I’m curious what ‘surprising’ games people have played last year on their Deck.
Most likely the most played games matches the top 10 list from Steam but I’d like to hear also about those lesser known games that you enjoyed, got working (give hints for the rest of us) or just would like to recommend to us.
BallisticNG
Warzone 2100. Such a great RTS for a handheld
Most played is Satisfactory, most surprising is the Marathon trilogy because I was surprised it was available at all, playable on the deck, fully supported, and free.
My top Deck games match my overall Steam list because my Deck is my only gaming PC.
Inscryption. I love card battlers and bought it just for that. I didn’t expect my mind to be blown at every twist! Easily one of my Top 5 games of all time. Controls were a bit wonky on deck but I got used to it after a few hours.
Elite dangerous. Felt for it, again.
Played a lot of kids friendly games this last year (getting my daughter in to games) so many were surprising to me.
But of the games, she kept coming back to Alba’s Adventure - so that one racked up the play time.
My personal game that racked up the most time was Legend of Zelda, Echoes of Wisdom. After that, Judero.
My most played game was Brotato. It just plays so well and one run lasts about 20mins which is perfect for me when I don’t want to commit too much time.
My most surprising game is probably a Trackmania which took a while to get working because of the Ubisoft launcher not playing nice with Linux but then again there are so many guides to get it working it’s not that big of a deal. For me I had to change the wlan MTU packet from 1500 to under 1000 and all was well.
Outside tinkering I’d suggest Heaven’s Vault. Adventure/Puzzle game where you decipher an unknown language from glyphs. You can quit and next time you pick the game it will give a summary where you left last time storywise - such an awesome quality of life for short gaming bursts
RetroArch
I am a huge emulation fan and on my Steam Deck I often tend to play games I do not on my big PC. Off course RetroArch itself is not a game and it supports many systems and games, therefore its a bit unfair to list it here. But I played Game Boy Color, SNES and Mega Drive/Genesis games, such as Wario Land 3 and Crusader of Centy (or Soleil). I play RetroArch on my PC too, so even then the most played “game” on Deck is RetroArch. This shows how much I like emulation.
South Park Stick of Truth
I had this game in my back catalog for many years and always wanted to play it. Well I did a few hours and never finished it. The game is alright and its presentation is really good matching the quality of the TV show. But I don’t know, at some point I got a little bit bored by its gameplay and was stuck and could not progress.
The End.
Edit after the end: I want to say that this year I started to play more other games on my Deck again. In example I started Stardew Valley to see what is all about. This is the kind of game I play on my bed instead on my big pc desk. Its not 2024, but just wanted to mention that my focus changed this year. Please ask me this question in a year again. :D
Unicorn Overlord, took me a while to get into it but then I got completely hooked.
Is that on Steam? I can’t find it.
Nope, emulation via Ryujinx.
Honestly I don’t play any specific games more than others. I usually play them, beat them, move on.
Call of Juarez is a really fun and simple pick up and play game (I hate complicated games). Actually quite an ugly game, despite running at a locked 90/800p. I’m on my third playthrough now.
Adrift was a really visually and audibly beautiful game, but also kinda boring and frustrating (I still don’t understand how to navigate even though I beat it yesterday). The price makes up for it.
I’ll mention Neva and Planet of Lana in the same breath, as they are very very similar games, but both excellent, simple and beautiful. Frustratingly, they do not run at 90 FPS or 16:10. The puzzle aspect made Lana more fun but the battle aspect was way more fun in Neva.
My Friend Pedro is kind of a modern 2D Max Payne style game that I’ve got a lot of hours in.
Most played is going to go to backpack battles thanks to my wife hitting it nearly every night.
Most surprising would be path of exile 2, I didn’t expect it to work so well right off the early access launch
Surprisingly, my most played game last year was Powerwash Simulator. The game runs on a potato, yet I’m using an expensive steam deck to play it. Like, a lot.
My other games were:
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Final Fantasy 14
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Cyberpunk
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7 Days to Die
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Fallout 4
Is cyberpunk any good on steamdeck?
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On my PC there were two surprisingly good games: Driftland: The Magic Revival and Hammerting.
Driftland is a really interesting kind of strategy and I quite enjoyed it. Hammerting would be really great if the devs weren’t forced to cancel it by the publisher, as such it’s unfinished and the game doesn’t teach you pretty much anything, so the learning curve is steep. The game loop is fun at first, but gets repetitive (not surprising given it was cancelled).
On my deck I played mostly Palworld because it’s great to play whether you have 30 minutes or 4 hours of time, which is kinda needed for me nowadays because I never know how much gaming time I’ll have.
