Hey all. Always enjoyed reading everyone’s suggestions on more unknown games available during big steam sales.
I’ll start off with one that I have been a fan of for a long time: Death Road to Canada
This game is like a zombie action Oregon Trail like game, where you manage supplies and fight through hordes of zombies on your way to the safe haven of Canada. Only US$3.74 right now and well worth it imo!
I feel obligated to recommend a Steam Deck if you have interest in one and can afford it.
We have 2 and I would get a 3rd if I could lol (with a bulky protective case etc. so I can be less careful)
The most cost efficient way to go is buy the cheapest version and then put something like this in it https://www.westerndigital.com/en-il/products/internal-drives/pc-sn740-ssd#SDDPTQD-256G
IMPORTANT NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU GET A 2230 SIZED NVME DRIVE. 2280 drives will NOT fit.
If you don’t want to do that you can alternatively just get a big micro SD card and save the SSD swap for later For best speeds you want it to say A2 and a 3 inside a U.
Even besides playing video games it’s an awesome little mini pc. Not perfect but awesome, and an amazing value at $359.
I concur. It changed the way I play games, especially last gen and indies.
I second this. Seriously one of the best things I’ve bought in years. 64gb + 1tb+ m2 is such a ridiculous bargain if you can operate a screwdriver.
They’re incredibly good emulation platforms too.
I honestly hope they just sell this model for a few years while dropping the price - something to be said for having a standard hardware platform with a huge install base.
I’d love to buy one, but they won’t sell to me. “This item is not available for reservation in your country”
Do you know around how much it would cost to ship from the US?
That really sucks, I’m sorry.
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Do you know how much it would cost to ship to you from the US?
Wait does the 64GB option support M.2 NVMe? I thought it only supports eMMC and that you can’t swap with a different NVMe drive, but maybe I’m wrong?
Yes, exactly what I did. You can just buy a 2230 nvme ssd and slap it in. Process is pretty painless (just remember to take any micro SD card out before you take the shell off or there’s a chance you’ll snap it)
The hardest part for me was finding a usb-c to usb-a converter so I could plug in a usb stick to reinstall the OS.
Luckily I already had some of that stuff from my switch. I do hope v2 steamdeck has a USB-A port (And I wouldn’t mind a second USB-C on the bottom)
I just ordered the 64GB version and a 512 GB NVMe drive from Amazon, so now my wallet hates you a lot. But thanks for the recommendation and tips.
Ayy! Happy for you. I know you’ll love it.
as someone with a 64gb deck with a 512gb drive swapped in I can confirm it works!
That’s a good question but no, it will work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSWb6jFlDk4
The 64GB emmc drive in the Deck uses the m.2 expansion slot, so you can pop out the emmc drive and swap in a 2230 form factor nvme drive and be gtg after reinstalling SteamOS.
I myself went from a 256GB drive to a 1TB drive, and this weekend, I’ll be popping in a 2TB drive I just received in the mail.
I had heard that swapping the ssd yourself voids warranty, is that true? Or is it only if you swap more stuff
No that is not true.
In the US, that’s illegal (Magnuson Moss warranty act). In a lot of the rest of the first world, there are similar laws. But regardless, Valve hasn’t shown any of the patterns some do of ignoring the law and forcing you to jump through hoops to exercise your rights, and there were a decent number of stories on Reddit of them fixing clear customer damage under warranty.
Yo Valve can you please sell them where I live already so that I don’t have to pay some shitty eBay scalper or overpriced reshipped?
Do you know how much it would cost to cost to ship from the US?
You can swap the ssd! Why are they charging so much to upgrade to only 256gb of Nvme storage?
Probably because they’re losing money on the cheapest one
You could also buy the 64g and get a sd card that what i did no slowing with any game and enough space for 4-5 big game or a lot of small one but i never have more than 2-3 games installed anyway otherwise i just game jump and never finish any l
To add context for people viewing, putting games on a fast micro sd card (A2, 3 in a U) has negligible performance losses compared to putting the game on an internal drive. I was skeptical at first, but other than slightly longer times loading SD cards work beautifully for steamdeck games
I fell in love with Submerged when I played it. It’s an exploration game set in a flooded city, where you play a young girl looking for supplies for her injured brother. Lots of navigating between buildings in a little boat, climbing around, and taking in the scenery. Incredibly relaxing to play.
How can it be relaxing if your brother is injured and needs the supplies? I’m just wondering if I wouldn’t feel urged to get him back to health as soon as possible.
I’m a heartless monster who forgot about my brother so I could sit in my boat and gawk at my surroundings at sunset. Mileage may vary.
It does have moments that stressed me out, but since I spent so much time exploring and taking screenshots, they’re not what left the strongest memory.
Those games has been on my radar for a while! Have you played both of them?
Not yet! I just grabbed the second one, actually, can’t wait to play it!
ITT: not hidden gems
Dude, you were quick to forget about the reddit threads of “hidden gems”, where the top voted answers were Skyrim, Witcher 3 and RDR2.
This is a gold mine in comparison…
There’s this sweet rarely known game where you punch trees and build stuff but you’ve probably never heard of it
Ark?
I really hoped we’d leave this cynical garbage on Reddit. The top comments in this post are mostly listing hidden gems.
Needs more celeste
Have you guys heard of SKYRIM?
It’s not super niche, or super on sale, but I’m really enjoying Chained Echos so far.
Hot take: Chained Echoes is a much better game than Octopath Traveler 2.
Man, Octopath Traveler was such a letdown. The total lack of character interactions with other character’s stories made protagonist selection feel pointless and the story felt even more shallow than it was. Just… so meh. I couldn’t talk myself into picking up the second one.
Tbh, the worst part was that the advertising for 2 really seemed to suggest they’d heard that complaint about 1 and fixed it. The put so much emphasis on the Cross Paths feature. And then you get the game and discover that it is actually just 4 quests for 4 sets of 2 travelers.
I really expected genuine interaction. Character to be present in cutscenes and have minor comments on what’s occuring. You know, stuff the story can technically progress without, but really flesh out the world and the characters. Bosses acting like they’ve caught out a single character only to initiate a fight against my party of 4 just feels weird as hell.
Yeah, maybe 8 characters is too many. but now they can’t go back and rename it to Quadropath travellers.
They could do a 3 franchise mashup and name it “Bravely Quad Strategy”
I don’t have any games to recommend but I wanted to thank people here for some actually good suggestions. I feel like I’ve been taken for a bit of a ride at that other place by shills in similar threads compared to this.
Donut County is only $3.89. It’s a short, funny, cute puzzle game where you make everything fall in a hole. Really good.
Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth is $12.49 and a much better 80hr RPG then it has any right to be. And I never even touched the second game in the collection!
Donut County was so quirky and fun.
for me, I’m really fixated on Cassette Beasts, because Pokemon has been disappointing for me for a long while now. I keep debating on whether I buy it now, or wait until they implement the online multiplayer they just announced.
Huh. Didn’t realize it started today. Will have to check my wishlist.
Anyway, recs in no particular order:
- Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a lovely little game. Some great East Asian influences, and a really great art style. Combat is sometimes surprisingly difficult. Some fun puzzles and platforming make up a lot of the game.
- Death and Taxes is a short and darkly humorous game where you take on the role of the Grim Reaper and decide who lives and who dies in a workplace-like fashion. If you’re a fan of the web series, Purgatony, this might remind you of that. It’s got a touch of satire to it as well, but not super pronounced. You’ll find that mostly in the details and consequences of who you let live and who you let die (and there are consequences, some very significant).
- Heaven’s Vault is a narrative game that takes place in space. Linguistics (or rather translating text) plays a role in the game and it’s got a hand drawn, cel-shaded kind of art style.
- A Story About My Uncle is a first person, narrative driven, and entirely nonviolent game, with a bunch of cool swingy mechanics (so lots of gameplay, just not shooty bang stuff) and a fairly sweet story. You meet all sorts of fantastic, alien creatures on your adventure, platforming through a strange and beautiful world. Art direction is lovely, honestly.
- ABZÛ is just straight up awesome relaxation (with a few less relaxing points every so often) from some of the devs who brought you Journey and Flower. This time, it’s all about diving and swimming through fascinating locations that vary from colorful reefs to areas reminiscent of long forgotten temple ruins (the name comes from the Sumerian and Akkadian word referring to underground aquifers that played an important part in some Babylonian mythology).
- Quantum Conundrum - Do you like Portal but wish it had a little John DeLancie commenting on your actions? Then this is for you! A fun puzzle game heavily inspired by Portal (the lead dev worked on the original Portal, if I recall). It’s aimed at a slightly younger audience, but I think it works for everyone. Good vibes all around.
- Okay, not a hidden gem exactly, but if you like space, No Man’s Sky isn’t the disappointing game it was on release. I’d urge anyone who likes space and exploration to at least give it a shot. You can turn on creative mode and not worry about any survival elements as well. It’s got a bit of a plot to get you used to the galaxy (and also explain some of the lore), but you can just do whatever you want and ignore that. Three alien races and you can learn words from their language by interacting with them or interacting with pillars on various planets that will teach you a word. I like this part of the game a lot for some reason. There’s some other lore hidden around as well, but it’s really up to you if you want to discover it or not.
Edit: I forgot about Blacktail. I haven’t finished it yet, but it’s a new take on the Baba Yaga myth and stars the voice actress who played Meg in Hades. That lovely, husky voice.
These next three are very hit or miss and some may find them either unpolished or just not that enjoyable. I’m listing them because they’ve got either an interesting story, or interesting mechanics. You’ll notice the last two have a “mixed” rating, so this is more about “if you like the idea, maybe try it”.
- The Vale: Shadow of the Crown is a narrative game that puts you in the shoes of a blind princess. It was made to be a game that blind people can enjoy, and the controls and mechanics are fairly basic (and it’s keyboard only as far as I remember, but there might be controller support, I don’t know), but the audio design is fantastic (for obvious reasons). There’s some combat, and it’s all about timing and listening for cues. I honestly think it’s a fantastic game, but it’s not for everyone. Good news is that it has a demo! Try it out first. Also, WEAR HEADPHONES. It’s actually a necessity here. Binaural recording and object placement is entirely dependent on your ability to hear things (since you can’t see anything, though it’s got some pleasant screensaver-type visuals which do fit the theme of the area you’re in).
- eXperience112 is a bit of a weird game. It’s kind of a point and click adventure, but you don’t control the main character. It takes place on an ocean vessel where something’s gone wrong. You essentially play a camera operator and what seems to be the only survivor speaks to you directly so you can point her in the right direction. Also, she remembers when you last saved. If you don’t play for a while, she’ll comment on the fact that you left her alone for a while. It’s buggy, but interesting.
- The Occupation is kind of the middle ground between a walking sim and immersive sim, which sounds like a weird description. It has narrative and some gameplay elements that you’d find in immersive sims (open-ish levels, multiple characters to speak to and ways to complete a level, some stealth, etc.), and every level takes place in real time, which is important because you’ll have scheduled appointments for interviews and you’ll be gathering evidence before that time is up, so you’ll be looking at your in-game watch often. That watch is the reason I find it gets into walking sim territory, because you’re kind of restricted by it and it sometimes makes things feel a little “on-rails”. The whole thing takes place after some terrorist event killed someone close to the main character, set in a kind of dystopian London, but with a very '70s/'80s vibe in aesthetics. It has a demo, so try that first. If you don’t like it at all, you won’t like the game. If you find it intriguing, later levels get more intense, so you might be interested in buying the full game. If you like the demo, then yeah, maybe buy it. It’s not too long to complete.
Most of the games I listed aren’t too long or time-consuming. The only significant exceptions are Kena and No Man’s Sky. The rest can be generally completed in a few hours or a couple of days. Kena isn’t super long either, but it does require a bit more of a commitment than the others.
+1 for Heaven’s Vault. Really excellent indie gem, and a fun spin on the detective game.
I loved Heaven’s Vault, it hit all the things I love: detective/mystery novel, rich dialogue trees, languages. The only problem is when it’s over there aren’t any other games like it.
Another +1 for heavens vault. I usually hate narrative games, but I found it very well written and interactive.
I feel like over time No Man’s Sky feels increasingly like I have too many mods installed. Every update felt like it had its own hub and NPCs and progress track that didn’t interact with any of the others. The game is still huge and it has turned into the game everyone was disappointed it wasn’t at launch, but I felt overwhelmed on which things were part of the core story I needed to complete and which parts were rabbit holes that wouldn’t connect to that.
Yeah. I think the issue in NMS is that they keep adding new systems (good) that do the same things as other systems (hmm) and can’t interface with those systems (bad). Like, why is town building not at all like base building? Why does base building have its own rudimentary town building part, but it kinda just stops? Why do they have beautifully realized frigates in space, and crashed frigates ont he ground, but no relationship between the two?
I really want to love it, it contains essentially everything I like in a game, but it just constantly falls short on depth each time. I’m due to go back and sink another few hours into it but I also feel pretty confident that I’ll finish off again feeling the ache of missed opportunity.
All that, and also I just think the writing in the game is phenomenally bland. It’s not bad at all, it just never captures my interest in the slightest. I’d love to get my hands on the basic framework of the story and totally rewrite it.
Oh, shit. I forgot about settlements. That whole mechanic suuuuuuucks to me. I had to just ignore it.
And yeah, plot’s paper thin. Mainly there to just edge you in the right direction with learning mechanics and whatnot, but I still find some of it interesting, mostly in theory. Maybe because I just fill in the gaps with my own headcanon, I guess.
Not that there’s much canon to be had, but there is at least some lore to be discovered relating to how certain races came to be and the whole Atlas and “Traveler” concept essentially being the quick explanation for why literally everyone’s experience is “canon”.
Still, do agree for the most part. Also, I must admit that my recommendation was based on my time with it a few updates ago. Played it recently and there’s definitely a lot more, some interesting, some “too much” (like settlements).
Might move it down into my “maybe” category because it probably fits better there.
Ok, not so much as hidden, but also not super known:
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun. A tactical stealth game (think commandos saga back in the day) is 90%
Technobabylon. A pixelated point & click adventure with some cyberpunk themes at 70%
Return of the Obra Dinn. Probably the best detective/deduction game that I’ve played, at 40%
Prey. One of the best immersive sims, at 75%
The Case of the Golden Idol. Is not as good as Obra Dinn in my opinion, but it’s super good none the less, at 30%
Antichamber. Super good puzzle game, at 75%
The Age of Decadence. Ultra hardcore RPG set in ancient Rome, 60%
Tametsi. Is like minesweeper but good, 67% (and only 0.77€)Have just bought Shadow Tactics and Tametsi based on this. I used to love Commandos (and even better - Desperados).
The same devs have also desperados 3, and it’s also super good (it’s on gamepass also if I recall correctly). It’s at 50% now: Desperados III
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Roadwarden($7.36) - A text based RPG wherein you play as a roadwarden and influence the future of the land with a 3 day time limit. Good story
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Fear and Hunger 1 & 2($5.59 & $9.59) -The dark souls of rpgmaker games. Loot is randomized for each playthrough. There’s a dismemberment system that also applies to you. You lose your legs, it’s gone for good the entire playthrough.
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Frostpunk($5.99) - You manage the last city on earth in the middle of the eternal frost.
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FTL: Faster than light($2.49) - 2d Spaceship simulation rougelike with randomized map. Your goal is to reach the last star sector and defeat the mother ship.
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Fran Bow ($3.74) - 2d Point and click psychological horror where you play a young girl with an unfair destiny
From the same people as FTL, Into The Breach is one of the only games I consider a “perfect game” — there is almost nothing about it that could be improved without it just being a different game. I 100%'ed that game 1.5 times and it’s absolutely amazing.
It’s a turn-based tactics game with absolutely perfect interface (the way they went about its design is a whole interesting thing in itself); like chess but you only need to think 1.5 moves into the future.
Looove Roadwarden, that game is such a gem!
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Hidden Gem you say? (obligatory)
Playing D-sides right now (Reflections). What a fucking game…
Figured I’d get one of these lol
I don’t hear much about Kenshi except for within folks who already play and let’s players on YouTube, but it’s one of my all time favorites. Can be hard to get into but watching a beginner video or reading some wiki will let you get into this massive, strange world. Currently only 13.50, which I think works out to like 2 cents an hour for me.
I can second Kenshi even if I’ve never been able to go too far into the game. However it is really a gem and I hope I’ll find the time to get back to it
- Shakedown: Hawaii - 80% off at 3,99€ - Think GTA for the 16-bit era.
- 2Dark - 90% off at 2,49€ - Think Alone in the Dark but top-down and in retro/voxel style, from the original creator of Alone in the Dark.
- UnderRail - 60% off at 5,67€ - Hidden or not, this one can’t be recommended enough to fans of the original Fallout (1 & 2, isometric) games.
- Space Haven - 60% off at 8,79€ - In-depth colony/spaceship building & management sim with cozy graphics.
- Crystal Caves HD - 60% off at 2,63€ - A true testament to how to faithfully bring an old platformer into HD, while also innovating on the original. Also contains a lot of hidden gems.
- Supraland Complete Edition - 54% off at 15,71€ - First-Person-Metroidvania in a literal sandbox, lots of freedom, lots of puzzles and exploring. Contains the DLC. Get this to gear up for the eventual release of the sequel Supraworld. The standalone Supraland Six Inches Under is also worth getting, but is “only” at 45% off, which is still great.
I’ll just go through my library and pick out the ones that I don’t think are very well-known or might have been missed by anyone who got into gaming more recently.
Demon Truck is a devilishly arcadey game, and at 90% off it is fifty cents so you are legally required to buy it right now. Once you play it for a few minutes, you’ll want the BANGER soundtrack too, which was done by Zircon, costs $3, and is worth every penny. Here’s a sample on YouTube if Bandcamp doesn’t work for you. Game is a 40 megabyte download. What are you waiting for?
Approaching Infinity - What if No Man’s Sky was a turn-based roguelike with retro tile-based sprite graphics? If that appeals to you, give it a look. The developer also has a more fantasy-oriented game called The Curse of Yendor.
Devil Daggers is worth trying if you enjoy fiendishly hard FPS games with pixel graphics.
Bots Are Stupid - it’s a tight platformer where you control the character by writing a script to control its actions down to the individual frame if necessary. It has a level creator as well. If you’ve ever seen tool-assisted speedruns (TAS), this game is basically creating a TAS for something like Super Meat Boy.
If you have PCVR, give Ancient Dungeon a look. It’s early access, but it already has that particular spark that tends to (and did) hook me, and it does a number of things phenomenally well, such as knife-throwing. In lists of top VR games, however, I rarely see it get a mention.
Distance is a racing game with where your car can jump, do flips, fly, stick to walls or the ceiling, and potentially get cut in half by the road hazards. It’s by the same developers and is the successor to the equally fun and completely free Nitronic Rush.
It’s not on sale, but at $5, Noitu Love 2: Devolution doesn’t need a sale to be well-worth the price.
Lastly, Timespinner is a pixel-art metroidvania with time travel. I thought it was pretty fun.
Here’s a list of my favorite games on Steam. I highly recommend the Steam Deck as well. Most games run well on it.
- Satisfactory
- My Time At Portia
- My Time At Sandrock
- Vampire Survivors
- Titan Quest
- Grim Dawn
- Skyrim
- Graveyard Keeper
- Coral Island
- Terra Nil
- Core Keeper
- Sun Haven
- Monster Sanctuary
- Travellers Rest
- Forager
- Stray
- Exiled Kingdoms
- Dungeonmans
- Roots of Pacha
- Monster Crown
- Streets of Rage 4
- Disaster Band
- Halls of Torment
- Trombone Champ
- Katamari Damacy REROLL
- We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie
My Time at Portia (farming / exploring), Coral Island (farming / exploring), Monster Sanctuary (catching monsters / exploring), and Travellers Rest (manage a bar, and there’s co-op) are so good.