Best games for the ideal handheld experience.
Best games for the ideal handheld experience.
The Steam Deck was released in February 2022, introducing to the world a more efficient and handheld way to play steam games without needing a large computer rig. It’s a unique and frankly impressive piece of technology that has enjoyed widespread popularity since its release a couple of years ago. Handheld consoles have been a significant part of the market pretty much since video games, but the appeal of a console like a Steam Deck is that unlike most other ones, you have access to these massive, incredible games normally restricted to a computer.
But some games ultimately deserve a big screen. There are games for your 18-inch monitor, and there are games for your handheld; you wouldn’t play Pokemon on a PC nor Call of Duty on a Nintendo DS. While many different games of every genre are available on the Steam Deck right now, and there will always be more games, some games are played better on a Steam Deck!
The issue with this is, how do we define this category? You can, in fact, play Call of Duty on a DS and Pokemon games are getting bigger and bigger, with Pokemon Legends Arceus being (hopefully) representative of an upturn in the Pokemon franchise. So what makes a game “better” for a handheld console as opposed to a PC? Well. It’s pretty simple, actually.
There is a genre of games specifically optimized for being played on small screens– mobile games. They’re made to be picked up as quickly as you can open the app and put down just as fast. They’re low commitment, easy to play, and don’t require the fine motor skills that big FPS games require. With a Steam Deck, the boundaries of these mobile optimizations are expanded. So after narrowing down our search, here are five of the best games to play on Steam Deck.
The Civilization games have garnered something of a reputation since its humble roots in 1991, becoming a giant of the genre of single player strategy games. In Civilization, the player takes up the mantle as the leader of a civilization under the banner of any number of real historical figures and ideologies. With this, they command their civilization and help it grow as the world evolves from the beginning of history to the present.
The seventh game in the franchise is no different– sporting some new and unique mechanics, upgraded visuals, and all around a better experience. What’s great about Civ VII on the Steam Deck is that it is a turn based game. Even though turns in Civilization can take a truly long time, you don’t need to worry about other players or playing quickly. Whenever you want to spend a lot of time or just get a couple turns in– it’s great for playing on your Steam Deck.
While it’s visual fidelity is nothing special, Vampire Survivors is a finely tuned bullet hell that a lot of reviews call a ‘dopamine generator’ in more words. It’s an incredibly simple game: You choose a character, and run around killing massive waves of enemies and gain upgrades until you are a storm of weapons and spells to dominate the game. Until you die, probably quickly, you can play the game all over again with unique characters and levels. Runs are always 30-minutes maximum, so it’s perfect to pick up and put down if you want a quick gaming session.
The game is also pretty undemanding in terms of its controls, so no need to worry about crazy movement– you just start playing, and kill vampires.
A cute fishing game with terrifying, Lovecraftian terrors hidden just underneath the surface. Despite the insidious way the horror elements of this otherwise calm fishing game breathes down your neck, it’s an incredibly fun and satisfying game. Dredge is a game about being a fisherman in a strange archipelago, but it’s more than clear that there’s something terribly wrong about these fish and a force hidden deep in these waters.
The core gameplay of Dredge simply has you sailing around, catching fish through a couple of fun but simple minigames, and calming yourself down from the stress of the horrors of the deep. The beautiful thing about the game is that the game does not progress while you’re not moving. There are a couple of time-based mechanics in Dredge, like fish that rot if you hold them too long or the voices that come out at night, but as long as you are sitting still then the world comes to a pause as well. It’s a simple game and incredibly fun, but the pausing is what makes it great for the Steam Deck– easy to pick up, easy to put down.
If you played the first Hades (or even if you didn’t!), then Hades 2 is a treat for the senses. It’s a roguelite just like the first game but the developers have tuned the game to a razor’s edge– the game plays so well with each new weapon, and the new environs of the Greek Underworld and beyond have so much to offer.
Like any roguelike, the game can be easily played in short bursts. A good run can take up to 30 minutes at most, so if you’re strapped for time it’s easy to fit in a run whenever you have time. Plus, all the story happens in-between runs, walking through a vibrant hub area. It’s engaging and beautiful and all easily playable on the controls of a Steam Deck!
One of the best games put out by Valve itself, Portal 2 still remains one of their best games. It’s a sequel just like Hades 2, and in the same way it takes the first game and expands upon it in plenty of new and exciting ways. It’s a relatively old game at this point, but it’s still incredibly fun. Some of the levels are real thinkers, and if you have a Steam Deck then you can play an in-depth puzzle game with ease and speed.
While all of the games on this list are incredibly fun and very good to play on a Steam Deck, it serves to say that you can play any game on the system if you’re having fun. The world is your oyster, but all of these games are definitely great places to start.
