So Steam’s latest summer sale has kicked off. Hooray – there’s plenty of games going for cheap again. But there are discounts, and then there are discounts. So to help you out with your purchases, here’s my selection of games that are worthy of your time. 10 games, to be precise.
Grim Dawn: $16.56
Want to scratch that Diablo itch but Path of Exile‘s gargantuan skill tree puts you off, and you want something less colourful than Torchlight? Grim Dawn is the answer. The only caveat you’ll need to know is that the game starts out fairly slow for the first 10 levels – but it then takes off rapidly from there, as you gain access to dual-classes and all manner of arse-kicking skills. Top ARPG.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor: $5.29
There are smoothies and milkshakes that cost more than this right now.
That’s not right. Shadow of Mordor deserves better than that. The Warner Bros logo has appeared on some suspect PC ports over the last few years, but Shadow of Mordor isn’t one of them. Get this while it’s cheap.
Shadowrun Returns: $1.98
The pacing might not be everyone’s cup of tea, and if you love this sort of game you’ll probably find the sequel, Hong Kong, to be even better. But Shadowrun Returns is still a cyberpunk cRPG worth playing, especially for less than two dollars. Jesus.
Nex Machina: $21.20
Nex Machina has only come out this week, but you can already pick up a 20% discount courtesy of the sale. If you like bullet hell shooters, Nex is a must-buy. What they do with the levels is off the chain. It’s colourful, clever, and has some banging music to boot.
Mount Your Friends: $2.64
Even if you only ever fire up Mount Your Friends a few times a year when you have mates around, it’s still worth it for the laughs. Great party game.
Ultimate Chicken Horse: $11.92
Also for the party game roster, Ultimate Chicken Horse. It’s basically a condensed Mario Maker with local co-op, where the goal is to fuck everyone over as much as humanly possible – while making sure you can still get to the finish line.
Also, the animals are way too cute.
Pony Island: $2.17
One of the more clever indies from last year, you have little excuse not to at least see what tricks Pony Island has up its sleeve. A few hours of weird gameplay for the price of a crappy choc-top from 7/11 is a pretty good deal, no?
Ichi: $0.65
Sometimes you just need a casual puzzler to relax. And that’s Ichi, a game where you solve all the puzzles with a single button.
The goal is to collect all the yellow rings by redirecting the yellow line their way. The line bounces against red blocks, which you rotate by left clicking. You can also leave a trail by holding down the mouse button.
It’s on mobiles as well, but for 65c there isn’t a great amount of complain about.
Door Kickers: $3.96
Think Frozen Synapse, but not as complicated and from the perspective of controlling a SWAT team.
King’s Bounty: The Legend: $2.31
One for the Heroes of Might and Magic fans. Imagine those games, but remove the castle building and compress all of it within a single hero. There are plenty of King’s Bounty games these days, but the original has the least technical issues and also the fewest restrictions when it comes to exploration.
So those are my picks. Not much in the way of AAA’s this time. I also wanted to focus more on things that were super affordable, although there are good discounts on pricer games that are worth considering too: Shadow Tactics is a fantastic modern take on the Commandos games, Wolfenstein: The New Order for $13.25 is a steal, and Elite: Dangerous for $19.88 is a neat price. You’ll want the Horizons expansion to go with it, however.
What has caught your eye from the latest Steam sale?
Comments
13 responses to “Alex’s 10 Picks From The Latest Summer Steam Sale”
A minor complaint, but links to the actual games would be nice
Edit: Oh, and I’m totally grabbing Ichi, that looks like amazing fun
Don’t you basically have to buy the USD$35 Elite: Dangerous bundle with the season pass these days? I’m looking to pick it and aren’t sure how to go about it.
You don’t *have* to. You can just buy the base game and Horizons individually, or just the base game if you want to see what flying around is like.
I’d recommend the base game, dive into some subreddits to get some suggestions on how to proceed, and reassess after 20-30 hours if you want to drop more money down.
Thanks! Looks like I’ll pick it up then and see if its what I’m in to
Shadow of Mordor’s price is nuts.
They have the sequel just around the corner, the prIuce drop is alsIi to get people into the game so they will turn around and preorder No. 2
Spot on. But the original is such a cracker of a game that it’s really a win-win.
Not wrong. That’s going straight on my list. Probably Door Kickers too. Already have the GOG version of Grim Dawn and it’s awesome, seems pretty high still for a steam sale price. If it was lower I’d buy copies for a couple of my friends.
I would’ve recommended Rimworld (as i’m always keen to), but that doesn’t appear to have any discount 🙁
Endless Space & Stellaris are discounted though if anyone likes space-y stuff.
Just bought door kickers & Ichi based on this article though – seems silly to ignore at that price!
I am glad you mentioned Kings Bounty. As an avid HOMM player, I enjoy Kings Bounty even more. It’s great just having a single hero to worry about and the quest dialogue is full of laughs too!
Can’t recommend it enough.
Just seconding Grim Dawn here. It’s a very replayable game with lots of build combinations for people like me who don’t wanna choose between magic and shotguns. Story’s a bit weak but if you’re coming from Diablo it’s genius.
shadowrun returns is a good game. more linear than the sequels but it gives it the exact feel of playing a module in the old table top game
I actually preferred the original Shadowrun Returns significantly over the sequel. The original game’s campaign is nice and concentrated and feels very Cyberpunk, makes you forget that Shadowrun actually has a screwy Fantasy setting with Orcs and magic and stuff.