When it comes to game deals, there's no better time to pick up games than in the summer. While plenty of people are gone on summer vacation, just as many are at home with nothing to do, giving them plenty of time to sink dozens of hours into new games.
As ever, Steam has put a wide array of titles on sale for their Summer Sale. There's no better time to pick up the AAA titles that gamers didn't get when they were full price. However, there's also no better time to find some underrated gems and give those a try for a steep discount.
10 Dragon's Dogma Is Still Best In Class For Fantasy Combat
Released by Capcom in 2012, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen is the experience most people are thinking of when they imagine D&D RPG scenarios. Players are put into a massive open world where their job is to take down a dragon. But there's a lot more that happens along the way, as this is a fully explorable world with plenty of characters to meet and quests to take on.
But what makes Dragon's Dogma different from other games is the combat--giant enemies in the game can be climbed and attacked in weak spots rather than players swiping at their legs. Currently, the game is on sale for less than $5, and now's the perfect time to try the game before the sequel releases. By the end, anime fans will be begging for more fantasy series like Dragon's Dogma.
9 Emily is Away <3 Is The Perfect Encapsulation Of 2000s-Era Online Culture
Developer Kyle Seeley put together an excellent series of indie titles with the Emily is Away series. Each one is an interactive story that's told through different social media platforms. The original game will speak to children of the early 2000s, who grew up during a time when AIM didn't just stand for Advanced Idea Mechanics.
The latest in the series, Emily is Away <3, was released last year. It moved beyond the AIM aesthetic to tell the story of friendships, dating, and more through classic Facebook.
8 Life Is Strange: True Colors Provides A Beautiful World Players Will Want To Spend Time In
Life is Strange: True Colors evolves the Life is Strange style of play to do something different. Instead of it being an episodic story, players experience the entire story all at once. This time, the protagonist is Alex Chen, a woman with the psychic power of Empathy, which lets her feel the emotions of anyone nearby her.
Alex travels to the city of Haven Springs to live with her older brother Gabe when an accident takes Gabe away from her. The remainder of the game is as much about the relationships the characters have in Haven Springs as it is discovering what happened to her brother. Currently on sale for $30, True Colors is a must-play for people who care about rich, engaging stories.
7 Road 96 Is A Choice-Driven Story About A Country About To Collapse
Road 96 is a procedurally told adventure story about a country on the brink of massive social upheaval. Protagonists are randomly chosen, with only one thing tying them together--they're all teenagers, trying to get out of the country. Though the dangers of being caught are great, the chance to experience true freedom is too important.
Every protagonist will meet a multitude of characters on their journey, who all have their own lives and stories, affected by Road 96. Though the politics can be a little too obvious sometime, this is a game anyone who loves adventure stories will fall in love with. With the game going for 50% off, players can discover the adventure of Road 96 for just $10.
6 Lake Allows Players To Deliver Mail In A Small Town In The Late '80s
Meredith Weiss is a forty-something woman who's just wrapped up work on her company's biggest software release ever: Addit '87. Before her company can pull her into doing more work, Meredith decides to take a vacation and return to her hometown, Providence Oaks.
There, she takes over her dad's job as a mail carrier. Though mail delivery isn't nearly so smooth these days, everything is a little different in the time before online two-day shipping. Lake is an ode to pre-internet society and a story about how it's never too late to chase one's passions. Lake is available on Steam now for just $13.
5 Horizon Chase Turbo Is A Classic Arcade Type Racer
Aquiris' Horizon Chase Turbo is a throw-back to the days of classic '90s arcade racers. The game's levels, level design, and cars are all intended to make players feel like they're back playing a 16-bit racing game again. Though the game is meant to be played with friends, there is a single-player mode as well.
In the single-player mode, players can travel through the game's many tracks to see the world, and defeat everyone on open roads across four dozen cities and over 100 tracks. For those who prefer playing with friends in real life, this game embraces split-screen co-op, just like the old days. With the game going for 75% off, people can pick this up for only $5.
4 Gujian 3 Offers A Wuxia-Inspired Open World RPG
Gujian 3 feels too good to be true. Usually, titles like this wind up being some form of multiplayer game, whether it's an MMO or a battle royale. But Gujian 3 is a straightforward single-player RPG set in a massive world. The game offers plenty of things to do besides enjoy its story and breathtaking environments, though.
Players can go farming, explore, and even engage in card games. Gujian 3's biggest drawback is its translation is somewhat unreliable, but it's still a solid experience all around. Plus, when the game is going for 70% off at only $9, it's pretty hard to complain.
3 OPUS: Echo of Starsong Is A Visual Novel About Deep Space
Developed by SIGONO Inc, Opus: Echo of Starsong is an amazing visual novel set in deep space. Within this universe, massive conflict breaks out over asteroids known as Starsongs, which contain massive reserves of power in them. When a young man named Jun is tossed out of his society, he decides to prove himself by seeking out Starsongs on his own.
Though he seemingly has no chance, hope arrives in the form of a young woman named Eda. Eda has the ability to hear Starsongs, and the two of them meeting leads to a journey across the stars in search of more Starsongs.
2 Greedfall Is A BioWare Style Action RPG
After trying to get a proper RPG off the ground several times before, developer Spiders finally figured things out with their game Greedfall. Setting their game world in a colonialist-era alternate history, the protagonist is a person seeking the cure for a strange disease ravaging his home country.
He hopes to discover a cure in the new world but is pulled into conflicts between multiple sides once he reaches the new world. Greedfall feels like a BioWare RPG from the action-style combat to the romance that happens between party members, and it's a steal at $14.
1 Weird West Is An Isometric RPG Set In A Supernatural Version Of The American West
Developer WolfEye Studio came up with a great idea in Weird West, a game that merges the Wild West with the supernatural. In Weird West, the player has access to multiple different characters, all of whom have their own stories in the wasteland.
With a focus on choice-based gameplay, every decision the player makes matters and can affect the player's story at the end. Though not a perfect game, this was an excellent first try from a new studio, and well worth the $30 sale price.