Did You Score a Steam Deck? These are the Best SteamOS-Verified PC Games

After a bitter divorce with Konami, Metal Gear Solid creator and game design legend, Hideo Kojima, returned to the stage with Death Stranding. In this bizarre, star-studded, post-apocalyptic world, you unite America via strategic package delivery. It’s a bit of a tough hill to climb (literally), but playing Death Stranding wherever you want sounds like the perfect way to get in the Steam Deck groove.

The true successor to the beloved action game series, Devil May Cry 5 gives you three distinct characters to choose from as you bash demons into bloody pulps. From Dante’s classic style to Nero’s robot arms to V’s demonic familiars, you can craft a playstyle that feels truly your own—now on the go.

Dishonored is Arkane’s spiritual successor to the Thief franchise, but even if you have no love for that immersive sim, you should still take a trip to the city of Dunwall. In Dishonored, you use acrobatic stealth, clockwork weapons, and mysterious magic powers to root out the plague and corruption all around you.

Elden Ring takes everything that FromSoftware fans love about Dark Souls and BloodBorne and expands it with massive scope. It delivers one of the most fascinating and exhilarating modern open worlds, dense with mysteries to uncover and new lands to explore. Different melee and magic combat systems give you multiple ways to approach foes. Whatever you choose, the unsurprisingly brutal difficulty means you must always fight to the best of your ability.

Final Fantasy VII is one of the most important and beloved games of all time. Remaking the seminal 1990s JRPG into a modern AAA action-rpg seems impossible, but somehow developer Square Enix did it. Final Fantasy VII Remake is a miracle of a game that balances nostalgia, modern gameplay, and a story that promises new directions. This Deck-verified PC version includes the Intergrade DLC. 

Sony may not make handhelds anymore, but God of War on Steam Deck is a great consolation prize. This thoughtful reboot reimagines the series, as Kratos goes from angry Greek god to remorseful father living quietly in the land of the Norse gods. When Kratos must return to his violent ways, you enjoy complex and satisfying melee/projectile combat with his magical frost axe. This former PS4 exclusive now runs on PC, including Steam Deck.

Another PS4 title jumps to portable glory thanks to a PC port. Horizon Zero Dawn is a stunning open-world game where tribal humans coexist with advanced technology. In other words, it’s a game where you use electric bows and arrows to snipe robot dinosaurs. Open-world games are wonderful on handhelds, because you can play them as little or as much as you want, wherever you are. It’s all about being free to look toward your next horizon. 

With Immortality, Sam Barlow and developer Half Mermaid take the interactive drama genre to new heights and new depths. Uncover the mystery of Marissa Marcel and her lost films by scrubbing through footage. Hop between clips using nothing but cinematic dream logic. An experience this intimate feels even better on a handheld.

Whether it’s on a big movie screen or portable Steam Deck screen, who doesn’t love Spider-Man? This PC remaster includes the original PlayStation 4 game and its DLC. We love swinging through the open-world Manhattan and webbing up supervillains. The excellent Miles Morales spin-off is also Steam Deck verified.

Every Metal Gear Solid game is the best one, but Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is the best one. No longer confined to cramped hallways in secret bases, Venom Snake’s sneaking missions now take him all over an expertly crafted open world. Call in assistance from your helicopter, or give your dog a knife as you unravel a new conspiracy involving tanks with legs. Speaking for myself, this is absolutely the first game I plan to fire up on Steam Deck.

Persona 4 Golden, an enhanced version of the original Atlus RPG, was so spectacular that you almost forgot there were no other games worth playing on PlayStation Vita. Take Yosuke, Chie, and friends on the road in this stellar PC port of an already incredible Midnight Channel adventure. 

Putting Portal 2 on this list breaks one of our rules, as we recently learned the game is also coming to Nintendo Switch. Still, you should play at least one Valve game on your Valve hardware, and Portal 2 is one of the company's best. New mechanics push the portal puzzles to mind-bending limits, alone or in co-op. And the story is strong and hilarious enough to make you forget years of cringe-worthy cake memes. 

Do you love cleaning up a big 'ol mess? If you answered "yes," check out the surprisingly satisfying (and potentially therapeutic) PowerWash Simulator. In this cleaning game, you play as the owner of a powerwasher business who must clean up a filthy town. Manage cleaning fluids. Upgrade your nozzle. Invest in new attachments. Although the game lacks real-world physics, you may receive real-world pleasure tidying up houses, playgrounds, vehicles, and other objects in solo and multiplayer modes.

Resident Evil Village blends Resident Evil 4's spooky, haunted European vibes with Resident Evil 7's plot and horrifying first-person perspective. Turns out mashing up two terrifying and terrific games produces yet another winner. Resident Evil Village lacks 7’s immersive VR functionality, but playing this huddled up in your bed with the lights off, Steam Deck pressed against your face, will ensure many a sleepless night.

In many ways, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is exactly the game you expect from the team behind Dark Souls. Punishing combat pushes you to your breaking point as you die again and again. However, a new focus on swordplay over role-playing, as well as the unique feudal Japan setting, gives Sekiro a flavor all its own. Just make sure not to snap your Steam Deck in half when you mistime a critical parry.

Stray is a game where you play as a cat. Sure, it’s also an intriguing cyberpunk adventure full of neat puzzles and beautiful backgrounds. But above all else, it’s a game where you control a cute kitty, jumping and scratching and meowing all over the place. Play it on Steam Deck, the most pet-like PC. 

This shockingly good beat 'em up game by developers DotEmu, Guard Crush Games, and LizardCube takes everything that fans loved about the original Streets of Rage trilogy and adds wonderful contemporary touches. Featuring a diverse cast of new and returning martial artists looking to clean up a fictional city's mean streets from a criminal syndicate, Streets of Rage 4 offers the hard-hitting combat, dreary urban environments, and sheer fun that's defined the series since 1991. Even better, Streets of Rage 4's wall splats, supers, and combo system give it fighting game elements that create incredibly satisfying depth.

PlatinumGames sat down and thought to themselves, “What if Bayonetta was also Gears of War?” The result was Vanquish, one of the most memorable shooters ever made. To succeed on the battlefield, you’ll need more than just good aim. Numerous acrobatic abilities, from lightspeed knee-sliding to bullet-time slo-mo, turn firefights into bullet ballet.

The thrill-a-minute Windjammers 2 is a sports game with a fighting game's heart. DotEmu's sequel to the cult classic Neo Geo game delivers the same core, joyous flying disc action as its predecessor, but adds new offensive and defensive moves, as well as rollback netcode, to the strategic mix. In a nice touch, cross-platform play between PC and Xbox keeps the player base active and strong.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon begins a bold, new journey for Sega’s crime epic. You don’t need to know what happened in the previous games to appreciate this one. After all, your character just got out of jail, so he doesn’t know anything, either. And if you weren’t interested in Yakuza’s beat-'em-up gameplay, now you can enjoy a traditional turn-based RPG in-between the melodramatic cutscenes. The slower gameplay makes this a long game, but you can chip away at it whenever you want on Steam Deck.