With a week left in the Steam summer sale (it ends July 4), we thought we’d put together a list of the deals that caught our eye on some of the games we really enjoy. Provided you haven’t already emptied your wallet, take your pick: you can’t go wrong with any of these.
Dark Souls
Sale price: $5 (£5) | Normal price: $20 (£20)
The original Dark Souls has gone on sale plenty of times, but if you don’t own it yet, here’s your reminder to pick it up. Its sequels still haven’t matched its wonderfully intertwined Metroidvania world, with more shortcuts and secrets to be found in the order of your choosing. Just be prepared to die if you stray off the obvious path. Actually, be prepared to die anyway. It’s a hard game, but so incredibly satisfying to unravel.
Psychonauts
Sale price: $1 (£0.69) | Normal price: $10 (£7)
Psychonauts came out 11 years ago and now finally has a crowdfunded sequel on the way. Let’s be honest here, this game is worth far more than $1. If you never played it and are at all curious what all the hubbub around the sequel is about, this is a perfect opportunity to find out.
The Witcher 3
Sale price: $25 (£17.50) | Normal price: $50 (£35)
The best RPG of 2015. Maybe of the decade? Either way, if you haven’t played through our favorite singleplayer game of 2015, you have a massive adventure ahead of you at half price. Make sure to do the “Fool’s Gold” sidequest. Thank us later.
Alien: Isolation
Sale price: $12.50 (£8) | Normal Price: $50 (£32)
Our 2014 game of the year isn’t just an excellent survival horror game, it’s an excellent Alien game. The Nostromo is an intricate maze of ’70s futurism, riddled with the green glow of old CRTs and the click-fuzz of tape cartridges, and the alien hunting you is one of the most unpredictable monsters in games.
Alan Wake / Alan Wake’s American Nightmare
Sale price: $8 (£6) | Normal Price: $40 (£30)
Remedy channeled action noir with Max Payne, and in Alan Wake they take on pulp horror with just as much success. Alan Wake’s episodic structure and muted Pacific Northwest setting make for a creepy, campy journey through the troubled psychology of a writer and his journey to defeat the darkness. It’s popcorn horror, perfectly suited for late summer nights.
Lethal League
Sale price: $4.75 (£3.40) | Normal Price: $14 (£10)
If Pong was anime, it would be Lethal League. Players jump around the arena and try to turn the ball their color (and deadly to other players) by smacking it with their racket. Consecutive hits make the ball increase in speed, sometimes to the point where it’s literally impossible to track. It’ll make you yell in anguish, cry, and fall to your knees in tragic defeat (just like anime).
Super Hexagon
Sale price: $1 (£0.67) | Normal Price: $3 (£2)
Super Hexagon is hard to explain, even if you see it in action. You rotate a tiny triangle through an endless assault of complex encroaching shape patterns to flashing lights and intense music. It’s extremely difficult and likely to incite more rage than glee, but edging past your high score by one tenth of a second makes every ounce of pain worth it.
The Swapper
Sale price: $3 (£2.40) | Normal Price: $15 (£12)
We’re not certain what the body horror and puzzle game audience overlap is, but The Swapper has it covered either way. It’s a side-scrolling Metroidvania where you solve complex puzzles using a gun that clones yourself. Transfer between clones, murder your old bodies, lose your mind.
Divinity: Original Sin – Enhanced Edition
Sale price: $20 (£15) | Normal price: $40 (£30)
Divinity: Original Sin received a major facelift last year in the form of its Enhanced Edition, and 50% off is the lowest the price has dropped since then. Divinity is fantastic modern take on the formula of classic cRPGs that came before it.
Braid
Sale price: $2.54 (£1.86) | Normal price: $15 (£11)
While creator Jonathan Blow may have released a new puzzle game recently in The Witness, his charming puzzle platformer from 2009 is under $3 on Steam for the first time ever. It’s a massive game for that price considering, much in Blow’s style, there are secrets scattered throughout most of the game.
Darkest Dungeon
Sale price: $15 (£11.39) | Normal price: $25 (£19)
A soul-crushing roguelike with wonderfully cohesive ideas and art. Build a team of stout mercenaries and watch them ruined by madness, disease, or swear-inducing critical hits. One of the best things to emerge from Kickstarter or Early Access.
Prison Architect
Sale price: $7.50 (£5) | Normal price: $30 (£20)
Grimly entertaining (or perhaps entertainingly grim), this building and management sim has a unique twist: none of your tiny citizens want to be living there. You can pick up this truly engrossing game for 75% off, and you should.
Arma 3
Sale price: $20 (£15) | Normal price: $40 (£30)
If you’ve been waiting for a big update to dive into Arma, now’s the time to pull the realistically-weighted trigger. Arma 3 Apex, the first expansion to Arma 3, is out July 11, which is separately available for pre-order at a 20% discount ($28, from $35).
Rocket League
Sale price: $12 (£9) | Normal price: $20 (£15)
Already a steal at its normal asking price, our pick for Best Multiplayer Game of 2015 is 40% off. Six months after its release it’s still going strong, in the top ten most played games on Steam. All the DLC is on sale, too.
Invisible, Inc.
Sale price: $6.79 (£5.09) | $20 (£15)
For tactical turn-based stealth and no shortage of style, you could do worse than 2015’s Invisible, Inc. from Klei Entertainment. It’s complex, challenging, rewarding, and currently a hefty 66% off.
Doom
Sale price: $36 (£24) | Normal price: $60 (£40)
Your mission is simple: close the portal to hell and kill every demon in sight. Doom returns to pared-down acrobatic gunplay that prioritizes fun over anything else. The result is an action comedy, where campy recreations of Doom’s original demons spawn and die by the dozen as you sprint around multi-tiered arenas full of power-ups, secrets, and jump pads right out of Quake. It’s a silly, shooty time.
Transistor
Sale price: $5 (£3.74) | Normal price: $20 (£15)
A gorgeous cyberpunk action-RPG from the developers of Bastion, the gorgeous fantasy action-RPG. Come for the soundtrack and atmosphere; stay through New Game+ for a battle system that unravels into a mind-boggling array of ability combinations.
Crypt of the Necrodancer
Sale price: $3.74 (£ 2.74) | Normal price: $15 (£11)
A classic turn-based roguelike dungeon crawler that completely turns the genre’s cautious pace on its head by setting it to music. Move with the beat and learn to defeat your enemies by listening and following the rhythm. It’s just really fucking cool.
Burnout Paradise
Sale price: $5 (£2.50) | Normal price: $20 (£10)
Simply one of the greatest racing games ever made, with perfect arcade driving physics and three distinct types of cars (built for speed, stunts, and aggression) to explore a huge open world with.
The Stanley Parable
Sale price: $3 (£2) | Normal price: $15 (£10)
It was at this moment that Stanley became $3 on Steam. It wasn’t as if Stanley hadn’t been $3 before. In fact, he relished in his discounted position. But Stanley, now abandoned by his parents after they went off to work on more practical or personal projects, felt lost and forgotten, yearning for people to play his game now more than ever.
Door Kickers
Sale price: $3 (£2.25) | $20 (£15)
You’ll definitely want to bust this door down: the single-player top-down tactical puzzler from Killhouse Games is great, it’s hard, and it’s 85% off, the lowest it’s ever been.
