Nobody has infinite money, and very few people come close enough for it to not matter. With that in mind we wrote our previous articles about PC games under $1 and games under $10.
This time we increase the price range, with $20 as the upper limit. Mind, the following games are just a select few that qualify based on their price. The G2A Marketplace has thousands of games you could buy for $20 or less
Overcooked! 2
| Release date: | 2018-08-07 |
| Genre: | Indie |
| Developer: | Ghost Town Games |
If you’re looking for game which is relatively cheap, can be played in co-op, can destroy friendships, and is deceptively wholesome, do turn your gaze to Overcooked 2. The original OC was excellent, and the sequel turns it up a notch: a hectic, inevitably chaotic arcade kitchen simulation for up to 4 players in local and/or online multiplayer. And all that under 20 bucks? That’s a steal.
Each stage in Overcooked gives you at least one dish to prepare, which sounds simple, until you the maps. Each part of the dish has to be made at a specific workstation, and the layouts tend to be changing, or otherwise complicated. Add to that the possibility of people fighting over workstation access and you get a highly entertaining storm which would challenge even a seasoned manager.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Deep Rock Galactic
| Release date: | 2018-02-28 |
| Genre: | First-Person |
| Developer: | Ghost Ship Games |
Another splendid co-op game you could get under twenty bucks and keep playing forever. Especially since, in this case, it’s perfectly viable for a solo experience. You even get a helpful drone if you commit to singleplayer. Either way, you’ll be going on mining deployments into procedurally generated tunnels deep under the surface of an alien, and resource-rich planet called Hoxxes IV.
DRG has four classes with unique weapons and gadgets (some of which you must unlock), many mission types, tons of cool customization options, a good sense of humor, and, most importantly, chatty space dwarves as player characters. It’s a whole lot of game and fun for a relatively small price, and regular Seasons provide easy access to fancy cosmetics before they enter regular loot tables.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Crusader Kings III
| Release date: | 2020-09-01 |
| Genre: | Strategy |
| Developer: | Paradox Development Studio |
We’ve wholesomely cooked, and amusingly mined, it’s time to sink into the hilarity that are the pits of depravity you can sink into in Crusader Kings III. This complex simulator of medieval noble house is one of the world’s greatest anecdote generators hiding behind robust, complicated, and ruthless game mechanics. Once you clear the entry threshold, you’re in top tier entertainment.
CK3 doesn’t set out to be a tragic comedy about terrible people, it can, in fact, be easily played completely straight, just a detailed simulation of medieval noble politics. However, the game’s complexity and reactivity mean that even weird choices can have interesting consequences. There’s also a ton of mods which expand the experience way beyond the official offerings.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Monster Hunter World
| Release date: | 2018-08-09 |
| Genre: | Action |
| Developer: | CAPCOM |
Another co-op, but solo-friendly game on the list, Monster Hunter: World is an expansive game about, well, hunting huge monsters. Early on they start out feeling quite prehistoric, including one fiery T-Rex, but it doesn’t take long before you start hunting creatures which feel closer to fantastical creatures than animals, including a Godzilla-sized lava turtle and a few dragons and wyverns.
Thankfully, although any of these monsters could swallow you whole, you have access to extensive armory and arsenal you can build out of parts you harvest from hunted creatures. There are 14 weapon classes with very distinct playstyles, tons of cool armor sets, and let us just say, there is a reason you can save many different gear loadouts. It’s not a game you can just coast through.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Resident Evil 8: Village
| Release date: | 2021-05-07 |
| Genre: | Horror |
| Developer: | Capcom Development Division 1 |
If you’ve played Resident Evil 7 and can’t get enough of Ethan Winters’, you will probably be glad to know that you can get Resident Evil Village, a proper sequel, for less than $20. The story picks up three years after RE7 concluded. Ethan, Mia, and their daughter Rosemary’s European life is rudely interrupted, and Ethan ends up in a remote village ruled by twisted nobles and their creatures.
As before, RE8 is a first-person survival horror with a stronger focus on action compared to its predecessor, but it doesn’t skimp on puzzles and horror either. The story fleshes out the setting as well, tapping into the previously not very well explored backstory of the Umbrella Corporation, so fans of lore-exploring have something to bite into as well.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Valheim
| Release date: | 2021-02-02 |
| Genre: | Sanbox, survival |
| Developer: | Iron Gate Studios |
Valheim is a survival game alright, with meters-maintaining and base building you likely associate with the genre, but here, you don’t have to worry about dying if you hunger goes down to zero. See, you’re already dead. Valheim takes place in afterlife, and your job, ordained by Odin himself, is to take down a few pesky bosses before you’re allowed into Valhalla for a proper afterlife.
Although the core mission of the game is for you to defeat bosses terrorizing the game’s several regions, you are free to ignore this and focus on something else, like exploration or building a base with Valheim’s powerful construction system. Valheim servers can hold up to 10 players, which is a sweet spot for a focused world shared with friends or another small community.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Subnautica: Below Zero
| Release date: | 2019-01-30 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Unknown Worlds Entertainment |
You’ve probably heard about Subnautica, the phenomenal survival game set in the middle of an alien ocean, but did you know there’s a sequel? Instead of tropical waters, it takes place in a much colder region, and has a much more land to explore in addition to the expected underwater adventures. It also comes with a new story about a scientist investigating her sister’s death.
The mix of familiar underwater exploration, base building, and tracking down bits of story will be familiar to anyone who’s played the first Subnautica, but the change of biome allows the game to introduce new creatures, threats, and opportunities. The story involves more of the alien tech we’ve encountered in the first game, in a few weird and possibly unpleasant ways.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Football Manager 2019
| Release date: | 2018-11-02 |
| Genre: | Simulation |
| Developer: | Sports Interactive |
Football Manager is one of the very few franchises with a title that explains exactly what the game is about. If, when playing FIFA or Pro Evolution Soccer, you’ve always felt that it would be fun if instead of controlling players you focused mostly on transfers and tactics, then FM is the game for you.
In the 2019 edition you can use a revamped training system with more detailed options available. Some tournaments can also benefit from having video assistant referees, to make sure the rulings are fair. Finally, as usual, the 2019 edition updated the teams to make sure every transfer and new talent from the previous year was reflected accurately.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Middle-Earth: Shadow of War
| Release date: | 2017-10-10 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Monolith Productions |
Shadow of War builds on the momentum generated a few years prior by Shadow of Mordor and takes special glee in expanding on the Nemesis system introduced by its predecessor. Now you get to build a proper army by brainwashing orcs into being loyal to you, and you can establish them as commanders of fortresses you conquered. Good stuff.
Surprisingly, it deviated form the first game’s dedicated equipment in favor of classic loot with different stats, including equipment sets conferring unique bonuses. Although the game initially included lootboxes, they have since been removed, making playing the game the only way to get better stuff.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Risk of Rain 2
| Release date: | 2019-03-28 |
| Genre: | Indie |
| Developer: | Hopoo Games |
Risk of Rain 2’s major difference from the first game in the series is the transition to the third dimension. It changes a lot about how the game is played, but the fundamental ideas remain roughly the same as before. It’s a third-person shooter with more than a few shades of a roguelike, and the core idea is this: kill aliens until your teleport off the map is ready, you die, or you decide you have had enough.
The longer you play, the more dangerous the enemies become, of course, but you also get more experience and currency to buy upgrades of all kinds. You also have several characters available, each with unique unlockable abilities acquired by accomplishing certain goals. If you played the first RoR, there are even some returning characters.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Nier: Automata
| Release date: | 2017-03-17 |
| Genre: | RPG |
| Developer: | PlatinumGames |
Nier: Automata formally takes place long after the fourth ending of Nier, the second game in the Drakengard series. If that sounds a tad confusing: good, because the game isn’t going to be straightforward either. Automata has been lauded by critics and community alike for its philosophical themes, excellent combat, and complex story.
N:A is also surprisingly diverse in terms of its gameplay, but mixing hack’n’slash battles with bullet hell segments, story-relevant choices as well as chip-based upgrade system places it squarely in the action RPG genre. It’s a great game, one of PlatinumGames’ best.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Conan Exiles
| Release date: | 2017-01-30 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Funcom |
Games based on Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories have been, historically, hit or miss. Conan Exiles is easily a hit, although if you don’t enjoy survival games you might not find it as compelling, as fans of the genre.
Exiles captures the harsh, but vibrant nature of the world of Howard’s invention very well, so much so that players can capture NPCs and put them to work as “slaves”. There is also a very good crafting system, allowing solo players and clans to build impressive, sometimes physics-defying bases.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Planet Coaster
| Release date: | 2016-11-17 |
| Genre: | Strategy |
| Developer: | Frontier Developments |
Have you ever dreamt of running your own rollercoaster-focused amusement park? If so, then Planet Coaster is a good way to live out these fantasies a little bit without needing a large budget. Created by people with a lot of prior experience with the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise, Planet Coaster was bound to be a commercial success that it became.
With Planet Coaster you can design your own theme part rides, with animatronics, and fully customizable coasters. Especially the creative mode with all options unlocked and infinite money allows you to go wild with your designs. Especially if you pass on the career mode and go straight into creative segment.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Civilization VI
| Release date: | 2016-10-20 |
| Genre: | Economy |
| Developer: | Firaxis Games |
Civilization is one of the most venerable video game series out there. Sid Meier’s most famous creation, this 4X series has been the foremost cause of the “just one more turn” syndrome for three decades now. While hardly historically accurate, being able to pick a culture and see it grown from a tribal stage to a leading power on the continent or the world has always felt great.
Civ6 introduced city unstacking, which means that most upgrades to a given city are represented by separate districts occupying their own hexes, rather than being abstracted onto the city’s singular hex. There were also changes made to research bonuses, and the road towards cultural victory was smoothed to be as feasible, as that towards other victories.
| Key features |
|---|
|
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
| Release date: | 2016-10-27 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Bethesda Game Studios |
One of Bethesda’s biggest successes, Skyrim has enjoyed huge popularity since its release in 2012. The province of Skyrim is inspired by Scandinavian landscapes and the popular perception or early-Medieval Norse culture.
It has semi-free form progression, which covers combat as readily as various forms of crafting, and non-combative magic. It’s largely a sandbox, letting the players travel the world and pursue any of plentiful possible activities. And when well-modded, it can look quite amazing.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Hearts of Iron IV
| Release date: | 2016-06-06 |
| Genre: | Simulation |
| Developer: | Paradox Development Studio |
The Hearts of Iron series is one of the best and the most complex strategy games on the market. Each instalment revolves around World War II, and fully takes place on a strategic map of Europe. The series deals with movements of armies and large-scale decisions which affect entire regions and countries.
You can pick from a huge number of possible countries and try to lead the way to victory. You can save a country that historically was swallowed by the theatre of war, or defeat the big winners, if you play your armies, economy, and diplomacy right. Hearts of Iron IV is an excellent and complex generator of “what if…” scenarios about World War II, as well as the years leading up to it and those immediately following.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Fallout 4: Game of the Year Edition
| Release date: | 2017-09-26 |
| Genre: | RPG |
| Developer: | Bethesda Game Studios |
Fallout 4 was the second Fallout game developed by Bethesda, and one that strayed further from the franchise’ RPG roots, but seemed more at ease with itself, committing to ideas more familiar to Bethesda: open world exploration, crafting (including creating settlements), and action-focused combat.
The GotY Edition includes all DLC content and expansion released for F4 post-launch. That means stuff like the Far Harbor investigation on a whole new island, or Nuka-World letting the player have the run of a theme park and join raiders.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
| Release date: | 2018-02-13 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Warhorse Studios |
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is an RPG for people, who don’t enjoy the fantasy genre. It takes place in a rather historically accurate slice of medieval Bohemia, and follows the fate of a virtual nobody, a son of a small-village blacksmith, who, through various lucky and unlucky events, gets to rub elbows with important people of the region.
The realism goes to an extent where the game comes close to having one leg in the survival genre. In addition to various meters to manage, your character can’t even read until he (the protagonist is preset) actually learns the skill. Melee combat is also crunchier and more accurate that we usually see in video games.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Grand Theft Auto IV
| Release date: | 2008-12-02 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Rockstar North |
Although GTA5 is one of most popular, bestselling games of the decade, it would be unfair to forget about Grand Theft Auto IV, especially now that you can get it under twenty bucks. And since the story and the protagonist are really good, all the more reasons to check out the game that was followed up with crime city epic with three protagonists.
The protagonist of GTA4 is Niko Bellic, a war veteran, who arrives in the United States to turn over a new leaf, and maybe, just maybe, find a man who betrayed his squad long ago. Despite the best efforts of Niko’s cousin, the game’s story is really good, and the return to Liberty City is satisfying.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Total War: Warhammer 2
| Release date: | 2017-09-28 |
| Genre: | Strategy |
| Developer: | The Creative Assembly |
Creative Assembly’s Total War series has always been known for taking place in various eras and regions, such as ancient Rome, or feudal Japan. However, CA teamed up with Games Workshop to create a Total War based on GW’s Warhammer Fantasy license. It was great, and when Total War: Warhammer 2 rolled in, it turned out to be even better.
TW:WH2 increased the differences between each factions, and the factions themselves go beyond the typical humans-elves-dwarves. This time in addition to Dark and High Elves we also get ratlike Skaven, lizardfolk, and even undead pirates. There is also a very clear end goal: using the magical Vortex, and every faction has its own mechanic of tapping its power.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Complete transaction
That concludes the list of our suggestions of fantastic games you can get under 20 bucks at the time of writing, but it only barely scratches the surface. So go and browse, you’re bound to find interesting games for any budget.