The Best Steam Deck Games Of 2022 You Should Play Now

The Steam Deck, Valve’s mega-powerful mini-PC, just came this year, and although there are many reasons to check out one of the most exciting pieces of gaming gear available today, the number of terrific, hassle-free games accessible on the device is evidence enough of its popularity.

However, Steam is a large marketplace, and not every game works well on the Deck. While many popular games operate fine on the smartphone, others may not load, while others will have you searching through numerous settings and perusing forums and Reddit postings for answers. Fun for tech enthusiasts, but not perfect for a fantastic gaming experience. Valve has made the process simpler by designating select titles “Verified” on the device, but this isn’t necessarily a guarantee that a game will run without trouble.

But don’t worry, this list will direct you to the finest experiences you can have in the first year of the Steam Deck’s existence. These games have all been confirmed for the platform, so you won’t have to boot into desktop mode or play with any settings to get anything to function. I won’t even advise you to change the graphical settings with any of them. They function perfectly on the first boot. (However, if you’re feeling bold, tweaking a few options here and there may improve your experience.) This is the power of the Deck.)

1. Elden Ring

When Elden Ring was released, the Steam Deck was one of the greatest ways to play the newest Miyazaki jam, and it still is. In fact, the closeness of their release dates virtually forces Elden Ring to be the device’s launch title. Valve went above and above to enhance the game’s speed on their portable PC, even before FromSoftware was able to fix a multitude of flaws that were ruining the experience on a full-featured machine.

Elden Ring works surprisingly well in portable form, whether at home or on the road. Some HUD parts may be a little bit tiny, but the whole experience is well worth it. When the action heats up, you’re going to lose a few frames here and there, but the smaller form factor sacrifices nothing.

Maybe playing outdoors in a park will give you the fresh air you need to take on the game’s tougher enemies. You’ll lose out on the online capabilities if you play away from a router, but that’s a fair trade-off in my opinion, since I’m not a big lover of the game’s multiplayer either.

2. Neon White

This 2022 summer smash got everyone hot and bothered about, well, things that generally make you hot and bothered, and it had a fantastic soundtrack. All of this, particularly its lightning-fast gameplay, transfers quite well to the Deck. It’s one of the finest games on our list.

Neon White is a terrific portable game since it depends on short, concentrated areas that you must complete as soon as possible. You could spend a short bus or rail travel with a handful of runs across this shooter’s lovely location and never be concerned about performance.

Sure, if you’re counting, I’m sure you’ll notice a lost frame or two, but who has time for that when you’re racing over maps, listening to fantastic soundtracks, and shredding demons left and right? This is a great game to keep returning to in order to improve your score, giving it a great “on-the-go” experience that feels completely at home on the Steam Deck’s controls.

3. No Man’s Sky

No Man’s Sky was released in 2016, but it is featured on our list since it received a very amazing upgrade this year. And, dare I say, the Steam Deck is one of the greatest ways to play this space-exploration game. Sure, the frame rate may be a little off, but bear with me.

The smaller screen and lower resolution simply bring those voxels together in ways I’m not accustomed to seeing on a 4k screen. I even find myself keeping the scan lines option enabled on, which I’ve always turned off. On Deck, though, that visual effect is no longer an eyesore; it actually adds character and smoothes out the rougher edges of the presentation. I wish the writing on the Deck was a little bigger, but the game makes up for it with its vivid graphics and huge scope, which I feel work so well on the smaller screen that they communicate a sense of scale that higher resolutions lose.

You’ll encounter some missing frames here and there, notably when entering a planet’s atmosphere or flying in third person. In my opinion, they were passable, particularly when the feeling of size and visual design create a far more noticeable effect. On a large screen, everything seems to be a toy. But, on the Deck, the vastness of the planets and solar systems leads me to believe this simulation.

4. Teardown

I wasn’t expecting Teardown to perform as well as it does on Steam Deck. Teardown’s voxels may fool you into believing it doesn’t need much graphics horsepower, but its concept as an immensely addictive demolition simulator means it can toss enough particles on screen to tank the framerate and then some. Fortunately, the game runs really well on Deck. I’m sure you could get yourself into some explosive situations that would give the Deck’s AMD-powered APU a fright. But, to be honest, you’d probably run into that problem with a full-featured PC anyway, since the game often tempts stability. It may even be considered part of its allure.

The major draw of Teardown is the demolition of buildings—literally taking them down block by block. But don’t dismiss this title as a one-trick pony. Some of the pleasures come from damaging and blowing something apart. Okay, maybe most of the excitement. There’s some platforming on missions that need you to achieve goals in a certain period of time, and there are other situations that will put your reflexes to the test.

And since Teardown performs so well on the Steam Deck, you can truly get lost in the sandbox and have a fantastic time mucking about. Like No Man’s Sky, there may be minor hiccups and stutters, but not enough to detract from the overall experience. Besides, when you force the frame rate to sink because you had to fill up a structure with explosive tanks nested in a bunch of wooden crates you lit on fire, it almost seems like you earned it.

Teardown can be a really soothing game, which is somewhat unexpected for a game that allows for spontaneous property damage. As a consequence, it was the first game on this list that I played on the Deck until the battery died.

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5. Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade

Some may be split about changes to the original tale, but Final Fantasy VII Remake is a terrific, stylish action RPG game that transfers quite well to the Steam Deck. The game has a “softness” to its visual quality due to having to ramp down the settings and keep inside 800p, but the Steam Deck gives an amazing method to play this 2020 title that just touched Steam for the first time.

Remake has some of my favorite Final Fantasy action, and returning to this game on Steam Deck was a terrific chance to revisit its unique combination of command-based and real-time battle. It hits such a beautiful blend of agency and tactical strategy, and it really shines on the Deck. When I was trying this out on the portable platform, I completely forgot what I was doing and was drawn back into the engrossing gaming cycle.

The fact that such a blockbuster, full-featured action RPG is accessible on the Deck and performs so well is a tribute to the breadth of experiences available on the platform. Just maybe wait for a deal as the game is $70 USD. Yikes.

It’s also approaching 100GB in size…

So, downloading it via WiFi will take some time.

6. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

Want a beautiful delight that has no performance issues and is addictively entertaining to play on Steam Deck? The energetic beat ’em up TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge by Tribute Games is a fantastic match. It’s no surprise that it runs well for a 2D game with a vintage look, but the images have so much character, color, and life to them. It’s a delight to see everything in action.

And the game is fantastic! I’m typically the worst at memorizing button combinations, but I was able to get a grasp on things rather quickly here. Nothing seemed too chaotic for the Steam Deck’s physical form factor. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is much too charming a series to not have a nice time here. And the music is fantastic when listened to with excellent headphones.

It was difficult to peel myself away from this game to examine the others on my list, and you’ll probably be drawn in as well.

7. Vox Machinae

Vox Machinae has been in Early Access since 2018, but its full-featured version debuted this past May, and it’s a superb mech sim for the Steam Deck. To be honest, certain animations are wonkier than I’d like, but Vox Machinae finds a wonderful mix between recreating the sensation of operating a large machine and keeping the procedure simple enough that you don’t need a degree in rocket science to complete the most basic of movement chores.

The game involves you viewing actual meters and features in a recreated cockpit rather than a HUD, and I believe this component transfers incredibly well to the Deck. Having to glance down at your throttle to check your speed, or bring up an actual second screen to zoom in on targets, truly sells the sense of being inside a mech and on the Deck, the usage of the enlarged controls makes you feel like you’re driving a complicated piece of equipment.

The left touchpad, for example, enables you to instantly boost your jump jets and go in the direction your thumb is pointing. When you do, your avatar actually shifts their hand to a separate joystick to execute this action, so there’s this very interesting equivalency between what you’re doing on the physical controls of the Steam Deck and what your character is doing in game. It’s a prime illustration of how the Steam Deck’s enhanced control tools may unlock new and exciting gameplay possibilities.

8. Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between

If fast-paced, timing-critical games like Neon White or even Elden Ring represent one end of the range of experiences available on the Steam Deck, Glitchhikers represents the other. This is a really relaxing game that is ideal for passing the time while contemplating the meaning of life.

Glitchhikers may be a surreal experience. You will spend the majority of your time traveling or hanging out in unusual areas, chatting to people who are prepared to open up about everything, from broad philosophical musings to intensely personal stories of loss and grief. If you want to avoid more heated issues, the game contains controls to fine-tune the interactions.

It’s a terrific “chill out” game that looks and reads good on the Steam Deck, making it ideal for while you’re on the move or simply chilling out at home. Headphones will truly help you immerse yourself in this experience.

9. Praey For The Gods

I said that there was no specific sequence to this list. But if it did, Praey for the Gods would undoubtedly grab the top slot and is, maybe, my personal favorite on this list. Praey’s final version only enters this list since it was released in December of last year. Praey is a deserved homage to the PlayStation classic that’s prepared to take some chances of its own—and the Steam Deck is one of the greatest venues to enjoy it.

Praey For The Gods has an unmistakable “PS2-ness” to it, and it works extremely well on the Deck’s lower resolution. Given how long the boss battles may go, it’s best suited for playing on the couch—and certainly wear headphones, this game has some amazing music and sound design.

If, like me, you didn’t play the PS4 remake of Shadow Of The Colossus, this game seems like a decent remix of the 2005 original that tries to give more features than the artful, minimalist PS2 classic. It runs pretty nicely on Steam Deck, and, like No Man’s Sky, there’s something about a smaller screen portraying enormous things, whether they planets or epic bosses, that sells the scale a little more than a 4k screen would.

Even after incorporating honorable mentions, selecting the top ten Steam Deck games of 2022 was difficult. I’m sure there are more who merit a mention, even if they are just Deck-Verified on Steam. These titles, however, reflect a very broad range of games accessible on the platform, ranging from quirky indie games to the most recognized AAA blockbusters. Combine the variety and diversity of the Steam Deck’s library with some really great control layouts and the ability to alter visual settings like you would on a PC, and it’s easy to understand why so many people are line up to obtain one.

There is no specific sequence to these titles, however there are a few honorable mentions before we get started. If you want to play them, here’s why they didn’t make the cut:

God of War

The premium PlayStation 4 exclusive for 2018 debuted on PC in January of this year, and the experience has been fairly nice on most PCs. It’s also validated on Steam Deck, so I thought it to be a wonderful choice for a Best Of.

However, performance concerns prevented me from having fun on the Deck. I won’t rule out the potential that some people may ignore the skips, stutters, and total freezes, but even on low graphics settings, I can’t entirely endorse this one.

Look somewhere to play this game; you’ll be lot better off with a more powerful computer.

Outward

Outward is an epic fantasy game with some brutal survival mechanisms. You can’t truly die, however, since each “death” takes you onto another branching plot route, so failure isn’t merely greeted with blatant anger. I really wanted Outward to be on this list. Some may find the fighting a touch overly stiff, but I believe the breadth of the game outweighs those critiques for the most part. Unfortunately, Outward features a lot of writing—a lot of critical language and menu dives that, on the Steam Deck’s tiny screen, constitute a deal breaker.

However, your vision may be superior than mine. If true, this is a fairly fantastic game to play in such a little form size. And the visuals seem to be at home on the Deck’s 800p display—just make sure you switch the resolution in game to match the Deck’s screen if you give this one a go.

Strange Horticulture

Strange Horticulture is a fantastic puzzle game that blends the occult with, well, horticulture. You could have a good time with this on Deck, but I thought the smaller text type to be too detrimental to the game to put it on the main list.

There is a really useful zoom tool that you will use a lot when playing Deck. However, having to hop in and out of zoom levels creates a different experience than what you’d get on a larger screen with more resolution to experiment with.

Dungeon Munchies

It aches my heart that Dungeon Munchies only receives an honorable mention here. This side-scrolling action RPG is a truly cute, addicting, pixelated culinary romp with a great sense of humor. It was so close to making the cut, and maybe it still does spiritually. Unfortunately, I believe the typeface and character photos could be used to fill up more of the Deck screen’s real estate. Also, I found the settings menu to be a little problematic.

Stray

Stray came extremely close to making the list, and you should check it out. Its very short runtime allows it to perform well in a portable format, and the colors and images look great on Valve’s small PC. Unfortunately, frame stuttering in the game’s quicker portions ruins the experience much too frequently, a problem that might have been tolerated had the game been larger in size.

As you may be aware, there are pretty easy methods to run non-Steam games on the Deck, but we’ll cover them another time. This list focuses on amazing games that you’ll get access to straight away.

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