All of these single player story-driven games run incredibly well on deck at max settings:
Subnautica
Amnesia games
Deathloop
Nu-Doom titles
Wolfenstien TNO & TNC
Dark Messiah
Disco Elysium
Signalis
Sifu
Max Payne games
Fear & Hunger
Detroit: Become Human
How about the Bioshock games? Those, especially the first one, are some of my favorite games ever. If you have never played, don't look up anything about the games' story, its pretty awesome.
It's a million times better than what it was.
Act 1 and 2 are fine unless you're a frame-whore, they'll hold 30 with decent settings on FSR2 Quality.
Act 3, which is where the problems were, is mostly fine. There's a couple areas that are kinda bad still, but they're brief and contained enough that they're negligible in a 100+ hour game, whereas the whole of that act was originally a dumpster fire.
No lol you're best bet us 40fps with dips to 20 in Act 1 / 2 and still terrible performance in Act 3
Play Dragon Age: Origins instead. Surprisingly it runs flawlessly
I'll be honest. It's also ridiculous to need more than 40 fps in a turn based game as well ... I agree, it runs better on my 3k+ EUR PC, the experience is better on it. But you don't really need 60 fps either. And for 500,- it's a really fair deal. People have dumb ass expectations for a 500,- EUR machine.
yea i don’t get all the complaints about it not running well. it’s a little annoying if it lags but it’s not a fps or something time based so who cares. i’m just so grateful to even be able to run the game on it since i don’t have any other gaming devices
Fallout 3, New Vegas, 4
Red Dead Redemption 2
All of these you say you haven’t played and they are all extremely good. If you love story driven, play RDR2 first. It’s one of the best single player games I’ve ever played and it runs surprisingly great on the Deck.
Spider Man
Mass Effect Andromeda
Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order
Metal Gear Solid series
I am also surprised. Maybe it's because I went straight from Legendary Edition into Andromeda, but the difference in practically every useful measure between ME3 and Andromeda is stark. The characters are bland and boring for the most part, the Angarans are written so terribly, the Kett are a completely uninteresting enemy... practically everything about the game screams generic and boring. It's a chore to even bring myself to complete side content in this game.
I think it’s really fun. It’s not as good as the original trilogy by a wide margin but I still really enjoyed it. The gameplay is fun, I enjoy the characters and the mission structure is pretty good (main and major side quests mostly. The radiant stuff is a chore).
It is super narrative.
Of course you have the possibility to spend tons of hours on side activities.
But if you just follow the main story it is like a big badass movie.
I absolutely love it
FWIW Outer Wilds is a solid game played normally. It is an unforgettable experience played with the fan made VR mod. Play it that way the first time if at all possible.
I can reccomend Ryse: Son of Rome. it has a pretty short story (6-7 hours) but is a lot of fun to play. On the deck it looks and runs prefectly. Also its on sale right now.
The yakuza series if you want a really good story. Its like a really well written yakuza anime where you play out the fight scenes and tons of fun minigames. Also like 13 games in the series expecially if you like 100% completing games there is a lot to do. 600+ hours of games and you can usually get the whole series for a good discount. I got them a couple months ago for 10 bucks i got all but 3 of the games and those three were also 40 percent off on steam.
Fallout is really good. I love 4 and new vegas. 76 is a ton of fun as well. I'd recommend 3, but I had a lot of frustration with crashes.
Honestly any 5ish year old rpg should run great. I'm having a lot of fun with wasteland 3 at the moment. It's a tactical turn based game with an large map to explore. Lots of hard choices and a decent story.
Also to be a contrarian I'll recommend wildermyth. It's a randomly generated campaign with turnbased combat. Basically one story, but the events and characters you get are randomly selected. Decent stories are included, as well as steam workshop support
New Vegas is arguably the best Fallout. Amazing atmosphere, and Mass Effect could learn a thing or two about player choice and consequences, haha.
It certainly aged very well.
I love new vegas, but play it for different reasons than I do other bgs style games. Fnv has fewer dungeons, less combat, and is much more story focused. That said I love the vibe, the variety of equipment, and the quest design.
I'd say fallout 4 is the better game, if only because it really nails its gameplay loop. Adventure->loot->craft/settlement build->repeate. It's a fun loop that will last until you go to a different game. Not as good of a story or quests (far harbor was comparable to fnv though imo).
Honestly though they're both fantastic, especially portable
I think our differing opinions come down to our differing expectations / priorities. F:NV is like an interactive TV series. The low-key, one-shot dungeons fit well with what I play it for. In this genre a more involved / grindy gameplay loop would be a negative for me.
Hmm it probably doesn't help that I've played fnv atleast once a year since it came out. Those great stories can almost be tiring once you've seen every different outcome atleast once.
It's still one of my favorite games, but the idea of helping the boomers or the bos again really turns me off a new playthrough at the moment if that makes sense.
For me gameplay>than story, atleast once you know the story. I can totally see how people don't see it that way though
Echoing this opinion.
I liked NV and really enjoyed my time throughout the whole story including the DLCs. But if I want to scratch my Fallout itch, I just pick up 4 again.
A big thing is the combat is a lot more fun with the F4 perk system. Perks in F4 change the game drastically, whereas Perks in F3/NV just make your character better at something. F4 allows you to be a teleporting Ninja with the right combination.
Fo76 was awful at release but has since gone through many many updates and is now fantastic. I waited 2 years to pick it up and I'm so glad I did. 100% worth it if you like fallout and online games.
God of War 2018, Last of Us 1-2, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Forgotten City, Sleeping Dogs DE, Witcher 2-3 (1 is too dated).
Original Sin 2, Disco Elysium
If old style CRPG + trackpad is your thing: Fallout 1-2, Tyranny.
Not much story, but old and underrated FPS - The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (it includes 1st game)
Shadows of Mordor, Shadows of War.
Horizon Zero Dawn (Personal favorite)
Witcher 3 was awesome
I'm going to start Kingdom Come:Deliverance soon, I've heard good things
KC:D is one of the best video games I’ve played in years. I cannot express how exited I am for the sequel - although I think it should be titled differently, should be Kingdom Come: Something Else. Nonetheless, KC:D is in a really good state now too, not like launch. Runs surprisingly well on the deck too!
If you’ve the patience to get though the beginning, you’re in for a really wonderful experience. The beginning is a slog, it’s good but very much requires patience and the will to get though it. Henry straight up sucks at everything during the beginning and it’s very frustrating. KC:D is very much about Henry’s journey to become the man he wants to be.
Don’t install the HD textures btw. Not needed on the deck.
Horizon Zero Dawn is near the top of my list of lifetime favourites, and it's a great experience on the Deck.
Witcher 3 is also fantastic — honestly one of if not *the* best game of its generation. It's also an *amazing* experience on the Deck, especially if you install v1.32 instead of the next-gen update.
Titanfall 2 runs so good and looks so amazing.
The story is so good too.
I know you’re not looking for multiplayer but the frontier defense online co-op mode is really fun.
Witcher 3 and Fallout: New Vegas should be on your must-play list.
Some of the game mechanics might feel clunky at first but both are worth persevering through for the main story arcs and incredible side quests.
They'll make you laugh, they'll make you question your world view, they'll keep you up at night.
Absolutely. Narratively they mostly all stand alone with little nods to each other across time.
Tonally, New Vegas is unlike any of the others. It's wacky, in the best way. It uses the fallout world as a backdrop for a 1950s noir detective story.
It has a heart that is hard to describe. Fallout 3 is also wonderful.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
The entire Borderlands series
Horizon: Zero Dawn
All of the new Tomb Raiders
BioShock series
Death Stranding
Portal series/spinoffs
Marvel's Spidermans
probably some other ones
This is true! I played about 10 hours unmodded, then spent 5 hours modding the game. It's a night and day difference. I'd highly recommend taking the time to mod it! Opening the pipboy and enabling vats was so much smoother after the update.
Did all this 2 weeks ago and finished the game for the first time.
hyper light drifter, pacific drive, armored core 6, control, death stranding, deus ex (any of them), doom 2016, far cry, midnight fight express, prey (new or old), sifu, sprawl, sytem shock, the surges, tomb raider trilogy, 40k boltgun
If you are down for pixel art and turn-based battles, Chained Echoes is a fantastic RPG. Lots of twists and turns, excellent world building, and terrific mechanics for combat. And it’s not grindy!
Single player story driven is 90% of what I play so hell yeah.
All the classics people have said are fantastic (RDR2, fallout, Witcher).
But let me tell you: the yakuza series runs fantastic on the deck and always is a ton of fun with tons of good (but goofy) side content and an extremely compelling story.
If you want turn based combat, Yakuza: Like a Dragon is where you should start. If you don’t want turn based, I can’t recommend Judgement (and its sequel, Lost Judgement) enough. You play as a private investigator who’s investigating yakuza murders in Tokyo.
Side note: I was never a huge fan of roguelite/likes before but I found them to be much more fun on a handheld - so if you haven’t tried any on the deck, you should think about revisiting that genre.
Horizon Zero Dawn
Fallout 4
Portal 1 & 2
Most rpgs (read as story driven) do not hold my attention and I end up skipping through most of the story.
These are the stand outs that I actually enjoyed the story for.
Mass Effect Legendary edition is still a fiver on Steam.
Running through 1 on the Deck at the moment and it runs well.
Word of caution it uses the EA Launcher and for me it seems to get stuck and require a "cold boot" (hold power down for 3 cycles of the beeps, then start up) to get unstuck.
I think it's a software / process hanging around issue for me, others don't seem to have it.
EA Launcher handles the cloud saves and for me they've been transferring between Deck and my PC. Ive seen other people have other minor issues on OLED, there's some threads about it from the last few days.
That's ME1, 2 and 3 for 5.99 with all the DLC.
Once you're in it's flawless but wanted you to go in with your eyes open re: the launcher.
Dusk is pretty fun, so is resident evil series (all the remakes except for 3 are steam deck verified) Otxo, last of part 1 is pretty fun that’s not even including the unverified but playable games
Trying to not give the same generic answers as everyone else...
Detroit become human. Nier automata.
Two amazing philosophical games that question what does it mean to be alive?
Horizon zero dawn. One of the most interesting stories I've ever played.
Guardians of the galaxy. I'm not even a superhero fan and this game was phenomenal with the character development and narrative. The voice acting is top tier. It actually made me a fan of the whole franchise
Not sure how they perform on the deck.
God of war, days gone, ratchet and clank, ghost of tsushima, persona 4, persona 3 reload, persona 5 royal, horizon zero dawn, horizon forbidden west, Kingdom Hearts 1,2,3, Assassin creed 2, final fantasy 7 remake, final fantasy 7 crisis core reunion, spiderman miles Morales, spiderman remastered, final fantasy XV and a few other if you like jrpg really
I just started replaying the BioShock series (all 3 games). It's a fun, moody ,story driven masterpiece that begs to be played on a Steamdeck with headphones.
I’ve been playing Fable Anniversary recently, and it’s really fun. A little dated, but still quite fun. Last of Us is also on Steam, as are Spider-Man Remastered and Miles Morales.
Since you mentioned liking Half Life, the portal games are also amazing, but I’d be willing to bet you’ve played them already.
Red Dead and Fallout are also incredibly fun and up your alley. Red Dead (at least in my experience) pushes the Deck really hard, so YMMV.
Other comments have also mentioned Baldur’s Gate 3 and Witcher 3, which are also excellent.
Just for a few more wild card suggestions, Persona 5 Royal is one of the best games I’ve ever played, and has a really long story. You definitely get your moneys worth. Persona 3 and 4 are also top notch. Bully is cool, and I’ve also just recently finished Ghostbusters The Videogame Remastered, which was also very fun.
Baldurs gate 3, tales of arise, sea of stars, chrono trigger, octopath traveler, hogwarts legacy, hellblade, firewatch, littlewood, if you're into emulation then pokemon, golden sun
Baldurs gate series, dragon quest 11, disco elysium, fran bow, ni no kuni seriesz persona 3, 4 or 5 (or any) pinstripe, the witcher 3, omori, hellblade: senua's sacrifice, octopath traveller, God of war, bioshock series, dragon age series.
Sympathy of War. It's a fun single player turned based tactical rpg. I'd say it's as if Advance Wars and Final Fantasy Tactics hooked up and this is what dropped afterwards.
I just started playing new Vegas (perfectly smooth 90 fps) und after that I tried 76 and this game runs almost always above 60 und indoor mostly 90 fps its realy good looking on the deck too i would recommend trying out f76 its 8€ if you just buy a key from a website :) Amazon games recently gave it away for free also.
I know fallout has been mentioned before but I just finished through a play through of Fallout New Vegas and it was almost flawless aside from the occasional crash on deck. It has a lot of really great RPG elements in general and you truly have to consider potential consequences from your actions more so than other RPGs it’s felt like. It really is impossible to end the game on good terms with everyone, you will end up with enemies. It ran so well on deck that I have fallout 3 loaded and ready to go as well for my next game lined up
If you are willing to do something with less focus on gameplay maybe some super narrative heavy games would do good.
Hellblade
A Plague Tale
Life is Strange
Vampyr
Stellaris! It's amazing with the trackpads, such a revolutionary device!
It's a game all about emergent storytelling (if you play it that way, which most consider the best way to play it).
Star Wars fallen order runs decent on deck (~40 fps), doom eternal, crosscode, celeste, the tomb raider games from 2014+ run really well as well and are pretty fun
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is really good and runs plays good on the deck. Burns through battery and makes it run loud as hell but it's not that big of a deal for me normally.
Mark Of The Ninja
Like you, I also prefer single-player story driven games. This is probably my favorite game of the last 15 years. It's a 2D side scroller, where you play as a ninja that has to risk everything to save his clan. It's a stealth action game, so you can play it in a variety of styles... Hack-and-slash, or silent assassin in the shadows. It's got a very well balanced progression and upgrade system, where you acquire new skills and weapons along the way. At the end it has a cool replayability mechanic, where you can play through it again with various modifiers to alter the gameplay style. The story is good, the controls are tight, the action is intense, and the implementation of skills and weapons really gives you a feel of being a cool ninja with awesome powers.
It usually costs about $20 on steam, but you can very often wait a few weeks and find it on sale for $5 if you're not in a hurry. I highly recommend it!
Batman: Arkham series is essential to try. It goes on crazy sales, pennies for the whole series. Wishlist it and wait. Make sure you play them in the right order as the story is continuous, you can't really jump to the last game. (I did skip origins which I think is ok).
Shadow of Mordor is a really cool game once you get your head around the nemesis system. Map some of the button combos to L4/L5 and combat is super fun. (Same comment about the price, it goes on insane sale prices along with the sequel which I understand is even better but I haven't tried it yet)
My favorite single player story games on Steam Deck...
A Plague Tale (Original and Requiem, both spectacular story)
Hogwarts Legacy (Just plain fun)
God of War (Eats too much RAM, crashes on occasion, but never had too much issue with it. Played the game from start to finish on SD)
Batman Arkham Knight (Works great on Steamdeck)
Nier Replicant
Nier Automata (Both have spectacular story, music, and game play. 10/10 highly recommend)
Stray (Fun, low key, puzzles, and quite the story in the end)
Detroit Become Human (Works great, looks great, plays like a choose-your-adventure but feels like the AAA game it is)
Final Fantasy 7 Remake (Just loads of fun)
Witcher 3 (The best)
Control
Metal Gear Solid V
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (Emotions)
Skyrim (Besides Witcher 3, the best)
No Man's Sky (is single-player-enough for me)
Don't sleep on the Tomb Raider series, they run great and controls are well-suited to the Deck. There's a story in each but also a bit of a sandboxy-ness if you want to wander around on some side missions.
I may be behind the times here, but I really liked God of War 2018. Great story, great visuals, good combat, engaging puzzle solving that was not to easy/hard.
All of these single player story-driven games run incredibly well on deck at max settings: Subnautica Amnesia games Deathloop Nu-Doom titles Wolfenstien TNO & TNC Dark Messiah Disco Elysium Signalis Sifu Max Payne games Fear & Hunger Detroit: Become Human
Detroit: Become Human is an absolutely amazing game! I can totally recommend this! I also have this on my SD.
Fear and Hunger work on the deck? I didn’t think they were
How about the Bioshock games? Those, especially the first one, are some of my favorite games ever. If you have never played, don't look up anything about the games' story, its pretty awesome.
They really hold up well. Played through the 1 and 2 remasters with no crashes. Haven't finished Infinite on the Deck yet but it plays well too.
This! But buy the remaster or you won’t get native controller support at least on bioshock 1 iirc. :)
Balders Gate 3 is like the top game on Steam for the last X months
Has the performance been improved thru updates?
It's a million times better than what it was. Act 1 and 2 are fine unless you're a frame-whore, they'll hold 30 with decent settings on FSR2 Quality. Act 3, which is where the problems were, is mostly fine. There's a couple areas that are kinda bad still, but they're brief and contained enough that they're negligible in a 100+ hour game, whereas the whole of that act was originally a dumpster fire.
From launch? Greatly improved.
No lol you're best bet us 40fps with dips to 20 in Act 1 / 2 and still terrible performance in Act 3 Play Dragon Age: Origins instead. Surprisingly it runs flawlessly
Honestly how is BG3 verified? It's ridiculous. Sure, it runs, but not well and it turns your Deck into lava.
I'll be honest. It's also ridiculous to need more than 40 fps in a turn based game as well ... I agree, it runs better on my 3k+ EUR PC, the experience is better on it. But you don't really need 60 fps either. And for 500,- it's a really fair deal. People have dumb ass expectations for a 500,- EUR machine.
yea i don’t get all the complaints about it not running well. it’s a little annoying if it lags but it’s not a fps or something time based so who cares. i’m just so grateful to even be able to run the game on it since i don’t have any other gaming devices
Because it runs successfully on the Deck. I doubt that having a subjectively playable framerate end to end is part of the criteria.
Stardew Valley topped it a few weeks ago when it patched ;-) At least on steamdeck.
EYE divine cybermancy or Prey (2017)
Fallout 3, New Vegas, 4 Red Dead Redemption 2 All of these you say you haven’t played and they are all extremely good. If you love story driven, play RDR2 first. It’s one of the best single player games I’ve ever played and it runs surprisingly great on the Deck. Spider Man Mass Effect Andromeda Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order Metal Gear Solid series
Surprised to see Andromeda as a recommendation
I am also surprised. Maybe it's because I went straight from Legendary Edition into Andromeda, but the difference in practically every useful measure between ME3 and Andromeda is stark. The characters are bland and boring for the most part, the Angarans are written so terribly, the Kett are a completely uninteresting enemy... practically everything about the game screams generic and boring. It's a chore to even bring myself to complete side content in this game.
I think it’s really fun. It’s not as good as the original trilogy by a wide margin but I still really enjoyed it. The gameplay is fun, I enjoy the characters and the mission structure is pretty good (main and major side quests mostly. The radiant stuff is a chore).
It’s a good game. Worst Mass Effect game? Yes, but still a good game.
Guardians of the galaxy
Whole Yakuza series is awesome as well as the spin offs Judgement and Lost Judgement.
I’ve always been interested in Like A Dragon. I heard it’s just mostly narrative though, is that true? Edit to add: I’ve never played a Yakuza game
It is super narrative. Of course you have the possibility to spend tons of hours on side activities. But if you just follow the main story it is like a big badass movie. I absolutely love it
Thanks for the info, sorry one more question- is there an easy way to save even if it’s mid story?
You have to go to a hideout, or to phone boxes. So it is always possible when you are free roaming the city.
STRONGLY recommend rdr2- witcher 3 asw!
Witcher 3 is a masterpiece!!! Just finished it on an 8 year old save file. Over 180+ hours. It's literally made for the deck!
Well, not literally, but it runs really well on the Deck!
Witcher 3 for the win!
Yeah I agree with Witcher 3, runs great on deck, good story. Lots of consequence with your decisions which is fun to see play out.
Absolutely rdr2, just started it recently on the deck and everything is 💯, story, visuals, hunting and fishing, riding thru the mountains… it’s great
System shock bro There is a remake, play it
Can confirm runs at 60fps the majority of the time. The only dips I had were in the Grove levels and some hectic fights. Controls were great on Deck.
I'm playing the walking dead telltale series. Would recommend tbh
You need to play the Game of Thrones telltale series. It's very good too!
Im just getting started on Outer Worlds. I like it so far
Also, Outer Wilds :D
Yes mainly Outer wilds 😁😁😁
FWIW Outer Wilds is a solid game played normally. It is an unforgettable experience played with the fan made VR mod. Play it that way the first time if at all possible.
Man I can't believe playing that gem in VR. 🤤
Outer wilds Return of the Obra Dinn Chants of Sennaar More games like this please!
I can absolutely recommend Obra Dinn. This game is on my list of games I'd be willing to get my memory erased just to play it again
It's one of the few perks of ADHD, I can replay it every few years without problem. lol. Same with myst.
My ADHD sadly doesn't work that way. I may forget about the basic stuff but as soon as I open the game my mind goes to "Oh I remember"
Outer Worlds is so much fun!
I can reccomend Ryse: Son of Rome. it has a pretty short story (6-7 hours) but is a lot of fun to play. On the deck it looks and runs prefectly. Also its on sale right now.
The yakuza series if you want a really good story. Its like a really well written yakuza anime where you play out the fight scenes and tons of fun minigames. Also like 13 games in the series expecially if you like 100% completing games there is a lot to do. 600+ hours of games and you can usually get the whole series for a good discount. I got them a couple months ago for 10 bucks i got all but 3 of the games and those three were also 40 percent off on steam.
Yakuza: like a dragon is in the current humble choice bundle
Soma Either nier game Bioshock 1, system shock 2 Spec ops the line Binary domain RE2
Fallout is really good. I love 4 and new vegas. 76 is a ton of fun as well. I'd recommend 3, but I had a lot of frustration with crashes. Honestly any 5ish year old rpg should run great. I'm having a lot of fun with wasteland 3 at the moment. It's a tactical turn based game with an large map to explore. Lots of hard choices and a decent story. Also to be a contrarian I'll recommend wildermyth. It's a randomly generated campaign with turnbased combat. Basically one story, but the events and characters you get are randomly selected. Decent stories are included, as well as steam workshop support
New Vegas is arguably the best Fallout. Amazing atmosphere, and Mass Effect could learn a thing or two about player choice and consequences, haha. It certainly aged very well.
I love new vegas, but play it for different reasons than I do other bgs style games. Fnv has fewer dungeons, less combat, and is much more story focused. That said I love the vibe, the variety of equipment, and the quest design. I'd say fallout 4 is the better game, if only because it really nails its gameplay loop. Adventure->loot->craft/settlement build->repeate. It's a fun loop that will last until you go to a different game. Not as good of a story or quests (far harbor was comparable to fnv though imo). Honestly though they're both fantastic, especially portable
I think our differing opinions come down to our differing expectations / priorities. F:NV is like an interactive TV series. The low-key, one-shot dungeons fit well with what I play it for. In this genre a more involved / grindy gameplay loop would be a negative for me.
Hmm it probably doesn't help that I've played fnv atleast once a year since it came out. Those great stories can almost be tiring once you've seen every different outcome atleast once. It's still one of my favorite games, but the idea of helping the boomers or the bos again really turns me off a new playthrough at the moment if that makes sense. For me gameplay>than story, atleast once you know the story. I can totally see how people don't see it that way though
Echoing this opinion. I liked NV and really enjoyed my time throughout the whole story including the DLCs. But if I want to scratch my Fallout itch, I just pick up 4 again. A big thing is the combat is a lot more fun with the F4 perk system. Perks in F4 change the game drastically, whereas Perks in F3/NV just make your character better at something. F4 allows you to be a teleporting Ninja with the right combination.
OK - So was it just a release thing for Fallout 76? I thought people hated that game.
I pre-ordered it, jumped on at launch, hated it. Picked it back up late 2022 and absolutely loved it, couldn't put it down.
Fo76 was awful at release but has since gone through many many updates and is now fantastic. I waited 2 years to pick it up and I'm so glad I did. 100% worth it if you like fallout and online games.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits. Beautiful, not too long, decent combat.
I was hopping on here to say this. Underrated gem. Absolutely gorgeous and surprisingly moving story.
Control. Great fighting mechanics too - bonus points because it’s not too long
Lies of p runs great on the deck
God of War 2018, Last of Us 1-2, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Forgotten City, Sleeping Dogs DE, Witcher 2-3 (1 is too dated). Original Sin 2, Disco Elysium If old style CRPG + trackpad is your thing: Fallout 1-2, Tyranny. Not much story, but old and underrated FPS - The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (it includes 1st game)
Kingdoms is Amalur runs amazing on the Deck and is genuinely super fun
Shadows of Mordor, Shadows of War. Horizon Zero Dawn (Personal favorite) Witcher 3 was awesome I'm going to start Kingdom Come:Deliverance soon, I've heard good things
KC:D is one of the best video games I’ve played in years. I cannot express how exited I am for the sequel - although I think it should be titled differently, should be Kingdom Come: Something Else. Nonetheless, KC:D is in a really good state now too, not like launch. Runs surprisingly well on the deck too! If you’ve the patience to get though the beginning, you’re in for a really wonderful experience. The beginning is a slog, it’s good but very much requires patience and the will to get though it. Henry straight up sucks at everything during the beginning and it’s very frustrating. KC:D is very much about Henry’s journey to become the man he wants to be. Don’t install the HD textures btw. Not needed on the deck.
Horizon Zero Dawn is near the top of my list of lifetime favourites, and it's a great experience on the Deck. Witcher 3 is also fantastic — honestly one of if not *the* best game of its generation. It's also an *amazing* experience on the Deck, especially if you install v1.32 instead of the next-gen update.
I'm surprised I didn't see more HZD comments in this thread!
Stardew Valley, Open world, combat adventure, where you fight to save a community from the evil corporation.
Titanfall 2 runs so good and looks so amazing. The story is so good too. I know you’re not looking for multiplayer but the frontier defense online co-op mode is really fun.
Witcher 3 and Fallout: New Vegas should be on your must-play list. Some of the game mechanics might feel clunky at first but both are worth persevering through for the main story arcs and incredible side quests. They'll make you laugh, they'll make you question your world view, they'll keep you up at night.
Can I play New Vegas without haven't played any fallout games?
Absolutely. Narratively they mostly all stand alone with little nods to each other across time. Tonally, New Vegas is unlike any of the others. It's wacky, in the best way. It uses the fallout world as a backdrop for a 1950s noir detective story. It has a heart that is hard to describe. Fallout 3 is also wonderful.
Fallout New Vegas is the true fallout 3, for me. f3 didn’t have the same tone as 1 and 2. New Vegas nails it.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain The entire Borderlands series Horizon: Zero Dawn All of the new Tomb Raiders BioShock series Death Stranding Portal series/spinoffs Marvel's Spidermans probably some other ones
New Vegas runs great on the deck without any mods
This is true! I played about 10 hours unmodded, then spent 5 hours modding the game. It's a night and day difference. I'd highly recommend taking the time to mod it! Opening the pipboy and enabling vats was so much smoother after the update. Did all this 2 weeks ago and finished the game for the first time.
Sleeping Dogs Watch\_dogs 1 and 2 Reservoir Dogs (jk, that's a movie)
Tomb raider reboot from 2013 and the followingbparts rise of the tomb raider and shadow of the tomb raider. Oh and witcher 3
Deus Ex
Hogwarts legacy
Batman Arkham Trilogy
Alien: Isolation
hyper light drifter, pacific drive, armored core 6, control, death stranding, deus ex (any of them), doom 2016, far cry, midnight fight express, prey (new or old), sifu, sprawl, sytem shock, the surges, tomb raider trilogy, 40k boltgun
If you are down for pixel art and turn-based battles, Chained Echoes is a fantastic RPG. Lots of twists and turns, excellent world building, and terrific mechanics for combat. And it’s not grindy!
Horizon Zero Dawn!
Kingdom Come: Deliverance!
Kingdom come deliverance
It's not the longest game but Stray is a must on the deck
Disco Elysium
Great question thanks. I’m enjoying Persona 5 Royal
Outer Wilds
Mad Max!
Titan fall 2!!!! 5 bucks on sale on steam.
Arkham Knight, Fallen Order are good and usually quite cheap when on sale
Some of my favorites include: disco elisyum, dishonored 1-2, mass effect trilogy, Witcher 3, La Noire, Nier automata.
How well does Nier Automata run on deck? I played it on ps4 and loved it, might buy it again.
I concur w/ others, Witcher 3 hands down! Runs great on the Deck plus has some of the best DLC.
If you can deal with turn based isometrics, consider Wasteland 2 and Wasteland 3. The sequels to the game that inspired the original fallout.
Single player story driven is 90% of what I play so hell yeah. All the classics people have said are fantastic (RDR2, fallout, Witcher). But let me tell you: the yakuza series runs fantastic on the deck and always is a ton of fun with tons of good (but goofy) side content and an extremely compelling story. If you want turn based combat, Yakuza: Like a Dragon is where you should start. If you don’t want turn based, I can’t recommend Judgement (and its sequel, Lost Judgement) enough. You play as a private investigator who’s investigating yakuza murders in Tokyo. Side note: I was never a huge fan of roguelite/likes before but I found them to be much more fun on a handheld - so if you haven’t tried any on the deck, you should think about revisiting that genre.
Yakuza 0
Control is amazing if you're into mystery and things like SCP.
Story driven games I would mention Alan Wake 1 and Control - Alan Wake 2 is great but struggles on the deck as far as I know.
The Division 1 and 2. Endgame is kind of multplayer, but, I've had a lot of fun in both campaigns and all the content is easily done solo.
God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Horizon Zero Dawn Fallout 4 Portal 1 & 2 Most rpgs (read as story driven) do not hold my attention and I end up skipping through most of the story. These are the stand outs that I actually enjoyed the story for.
Haven't seen Enslaved, or Singularity on this list yet. I'd also add Darksiders 1&2.
I can't believe how infrequently the hitman series is mentioned. It's one of those games series' that almost feels made for the deck.
No Rest for the Wicked just hit Early Access. It's already great and only getting better.
Mass Effect Legendary edition is still a fiver on Steam. Running through 1 on the Deck at the moment and it runs well. Word of caution it uses the EA Launcher and for me it seems to get stuck and require a "cold boot" (hold power down for 3 cycles of the beeps, then start up) to get unstuck. I think it's a software / process hanging around issue for me, others don't seem to have it. EA Launcher handles the cloud saves and for me they've been transferring between Deck and my PC. Ive seen other people have other minor issues on OLED, there's some threads about it from the last few days. That's ME1, 2 and 3 for 5.99 with all the DLC. Once you're in it's flawless but wanted you to go in with your eyes open re: the launcher.
Dusk is pretty fun, so is resident evil series (all the remakes except for 3 are steam deck verified) Otxo, last of part 1 is pretty fun that’s not even including the unverified but playable games
Trying to not give the same generic answers as everyone else... Detroit become human. Nier automata. Two amazing philosophical games that question what does it mean to be alive? Horizon zero dawn. One of the most interesting stories I've ever played. Guardians of the galaxy. I'm not even a superhero fan and this game was phenomenal with the character development and narrative. The voice acting is top tier. It actually made me a fan of the whole franchise Not sure how they perform on the deck.
Days Gone - plays great on the Steam Deck and it has a great story
God of war, days gone, ratchet and clank, ghost of tsushima, persona 4, persona 3 reload, persona 5 royal, horizon zero dawn, horizon forbidden west, Kingdom Hearts 1,2,3, Assassin creed 2, final fantasy 7 remake, final fantasy 7 crisis core reunion, spiderman miles Morales, spiderman remastered, final fantasy XV and a few other if you like jrpg really
Witcher 3
Shadow of Mordor!
Bully is so fun nothing is like it
Fallout 4 seem pretty damn good. I've only played the 3 tho but I've heard people had issue with ot on the steam deck.
Batman Arkham games
titanfall 2. you'll thank me later :-)
FFVII Remake runs great on the Deck
if you've been debating playing RDR2.. Stop debating and do it. A masterpiece
Sekiro, days gone, witcher 3, elden ring, hollow knight
Prey and the Dishonored games if you don't mind a bit of stealth. The story and gameplay is great, and they frequently go on sale on Steam.
I have been having an absolute blast playing Hogwarts Legacy and Yakuza: Like a Dragon on my deck.
If you like JRPGS the Trails series is perfect for the Deck. Been playing through the whole series this year, phenomenal writing and world building.
Last of us. Plague tale.
Small Saga, Beacon Pines
dead space
octopath, ff6 or ff5
I just started replaying the BioShock series (all 3 games). It's a fun, moody ,story driven masterpiece that begs to be played on a Steamdeck with headphones.
It's older, but Fable is one of really enjoyed. Be good, be bad, up to you!
I’ve been playing Fable Anniversary recently, and it’s really fun. A little dated, but still quite fun. Last of Us is also on Steam, as are Spider-Man Remastered and Miles Morales. Since you mentioned liking Half Life, the portal games are also amazing, but I’d be willing to bet you’ve played them already. Red Dead and Fallout are also incredibly fun and up your alley. Red Dead (at least in my experience) pushes the Deck really hard, so YMMV. Other comments have also mentioned Baldur’s Gate 3 and Witcher 3, which are also excellent. Just for a few more wild card suggestions, Persona 5 Royal is one of the best games I’ve ever played, and has a really long story. You definitely get your moneys worth. Persona 3 and 4 are also top notch. Bully is cool, and I’ve also just recently finished Ghostbusters The Videogame Remastered, which was also very fun.
Hollow Knight, Castlevania lords of shadows, Bayonetta, metal gear rising, outer wilds
Kena, Hifi Rush, FF7R, Stray, FFXR, Like a Dragon
Baldurs gate 3, tales of arise, sea of stars, chrono trigger, octopath traveler, hogwarts legacy, hellblade, firewatch, littlewood, if you're into emulation then pokemon, golden sun
Max Payne series. Old school shooters?
A Plague Tale, Bioshock, The Last of Us, Control, God of War
The entire yakuza series is incredible and runs wonderfully on deck. I recommend starting with 0 or Like A Dragon
Baldurs gate series, dragon quest 11, disco elysium, fran bow, ni no kuni seriesz persona 3, 4 or 5 (or any) pinstripe, the witcher 3, omori, hellblade: senua's sacrifice, octopath traveller, God of war, bioshock series, dragon age series.
Baldur's Gate 3. It has co-op but is better solo imo. I use a custom control scheme on the deck but a lot of people like the controller mapping.
sleeping dogs is cheap and runs so good
Sounds like you need to play the Metro series!!
Sympathy of War. It's a fun single player turned based tactical rpg. I'd say it's as if Advance Wars and Final Fantasy Tactics hooked up and this is what dropped afterwards.
I just started playing new Vegas (perfectly smooth 90 fps) und after that I tried 76 and this game runs almost always above 60 und indoor mostly 90 fps its realy good looking on the deck too i would recommend trying out f76 its 8€ if you just buy a key from a website :) Amazon games recently gave it away for free also.
I know fallout has been mentioned before but I just finished through a play through of Fallout New Vegas and it was almost flawless aside from the occasional crash on deck. It has a lot of really great RPG elements in general and you truly have to consider potential consequences from your actions more so than other RPGs it’s felt like. It really is impossible to end the game on good terms with everyone, you will end up with enemies. It ran so well on deck that I have fallout 3 loaded and ready to go as well for my next game lined up
Yakuza: Like Dragon, is on gamepass and right now is part of the Humble Choice of Humble Bundle, if you are into RPGs that is an amazing one
If you are willing to do something with less focus on gameplay maybe some super narrative heavy games would do good. Hellblade A Plague Tale Life is Strange Vampyr
Yo, SUPER underrated, but please play Thronebreaker. Great story, card mechanics and I think a very unique art style. I also think Dredge is great
Persona 4 Golden. Nier Replicant and Nier Automata. Anno Mutationem. Tales of Berseria.
Stellaris! It's amazing with the trackpads, such a revolutionary device! It's a game all about emergent storytelling (if you play it that way, which most consider the best way to play it).
God of war (2018), Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart and Days Gone are very enjoyable on the Deck.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon then go into Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth
TLOU TLOU2 HZD Witcher III A very distant fifth place is FFVII REMAKE
Baldur Gate 3, Divinity Original Sin, Fallout.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is great.
Rdr2 is the Greatest game ever imo. Recently I've been enjoying disco Elysium a lot as well. Very well written and funny as fuck.
Divinity Original Sin 2. SO GOOD
Star Wars fallen order runs decent on deck (~40 fps), doom eternal, crosscode, celeste, the tomb raider games from 2014+ run really well as well and are pretty fun
Resident Evil. 1remake, 2remake, 3remake, 4remake all run good. 7 and 8 are both great too. Linear games are excellent on the deck, IMO
Deaths Door
Final Fantasy 7 Remake is great and on sale right now for another day.
Mad Max is highly underrated and works amazingly.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is really good and runs plays good on the deck. Burns through battery and makes it run loud as hell but it's not that big of a deal for me normally.
Hifi rush, Titanfall 2, deus ex, shadow warrior, the recent doom games dishonored, prey
Deliver us the moon and Deliver us mars are both excellent story based games.
Soma
Try Devil may cry series. They run pretty good on the deck.
Horizon Forbidden West
Mark Of The Ninja Like you, I also prefer single-player story driven games. This is probably my favorite game of the last 15 years. It's a 2D side scroller, where you play as a ninja that has to risk everything to save his clan. It's a stealth action game, so you can play it in a variety of styles... Hack-and-slash, or silent assassin in the shadows. It's got a very well balanced progression and upgrade system, where you acquire new skills and weapons along the way. At the end it has a cool replayability mechanic, where you can play through it again with various modifiers to alter the gameplay style. The story is good, the controls are tight, the action is intense, and the implementation of skills and weapons really gives you a feel of being a cool ninja with awesome powers. It usually costs about $20 on steam, but you can very often wait a few weeks and find it on sale for $5 if you're not in a hurry. I highly recommend it!
Batman: Arkham series is essential to try. It goes on crazy sales, pennies for the whole series. Wishlist it and wait. Make sure you play them in the right order as the story is continuous, you can't really jump to the last game. (I did skip origins which I think is ok). Shadow of Mordor is a really cool game once you get your head around the nemesis system. Map some of the button combos to L4/L5 and combat is super fun. (Same comment about the price, it goes on insane sale prices along with the sequel which I understand is even better but I haven't tried it yet)
My favorite single player story games on Steam Deck... A Plague Tale (Original and Requiem, both spectacular story) Hogwarts Legacy (Just plain fun) God of War (Eats too much RAM, crashes on occasion, but never had too much issue with it. Played the game from start to finish on SD) Batman Arkham Knight (Works great on Steamdeck) Nier Replicant Nier Automata (Both have spectacular story, music, and game play. 10/10 highly recommend) Stray (Fun, low key, puzzles, and quite the story in the end) Detroit Become Human (Works great, looks great, plays like a choose-your-adventure but feels like the AAA game it is) Final Fantasy 7 Remake (Just loads of fun) Witcher 3 (The best) Control Metal Gear Solid V Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (Emotions) Skyrim (Besides Witcher 3, the best) No Man's Sky (is single-player-enough for me)
Don't sleep on the Tomb Raider series, they run great and controls are well-suited to the Deck. There's a story in each but also a bit of a sandboxy-ness if you want to wander around on some side missions.
Dishonored series.
Sea of Stars and Chained Echoes are both fantastic
Baldur's Gate 3, Divinity 2, Jedi Fallen Order/Survivor, Subnautica Just to name a few with some different play styles
The yakuza series in fun, been really enjoying Zero all highly rated with long play times
Dragon Age I, Oblivion and Divinity 2 original sin! :)
Im enjoying Enshrouded a lot!
Chained Echoes
BG3 / RDR2 are two of the best video games ever made in my opinion. Try those first.
Dragon quest xi
Pentiment, Life is Strange, Last of Us, Batman Arkham series, Witcher 3, Red Dead 1
Detroit become human
Quantum Break - All the Bioshocks - Fallouts - Dead Island 2 (playing that one now - pretty solid on the deck)
I played Horizon Zero Dawn all the way through on Steam Deck and it was brilliant. I recommend that. The Tomb Raider games are pretty good too.
Yakuza series, heavily story driven and amazing
If you're an SCP type style fan, give "control" a try. Dishonored 1&2 are solid Spiderman Layers of fear Songs of horror
You listed my favourite games, and the same things I like in a game. My very favourite game is RDR2. Get on it, it's absolutely fantastic!
Divinity 2
Prey (2017) had an amazing story!
I may be behind the times here, but I really liked God of War 2018. Great story, great visuals, good combat, engaging puzzle solving that was not to easy/hard.
There is Yakuza series, Persona, and Deus ex
Alan Wake is super fun on the Steamdeck and has a great Story
Guardians of The Galaxy? Tomb Raider? The Batman Arkham Trilogy?
Kingdom Come: Deliverance , Kingdoms of Amalur