Steam Hardware

My favorites on the Steam Deck so far are Marvel Cosmic Invasion (arcade style Beat 'em Up) and Deep Rock Galactic Survivor.

Tactical Breach Wizards!!! Then save the other $40ish for the next sale.

Oxygen not included

Factorio

These two will consume your life for so long and they're both on sale :D

Biy Sleeping Dogs, it plays great on the steam deck and its now 85% down to 3 euros.

Great story, graphics still hold up.

Furthermore consider Distance (Race like game), the precinct, hot brass, coromon.

This is 500+ hours of gameplay:

• Half-Life 2 ($2)
• Portal ($2)
• Portal 2 ($2)
• Psychonauts ($1.5)
• Psychonauts 2 ($9)
• Subnautica ($8)
• Hollow Knight ($8)
• Silksong ($16)
• Hades ($8)
• Disco Elysium ($4)
• The Witcher 3 ($3)
• Terraria ($5)
• Left4Dead 2 ($2)
• Kingdom Come ($5)
• Mass Effect 1, 2, 3 ($6)

For $50 I'd get (afaict current prices):

• Hades ($7.49)
• Pathfinder: Kingmaker ($2.99) (make sure to force-enable the Windows build on the Steam Deck, the Linux build has issues with gamepad input on the kingdom management screen)
• One Deck Dungeon ($1.99)
• Slay the Spire ($2.49)
• Wildermyth ($16.24)
• Against the Storm ($8.99)
• Terraformers ($7.99)

This totals now $48.18. If you have an additional dollar to spare, I'd also recommend to get something to scratch that retro-gaming itch:

• The Settlers 2 ($2.73 on GoG - needs DOSBox, for which I've written an install guide)

That's now $50.91 in total.

Tomb Raider Survival Trilogy for $7.19

Shadow of Mordor/War for $6.99

Prodigal for $1.49 - Zelda plus date sim

Toem for $3.99 - gotta photograph em all

Crosscode for $5.99 - SPMMOOTY

Saint's Row 4 $2.99

Vampire Survivors for $3.74 - everybody is legally required to have a copy

20 Small Mazes for $0 Doronko Wanko $0

My main recommendation is "don't put all of your money into a bunch of PS5 AAA games". PS5-ish games fit "if we turn all of the settings down, and render in 1/4 rez, and then AI upscale, and still your battery only lasts an hour". It often isn't a great experience here.

A strength of the Deck is in delivering an endless back catalog of PS4 and prior styles of games. Another is in bringing forward a ton of indie games that can't win at "marketing", can't afford to develop PS5-level visuals, so they fight like hell on "mixing up new and interesting gameplay" and "price".

If you’re on a budget, make sure to redeem the weekly free games from Epic and Amazon if you have Prime. You can play them all on your deck via Heroic Games Launcher.

Here are some extra "gift" games I have in my Steam inventory, mostly from the days when you could accumulate extra copies when buying bundles with games you already had. Message me (TheMinions, or anyone else, really) if you want to share your Steam id and have me send you some of them; I'm happy to give them all away. Note - it may be a few days, to give TheMinions first-come-first-serve, but I'll send the rest to whomever requests (message me your steam account id and the specific games you want). I'll likely delete this message when all are accounted for (many of these are likely cheap right now anyway).

The list (and how many copies I have):

Awesomenauts (w/ DLC) - 2x
Bastion - 2x
Contraption Maker - 1x
Dark Souls (not "Remastered" edition) - 1x
Defense Grid (w/ "Containment" DLC)- 1x
DiRT 2 - 1x
Frozen Synapse - 1x
FTL - 3x
Gunpoint - 1x
Hack n Slash - 1x
Half Life 2 Ep 1 - 1x
Just Cause 2 - 1x
Plants vs Zombies - 3x
Poker Night at the Inventory - 1x
Portal - 1x
The Walking Dead - 1x
Torchlight - 1x
Trine 2 - 1x
vvvvvv - 1x

Be sure to check out Steam’s own “great on deck” category in the store. Each game will also have an indication from Valve on the quality/playability with regard to the Steam Deck

Hades is a great roguelite and is on sale for $9.75CAD right now. If you like that then there's also Hades 2. It has a really cool story built into it which at least at the time was more unique in the genre.

Try to find slightly older games and they'll have steeper discounts.

Balatro and Slay the Spire both play great on the Deck and have amazing replayability.

I recommend getting some indie and pixel art style titles instead of just going for AAA. Reason being many of these are cheaper ($5-10, sometimes even less) so you can try different genres, and these titles also tend to sip battery so you will get lots of gameplay time.

Examples I have enjoyed, in no particular order-

Animal Well

Celeste

Stardew Valley

Vampire Survivors

Caveblazers

Balatro

Slay the Spire

I've put a disgusting amount of hours into Emberward. It's Tower Defense but no mtx and has a really fun Tetris blocks gimmck to build lanes.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2459550/Emberward/

Yes it's early access but it doesn't matter, the game is nearly done anyways, also on sale currently. There's good Steam Input profiles for the Deck. Dev is adding controller suppport for 1.0 but this doesn't really matter on a Steam Deck.

I've been replaying Dragon Age Origins at work modded via Nexus Mods and running DAO-Modmanager via WINE under Steam's compatdata prefix.

I hate using a joystick for camera control, so I only play 2d titles on my deck. Mostly DRG: Survivor, Tribal Hunter (no, really. It is excellent), and Hades.

BG3 is another good bet too.

Vampire survivors is great for the vegetable state of mind play and usually cheap as fuck.

Core keeper is a great builder game,

Valheim

The old final fantasies like 4 5 6 7 9 10 if you can get them on sale. I've had nothing but success on steam key websites.

Mortal sin is amazing.

Slay the spire

Lego Star wars The Skywalker saga is so cheap right now and trust me its so fucking fun

Half life 1 and 2 and half life 2 episodes 1-2

Halo MCC

Portal 1 and 2

Team fortress 2 (probably want a mouse and keyboard for though)

Hogwarts legacy runs surprisingly well on deck too and it's like $6 right now

Make sure you have a game with sustenance and a game you can veg out on.

If you like retro, you can’t go far wrong with UFO 50. 50 retro-style games with a modern twist for £20 normally, but £15 on sale now. Ridiculous value for money, because I don’t mean mini-games, i mean games.

Just in general, I’d go the “several indies” route, rather than the “single AAA” route.

Monster Hunter Rise is great on handhelds like the Deck.

Dragon Quest XI is one of the best JRPGs I ever played, and it has an extensive demo (about 10-15 hours) that lets you transfer your save game to the full game.
Problem is the save transfer didn't work on Linux last time I checked about 2 years ago. Maybe Valve fixed this since. Otherwise if you have a Windows PC you could transfer the save game there, but keep in mind you won't be able to download the demo anymore once you've purchased the game.

Welcome to the joys of Steam OS!

Crashlands 2 is pretty good and quirky.

While the Deck is capable of running some big AAA games, I personally find that it shines in the low-power, "chill" games that you can play for a while, put down, and come back to when you've got some more time.

I'm a big fan of RPGs, so my #1 recommendation is Sea of Stars. Dragon Quest: Builders is also good, along with it's sequel, which is arguably better.

A good multiplayer game with endless hordes of monsters vs. your magic is The Spell Brigade.

You may not know this, but the Deck can also be plugged into a TV or monitor, and with the help of a USB-C hub, can support a keyboard and mouse too! If you go that route, then I can't recommend Dyson Sphere Program enough. Ooh! and Timberborn! It's both adorable and beautifully designed.

If you're more of a 3rd-person shooter type, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is fan-fucking-tastic (my favourite series of all time) and it's currently on sale for £5. There are 3 games in the series, and make sure you start with the first one! You don't regret it.

Finally, note that you're not bound to the Steam store if you don't want to be. If you install the Heroic Launcher for example, you can get DRM-Free games from GOG for example. Sometimes you'll find that games are available on both platforms, but cheaper on one of the other, and GOG games don't come with controls on how many people can be playing it at the same time.

Get Rimworld, and write a letter to your friends and family that you wouldn't see them in a while. Consider spending the rest of the money on IV stand so you stay hydrated.
Rimworld is a drug, it should be classified as a controlled substance.

Does somebody already mentioned Grim Dawn? Diablo II like ARPG. From what I’ve heard well playable on the deck. Check out the mentioned 3rd party sites first a good deal, the all in one (two expansions) set should be around 30ish bucks.

Satisfactory sucked up about 3 months of my time and thinking about it as I type this I really want to start a new play through.

You definitely should mention what types of games you like, but I second Stardew Valley, Celeste and Balatro either way. They're great titles.

If you like cozy games like Stardew Valley, I recommend Mystia's Izayaka. You can get the bundle with all the dlcs for cheap right now.

Some other great games I can't recommended enough are Ikenfell, Cult of the Lamb, Later Alligator, Persona 4 and Crow Country.

Also, get an SD card and put Emudeck on it.

Edit: Forgot to mention: you can go on steamdb to get a list of free games that are Deck verified.

You're getting all kinds of recommendations for Steam games. But what about free games? In desktop mode, the "discovery" app let's you install programs, including games.

There's tons of free games. I'll admit a lot of them aren't the highest quality. They are mostly open source clones of more popular games.

One game I recommend in particular is Super Tux Kart. (Tux is the mascot of Linux, and SteamOS is Linux based.) It's a kart racer game. It's one of the highest quality open source clones out there, though. Great graphics too.

If you own Minecraft, the Prism launcher will allow you to run it in the Deck. Just go into the steam menu in desktop mode and click "add non stream game" to add any apps you install this way to your steam menu. Now they can be launched in handheld mode as well!

Not sure what games you like, but I will suggest Terraria to almost anyone. 50% of currently on steam. https://store.steampowered.com/app/105600/Terraria/

There's already a very long list of excellent suggestions , so I'm going to chip in and add only two others. Tunic and Tinykin. Both are Deck verified and on sale right now.

Slay the spire.

Megabonk, Balatro, or Cyberpunk are my rotation. Hunt those steam sales

You might check out some of the different game bundles available right now, they can quickly give you a lot of good games to play for cheap.

One month of humble choice ($15) will get you Nine Sols, Like a Dragon Gaiden, Streets of Rage 4, and a bunch of other games.

Fanatical has a ton of build a bundle available right now for their winter sale. Of those bundles, the Prestige, Best of Platinum, Winter SuperStars, and Play on the Go bundles are all especially recommendes.

Kingdom come deliverance really drew me in on the Deck. Currently €6.

I also was gifted a Humble Bundle game for Batman Arkham Knight.

Then perhaps redeem the game and complete the bundle at https://store.steampowered.com/sub/320795/ to play Arkham Asylum first?

The Winter Sale goes 8 days still, so you have plenty of time. Some games in example from EA and Ubisoft require additional launcher or an account to play them. I usually avoid them.

Steam Deck Verified: 5 games including Cyberpunk for total $47,8

• Cyberpunk: $ 21
• Ace Combat 7: $4.80
• Resident Evil 2: $10
• Subnautica: $8
• Disco Elysium - The Final Cut: $4

More interesting Steam Deck Verified games

• Hollow Knight: $7.50
• Stardew Valley: $9
• Maneater: $4
• Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition: $4

Also have a look at games that require additional account or launcher:

• Red Dead Redemption 2: $ 15 (Steam Deck Playable, Requires 3rd-Party Account: Rockstar Games)
• Halo Master Chief Collection: $10 (Steam Deck Verified, Requires 3rd-Party Account: Xbox Live)

I've had great fun with Jedi Fallen Order and Hollow Knight / Silksong