Gaming has never been more expensive. We’re here to investigate why, and help you play more while spending less. Welcome to GameSpot Cheap Week.
It’s no secret that PC gaming has gotten extraordinarily expensive in recent years, with components reaching record-high prices due to a perfect storm of factors. The days of solid-state drives and RAM being sold for reasonable prices feel well and truly over, but the good news is you don’t need a monster rig to enjoy some of the best PC games out there. A good game is a good game, even if it doesn’t make your PC cooling system emit gusts of air hot enough to melt the skin on your hands.
For GameSpot’s first-ever Cheap Week, we’re looking at experiences that can entertain you for hours on end and don’t require cutting-edge hardware. If you’ve been rocking the same mid-range laptop since 2016 or you recently got an entry-level PC before prices went through the roof, these games should run just fine on your system.
What’s our baseline?
For this list, we looked at games that can comfortably be played with zero or few graphical concessions. We’re talking games that run fine at 1080p–preferably at 60fps–are compatible with a wide range of configurations, and are contemporary. Ideally, if you have 4GB of RAM, an old-school GPU like the Nvidia 1060, or an onboard chipset that you’d find in most laptops, these games should work just fine on them.
Balatro
It’s just a game of poker–how engaging could it be? Several hours later, you find yourself still glued to your screen in Balatro, wondering where all the time has gone as you boot up yet another hand in this poker roguelike. Balatro is game design perfected, a gauntlet of cards where every run tasks you with obtaining an ever-increasing score while various hurdles are thrown in your way. A deckbuilder with teeth, you’ll use special Joker cards to sidestep the rules of poker, and every win feels immensely satisfying. Considering that the PC requirements are incredibly low, this is one game where you get the most bang for your buck.
Note: Integrated Media Company–the group that owns GameSpot’s parent company Fandom–has proposed to acquire a majority ownership of Balatro publisher Playstack.
Slay the Spire 1 and 2
Even though Slay the Spire 2 has usurped its place as the go-to deckbuilding roguelike, there’s still plenty of magic in the original Slay the Spire. Setting a benchmark for its genre, Slay the Spire is a delicious tactical puzzle that rewards players who think several steps ahead to outwit enemies. A pioneer of its time, the game still looks fantastic thanks to its signature art direction, and those eye-catching visuals won’t tax your PC too much.
And if you fall in love with that game? Then you’ll want to check out its sequel, which doubles down on all of its best ideas, throws in innovative multiplayer, and has low PC requirements to boot.
Hades
Supergiant Games made a name for itself with story-driven games, and Hades is often considered to be one of its best-ever projects. Marrying the idea of roguelike action with a narrative that expands with each new run, Hades also features gorgeous, hand-drawn art that complements its fast and fluid action. The game’s emphasis on failing upward also makes it feel consistently rewarding to play, while its soundtrack is a combo of wicked and divine beats that’ll push you to escape the bowels of the underworld.
Dave the Diver
With a nostalgic pixel-art style that’s easy on the ol’ CPU, Dave the Diver offers two distinctive gameplay experiences that are perfectly fused together. Half of the game tasks you with exploring an ocean full of delectable fish and monsters, and once you’ve secured your deadly catch, it’s time to whip up some meals inside a busy sushi kitchen. It’s quirky, full of fun storylines, and the cycle of progression makes it hard to put down once it gets its hooks into you.
Factorio
Another great PC game that’s all about the gameplay loop, Factorio is an endlessly satisfying grind to build optimized machines. As a crash-landed survivor saddled with mining resources, Factorio quickly teaches you about its interconnected gameplay systems, from factory lines to power grids, and in the years since it was released, the game’s community has released numerous mods to improve on an already fantastic experience. The low-res visuals are also a treat, allowing for the game to run on extremely modest setups while you marvel at the sprawling network of conveyor belts that you’ve built.
Dredge
Dredge might look like a simple fishing game and boat-management simulator, but beneath the surface, it’s full of unsettling, Lovecraftian horror. That sense of dread and its gameplay loops made it a big hit when it arrived a few years ago, and the tension of navigating across a hostile ocean full of supernatural threats made it stand out. Those vibes, quickly shifting from daytime coziness to nighttime dread, make for a compelling experience, while the game’s eerie mystery will also spur you on to see the end of the story.
A Little to the Left
Another great game that transforms minimalist art into eye-catching levels, A Little to the Left is the ideal game for anyone who enjoys keeping their personal world tidy. A puzzle game that taps into the satisfying need to properly arrange things, it features playful chaos initiated by a mischievous cat and multiple stages where you organize things based on shape, weight, and various other factors. The pastel visuals make for a calming game, and best of all, one that won’t melt your GPU.
Stardew Valley
One of the greatest pioneers of gaming’s cozy era, Stardew Valley taps into that primal urge to leave the rat race behind and settle down for a peaceful life. Fans say that it re-energized the stale genre of farming games, as its combination of Harvest Moon-inspired mechanics and player-friendly ideas made the idea of establishing an agricultural empire more approachable than ever before. Stardew Valley has also expanded with several free DLC drops over the years, and the lo-fi visuals make it easily accessible on a wide range of systems. (You can enjoy a variety of mods, including a great voice mod, too.)
Minecraft
With hundreds of millions of sales over the years, Minecraft has cemented itself as an evergreen classic. It’s a showcase of creativity, as players have used the game’s crafting tools to create incredible worlds, machines, and experiences for everyone to discover, and every day offers a chance for something new. Its graphics might look simple, but that’s part of the secret sauce that has allowed Minecraft to remain relevant and accessible to multiple generations of players.
Vampire Survivors
Out of all the “just one more turn” games on this list, Vampire Survivors reigns supreme amongst them. The bullet-heaven game–or “survivaton” as its creators now refer to it–has come a long way since it first debuted in the early 2020s, but the thrill of transforming into a warrior who can slay thousands of monsters in a single run hasn’t been diminished in the slightest. Deceptively simple to look at and play, there’s a dimension of depth to this low-res game, as well as a sense of satisfaction that’s hard to beat when you’re watching an explosion of damage numbers on your screen.
Into the Breach
The chances of a AAA Pacific Rim game where you get to cancel the apocalypse are pretty slim, but at the very least, we have Into the Breach (the rare game to get a 10 in GameSpot’s review). While Guillermo del Toro’s cinematic masterpiece clearly inspires the idea of mechs vs. kaiju, it’s the direction that Into the Breach takes that makes it feel special. Its turn-based action gives you clarity about the enemies’ upcoming actions, and combined with the ability to manipulate their positioning to make them attack each other, gives you the opportunity to feel like a genius as you turn back the tides of destruction and keep civilians safe. It looks like it’d be right at home on an NES console, but surprisingly, the pixelated visuals do a bang-up job at emphasizing how the end of the world is only a few bad turns away.
Age of Empires 2: HD Edition
The HD edition of Age of Empires 2 hits the sweet spot for fun and accessibility on a wide range of systems, and 27 years later, the game is still a masterclass in real-time strategy design. Thanks to the HD upgrade, the old-school visuals look better than ever, and the years of content drops have made an already meaty game even bigger with new campaigns and civilizations.
Papers, Please
We’ve all been at the mercy of bureaucracy at one point in our lives, but in Papers, Please, you’re the one enforcing diplomatic red tape (or not). Papers, Please gives you the final say when your passport checkpoint is visited by refugees aiming to escape from their wartorn countries. It’s the kind of game that uses its minimalist design to be weirdly satisfying, as there’s a thrill to the art of juggling passport inspections with heart-wrenching ethical dilemmas.
Celeste
You’ll die, you’ll cry, and you’ll try again as Celeste’s punishing difficulty and instant respawns will keep you in front of your screen for many an hour. Both brutal and forgiving thanks to its generous respawn points, Celeste is all about small victories as you inch closer to the summit of a treacherous mountain. There’s a sense of joy when you finally clear a jump, and this masterclass in level design is still a striking exploration of mental health and dealing with tragedy.
Turbo Overkill
The best boomer-shooter games don’t just rely on nostalgia to keep you entertained: They offer a few modern ideas to the retro-inspired formula, as well. Turbo Overkill is a prime example of blending ’90s action with modern-day hyper-fast movement mechanics, and the glue that holds the whole thing together is a chainsaw slide that never gets old and keeps you in the fight. Even though it’s pulling from classic games for its visuals, Turbo Overkill looks surprisingly good in action, and it runs comfortably on a barebones setup to boot.
Dead Cells
The late 2010s gave birth to several brilliant metroidvanias, and it’s downright criminal that Dead Cells doesn’t get enough praise for how it expertly blended that classic genre with clever twists on the roguelike formula. The goal was simple: You’d guide a reanimated corpse across a treacherous island in search of an escape. With each level becoming progressively more dangerous and guarded by lethal bosses, Dead Cells requires you to have quick reflexes and an eye for buildcrafting as you choose various weapons and steadily transform into the ultimate killing machine. Full of compelling gameplay and beautifully designed levels, each run is a desperate dash toward freedom that keeps you invested until the bitter end.
Capcom Arcade Collections
Compilations of classics from yesteryear aren’t a novel idea, but few studios revisit past glories as Capcom does. The company has released several editions of its arcade hits–ranging from the Arcade Stadium to the Fighting Collection–and each one does a brilliant job at making you feel like you’re about to dump several quarters into a nearby arcade cabinet. The presentation is spot-on, the games won’t tax your PC, and you can customize the experience with quality-of-life features that you wish you’d had all those years ago when you first set foot in your local arcade.
Cult of the Lamb
A game about sects and violence, Cult of the Lamb is a dark delight. It might look cute on the surface, but this little combo of roguelike action and cult management is full of blood, gore, and the occasional sacrifice of one of your followers to a dark deity. Those cartoonish visuals allow for Cult of the Lamb to run on a variety of systems, and even though they aren’t too taxing, they’re still an impressive showcase of strong art direction coupled with fun gameplay. Grab the recent expansions, Unholy Alliance and Woolhaven, and prepare to build a flock that can serve your dark designs.
FTL: Faster Than Light
Plenty of games have put you in command of a spaceship, but in FTL: Faster Than Light, the danger of outer-space exploration is thoroughly hammered home. It’s a game that hits the perfect balance of permanent death with rewarding meta-progression gameplay systems. The tension it creates is unmatched, and each playthrough will keep you on the edge of your seat. Thanks to its simple but effective 2D design, you can comfortably play this game on everything from a modern PC to a laptop that’s old enough to burn CDs.
Among Us
Exploding in popularity during the COVID-19 lockdowns, Among Us is a viral sensation that’s still going strong to this day–and it has a great animated series tie-in! Designed to be playable on even the most venerable of PCs, that availability makes Among Us easy to jump into, while its treacherous gameplay and easy-to-learn mechanics make it even easier to recommend.
Resident Evil 4
Sure, the remake of Resident Evil 4 might be one of the greatest games of all time, but don’t count the original out, as it still holds up pretty well to this day. A good-looking game amplified by its vintage charm and low hardware demands, Resident Evil 4 is still a blast of survival-action fun. And if you do decide to upgrade one day? There are plenty of player-made mods that elevate the visuals and drop in some impressive improvements.
Disclosure: GameSpot and Fanatical are both owned by Fandom.
