Steam Deck: the best games from 2024
The Steam Deck gets better every year, and 2024 was no exception. It’s been my primary gaming device ever since I became a parent, and I love being able to access the humongous library of games available on Steam from wherever I want, whether it’s at home or while the baby is taking a nap at grandma’s house. Valve keeps adding great features via software updates, too, like game recording.
If you’re just setting up a Steam Deck for the first time — perhaps you’re lucky enough to get one of the limited-edition white models — or you’re dusting off your Deck after a little break, I’ve put together some recommendations of great games from this year, along with one update to a classic.
Move over, Slay the Spire — there’s a new card-based roguelike king in town. Well, maybe a joker. In Balatro, the goal is to make familiar poker hands to earn increasingly higher amounts of chips. But between rounds, you’ll get to shop for new cards that make you more powerful, including jokers that can stack up to earn you mind-bogglingly high amounts of chips. When you get a good round going in Balatro, it’s a thrilling mix of planning, gambling, and watching numbers go up — and when your luck eventually runs out, it’s all too easy to hop back in for just one more round.
BioWare’s latest fantasy RPG is an epic quest that’s especially well suited to the Steam Deck. It’s got all of the hallmarks of what’s expected from BioWare — dialogue trees, fun companions, and lots of ways to build your characters — and the game’s expansive story is broken up into several smaller quests, making it easy to take care of one in a short session before bed. While the game is verified for Steam Deck, you’ll have to tweak your graphics settings to make it run well. But I’ll take the imperfect performance to be able to play The Veilguard wherever I want.
I wasn’t going to include early access games on this list, but I had to break my rule for Hades II. Even though it isn’t complete yet, it’s better than most of the games I’ve played this year. Supergiant’s sequel smartly builds upon the action roguelike formula of the first game with new weapons, two different routes to tackle (though one is unfinished), and a great new cast of hotties to hang out with (and some old ones returning). I’ve had to actually stop myself from playing this game as much as I want to — I don’t want to get tired of the game before its eventual 1.0 launch. And as my colleague Ash Parrish has already said, it’s the perfect Steam Deck game.
I’ve already written an entire article about how Metaphor: ReFantazio, the newest RPG from Atlus, continues Persona’s great handheld heritage: battles are turn-based but quick; the game is broken down into easily digestible days; and it runs well enough on Steam Deck with some tweaking. It’s a huge game that I still haven’t finished, but because I have it on a portable device, I’m looking forward to chipping away at it when I get spare moments here and there.
Neva is a jaw-droppingly gorgeous game about a young woman and the fox that she cares for. There’s some combat, but much of the game is about solving light platforming puzzles and taking in the absolutely stunning art and music. (I can attest that it looks really good on a Steam Deck OLED.) The game tells a powerful story about love and loss that takes just a few hours to beat — it’s the perfect game to play over a couple of evenings on the couch next to a warm fire.
Image: Playstack / Color Gray Games
If you’re looking to solve some murder mysteries, The Rise of the Golden Idol will probably cast its magic on you. The game is loaded with 20 point-and-click mysteries to solve by investigating scenes and people and figuring out the right words to explain exactly what’s going on. The game is a little grotesque, but that’s part of the fun — why are you playing a murder mystery if you’re not willing to see some dead bodies with weird red eyes?
Stardew Valley is one of the most-played games on the Steam Deck, and with good reason: the game’s farming simulation and delightful characters are easy to spend time with for five minutes or five hours. Earlier this year, the game got a massive 1.6 content update with new festivals, a new farm type, and more late-game content, meaning there’s a lot to dig into, whether you’re a Stardew Valley veteran or starting a farm for the first time.
In Thank Goodness You’re Here!, you play as a little man bopping around a quaint English village, interacting with the many quirky townspeople, and, uh, slapping stuff. The writing is hilarious and the absurd accents are even funnier. Best of all? You can finish the whole game in about three hours. It’s delightful.
