Best games on Steam | Updated 2022

Cyberpunk 2077

Coming from the developers of The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077 had some great expectations to live up to. Thankfully it turned out that it’s a great futuristic action RPG with a stunning urban open world and an interesting story digging into transhumanistic themes. In CP2077 you play as V, a gun-for-hire trying to make their name in Night City, the iconic setting in the Cyberpunk tabletop RPG.

Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t an open world in the same way The Witcher 3 is, but nevertheless roaming the streets of Night City or driving around beyond its limits can provide long hours of fun even when you’re not on a quest. Of course, as is expected of an action RPG, your actions have consequences, and get to make many decisions which let you define who your character is.

Cyberpunk 2077

Read more

The Witcher 3

The Witcher 3 is one of the best selling games of all times, and there are many aspects which contributed to this status. One reason is the great main story, an excellent conclusion to Geralt’s journey. Another is the beautiful open world split into several huge maps with very different themes: Irish/Viking Skellige isles, Medieval mainland of Velen, and, in DLC, idyllic Beauclair.

There’s also a secluded, yet equally beautiful Kaer Morhen valley you’ll eventually visit. The game is steeped in medieval, mostly European, lore and has a strong Slavic vibe to it as well. The biggest monsters you hunt require preparation, because they are fully capable of trashing you. If somehow you still haven’t played it, you absolutely should give the Game of the Year Edition a go.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Read more

Loop Hero

Loop Hero came in 2021 and took players by storm. It’s not hard to see why. It has a pleasant, old-school pixelated aesthetic which gives it an incredible amount of charm, and its gameplay loop is very engaging. The idea is that the character moves on their around a randomly generated, looping map, while you place landscape card around the path and control the character’s equipment.

Even during battles, which yield new landscapes and new equipment, your character acts on their own, benefitting from bonuses provided by landscape you placed and equipment you selected. Each expedition is going to be different, and you get to improve your camp between each excursion. Loop Hero is a game which looks simple on the surface, but can keep your attention for hours.

Loop Hero

Read more

Valheim

Valheim rose to fame and glory at an incredible speed, selling almost six million copies in the first month. Players are already making jaw-dropping constructions using the base-building feature, ranging from original works to things like a life-sized Eiffel Tower. If you haven’t added Valheim to your library yet, now it’s a great chance to do it. But what is it, exactly, beyond a base-builder?

To put things simply: Valheim is a solid survival game which is less bothersome about its meters and encourages exploration and construction instead. There are also powerful bosses to wreck, because your Odin-given task is to bring peace and order to the procedurally generated world of Valheim, the non-canonical tenth Nordic realm. Oh, and you can play with up to ten friends, if you want to.

Valheim

Read more

Curse of the Dead Gods

If you enjoyed the art style of Darkest Dungeon, then you’re in luck, because Curse of the Dead Gods, despite being 3D, looks very familiar. Similarities don’t end with the art style: the dungeons you delve and filled with traps and enemies, and managing light levels is an important part of the experience. You also can become corrupted which results in curses put on you.

Of course there are also important differences, most notably: Curse of the Dead Gods doesn’t have the turn-based, deliberate pace of DD. Instead, it has a fast, brutal, combat system which uses your reflexes as much as your tactical acumen. The weapons you wield come in many shapes and sizes, and they often have special properties which help you go deeper and deeper into the dungeon.

Curse of the Dead Gods

Read more

Persona 5 Strikers

If you weren’t ready to say goodbye to the lovable rascals from Persona 5, or want to meet them for the first time, set your eyes on Persona 5 Strikers, a fantastic action RPG launched on PS4 in 2020 and on PC in February 2021. Mixing the best features of Omega Force’s Dynasty Warriors gameplay and the turn-based battles from Persona 5, Strikers is an exciting game full of familiar characters.

You’ll need to delve into dungeons without raising alarm, but you also get to smash entire groups of enemies. There are two layers to the combat system: one is much like in a musou games, with your chosen character plowing through dozens of enemies with each hit, but when you need to deploy your persona’s power you pick the abilities from a menu, like in the turn-based original game.

Persona 5 Strikers

Read more

Hades

Hades is one of the best roguelikes released in recent years, and part of the reason for that is the time it spent in Early Access, gathering feedback. You’re playing as Zagreus, a disobedient son of Hades himself, trying to escape from his father’s domain and reach the surface. Nobody escapes from the underworld, though, so Zagreus has rooms to clear and bosses to defeat along the way.

You begin with a hefty sword, but in time you’ll unlock more weapons, including a shield and a cannon. You start each escape attempt with a divine boon from Olympian gods, which modifies your abilities in different ways. Each boon also has a neat visual effect, and a few have an Area of Effect so once you get a few of them your moves become quite spectacular.

Hades

Read more

Terraria

Terraria has stayed in the top ranks of Steam best-reviewed games for years and at this point it’s there to stay. It’s one of the best sandbox games on the market, and don’t be fooled by its 2D style: this game has depth to spare. And also a base-building system which allows you to do some really impressive things. Of course, the world is procedurally generated, so the game is infinitely replayable.

What can you do, beyond building some outlandish base? You can explore the world to look for resources and trouble for example, because the game has weapons to craft, dungeons to delve, and bosses to defeat. There are also useful NPCs you could recruit for your base to benefit from whatever they have on offer. Better yet: you can also play with your friends if friendly NPCs aren’t enough.

Terraria

Read more

Half-Life: Alyx

Half-Life: Alyx is a treat. Not only is this a rare game made by Valve themselves, but also a new Half-Life story, AND a game designed to be played exclusively in VR. The story takes place five years before Half-Life 2 and follows Alyx on her misadventures in City 17 controlled by the Combine invaders. The story is interesting and Alyx is a great main character, but the VR implementation is the true star.

The degree of simulation present in Half-Life: Alyx is astonishing and well worth the price of admission to this ride. Glass breaks realistically, many objects in the world work like you would expect them to, and if you’re determined you could even juggle because the physics are flexible enough to let you do it. If you can afford the hardware, HL: Alyx is a top-tier VR game and you should check it out.

Half-Life: Alyx

Read more

Dyson Sphere Program

A Dyson Sphere is a theoretical structure designed to be built around a star to generate energy for a highly advanced civilisation. In Dyson Sphere Program you play as an engineer tasked with building this megastructure, which involves building planet-wide factories and handling the infrastructure. Every game is also going to be different thanks to procedural generation and many planet and star types.

Like with many games focused on construction and establishing automated processes, once you get things moving DSP is very pleasant and satisfying to look at. And then you move to another planet to build another part of your technological empire and move closer to achieving your goal. The universe itself looks amazing as well. There are ever black holes, and they are spectacular!

Dyson Sphere Program

Read more

Deep Rock Galactic

What’s a better weekend plan than putting your helmets on, picking up power tools, and mining caverns with other three space dwarves by your side. Deep Rock Galactic is exactly that. Each cavern system you descend into is procedurally generated, filled with valuable resources and deadly monsters which make a Gunner an invaluable partner on every expedition.

Deep Rock Galactic is a great co-operative, class-based first-person shooter that’s really fun when you play solo, but an absolute blast when you play with friends. There are extermination missions, egg-stealing, looking for specific resources etc. Credits earned you can spend on cosmetic customisations, which include three different categories of facial hair. Of course they do, you’re playing dwarves.

Deep Rock Galactic

Read more

Phasmophobia

If, like a true Ghost Buster, you are afraid of no ghost, then you should play Phasmophobia and put this claim to the test. This game is not only a very well thought out cooperative experience, but it’s also really freaking scary, especially if you’re playing in VR. Talking to ghost that suddenly flashes right in front of your eyes is much more effective than a ghost doing the same on a monitor.

Ok, but what do you DO in Phasmophobia? To put it shortly: you go to abandoned buildings and try to find proof of ghost activity. There’s a dozen of different ghost types with different behaviour patterns, and they can, and will, respond to things you say through the in-game voice chat. Ultimately: your task is to gather evidence and make it out alive, rather than to banish a ghost. It’s above your pay grade.

Phasmophobia

Read more

ULTRAKILL

You can find Ultrakill on Steam by googling “Devil May Quake” and it’s a very apt, informative way to describe what’s going on in this game. The game’s so fast it makes Doom Eternal feel sluggish in comparison, and it has its own style meter, which will provide guidance to every fan of the white-haired demon slayer. The story is properly ridiculous, too: machines in their thirst for blood invade hell.

Your character is absurdly mobile, so there’s a good chance you’ll spend a lot of time in the air, pouring down death with a satisfying arsenal of cool weapons. You gain health from blood, so there are benefits from goin on an offensive. There are many levels to clear, and your performance is graded, so there’s an incentive to replay them to get better results or complete challenges.

ULTRAKILL

Read more

RimWorld

RimWorld may not look like it, but it’s a deep and complex space colony simulator, which is likely to appeal especially to fans of Dwarf Fortress. But not only to them, clearly, because at the time of writing is enjoys a 98% approval rating on Steam, which is an undeniable accomplishment. And it manages all of that without having bombastic graphics: clean, somewhat cartoonish style serves it perfectly well.

The game is ruled by an AI storyteller which decides what to do in order to never let you rest on your laurels for too long. Your colonists have their own lives managed by their unique sets of needs and preferences, and the world never shies away from throwing pirates and aliens at your settlement. By its own admission, RimWorld is a story generator, and you’ll have plenty of fun stories to tell about it.

RimWorld

Read more

Slay the Spire

A rogue-like and a deck-building game in one, AND at an attractive price? That’s Slay the Spire in a nutshell. StS is an amazing game about going up a spire, and figuring out how to use your cards to the greatest effect. There are always several ways up the Spire you could take, some easier, others filled with encounters, but also yielding much more, and better, rewards. You choose the path.

There are four character to choose from, and each has a very different playstyle, expressed through their unique card sets. Along the way you can also find and buy special items helping you during the given run, and there’s also a bunch of random encounters which can affect you in various ways. And if you think you’ve mastered the game…give the Custom mode a run, shake things up.

Slay the Spire

Read more

Ark: Survival Evolved

ARK Survival Evolved is a pretty cool survival game that finally managed to replicate that Jurassic Park fantasy of encountering and even domesticating dinos, while giving it the functionality of a survival game, complete with crafting and base building. Including building bases on certain humoungous dinosaurs. There are also great expansions adding new regions, creatures, and expanding the lore.

The ARK: Survival Evolved has a fantastic multiplayer and a sprawling community, especially on Steam, that can be relied on to get you into the game easier. Admittedly the game isn’t that hard to understand and it’s pretty lenient in the survival department, but of course, it’s always more fun to approach it with friends.

ARK: Survival Evolved

Read more

Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Lord of the Rings saw several videogame adaptations. Some were pretty nice and fairly successful and some…weren’t. Everything changed when Warner Bros decided to use their license for the creation of Shadow of Mordor, the sequel to which you can see here. While it deviates from what the fans know from the books, or sometimes even movies, it is an interesting “What if” type of story.

Like its predecessor, Shadow of War offers a blend of management and action combat. You have to recruit Orcs into your private entourage to oppose the forces of Mordor. These Orcs are randomly generated and each one of them is unique, leading to exciting hunts and a lot of emergent storytelling. Add to that excellent combat inspired by Batman Arkham games and you have an awesome game indeed.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War

Read more

Total War: Warhammer II

Total War: Warhammer II is certainly one of the best Warhammer games released in the modern day, and it also happens to be one of the best Total War games in general. It expands on its predecessor in a lot of ways, notably giving players who own the first game an option to merge the, already substantial, maps of both games and go on a massive campaign of conquest and diplomacy.

The game offers a blend of real-time (with pause) battles and a grand-strategy-like overworld where you upgrade your cities, move armies, or forge alliances. Taking place at the very end of the line for the world, it gives the players the option to stop the apocalypse and save the Old World. With plenty of DLCs, Total War: Warhammer II can let you play with some races never before brought to the videogame world, such as the dreaded Tomb Kings of Nehekhara.

Total War: Warhammer II

Read more

Dark Souls III

The final installment to the series of great action RPGs made by FromSoftware, Dark Souls III is the ultimate realization of their idea of a dark and merciless medieval fantasy. Dark Souls games are famous for testing players’ reflexes and patience both, since not only exquisitely deisgned bosses, but also regualr enemies can really mess you up if you aren’t careful.

But hardships aren’t the only feature. Like other Soulborne games, DS3 has a great map design, and the snippets of lroe sprinkled throuout the world make the setting feel deep and lived in, even if this life is hopeless and ruined by the pride and fear of the powerful. If you enjoy challenge and dark (really dark) fantasy settings, DS3 will be right up your alley holding a dagger to stab your back with.

Dark Souls 3

Read more

Rocket League

Rocket League combines racing cars and a game of soccer into a fast-paced and exciting sport. You can use the boost-pads located in strategic places on the field to get a speed boost, but you have to be careful as maneuvering at such high speeds can be very, very dangerous, for both parties involved. Thankfully all cars wrecked in a boosting incident are quickly put back on the field for more shenanigans.

The game features both local and multiplayer coop and it is quite competitive indeed. While the matches take moments, there’s a surprising depth of complexity and something of a meta-game here. And on top of that, there are many game-modes that change the rules, some rotating out and in on a regular basis, giving this game a great deal of longevity.

Rocket League is free 2 play game on Epic Games, you can buy Rocket League Steam version

Rust

The release year might be somewhat misleading, as Rust has been on Steam’s Early Access since 2013. It has taken a rather long time for the game to be ready to launch, but it’s one of the heartwarming examples of Early Access games that bloom into something great. And Rust was always riding on a lot of promise, which explains its constant popularity.

Rust is very simple in its basics—you start on an island and have to obtain resources, build your base and survive. The big selling point of Rust is the persistent, changing world, entirely moldable by your actions, a large player base creating an entire meta-narrative on their own. This game IS the community and it exists exclusively on Steam, where it carved a perfect niche for itself.

Rust

Read more

Euro Truck Simulator 2

Simulator games are surprisingly popular on Steam, and there’s a lot of simple yet undeniable charm to these games. Especially games like Euro Truck Simulator 2 can be relatively calming experiences, letting you just drive from point A to point B, worried more about the time than about demons or messed up builds. Just you, your truck, your cargo, and a road ahead. What’s not to love?

There’s also a surprisingly lively community you can discover, with dedicated steam groups and reddit pages, so you can get advice and share stories with people who are into the same kind of fantasy. There’s also a local split-screen coop, so the point is, Euro Truck Simulator 2 can be a very social experience on top of being just a really cool, realistic, enjoyable truck ride across Europe..

Euro Truck Simulator 2

Read more

Tekken 7

Time for a fighting game to change the mood somewhat, and we have a pretty good one. The defining feature of Tekken 7 is its highly competitive nature, stemming from complexity and an almost mathematical structure to combat, at least when two highly skilled players are involved. Although the skill ceiling for Tekken is very high, surprisingly it’s not a particularly hard game to start playing.

The 7^th instalment includes some changes that make the game that much more approachable to the new player, like the ability for the character to continue attacking, even if interrupted. Moreover, there’s a sprawling community of Tekken aficionados. Getting into Tekken 7, as with any fighting game, is like becoming a part of a subculture.

Tekken 7

Read more

Rainbow Six Siege

Rainbow Six Siege is a game of much fame and renown. At its core, it lies somewhere between Counter Strike and Overwatch, with military fantasy and multiple different so-called “Operatives” functioning as classes with different abilities and weapons. The gallery of operatives is vast, their abilities interesting and useful, and the deployments exciting and varied.

It’s a very competitive game, with a very active e-sports scene. It may not have the most welcoming of communities, but certainly a highly passionate one. It requires a little bit of effort to get into it, but you should have no shortage of resources on the matter, as there’s plenty of groups closely monitoring its scene. If you’re into asymetrical PvP games, R6 Siege is a great place to start.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege Standard Edition

Read more

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

In many ways it is THE Steam game, utilizing all of its aspects, from team chat, through Steam Groups, and up to the Steam inventory with multiple customization pieces, you can acquire in the game. It also evolved from Half-Life, Valve’s most famous creation. Counter Strike went through several iterations, and Global Offensive is the most polished and advanced one to date.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is very basic and may even seem archaic at times, but it does have a simple charm to itself. The basic mechanics are easy to get to, but take time and practice to master, making the game very competitive. There’re dozens of Steam Groups focused on Counter-Strike in one way or another, so finding a niche for yourself should come easy.

Counter-strike is free to play, you can buy prime status

Counter Strike: Global Offensive (Prime Status)

Read more

Half-Life II

The ever-popular Half-Life is, in many ways, the game that created Valve’s popularity. It was created on Valve’s original engine, Source, which even today remains very robust, if excessively difficult to work with. And it’s one of the best games the FPS genre has to offer, even today, in 2019. Despite lack of sequels, it created great side-stories and spawned a devoted fanbase.

Half-Life 2 combines a deeply engaging story with some imaginative sci-fi elements with very satisfying, fast-paced combat and excellent level design, greatly rewarding exploration. It also provides some puzzle elements due to the existence of the Gravity Gun, which can pick up objects and even turn them into deadly projectiles. The Source community creating Half-Life mods is very active. They’ve given us gems like Black Mesa, a complete Source remake of the original Half-Life. It’s an entire world of games to explore if you’re willing to take a dive.

Half Life 2

Read more

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Bethesda’s magnum opus,The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the ultimate open-world Bethesda RPG and its fantasy setting has captured love and adoration of millions with its incredible breadth. A deeply weird TES lore, plus a Norse-themed open world, plus DRAGONS and their specific magic, plus great degree of player freedom and expression make Skyrim one of the evergreen games always worth reinstalling.

And on Steam, so on PC, Skyrim is more than just Skyrim. It’s also the Nexus, the biggest and most popular mod site on the internet, with a very busy community of modders. Skyrim may not have a multiplayer, but there’re many, many ways it can be enjoyed and all thanks to the fantastic community around this RPG. There’s a good chance that the thing you’d like to see somebody already modded in.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Read more

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition

Read more

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

The battlest of battle royales, PUBG‘s popularity is undeniable. It uses tried and tested FPS ideas and shakes things up with a survival aspect of looting guns and tools and a contracting ring of doom that forces players into an eventual confrontation. It’s simple, evocative, and very effective, since PUBG stays in the top ranks of the most populated games on Steam.

The community of PUBG is intensely competitive and there’s a whole meta-game surrounding it. Really sinking your teeth into it is a grueling journey, this community is nothing if not hardcore, but there’s an undeniable, hypnotic hook to PUBG. With many new game-modes appearing on rotation and with leaderboards you might want to try and best, it can keep you occupied for years to come.

Playerunknowns Battlegrounds PUBG

Read more

Civilization V

The 5^th entry in the legendary Civilization series of 4X games focusing on the fantasy of being able to jump into the shoes of famous historical people and lead their nations. It features the well-known aspects like the tech tree, various victory conditions, and turn-based operation, but also some new and interesting stuff like ideologies and a visual representation for various World Wonders you can build, like the Big Ben or the Taj Mahal.  

Civilization V perfectly encapsulates that “just one more turn” syndrome. It.also comes with a multiplayer segment, and a pretty fun community, with its own host of memes. On Steam specifically, you can find groups devoted to modding and creating custom scenarios, which allow you to recreate certain significant moments in history, like the American Civil War.

Sid Meiers Civilization V

Read more

GTA 5

Between a fantastic single player campaign following the stories of three very different criminals getting into more trouble than they signed up for, and a great multiplayer, there’s certainly a lot of great content in Grand Theft Auto V. And players apprieciate it, making GTA5 one of the greatest commercial successes in the history of video games.

There’s an incredibly active community of modders for GTA 5, which produces custom maps, mostly specifically designed for races. And boy, those races are really, really fun, with unique mechanics lacking in dedicated racing games. These modders often try to one-up each other, creating fantastic new grounds to cover, even now, years after the release.

Grand Theft Auto V + Criminal Enterprise Starter Pack (Steam)

Read more