You can get numerous role-playing games, strategy games, racing games and more with huge discounts on Steam right now. We recommend 7 of our favourite games to you.
It”s that time again: A big special sale on Steam has opened its doors! This time publisher THQ does the honours and offers its games with up to 90 percent discount until 18 August. Since there”s pretty much everything from strategy to racing games to role-playing games, it”s easy to lose track of what”s really worth buying.
But don”t despair! That”s why we”ve put together 7 of our favourite games that you can currently get for cheap on Steam and that we can heartily recommend! (Completely unselfishly, of course, and not because we can finally convert people to our favourite games again. Ahem.) Maybe there”s a new favourite for you, too.
Table of Contents
Desperados 3
(Genre: Real-time tactics – Release: 2020 – Developer: Mimimi Games – Price & Discount: 15 Euro (70 percent discount))
~ (Dani) : Desperados 3 has been with me through so many lunch breaks. That”s probably why I always associate it with pasta salad. But also with terrific real-time tactics – and I don”t like real-time tactics at all! But you know what I do like (apart from pasta salad)? Cowboys!
And that”s why Desperados 3 caught me with its lasso and I couldn”t stop. Every lunch break I played through a mission. Well, at least at the beginning. Later, a mission probably took me a little longer than a pasta salad break.
I love the atmosphere, I love the characters, who are absolutely unique in terms of personality and abilities. But most of all, I love that each level feels like a big puzzle that I solve backwards.
For example, I know: my end goal is to kill this one man. Why can”t you? His door is locked, there is an eyewitness in his office and there are two guards patrolling outside. So I have to take out the two guards first. Why is that not possible at the moment? Because they have eyes on each other and one of them would raise the alarm. Also, there is a dog lying in wait on the way to you … and so on. Well, listening to me, maybe I do like real-time tactics a bit.
Spellforce 3 Reforced
(Genre: Real-time tactics – Release: December 2021 – Developer: Grimlore Games – Price & Discount: 10 Euro (75 percent discount))
~ (Stephan) : Quite curious: A game that was actually released in 2017 is one of my most beautiful discoveries of 2022. Five years ago, I had put the strategy-role-playing hybrid Spellforce 3 aside in disappointment, but now the 40 or so hours until the final sequence flew by. How could this happen?
Well, for one thing, a kind of Director”s Cut was released on 6 December 2021 with the Reforced update, which, with massive changes to menus, balancing and gameplay, made Spellforce 3 exactly the game I had hoped for five years ago.
For another, no other title fuses my two favourite genres of strategy and RPG so consistently and uncompromisingly. The role-playing elements include a deep character system, tons of equipment and heroes that are as interesting as they are characterful. And in the strategy area, Spellforce 3 doesn”t have to hide either, with its three races, complex base building and spectacular mass battles.
The whole thing is framed by a thoroughly classic, but also thoroughly exciting and adult fantasy story – written by the Enderal author. And the tabletop look with its believable proportions still makes a lot of difference.
If you”re still sceptical, I recommend that you only take a look at the main game, which is reduced to 10 euros. The best deal for me, however, is the so-called Loyalty Pack, which for 20 euros also includes the very good (and individually discounted) add-ons Soul Harvest and Fallen God, providing you with a total of 60-80 hours of first-class fantasy entertainment.
One Hand Clapping
(Genre:Puzzle-Platformer – Release:December 14, 2021 – Developer: Bad Dream Games – Price & Discount:10 Euro (34 percent discount))
~ (Thomas) : For the vast majority of games, it”s enough to have either the controller or a mouse and keyboard ready. Without your voice (and a microphone!), however, you”re stuck in One Hand Clapping – don”t worry, if you”re not good at singing, just hum a little! Because as you journey through a colourful, creatively designed world with a host of smaller challenges, you can”t do without a little homemade music. The tasks of the six very differently designed biomes not only require a bit of jumping skill, but also challenge you to use your voice as a tool for the puzzles based on rhythm and harmonies.
Your character can only overcome some obstacles by singing or humming a sequence of notes. In the game world, symbolic images show you how the individual notes should sound in relation to each other – for example, leaves arranged at different heights. If you then follow this instruction by singing or humming a tone, a platform is created that you can use to continue your way over a precipice. If you are not interested in music, you often have no connection at all to the sound of your own voice or to how little it actually takes to form a beautiful melody. One Hand Clapping challenges you to try it out, even if you have no prior musical knowledge at all.
Wreckfest
(Genre: Action racing game – Release: 2018 – Developer: Bugbear – Price & Discount: 12 Euro (60 percent discount))
~ (Kevin): Racing games are not really my thing, but Flatout 2 always has a place in my heart. I owe Flatout 2 countless sleepless LAN party nights, laughing and screaming as we wrecked hundreds of cars!
From the makers of Flatout 1 and 2, this racing game has almost everything that made the originals so good: spectacular physics, a damage model that really more than deserves the name, and tuning options that are beautifully arcadic yet not meaningless.
Admit: At the Early Access launch I wasn”t quite convinced myself. But in the meantime, even the fiddly menus are finally clean and intuitive, the driving behaviour is grounded and comprehensible, and thanks to the Steam Workshop you have lightning-fast access to dozens of great mods.
So if you just want to really let loose on the racetrack and ram the competition off the track, then the 12 euros for Wreckfest are a really great bargain – especially in multiplayer with friends. Just like Flatout 2 back in the day.
Darksiders Blades & Whip Franchise Pack
(Genre:Action-Adventure – Release:2010 – 2018 – Developer: Vigil Games / Gunfire Games – Price & Discount:25 Euro (82 percent discount))
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~ (Flo) :Darksiders 2 did everything bigger – but not necessarily better. Still, the sequel captivated me in front of the screen, after all, protagonist Death is just a cool sock! And Darksiders 3 may have its little problems when it comes to emulating the popular Soulslikes, but here again the series played to its eternal strengths: A fascinating game world, an interesting lore around Nephilim, demons, heaven, hell and a pretty demolished earth. Mankind? It”s almost completely gone to pot and roams the ruins of former metropolises as undead flesh decoration.
Do you like the Legend of Zelda series? Do you like gloomy scenarios in which the action is sometimes intense? Puzzles, loot and a game world that is full of secrets and whose atmosphere makes even angels whoop with delight? Then I advise you to give the Darksiders franchise a chance!
For just 25 euros, you can get three insanely good games and become part of a passionate, friendly worldwide community that waits anew for a sign of life for the fourth part at every THQ Nordic event. It”s about time!
We Are Football
(Genre: Football Manager – Release: June 10, 2021 – Developer: Winning Streak Games – Price & Discount: 14 Euro (60 percent discount))
- ~ (Michael): Actually, I”m a die-hard fan of the Football Manager games by Sega and Sports Interactive – but I also had fun with We Are Football! Although I had a lot to complain about in my review, my playing time has nevertheless continued to grow and now stands at over 100 hours.
You just have to know what you”re getting into: We Are Football is a classic German football manager in the style of Anstoss 3, which means that you also build the stadium environment including sausage stands and toilets, while the results of the game calculation are subject to a fairly large random factor. Unfortunately, there are no realistic games to be seen here – in comparison to the FM. But maybe you don”t want that at all, but only a modernised version of Anstoss 3 – and then you can definitely grab We Are Football. Especially with the database patch from FM-Zocker.net you will get exactly what you might have been waiting for a long time.
El Hijo
(Genre: Sneak game – Release: 2020 – Developer: Honig Studios – Price & Discount: 10 Euro (50 percent discount))
~ (Sachith) : Whether it”s Hunt: Showdown, Red Dead or even Desperados 3: Western games are quite something. We”ve already raved about western games in the Plus Podcast! El Hijo also belongs to this setting, but does without an otherwise very present focus: violence. You are not involved in a fight between natives and colonists, you don”t hunt animals to extinction or harm anyone in any other way. You are just a little boy who wants to go back to his mum.
The perfect title, then, for the smaller players among us. This is not only evident in the lack of violence, but also in the gameplay. You scurry around with quite a bit of ease and for sneak experts there will rarely be any real challenges. But El Hijo is all the better for a child”s first taps.
The story probably won”t knock the socks off either young or old, but it is told wordlessly with beautiful pictures. The entire graphic style of El Hijo is simply cute! Westerns don”t always have to be bloody, deadly serious and full of violence. For 10 euros, a trip to the Mexican western can be worthwhile.
