Hey all,
Old time gamer here, haven’t played anything recent in years. Picked up a deck with the sale and looking to pick up a “premium” game. So far I am going back and forth between
- Cyberpunk 2077
- FFVII Remake
- No Man’s Sky
I am not a huge fan of shooters and I know these three have more of an action gameplay style. I have Skyrim which I have played a tad on PC and could see myself playing that on the deck.
What I’d like is something I can pick up and play for an hour or less and put back down for a few days.
Things I’d love in a game
- some level of replayability / open world content to mess around with
- good story
- good ambience / music
And obviously something that plays decent on the deck.
I am leaning on Cyberpunk even with reading and watching mixed-to-negative reviews.
I’d hold on Cyberpunk. There will undoubtedly be a bundled/discounted version of it when Phantom Liberty comes out in September.
As a counter offer, may I present Control? One of the best action games I’ve played in decades that also has a really interesting story (if you like trippy Twin Peaks/X-Files style stories) and it’s only $10USD currently in the sale. Runs pretty well on the Deck, and if you have a beefy PC to play on as well, has some really great RTX features.
The only other game that really fits your criteria that I would recommend is Hades which has already been mentioned. I put over 300 hours into Hades across PC and Switch (pre Steam Deck), and it’s one of the only roguelike games that has a super compelling story.
Oh wow, Control looks so unique and atmospheric. Thanks so much for the recommendation!
Not a triple A game but Hades has all of the above and is truly fantastic. Not open world vibes but massively replayble.
Hollow Knight is another absolute gem and one of my favourite games the last decade.
I played Transistor on mobile a while back and enjoyed it. Hades is definitely on my wishlist
Hollow Knight… Metroidvania, Castlevania SotN was my absolute favorite forever. Thanks for tipping me off on the one. I do own Bloodstained and am making some progress on that one. This looks equally great!
Ori and the Will of the Wisp is a good metroidvania, with nice ambiance/music, but the story is a bit generic. It plays well on the Steam Deck, as I guess most metroidvanias do.
Yeah I think the high quality indie game side of things is where the Steam Deck really shines. I’ve got so used to high FPS on my gaming PC that dropping to 60Hz on the big triple A games kinda sucks.
Plus playing these indie games gives a massive longevity boost in the battery department if you set your deck right
Bloodstained Ritual of the Night is a spiritual successor of SotN. It’s also on a huge sale now.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/692850/Bloodstained_Ritual_of_the_Night/
If you choose one of the three, note that:
- Cyberpunk is still pretty flawed and has issues and you’ll get less battery life though it’s a lot better now than at launch and certainly playable
- FFVII Remake is only half of the original FFVII, so you’ll end on a cliff hanger and be waiting for the continuation
- No Man’s Sky started with tons of issues but is now really content filled and open and polished and at this point pretty well liked
Based on those, I would lean towards No Man’s Sky since it has the least amount of concerns (in my opinion).
But if you just want a good story, NieR: Replicant and NieR: Automata are amazing and worth checking out (we have a Lemmy at !nier@lemm.ee) and I’d just really recommend it for the plot alone. Both are on sale and run pretty well, and Replicant is the first game while Automata is the sequel, and opinions heavily vary on which is better on story since they are both fantastic but Automata is more polished. They’re also both standalone, so you can play in either order, though I’ll always recommend Replicant first. They aren’t perfect games but will nail the music and plot, as those are the things most highly praised about them. They’re also very depressing!
Rain World isn’t AAA but it certainly feels premium and I’d recommend it if you want a really beautiful and interesting open world, but be warned that it’s incredibly hard. It’s not a game for everybody but it’s really amazing and I think it’s worth mentioning because the world is huge. Great music there too!
Got a couple of mates playing Cyberpunk for the first time at the minute and it still seems pretty janky.
I think for me, no matter how much they improve it, it will never be the game they originally said it would be. I was expecting a branching open ended rpg in a simulated world and instead we just got sci-fi themed GTA.
Faith in CDPR died on the release of that game.
May I throw „Cassette Beasts“ in the mix? Is it premium as in the seventh installment of a series that lost its soul with the second release? As in costs 60+€ and is a collectathon with no heart? No. Not premium.
But it has
- tons of replayability. Gotta catch them all.
- an intriguing story that is surprisingly mature for a pokeyman game
- fan-tas-tic soundtrack
Also lots of stuff to find and discover. Also also does not break the bank. Also also also does not eat the SteamDecks battery for lunch, because it’s only 2D. And finally, for us old people, the combat is turn based. You will not fail because of lacking reflexes.
FF remake is one I have recently finished and it was excellent though as others have said it’s only half of the original.
Control is excellent
Hades is one of the first games I played on my deck, I put around 50 hours into it.
Shadow of Mordor and shadow of war were both tremendous fun and have lots of offer for the nemesis system.
A plauge tale innocence was fun I picked up the second one but haven’t had a chance to start it and I want to get into the story like the first.
Horizon zero dawn really sucked me into the story and I found it hard to put down, often I would stay up much later than is reasonable after putting the kids down.
God of war 2018 was also great and I enjoyed playing it very much. It made me setup emudeck and play gow1 and 2.
Tomb Raider and it’s sequels were fun though I didn’t play those on the deck.
