7 Great Games to play on the Steam Deck

2 September 2023 at 09:21 in Gaming News, Top with no comments
7 Great Games to play on the Steam Deck  

Key Facts

  • A list of some of the best 7 latest games to play on the Steam Deck.
  • The list includes games that don’t require too much tweaking and run spectacularly well.
  • Ideal balance of visual fidelity and performance, while also saving battery life when possible
 

WHAT IS STEAM DECK?

 

Steam Deck is Valve’s answer to the PC gaming handheld market. A market thought to be niche but that over the years attracted the attention of a bigger audience, enticed by the very concept of having a more portable and gaming dedicated laptop alternative. The concept has always been around, dating back in 1989 with the Atari Portfolio with a hefty price tag, and popularized starting from 2015 with GamePad Digital (GPD) being more affordable but still not enough, and many other companies entering the fray. Valve’s Steam Deck strikes a nice balance of price to performance ratio, with its architecture closely resembling the one in the current gen consoles, while offering similar performance to the previous gen consoles in a smaller format:

  Steam Deck official  
  • Processor AMD APU
  • CPU: Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz (up to 448 GFlops FP32)
  • GPU: 8 RDNA 2 CUs, 1.0-1.6GHz (up to 1.6 TFlops FP32)
  • APU power: 4-15W
  • RAM 16 GB LPDDR5 on-board RAM (5500 MT/s quad 32-bit channels)
  • Storage 64 GB eMMC,256 GB NVMe SSteam Deck or 512 GB NVMe SSteam Deck options.
 
   

Top 7 Games

 

This is a list of the 7 best games for the Steam Deck, with analysis on how they perform and the ideal settings. So if you are planning to get one, or have one already, these may be some interesting titles to play on the go!

   

Cyberpunk 2077

  Steam Deck Cyberpunk 2077  

CD Projekt Red’s latest game, with an upcoming expansion DLC launching this September, Cyberpunk 2077  remains one of the most demanding and visually impressive titles for PC. The futuristic FPS and RPG game features a compelling story, great characters and fun gameplay, while exploring the vast game map centered around Night City in all its districts.

   

Cyberpunk runs surprisingly well on Valve’s little handheld, just select the Medium Preset with High Textures, a 90% resolution scale via Intel XeSS and a lock of 30 FPS via the Deck settings. Will achieve a solid experience without sacrificing visuals, and it will run for about 1 hour and 40 minutes, though it can be pushed to 2 hours by setting a few settings on low if you’d like.

 
   

Persona 5 Royal

  Steam Deck Persona 5 Royal  

The fifth entry in the Persona Series from Atlus. You’ll play as a highschooler moving to Tokyo after being accused unjustly of a crime, through a series of events he’ll discover the power of Persona, his alter ego, and try to bring justice to kindred people. Gathering allies, exploring Tokyo’s most famous districts, lots of side activities and a really fun JRPG gameplay system. All with a great story, with plenty of touching moments that depict the bad and the good sides of human life.

   

The game runs at a constant 60FPS with High Settings at the native resolution. There will be a few dips when exploring Shibuya and the other districts, though this has to do with certain background shadows (people) showing up on screen. But when locked at 30FPS it will be less noticeable, as well as being able to set a 8 watt TDP and have around 3 hours and 30 minutes.

 
   

Elden Ring

  Steam Deck Elden Ring  

FromSoftware new soulslike in collaboration with George R. R. Martin. In this new dark fantasy hostile world , we’ll play as one the Tarnished, looking for a way to become the new Elden Lord and rule the Lands Between. In this journey we’ll unravel mysteries, the true story of the Elden Ring and what caused The Shattering, meet characters and foes.

   

Elden Ring is an interesting title for the Deck, as the game was plagued at launch with a particular issue with frametimes that caused dips and inconsistencies even on the most powerful hardware on PC. Yet an implementation via Proton layer by Valve’s dev team actually made Elden Ring runs far better than any other option for the first few weeks. As of now the game runs amazingly well with Medium settings and a 30FPS lock almost all the time, achieving 2 hours and 30 minutes. It’s also possible to bump a few settings to high for about 2 hours.

 
   

System Shock

  Steam Deck System Shock  

The long awaited remake of the of the 1994’s title by Looking Glass Studios, this remake by Nightdive Studios has managed to amaze the players with its retro-like visuals, incorporating the original game feels, as well as deliver a more modern experience without tarnishing the story. Set in 2072, we are a hacker hired by one of the executives of TriOptimum to remove the moral restraint of the AI of the Citadel Station, in exchange of a pardon and a rare militar implant. After waking up 6 months later after a cryogenic sleep, we discover that said AI has taken over the station. Thus it’s to us to discover what happened and find a way out of the station.

         

 

System Shock is a pretty optimized title and it’s possible to play at a constant 60fps using the native resolution and medium settings for a little over 2 hours. Although for a more atmospheric experience just  turning shadows and using a 45fps lock will work while maintaining about the same battery time.

 
   

Hi-Fi Rush

  Steam Deck Hi-Fi Rush  

An unexpected title released earlier this year, Tango Gameworks’ Hi-Fi RUSH has soon become a hit thanks to its colorful artstyle and its fun gameplay, a hack&slash wit h sprinkles of rhythm games. In this futuristic game you’ll play as Chai, whose heart gets combined with his music player after an experiment from a megacorporation. Branded as defective, he’ll gather allies in the course of the game to regain his freedom, taking down all the enemies.

   

Running on Unreal Engine 4, the title is extremely well optimized and the Steam Deck is able to easily achieve and maintain the 60FPS target with the default settings of Medium. It’s possible to either bump it up for a better visual fidelity, or to lock the FPS via Deck menù to 40fps, jumping from the about 2 hours mark to roughly 3!

 
   

Outlast Trials

  Steam Deck Outlast Trials  

A surprising change in direction from the series by Red Barrels studios, but one that surely paid off in the end. The latest entry in the Outlast franchise, Trials is set during the Cold War, and we’ll play as the newest test subject for the Murkoff Corporation. A company researching mind control and brainwashing, through very questionable methods. We’ll play either solo or we can team up with other 3 players to complete various trials, each with various objectives. But featuring the terrifying experience of the franchise, making you doubt the very things you see, including your allies.

   

Despite being an Early Access title the game runs great on the Deck. Defaulted to low settings, in exchange the title will run at native resolution and a smooth 60FPS lock with no tweaking needed while the low settings still look great. It’s again possible to bump the visuals a bit, or even apply a 40FPS lock to bump the already respectable 2 hours and 45 minutes up to over 3 hours.

 
   

Resident Evil 4

  Steam Deck Resident Evil 4  

The latest entry of the remake of Capcom’s beloved survival horror franchise. An extremely well received remake, that retells once again the story of Leon Scott Kennedy after 6 years from the event on Raccoon City, tasked to find and rescue the daughter of the USA president, Ashley. Thus he’ll be deployed in the city of Valdelobos in Spain. Here he’ll discover that a parasite has transformed most of the inhabitants into hostile and violent beings, while a Cult is operating behind the scenes. Thus he’ll have to fight hordes of infects and discover the real reason why they kidnapped Ashley

   

The game runs surprisingly well with a base Medium settings and a few settings dropped to low with the usage of FSR to Balanced, achieving a decent 40FPS experience with minor dips. That can be easily adjusted by using a 30FPS lock while also saving some battery in the process. From about 2 hours to almost 3.

 
   

Steam Deck and future releases

 

Steam Deck is a machine that despite its brilliance has its limitations, while some others argue the portability and size, while others about the performance. It’s undeniable that we’re still not there to replace a fully fledged desktop pc on the go, but with some expectation it can deliver an acceptable experience. Prime example is BetheSteam Decka’s newly released Starfield which seems to struggle on most computers and only offering 30fps even on current gen consoles, thus the Steam Deck is no exception, struggling to hit a constant 30 even with the usage of FSR on ultra performance. But it’s not unthinkable that future patches and support from modders could finally allow the Deck to run it well, as well as many other games that require the optimization to mature to a certain point. Moreover there will be future releases which will be more than playable on Valve’s little machine!

 
   

Save on your Deck

 

Have you got a Steam Deck already? Or are you planning to buy one in the future? If you didn’t know you can also buy the Steam Deck by using your Steam wallet funds, not only in full but also partially combining your wallet funds with a payment method of your choice, like bank or credit card.

   

You can save some funds by purchasing Steam Gift Cards at a discount by searching for a deal on Allkeyshop

   

Not to mention choosing the Certified Refurbished program, allowing to get your hands on a Valve officially refurbished Steam Deck at a nice discount, saving 80€ for the base model (from 419€ down to 339€), 110€ for the 256GB (from 549€ down to 439€) and 140 for the 512GB (from 679€ down to 539€), while retaining the same warranty as a newly bought Deck! You can check the refurbished page here.

 
 

Allkeyshop is the best place to buy the best games at the lowest prices, and we even have a browser extension that helps you find the best discount codes, coupons, and prices instantly.

Download the Allkeyshop Browser Extension Free – SAVE MONEY

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By whizzerlow whizzerlow

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