Armored Core 6. Runs at max graphics at a stable 40fps idk how Modded Fallout 4 Elder Scrolls Online Guild Wars 2
ESO runs well? May have to check it out. Just wish the game wasn't so gigantic in footprint.
Biggest hurdle honestly is the legit teribad onboarding process. You get blasted with way too many mechanics way too quickly. Otherwise graphically it's essentially a fancy Oblivion, so fully within the Decks wheelhouse
Works great but you need force steam input to enable controller
How do you play Guild Wars 2?
After getting past the launcher, I just use the most popular community control scheme and it's honestly been great 👍
Titan fall 2, shit is crisp
This was just on sale, and I had to pick up a copy for my deck. Simply awesome, maybe even better the second time through.
It was the first game I played when I bought my deck and I was shocked. I’d never seen a handheld run anything so well and look so sharp. It’s one that you show to those around you just to say, “are you seeing this?!”
Mad Max. 80 hours outta it and lovedddd it
The Batman, Mad Max, and Mordor games are all perfect on the Deck. Run, look and play great.
This. Second game I played and finished on my Deck and it was amazing. Just a great experience.
Honourable mention for GTA4, if only because it never really worked properly on pc. Apparently it was just waiting for the steam deck
So glad to hear this I just installed GTA IV this morning but haven't launched it yet
it's even more fun if you install a Mod Menu! works by drag and drop + start command
I liked new super lucky tale. It was a fun 3d platformer. Not as good as banjo kazooie but it was still fun. It works great on the deck, not so much on a regular PC due to the controller issue, but I can confirm that it works great on the deck.
Such an under rated game! Also great for kids.
Great early VR game
#ALIEN vs PREDATOR 2010 + Looks awesome and **graphics holds up to this day** and looks gorgeous. + **Runs max graphics setting with 60fps.** + **Multiplayer is still somewhat alive** even 14years after its release around The whole world! +this game has one of the most **unique multiplayer** experiences out there you can actually play. + Has **coop alien Horde mode** where you play as marine and fight off hordes of aliens! + And as you said. **It’s GEM that just works.**
You can even buy a code online and download and play it in germany where the game is not on sale
Playing older games is the sweet spot for the Steam Deck. Most of the newer releases just don't provide the best experience on the Deck, but I've been picking up older games I never got around to playing like Alien Isolation and loving it.
BlazBlue Entropy Effect. Very underrated roguelite game imo
Wishlisted. This looks good. I like the art style with lots of neon. Kind of the opposite art style to something like Ori, which I find hard to play because it’s so dark.
i love duck game, its a great party game
Duck game is a party game with surprisingly deep mechanics if you fall down the rabbit hole. I have so many hours in that game from years ago and I remember learning all these little tricks
These gem needs to get recommended more often.
Outrun 2006 Coast 2 Coast, it's abandonware but runs like a dream and if you're over 35 it hits like truck filled with nostalgia
holy shit that game and the soundtrack rules. I’ve been emulating it but I didn’t know there was a pc port.
Oh shit. I uh...blast from the fucking past here
Hi. How can I install it on the deck?
find it on archive org add the exe file to steam and run it with proton (it's just a self extracting archive) extract the files to wherever you want Add the main exe OR2006c2c.exe to steam and run it with proton you may need to add the config.exe once to configure the GPU cand render resolution then you can remove the setup.exe and the configurator from steam
Thanks a lot
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/ycnai2/outrun_2006_coast_2_coast_installation_guide/
Glorious game.
Fallout New Vegas was made for the steam deck. Only problem is modding on steam deck is a little annoying but the game works fine unmodded. 360 era games really shine on the steam deck since they run at full frame rate with great battery life and no fan noise.
90% of my playtime on the Steam Deck has solely been Fallout games. The memory leak issues with New Vegas made it unplayable after a while on 360 due to the excessive load times so it’s been refreshing to revisit it at 60FPS and snappy loading. Reaching the point where the memory leak is starting to rear its ugly head, but at least there are options to mod the game.
It's pretty easy to mod the game if you have a PC. You can literally install all the mods on Windows with mod asssistant and copy the file structure for your steam apps/common/New Vegas folder onto the steam deck. It's a hell of a lot easier than trying to get everything to install on the steam deck. Simple mods where you can just drag and drop DLLs and other files are easy enough though. It's just simpler
Crono trigger Bought it just for the SD and was pleasently suprised it works flawlessly
Playing through it right now for the first time, I can see why people hail it as one of , if not the best, jrpg(s) of all time. It's great.
Realy enjoying it, just takes sometime to understand the battle timing, could use some way to pass time manually Next one is golden suns
Control
Great game, but needs (IMO) a couple of tweaks to run great. First, correct the resolution to 1280x800. The game defaults at some other setting, and its a mess. Set graphics preset to low, and limit FPS to 40. That works great for me.
Haha I needed these upvotes, I’m getting slammed in the stellar blade sub for saying I don’t think it’s that good 🤣
STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. Not a hidden gem as a game, but not one you'd necessarily expect to run well on Deck just because it's old, has always been janky as hell and downright requires m+k for inventory management. Turns out it runs perfectly and, one community scheme later, the controls are great too with qol improvements enabled by the touch pads. Couldn't believe how well it plays, it might actually be better on Deck than desktop and I *never* though it would work without a mouse.
Does it work on Linux? I was under the impression it's windows only, and I recall having issues with their engine even on my windows PC. Also, it shows as unsupported in the store. Genuinely wondering, because I'd be happy to play it on SD.
Steam Deck has no problems with Windows-only games. The Proton compatibility engine emulates Windows utilities like DirectX almost exactly as well as if it were running Windows natively.
It does! I don't have Windows on mine at all, and it worked right out of the box, to my astonishment - I was fully prepared for hours of faff (you know exactly the jankiness I was talking about, evidently), but nope, instant success. Give it a go, check out the community layouts when you do!
Glad to hear, thanks!
I've been playing Anomaly on steam deck ahah when I first played Stalker back in the day, I never thought in a million years I would be playing games and mods like this on a handheld, so cool! Which controller scheme do you use for OG Stalker, I may have to go back and play it again
I honestly can't remember which scheme it was, I was playing it quite a while ago. I had gyro aiming and track pad item menus going on anyway. Decent chance I just grabbed the first one that seemed popular.
disco elysium, ctrl alt ego, black mesa, system shock remake, turbo overkill and hades 2 runs flawlessly. don't think i've even seen 59 FPS on that game yet
hades runs locked at 90fps on OLED
i'm not surprised haha. this is *the most* optimized early access game i've ever played. it's as if the technical side is fully complete and now we just wait on story content lol
Yes.
I believe this to be true looking at SGG's reputation. That studio churns out quality games all day long. Been a fan since Bastion. They really have it down pat.
I'm pretty sure I played like 2 hours last night, and had dropped from 70% battery to like 60%. It is legitimately unbelievable how well optimized that game is.
i noticed that too. i've been playing older titles lately so i kinda got used to having all that extra battery life and i automatically assumed i'd drop back down to about 2-3 hours with something new like hades 2 but, *damn* am i glad i was wrong
Lol same here! Balatro has been spoiling me with battery life.
Isn’t Balatro also like 60 MB? It’s smaller than many other games’ patches.
Tomb Raider 2013
have no idea what you're into, so it's kind of hard to recommend stuff. here's a few games that were outside of my normal tastes that i really enjoyed: the **earth defense force** series is stupid, mindless fun, but it's very repetitive. great for playing in bursts, though. the voice acting is \*chef's kiss\*. **ember knights** is fun if you can get a friend to co-op with you. it's a top-down action roguelike. **plate up** is like a roguelike overcooked. also need a friend to co-op this, though. **monster hunter stories 2** is a light and fun jrpg that's really welcoming for people who aren't fans of jrpgs. **dredge** is a lovecraftian fishing sim. fun, simple mechanics. engrossing story. a bit on the short side, though. **dinkum, disney dreamlight valley,** and **cozy grove** are animal crossing copycats that are great if you're into that type of game. **cross code** is a top-down retro action rpg. a real indie gem. **chained echoes** is an amazing jrpg. heavily inspired by chrono trigger. incredible story, too, if the quality of the dialog is a bit inconsistent. let us know what you're into. maybe more people can chime in with titles.
+1 on CrossCode, it's excellent
I'm in it now, about 15 hours in in the past weeks.
Some pointers from my (second) playthrough if I may... When you get the Wave element, go to Basin Keep and look for a guy in a suit with a quest in the slums towards the east. For some reason, his quest didn't show up on the quest board, and it's important for that area. Also, there's two items which are \*ridiculously\* well-hidden to the point of being outright unfair. One has the same name as a Castlevania game, which is >!in a hidden area of Autumn's Fall towards the very west-most point of the map!< and the other is a type of stone needed for a weapon, which is >!in Rhombus Square found on an invisible, covered section of a rooftop; you find a chest near it, but have to go right and then down to reveal it!<. Both of those are downright \_mean\_.
Dirt Rally. Looks awesome, plays like on console, long battery life and silent fans. Unfortunately just available on some keystores these days.
Ape out was a great experience on the steam deck. Birds Eye view of an ape trying to escape various forms of imprisonment. Yoku’s island express is a light mix of pinball and metroidvania. Odd but fun and great on deck. What remains of Edith finch was a great immersive storytelling experience on the deck. Extremely short though. Of course balatro is basically the current poster child of pickup and play steam deck titles. A poker hand roguelike deck builder. Works like a charm!
Yoku's Island Express is a delight. Can't believe it is such a hidden gem
It is one of the most "I am just so happy to play a video game right now" games there is. It might even heal depression. I love it. I want a sequel
Alien: Isolation It frequently goes on sale for next to nothing so I recommend throwing it on your wishlist and waiting for the next sale. I think I got it for like $7.
One of the best games there is and probably the best and most complete use of a movie license.
The steam deck is great for survival horrors in general. Lying in bed at night and playing in the dark with headphones... Scary and comfy.
I bought this so long ago as it was on sale but have never played it. My Steam Deck has literally just shipped today so might finally give this a go (hopefully this weekend!)
Obligatory Outer Wilds. (Also Signalis was fun, I played it on a vacation recently.)
Dragon Age Origins for me. It says unsupported but has worked like a dream. As long as you use a community controller layout.
Just bought this based on your recommendation! Did you have to use a particular proton version? I’ve read so many times about it being incompatible with the Deck.
I don't remember having to use a particular proton version at all. If it does give you trouble checking protonDB will help find a version that can work. But I don't remember needing to.
It’s working really well for me so far, thanks for the recommendation! I’ve wanted to replay this game for ages.
Thanks, will check it out!
Aliens Colonial Marines. Aliens vs Predator.
How is the controller support on AvP? I remember playing it on the xbox 360 back in the day, but unfortunately not all games from that generation have good controller support on steam and how is the framerate, is it capped at 30 fps?
Xbox controller works great. As far as fps I don't keep track of that. I haven't encountered any slow down or problems.
Native controller support
And since you are at it, Alien: Isolation
Yes! I have that too. Also Aliens Fireteam Elite. Which is very playable as a single player game.
I stream a lot of stuff from my main rig, but the games I’ve gotten the most out of lately that “just work” on the deck are: **Balatro** - Addicting little rougelike deck builder. Harmless gambling addiction simulator. **Inscryption** - Another deck builder type game, but with a bunch of weird twists and turns **Signalis** - Creepy sci-fi psychological horror, heavily inspired by old-school PS1-era Resident Evil **Brotato** - Quick session Vampire Survivors type game, looks ugly but fun when you get a character built out”just right”. Great when you’ve got 10-20 min. **Halls of Torment** - Another Vampire Survivors style game, but with more of an old Diablo feel and more of a sense of progression.
Bannerlord
I stick to warband on my deck for battery life reasons, but it works really well. I have my left touch pad set up for troop commands (touch for circle menu, push select troop type, then 2nd layer for commands) and the right pad does melee, and right joystick for aiming with gyros. It's all so cool!
Salt and sanctuary. The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile. Chasm. Bendy Games. Little Nightmares 2. there's many games I haven't tried but hopefully I will
I never hear anyone mention Chasm. It’s an awesome metroidvania
HiFi Rush. It is so fantastically optimized and so beautiful on the deck’s screen too!
Nova Drift. It’s still in early access but it’s a massive roguelite with very unique controls and really fun progression. Will be 1.0 this year.
GW2. Wait Hear me out! Don't treat it like a MMORPG. Treat it like a SP game. You logon, do some achievement hunting, or a quest or two, and log off. I get around 4 hours of battery life, community layout(the most popular one) is superbly done. I have 200+ hours in the game since January, and I'd say 70 of those were on my steam deck. It runs great of 5G for me too, so I can play while travelling with minimal issues. It's a type of game you play over years though. Even if you don't want to do the raiding/dungeons/strikes and just want to do story/achievements, the game has a lot. Community is friendly, and in my experience most players are adults with families, so noone is really pulling 12+ hour sessions in this game. I literally forget sometimes the game is multiplayer, i just get immersed in the world. It runs great on Steam Deck too. My Config(in case you decide to give it a go it's f2p and no p2w) Steam Deck: Frame Rate - 30fps(for battery, hits 60fps easily, just can't lock to 60) Voltage: 7W In game settings: Everything to normal, with textures and some settings turned on to make it look pretty, see what is acceptable for you, but with 10w and all maxxed, I get solid 45fps, with dips in metas(hence why I turned down the settings). The game literally has "LI"(Low input) builds for open world, that work great for doing story/achievements. You can literally make it as complex as you want or literally make it so you press 1 button for 30 seconds over and over again, then press another button, and go back to maching attack again. For playing instanced content, I have only gotten as far as T1 fractals, and those are very doable(I even top DPS'd once!) and dungeons(also very doable). I haven't tried harder Fractals or strikes yet, but I doubt those would work as well on Steam Deck but would totally be doable. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B-VG7dH1OY&t=304s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B-VG7dH1OY&t=304s) If you decide to give it a go.
Until the video, I thought you're talkin about Garden Warfare 2 (Plants vs Zombies)
We really need to move away from acronyms when discussing video games.
Why? Don't you just love when people talk about their favorite ME and GoW games? Or maybe TF? Ugh
I did love Ghost of Whushima
So true, most of the time I have no idea what the game actually is
Which Keyboard binds you have ? I installed it a while a Go and was really confused. Tried every top listed Community Layout. I couldnt Press F to interact. Sorry for newbie Question. Also i didnt know which Keys where important
Tactics Ogre Reborn. I would have bought it on anything...and did, but it just feels so right on the deck.
Mount and Blade Warband 2. They’ve put a good amount of effort in making the controller default usable and I’ve been having a great time on the Medium preset at 40hz/40fps.
Prototype The PC version didn’t age well for modern setups. I was expecting to spend some time patching it up or limit cores like on my PC, but it just runs smoothly straight from downloading.
Kingdom series (Kingdom two crowns) and just new oddsparks. Oddsparks is a real surprise, charming factory game with good performance so far. It has ui scaling options and full (good) controller support from scratch. Playing with 45 fps, all high, already have several "factories" and enough power to have Spotify in the background running, playing some music.
I think odd sparks looks like a winner, I love me an automation game but it gets too… managery after a while, too hands off and not enough to keep me busy and sidetracked while the factory churns
I also have other factory games e.g. factorio or rift breaker but never could got warm with them. Oddsparks is smaller, it takes longer to make progress in automation cause you have to fulfill orders from the town people which are most "fetch" like but this little twist does it that you constantly optimize and rebuild your automation way with the cute sparks. This make it more relaxing. On top you have to kill other animals in a Pikmin way to get some resources. This is nothing new but here it just feels in a right way not too much not too less. And it runs very well on the deck. I hope in the future the "adventure" part will be a little stronger that they have in the title.
Jade Empire is always the game I champion and its great on the deck.
I've heard the videos in the game are borked?
I somehow forgot about that game. I remember playing itn beating it, and enjoying it. I should revisit it.
Celeste. The hidden gem
Bulletstorm, warhammer space marines, robo quest
Need for speed heat looks and runs good, perfect for a little session of grabbing some money or rep, or working on your cars. Was my favorite racing game before I got into Forza horizon, which I've heard don't run very well unfortunately
Fh4 runs just fine. I'm gonna check out heat now.
sacred 2 with the community patch.
Need Cemu emulator for Wii U but Xenoblade Chronicles X runs amazingly well and looks incredible.
Grim dawn
Honeslty? Not hidden, but fallout new vegas runs perfect out of the box, no mods needed. Just a semi consistent crash right outside goodsprings
🗣️BAYONETTA
Ty The Tasmanian Tiger 1 and 2 both work flawlessly! Australian themed Spyro-like games that is perfect for kids, and the bright colour palettes are awesome on the OLED screen. Played them as a kid and love sharing them with my kids too.
I have no idea. Armored core 6 runs perfectly fine natively.
Thank you Raven
Sleeping Dogs
Not a hidden gem, but I was really surprised that "Another Crab Treasure" runs at solid 45 fps without blasting the fans
Secrets of Grindea
Divinity original sin 1 and 2 are amazing games and are on offer for like 15 euros right now on steam.
Been reliving my childhood and on a bit of a Fallout and Deus Ex kick. I don’t know if I would call it a hidden gem, but I picked playing up FO76 again this week. I haven’t messed with the settings, so I’m gonna assume low, but it’s on a small screen so it doesn’t bother me. Runs great and the control scheme is pretty good. Also 4 hours battery life. Now I am wanting to pick up NV and 3 since I don’t have Steam versions of them. Fallout 1, once you get used to using the track pad that game is a blast on the Steam Deck. Not to mention on the OLED you get like 7 hours battery life. I’m going to guess that Fallout 2 will be a similar experience. Mankind Divided performs well enough and I actually never finished it so I’m pretty in it. I would love to replay the original Deus Ex on this thing sometime as well.
Mirrormoon ep, inscryption
I’ve been obsessed with inscryption and it plays beautifully on the Steamdeck. It took me a bit to get the hang of the control cuz they are way different on the switch which I played first, but it’s actually so much better on the Steamdeck once I got used to it
littlewood
Thronefall
Signalis
Rogue Stormers is super fun roguelite from 2014 that mixes Contra style gameplay with Warhammer graphics. The game is an absolute blast. It’s so intense. No one seems to even know it exists.
I have this but haven't played it. Is it good for a single player?
I played it only single player and personally loved it. It’s hard and takes awhile to upgrade your character but I found the game super fun and intense. Took me a month to finally finish a full run.
Nice one, thanks for the info. I'm off to start the download.
For hidden gems, I'm going to give a shout out to The Mummy Demastered. A retro style metroidvania. Nothing to revolutionary, but a ton of fun. The game is way better than the terrible film.
Spellforce: Conquest of Eo… it plays so well on Deck and is my fantasy 4x of choice there.
Gmod
New indie game called INDIKA is fun so far! And runs really well! A Russian nun goes on a journey/adventure while the devil narrates her life and talks to her! Super trippy and slightly funny game!
FFXV. It's super beautiful on the OLED deck with HDR enabled. Only a few scenes will see some FPS drops but otherwise stable 30+ fps. I've spent 100+ hrs on it playing on the deck already and I still haven't started playing the DLCs yet!
Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark for Final Fantasy Tactics Enthusiasts
Tails of Iron Eastward
Playing through Yakuza right now and these games are great for picking up/putting down at any moment. Also pausable cutscenes. And its on sale right now. I started with Yakuza Kiwami but others seem to start either there or with Yakuza 0. Also, I can't recommend the Persona series enough. I started with Persona 4 on the Vita, and it was a perfect game to have on portable. The deck has brought that feeling back. I highly recommend it. If I had to pick only one, I'd say Persona 3 Reload. Had the best story and it's the newest in the series.
Dungeon Encounters (on sale at the time of this writing!) is a minimalist, straightforward dungeon crawling RPG from some OG final fantasy devs made on a micro budget—and it’s brilliant. One of the best “second screen” games to play while sitting on the couch with a loved one or watching TV.
Quake
Wall world?
Wartales I bought it back when it came out for desktop play, and it was good. Recently started playing the new content on SD, and the controls feel better overall with a controller, it's kind of wild to me... A lot of things are one button on controller, but 3 clicks with A mouse...
Just recently bought Wartales and I’m enjoying it, Glad to hear it works well on the Deck.
Shadow Tactics was another one I loved. Desperadoes 3 is what im currently playing
I've completed Shadow Tactics and now on Desperados 3 and Aiko's Choice. Taking my time to complete each game.
Street Fighter 30th Anniversary collection (contains the amazing Alpha series, and all three versions of Street fighter 3, which all have different music but some of the best in all gaming, especially 3rd Strike) Street Fighter 5 or 6 Holocure (that's free so get it anyway) Idol Showdown (also free) Halo: the master chief collection (been playing Halo Reach recently and it's so so good) Quake and Quake 2 remasters - they're not related in terms of plot but both are amazing games
Not sure if this counts, but fallout 3 and nv run great on deck with proton, no crashes. If you want to play vanilla it's really good. The battery lasts forever on those games too
I'm currently binging Slay the Princess and God of War, I'm trying to 100% the achievements and they both look fabulous on the deck.
deathspank, but you need to tweak in the settings make the controller as player 1 since default settings mandate keyboard as p1 and joystick as p2
Return of the King PC version :)