20 Best Steam Deck Games

The Steam Deck frees players from the tethers of traditional PC gaming, letting you play your favourite titles (and grind through that ever-growing Steam back log) wherever and whenever you want. Looking for a new title to add to the library? We’ve got you covered. Here’s our list of the best 20 Steam Deck games to play on Valve’s chunky black handheld, in no particular order.

1. CrossCode

It’s criminal how CrossCode has remained under the radar despite being one of the best action RPGs in recent years . Think Legend of Mana if it were also a twin-stick bullet hell shooter, plus the dungeons are like Zelda but with the environmental puzzles turned up to 11. Engaging combat, challenging puzzles, and a compelling isekai story about a mute amnesiac trapped in an MMORPG, there’s a lot here that fans of retro anime and old-school RPGs will love.

2. Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition

A visual stunner from the Playstation 4 era, Horizon Zero Dawn is one of those games you keep installed just to show off what Valve’s handheld can do. A great open-world action-adventure that’s made better by the Steam Deck’s suspend mode, which lets you drop in and out whenever you want. The Steam Deck maintains a rock solid 30 fps, but a bit of graphical tweaking can get you to a mostly stable 40 fps.

This recommendation is for the Complete Edition and not the Remastered version of Horizon Zero Dawn.

3. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

CD PROJEKT RED’s magnum opus is a dazzler on the Steam Deck. One of the PS4 era’s defining action RPGs, The Witcher 3 takes pulls you into a rich, dark-fantasy world of vampires and monster hunters. It runs like a dream on the Steam Deck, too—a solid 40 fps at default settings but you can crank up the visuals if you don’t mind 30 fps.

4. Yakuza: Like A Dragon

This is the game that brought the Yakuza series a wider audience. Unlike the its 3D brawler predecessors, Like A Dragon is a turn-based JRPG in the vein of classic Dragon Quest but in the eccentric world of Yakuza. Despite the gameplay shift, it doesn’t lose any of the franchise’s distinctive flavour. Yakuza: Like a Dragon plays great on the Steam Deck at a stable 40 fps.

5. Dragon Ball Z Kakarot

Experience the entirety of Dragon Ball Z, beginning with the arrival of Goku’s brother, Raditz, all the way through to the Majin Buu saga. Dragon Ball Z Kakarot is a large-scale JRPG with the twitch-heavy combat foundations of Dragon Ball Xenoverse. Players can customise Goku’s ‘loadout’, chaining Super Attacks with Ki Attacks to recreate iconic battles from the TV series. If you’re a long-time fan of the series, you definitely won’t want to miss out on this one on the Steam Deck.

6. Sleeping Dogs

Despite being largely overlooked on release, Sleeping Dogs is one of the better GTA clones on the market. It mixes Arkham-style melee combat with the open-world sandbox gameplay of Grand Theft Auto to tell a gritty tale of an undercover cop forced to reckon with his troubled past as he infiltrates the Hong Kong Triads. There’s really nothing out there quite like it, and it runs and plays great on the Steam Deck with zero tweaking.

7. Tactical Breach Wizards

Tactical Breach Wizards is XCOM if it starred wizards with a penchant for kicking people out of windows. The turn-based tactics are a blast, but the Tom Francis’ writing is the real standout here. Witty and ludicrously funny, you’ll walk away from Tactical Breach Wizards with a dozen quotes stuck in your head. Also, it’s very clear developer Suspicious Developments put a lot of thought into making the game feel great on the Steam Deck. The controls are natural and intuitive, and the interface is fully legible on the Deck’s 800p screen.

8. SnowRunner

In SnowRunner, big trucks haul big loads through mud and snow. This is one of the most tactile driving experiences anywhere, thanks to an advanced physics engine with dynamic terrain deformation and realistic tire traction simulation. Every road is rife with danger, whether they’re mud pits or soft soil, and a single wrong turn of the wheel can leave you stuck for hours. It looks and plays beautifully on the Steam Deck, never dipping below 40 fps.

9. Tetris Effect Connected

Is it really a handheld gaming device if it doesn’t have Tetris on it?

‘Immersive’ isn’t usually word typically used to describe Tetris, but it certainly applies here. The neon, glowing graphics and a dynamic sound engine that creates sounds with every block dropped make TETRIS EFECT CONNECTED feel like a hallucinatory dream induced by a trip to a sensory deprivation tank. When you’re in the zone, the world falls away. Just you and the blocks, now and forever.

10. 20XX & 30XX

It’s shocking how few modern games are inspired by Mega Man X, despite it being one of the defining action-platformers of the 16- and 32-bit eras. Both 20XX and 30XX help fill that gap, offering X-style run-and-gun gameplay with roguelike mechanics and procedurally generated stages. Of course, there’s the rock-paper-scissors weakness system that Mega Man pioneered, but you’ll also collect various weapon and armour upgrades during runs that boost your super-fighting powers as you play. Also, both games have absolutely banging soundtracks.

11. Elite Dangerous

You wouldn’t think Elite Dangerous would work on anything but a mouse and keyboard, but this is a game where the Steam Deck’s community control layouts and trackpads really shine. This is one of the premier modern space sims, with dozens of things to do, from hunting space pirates to mineral mining on planet surfaces. But you’re not really playing Elite Dangerous until you’ve pledged yourself to the Powerplay meta-game, where hundreds of players coordinate to capture star systems and redirect resources between stations.

12. Earth Defense Force 5

The EARTH DEFENCE FORCE is a co-op third-person sci-fi shooter that offers simple gameplay and a satisfying, mission-based loop. It’s perhaps most famous for its voiceover and script, which make the whole experience akin to a poorly dubbed kajiu film from the 1980s. The game offers simple, stupid fun, making it a great experience with friends in a Discord call.

13. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

METAL GEAR SOLID V is the best ‘game’ in Hideo Kojima’s seminal stealth-action series, even if it doesn’t tell the most coherent story. All the tropes and mechanics that Kojima loves return for his last game at KONAMI, making THE PHANTOM PAIN the penultimate METAL GEAR experience. Yes, it has Kojima’s elite conspiracy theorycrafting and his reliance on long-winded exposition, which are always fun (the first time around, at least), but THE PHANTOM PAIN also offers the tightest, most polished version of the series’ iconic stealth gameplay.

14. Mad Max

For whatever reason, this open-world vehicular action game didn’t catch on when it first launched in 2015. Made by the studio behind the Just Cause series, Mad Max feels like a spiritual successor but with brutal road battles and crunchy melee combat. Like Sleeping Dogs, this is another game that’s seen a bit of a resurgence with the rise of gaming handhelds. It’s a silky smooth experience on the Steam Deck and is a blast to play on the go.

15. Monster Hunter Stories 1, 2 & 3

Turning Capcom’s iconic series about tracking and slaying beasts into a turn-based, creature-collector JRPG was a bold experiment. What’s even more impressive is how well it works. It’s easy to pick up and play but there’s a great deal of depth beneath the simplistic rock-paper-scissors combat. And that’s not even getting into the series’ creature collection and breeding systems. MH Stories 1 and 2 are like a Saturday morning cartoon with simple and engaging stories revolving around the power of friendship, whereas number three targets an older audience. All three titles are excellent on the Steam Deck.

16. Monster Hunter Rise

MONSTER HUNTER RISE was built from the ground up for handhelds, and you can tell. Hunts are faster and shorter, due in large part the Wirebug, which lets you grapple-hook your way across long distances much quicker. Palamutes can also be mounted to chase down nimble game more easily. None of quality-of-life changes have changed the game’s core loop, though. You’ll still have to master dodging and monster attack patterns to become an elite hunter. If you’re thinking of jumping into MONSTER HUNTER for the first time, MONSTER HUNTER RISE is the best game for it.

17. Roboquest

Roboquest is a co-op roguelike shooter that plays like Unreal Tournament if the rooms were tighter and more vertical. You and a friend make your way through a series of areas, defeating an army of robots along the way. Money earned by blasting baddies can be put toward upgrades both in and out of runs. Duos who love boomer shooters should definitely give this one a go.

18. Euro Truck Simulator 2

This isn’t a game for everyone, but for those who are into it, Euro Truck Simulator 2 is peak. Although it isn’t the best-looking driving game on this list (that would go to SnowRunner), it’s easily the most relaxing. There’s a simple appeal to latching a trailer onto your truck and driving down virtual roadways for half an hour. Sure, it’s better on the big screen and with a steering wheel, but the portable experience is nothing to scoff at, especially when you’re just looking to lay back and relax in bed for a bit.

19. Hi-Fi Rush

Hi-Fi Rush infuses traditional hack and slash action with the timing-based inputs of rhythm games, and it’s brilliant. Your typical button mashing won’t work here, as every part of your combo chain and every movement and dash needs to be timed to a global rhythm. It’s not just not attacks, either; your parries and dodges and jumps all need to hit those same beats. Hi-Fi Rush is a bold new take on a genre that’s remained static for decades, and it’s a game you shouldn’t miss on the Steam Deck.

20. Cult of the Lamb

Cult of the Lamb is a roguelike that mixes Binding of Isaac-style dungeon crawling with a meaty base builder. In the vein of ironic media like Happy Tree Friends, you play the cutest video game lamb you’ve ever seen as they build a cult of similarly adorable critters in service to a Lovecraftian god-thing. Absurd and frequently cartoonishly grotesque, Cult of the Lamb is a worthy addition to any Steam Deck owner’s library.