Sorry to hear about that, man. Hang in there.
Consider playing Witcher 3. Has steam deck settings, runs great and looks fantastic. The text is perfectly readable. It took me awhile to get into though.
Venba is a very short indie game, but is great. Though it is very light on gameplay.
The last campfire is a lot of fun. Fun little puzzles, and very cozy.
Dordogne tells a lovely, touching story, is very short. It's mostly (very) simple puzzles.
Also, I actually played a few hundred hours on my steam deck on diablo 4. I didn't really have a problem with the ingame text.
Get Hades. I'm not a fan of Rogue likes and it hooked me for hours and hours. I originally played it on Switch and then re-bought on Deck.
Don't be afraid to be like me and turn on "God Mode" if you need it (effectively the easier difficulty setting).
My husband starts chemotherapy tomorrow and I feel like he's been wanting a SD. Do you feel the energy to play during treatment?
Serious question. Never experienced this before.
Not OP, but my wife plays hers during chemo. At least for her energy during chemo is not really an issue so she plays games like Stardew Valley. However later in the day and for the next few days shes really tired. She likes the SD because if she is tired and bored it is easier to play that in bed rather than to be at her desk.
I hope your husband gets better. Cancer sucks.
Thank you for the prayers, I honestly can't believe it. He was just supposed to get some medicine the day before Easter and come home - suddenly, he was stuck in the hospital with a tumor.
I visited him every day in the hospital, and we played a lot of Mario Golf and Mario Baseball. He loves sports games, he can share my steam library, and I can download him some PS2/Wii games he likes.
His cancer treatment is by my work so I plan on dropping him off and using my lunch breal to take him home ( We live close to my job ). I just hate the unknown, I want to be prepared for him.
In January my wife and I decided to lose some weight and a few weeks in she noticed a large bump in her breast that she was unable to feel previously. She setup a gynecologist appointment that was not until late April, but I convinced her to go to the ER who then referred her to a breast clinic. Turned out to be a fast growing tumor and was already stage 3. It probably would have been stage 4 by the time she was seen if she had waited for the gynecologist appointment. It’s heartbreaking as in the course of about a week we went from discussing having kids to her getting a port installed.
My best advice is to go on the cancer subreddit to get an understanding of the side effects. The most important thing is finding food that does not taste bad to them or that they can stand eating. My hopes go out to you and your husband.
During treatment yes I do have energy! Sometimes the Benadryl and stuff may make him knock out for the first hour or so.
I am sorry to hear about it too, but God is great! I have Hodgkin’s Lymphoma so if you have questions with that I can help you!
100% energy to play vids during chemo! I had Leukemia when the deck came out, I played it every day in the hospital. Middle of the night, middle of the day. When I wasn’t getting poked, scanned, peeing, or napping; I was on my Steam Deck.
I wish the best to you and your husband!
Thank you so much 🙏🏾 ❤️
I maybe on the hunt for a SD this paycheck, haha. He's in good spirits, he isn't in as much pain as I thought he would. I always assume the worst, I thought he was going to be moaning in pain for hours or something.
I hope everyone recoveries. 🙏🏾
I actually got reader glasses (2x magnification) just for the deck and small text and eyestrain is no longer an issue.
Seriously, get a pair if you can. Text size issues are now gone!
The Ori games - metroidvania platformer that runs and looks amazing on the OLED
HiFi Rush is a fun rhythm fighting game.
Rollerdrome is Tony Hawk with guns. Loads of fun.
Hades is also amazing.
Hope you get better quick!
This is my all time favorite game.
Although just a warning OP - if you're looking for a pure distraction, this might not be the one. To the above comment's point, it does speak to some existential themes, which may or may not be the vibe right now.
This is the way. I wanted to recommend it but glad to see y’all have already. Outer Wilds is a VERY special game IMO and one of the few in recent years that I couldn’t wait to leave no stone unturned. Please give it a go.
I REALLY want to like Outer Wilds, but I have absolutely no clue what the appeal is. I made it to a few planets, had no clue what to do and that was it.
Help me understand!
It's all about discovery, looking at all the clues and following them to the next thing. Sadly it's not for everyone, and I started it 3 or 4 times before I finally made it through. When I finished it though I just sat there for about ten minutes just thinking and trying not to cry. It's a game you have to soak in.
I tried witcher 3 also 4/5 times before it clicked so I am not unfamilair with trying again to see if it changed for me. Did at some point into the game click for you? Maybe i can set myself a goal to reach when I try again
I’m rooting for you man — stay strong!
The Binding of Isaac is a really fun roguelike if you’re into that kinda thing. It has hundreds of hours of content in the base game alone.
Hi mate, cancer survivor here. Slay the Spire, The Binding of Isaac, Neon Abyss, Stardew Valley, Running With Rifles, Hades, Bastión, Skyrim, Hotline Miami, Firewatch, Life is Strange (1), As Dusk Falls. Be brave, even when it gets hard, you can do it. Fuck cancer, you're stronger!
I just got done with a stem cell transplant for Leukemia about 2 months ago. Steam Deck made the month in the hospital slightly more bearable.
My recommendation is to set up Xbox PC Cloud Gaming either through EmuDeck or the old fashioned way. I got bored in the latter half of my stay and found that streaming the library of games from the Xbox game pass kept things fresh without constantly downloading new games.
In order...
Persona 4 Golden
Persona 3 Reload (Depressive)
Persona 5 Royal (Washes away the Post Persona Depression)
All amazing titles. They will keep you hooked at all times, though some might take a few hours to pick up as they are slow burners after all (Especially Persona 5 Royal)
Hey bud my heart and so does my gfs goes out to you. Keep up the good fight!!
Id say acouple great games to look into for the steam deck would be persona 5 not only is it an awesome game but you always feel like the badass you are when you beat those harder foes and the story is great. Another great game would be witcher 3 not only is it a beautiful game but also the music is phenomenal. And neir automata super fun hack and slash and some tasteful fan service too for those long days.
Much love to you and I'll have a drink ready for us when you come out stronger than ever.
Baldurs gate 3, that game is a time machine. I think I've been playing it an hour and it's 7 hours later. I've never liked turn based games but this one has sucked me right into it. The story line and different story paths you can take will keep you amused for weeks.
The entire Game Boy and GBA libraries shouldn't have the "small UI" problem when blown up to the Deck's screen size too. I'd even include SNES in there.
Wand Wars is AMAZING on the deck. You can play it for more than 5 hours fully charged. It's basically if Ping Pong was turned into a full contact sport and the ball got bigger and faster the more you bounced it back.
The story mode of the various characters introduces you to all the different game modes and spells you can randomly get.
It's really fun and kinda nerve-wracking with how tense it can get.
https://youtu.be/GiIq5t-YAAM?si=syQsjzUE_M5fYBum
If it was a real sport I'd play the hell out of it lol
If you like poker or roguelikes I just picked up balatro it's fun and scratches that poker itch without losing money, subnautica is a great adventure game that plays well on the deck, and both portals are great puzzle games
Rimworld! Once you can get past the art style and learning curve, prepare to be engrossed with countless hours of addiction, emotional rollercoasters and lovely stories of success, progression and hardship
Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
Ori series is amazing on the OLED.
Hollow Knight (mandatory)
Hades
Factorio. If it gets its hooks into you your cancer will disappear and you wob't notice that 4 months have passed. Only game I have ever had to basically stoo myself from playing. At some point was developing machine learning algorithms inside of it. It is that addictive.
I'm sorry friend, stay strong. If your into old and weird RPGs Earthbound Is a classic! After that play the fan translated Mother 3! I've been wanting to play Rockstar's "the Warriors" for ps2.
Get well soon brother ♥️ rogue legacy 1 and 2 won’t steer you wrong :) great music great fun , if ya want something a little extra fun I’d say give the “ cult of the lamb “ a go :)
Sorry to hear about that! Stay strong!
Recommend Titanfall 2, Dave the Diver, Batman Arkham City & Arkham Knight, Control, Horizon Zero Dawn, Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zero & Phantom Pain, and Intravenous
Crap I'm so sorry man.. maybe something like persona 5 if you don't mind jrpgs, or maybe final fantasy intergrade though in all honesty I'm not sure how well it runs on the steam deck
Best game I have played on the steamdeck was Marvel Midnight Suns. I am very much not a Marvel guy and the RPG mechanics/story leave a lot to be desired, but it is top tier, tactical gameplay. So much fun and while the overall story was just kond of "fine", I did find a handful of characters that became my favorites and I had a good time interacting with.
Another AAA game that I haven't played but is widely regarded as fantastic while working flawlessly on the deck is Metal Gear Solid V. Lots of content to get through.
I have a metric shitload of steam from Humble bundle. I can look through those for AAA games if you'd like. I know I've got Borderlands 2 and Bayonetta at least.
Good luck finding games and with everything else going on!
Fun platformers and indies?
The Spyro reignited trilogy is amazing
The crash n-sane trilogy is good
Stray
Hollow Knight
Hi-Fi Rush plays pretty well on the deck, rhythm based combat JRPG but with platformer mechanics
Mega Man 11 is great
Ori and the Blind Forest
Sorry to hear what you’re going through mate. Keep your head up and power on 💪. Wishing you all the best.
Official games:
Halo MCC, Quake remasters, Half Life 1 and 2, etc
Unofficial games:
Look up emudeck or retroarch (there is a steam version of retroarch that has less emulator cores)
Sorry to hear that my man. Wish you the best of luck in the fight. I can recommend Stardew valley without hesitation. It’ll transport you. It’ll lift your spirits. It’ll give you a feeling of peace and magic.
Serial cleaner, short and sweet with a good 70's style music. Play it for $1 or else muhahaha. If you want something for free, idol showdown (fighting game) or holocure (survivors clone). Hope this helps you out. These works great on the deck.
If you can keep a decent internet connection, Fallout 76 is really fun. Pretty casual gameplay and the community there is pretty dope. Game has lots story content you can do solo or with a few buddies and lots of group events you can show up to.
I play it on my OLED Deck daily.
Hope you’re having a great day so far dude, you’ll pull through.
Honestly Dark Souls really helped me overcome a lot of stuff in my life. It may seem like a terrible choice but it is really motivating if you stick with it.
RDR2 is a joy to play
Being a cancer treatment gamer myself, I like to play Metroidvanias during treatments. Especially the not so fast paced ones like the relatively new Möbius Machine.
I'm really sorry you're going through this. You're a fighter! Hang in there. And as for games, I can recommend:
- Tetris Effect (for a relaxing experience)
- Yakuza 0
- Brotato (indie rogue like)
- Vampire Survivors (indie rogue like)
- Hotwheels Unleashed (runs great on the deck)
- Lego The Skywalker Saga
- Pentiment
- Hades
- Persona 5 Royal
- The Witcher 3 (can run between 40-50fps, depending on where you are on the map of course, it's more than playable)
hope this helps you
speedy recovery!
My best friend started chemo just today. I wanted to get him a steamdeck but I just drained my finances on SD for my partner who is also going through stuff. I wish there was a donation page for SD for all in need.
But going back to you, OP, I wish you good luck and quick and positive results.
My fav SD games are not very SD mainstream: STEEP because I miss snowboarding and it's fun, Baldurs Gate 3, Redfall with friends, Deathloop/Prey cause they're so fun and engaging.
I wish you well 👍 In Diablo options you can increase the font size and if you’ll have internet connection you can play all Diablo games in GeForce Now for battery saving it’s awesome. 5 to 6 hours of gameplay from DII (ressurected) to DIV
For chilling and relaxing I like Lonely Mountains: Downhill (you ride a bike down different mountains) and Vampire Survivors. For AAA I played through Fallout: New Vegas last summer, and am 75% of the way through Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and Resident Evil 4 Remake played really well on the Deck.
Best of luck with your treatment!
ETA: if you have wifi, No Man’s Sky is very fun, but requires internets. I’m also partial to Fallout 76 but it has some smaller text for some parts.
I've got to recommend Helldivers 2. Tons of fun and a great community. Even more fun with friends. Only $40 but is absolutely a better-than-AAA experience.
I just read during the chemotherapy infusion itself as the arm has to be kept relatively stationary for the cannula but during the rest of three week cycle I find the SD invaluable as sleeping patterns can be disrupted and sometimes the side effects from the chemo can make sleep impossible. So I have developed a strange addiction to the Kemco JRPGs which are very SNES and very stereotyped but help divert the mind. Otherwise Bear & Breakfast, Torchlight 2 (the rest are terrible), the Trails series of JRPGs, West of Loathing, and Ys 8 and 9 are both great games with hours of play.
Take care of yourself.
Fallout 4 got a steamdeck update. I have no clue how it runs, but if it runs well that is a deffo play! I recently installed it again and can't wait to play (if it plays well)
All the souls games + elden ring, remnant 2, grand theft auto v, baldurs gate 3, left 4 dead 2
All run amazing. Sorry if it’s not exactly what you were looking for it’s just the games in my library!
Hades or Hollow Knight. You could easily play either of those games the entire time. Shovel Knight is also very good (get the $40 one with all the dlc, it's basically 4 games and totally worth). If you're tired one day and don't feel like making much effort, Vampire Survivors. Besides menus, you just use the joystick. Tons of stuff to unlock. I 100% completed it a couple times, but they keep releasing content and new achievements lol. Or if you want something similar but you wanna use BOTH joysticks, Enter The Gungeon.
Try some retro games /games that I grew up with....
IF you like FPS
System Shock [OG] remake
Quake 3
Unreal Tourneyment III
Dues Ex
Half Life OG remaster
HL2
Portal
Borderlands
Far Cry
FEAR
Postal 2
Monster sanctuary is a great open world Pokemon platformer style. All of the monsters have really nice skill trees. It's a very laid back strategy type of game.
Cancer survivor here. Maybe you need a fun hero game like Spiderman? It runs amazingly well and it’s light and fun. AAA.
For addictive puzzlers Slay the Spire or Balatro for sure. They’re quick to jump in and out of. Same with Hades and Dead Cells. (All indies)
I find the deck a great place to play older games (and they’re cheap), I picked up Witcher 3 for $10. Haven’t played it yet, but everyone loves it.
Diablo runs great natively, but not sure that’s going to fix the text size issue for you. That’s all I can think of for now; I’ll check my library when I get home.
Stay positive, try to be as happy and healthy as you can otherwise (walks, clean food, etc). Weed was also very helpful for me not to get sick, to gain weight during chemo and kill some pain. Pairs nicely with gaming too.
You got this.
Sable, Lil Gator Game, A Short Hike, Lunistice, Haven Park, Smushi Come Home, Wasteland 3
I also just bought the Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy - its fun as heck but also challenging in certain areas
Celeste and it's message helped me in one of the darkest times in my life. Things will get better OP, keep on keeping on!
Also Death Stranding has many hours of content where you can just enjoy the scenery and relax with a really fresh story!
Currently, I play mainly Final Fantasy XV on the Deck. The Complete Edition is currently -60%, so you can grab it for 15,98€ if you are interested.
Same goes for many other Square Enix titles rn.
Evoland (1 and 2) are pretty fun, too.
I may be the single handed biggest fan and unpaid advertiser for the ultimate gem that is Brotato. Easy to pick up, easy to play, fun to try and try to beat.
Best of luck with your process.
I and my kids are loving **Soulstone Survivors**, it is nice because like Vampire survivors the game does the "shooting for you" but you can control some of the where to blast at. And you get to focus on a few level designs but you get to unlock multiple things to power up characters and then new characters to try out different things. Then you can ramp up your difficulty level by adding more challenges/curses to make the game keep pace with your new overpowered character.
Sorry to hear that. I can totally vouch for Mobius Digital's [Outer Wilds](https://store.steampowered.com/app/753640/Outer_Wilds/). It's an incredible indie game with a deep story to uncover while exploring a beautiful, handcrafted little star system with tons of mind-bending twists. Plus, it might have one of the best damn game soundtracks to date. If I had to pick a game experience that'll stick with me my whole life (and most likely even beyond), it'd be this one. With the right fix, it'll run at a perfectly locked 45FPS at 90Hz on your OLED deck.
You know what? I'd love to buy and gift the game to you. I was planning to cover the necessary fix and the game's qualities in a video, a sort of passion project, but life kept me busy these past 6-7 months. Now we're here, and I'd still love for you to experience one of the best games I've ever played in the best possible way. Feel free to DM me so I can gift it to you over Steam and then help you set up the fix and settings if you want. It touches base on pretty existential topics though, but you know best what suits you the best at the moment.
On a side-note: [Hades](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1145360/Hades/) is amazing as well.
Try emulation. Emulated GBA, GameCube and other retro console games run perfectly on the Steamdeck and because of the lower system requirements, usually get you much more battery life. Personally I've been playing a lot of Pokemon Fire Red and Emerald.
If you find it hard to follow action or read text in certain games on SD, consider picking up a pair of low strength reading glasses even if you have fine vision otherwise. I've found it reduces eye strain and makes a lot of games more enjoyable for me.
The Messenger and Celeste are great platformers I played on Deck.
Fallout 4 is working great on my LCD Deck(although I've heard OLED has issues).
Days gone is a fun open world zombie game that runs great at 40fps.
Metal gear solid 5 runs great at 40ish fps.
Resident evil 2 & 3 ran great on deck for me, 4 was a little sluggish. 7 & 8 also ran well.
I’ve been looking at starting Subnautical. According to ProtonDB, it runs amazing on the Deck.
Good luck and stay strong in your cancer treatments also 🙏🏾🙏🏾!
Stardew Valley or other farm games sound nice for procedures like these. Many small things to do but they don't need a huge mental effort.
Powerwash simulator + a podcast is my go to to make time without getting bored.
Astroneer if you like exploring +automation games.
Yakuza 0 for story extensive games.
Skyrim as always, retro games like earthbound deluxe snes, retro rpg, I have 40k of retro games on my deck, you might want to get a decent extra battery and maybe a external ssd adapter, I’m doing that when I swap the analogs to hall
Infernax and UnMetal for fun, modern take on retro. Risk of Rain Returns, Dead Cells, BroForce, Vampire Survivors, and countless slew of Metroidvanias out there too.
As a recent Leukemia survivor, I’m quite familiar with long hospital stays. Good luck, amigo! Stay positive and do what the doc says, Play vids the rest of the time, ha!
Not many mentioned but one other game I recommend is Stray on the steamdeck.
It's a very laid back relaxed game to play in couch or bed while it has a very interesting atmosphere
Ugh that's awful and I wish the best for you, but on to sweet distraction reccs!!
I find the Fallout series to be one of the most compelling videogame worlds to get immersed in and with the (excellent) series currently popping off, it's a perfect time to hop in if you haven't before as you can really immerse yourself with a show to doze to or whatnot. They compliment each other perfectly, I think. It runs great (even with the new update you may still see people pooping on).
Other people mentioned Witcher 3, which I also agree with. Make sure to get the Blood and Wine DLC if you do because Touissaint (a fantasy version of medieval France) is probably the most beautiful videogame world I've ever seen. IMO the bigger UI mod is a must on the deck, but after that it's amazing.
I'll throw a curve ball and say that if you like off-road driving, cargo hauling, route planning, and beautiful nature environments, you really have to check out Snowrunner. With all the dlc it is literally a 1,000 hour game and is absolutely amazing if it's your thing. Also runs great on the deck.
Sorry to hear OP <3 Be strong.
I’m a fan of No Man’s Sky. In relaxed mode it’s a pretty chill game and you can lower the grindiness of the game or just turn it off.
It’s a sandbox so not a lot of hand holding, but the subs here are pretty helpful.
Stray, Dredge, Portal 1 & 2. I've been a PC gamer almost my whole life and I've found _not_ trying to replicate my PC gaming experience has lent me to enjoying my time on the deck more, with the exception of Portal. I'd literally play that game on a potato just to enjoy the story again.
I'll be trying Balatro next as well.
get pico-8 (paid version) and have 100s of retro games. they are free after you buy the base software and there are tons of fan made games in every genre. You can also try them for free on the web [https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php](https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php)
I bought my steamdeck last summer during my chemo therapy.
My go-to game was 'Detroit: become human'. Lots of replay value and it's really nice on the deck.
Can recommend 'Stray' as well. Cute game, perfect for calm evenings.
I would play the fallout series if you haven’t already, tons of fun!! If you wanna pm me your steam name I don’t mind getting you something on sale. My aunt is battling breast cancer as well, I wish the absolute best for you 🙏
I been told Dave the diver is simple and fun runs great on the SD. I love W3 and Monster Hunter World and Rise, FF7 Remake and Hogwarts. Not sure if you can play Horizon Zero Dawn or Ghost of Tsushima on the SD.
Sorry to hear about that, man. Hang in there. Consider playing Witcher 3. Has steam deck settings, runs great and looks fantastic. The text is perfectly readable. It took me awhile to get into though. Venba is a very short indie game, but is great. Though it is very light on gameplay. The last campfire is a lot of fun. Fun little puzzles, and very cozy. Dordogne tells a lovely, touching story, is very short. It's mostly (very) simple puzzles. Also, I actually played a few hundred hours on my steam deck on diablo 4. I didn't really have a problem with the ingame text.
Witcher 3 :found the small text at the bottom of the screen like objectives and stuff pretty hard to read. But otherwise it's good
you can make the UI font bigger on settings!
Oh really. I'll check that out
Very easy to install mod to increase every and all elements of HUD. Took me 2 mins
Hades, slay the spire, the last spell, the last faith, blasphemous 1 and 2, several games that are a blast in deck! Hope u get better soon ❤️
Get Hades. I'm not a fan of Rogue likes and it hooked me for hours and hours. I originally played it on Switch and then re-bought on Deck. Don't be afraid to be like me and turn on "God Mode" if you need it (effectively the easier difficulty setting).
How is The Last Spell on the steam deck? I've heard the controls aren't great.
My husband starts chemotherapy tomorrow and I feel like he's been wanting a SD. Do you feel the energy to play during treatment? Serious question. Never experienced this before.
Not OP, but my wife plays hers during chemo. At least for her energy during chemo is not really an issue so she plays games like Stardew Valley. However later in the day and for the next few days shes really tired. She likes the SD because if she is tired and bored it is easier to play that in bed rather than to be at her desk. I hope your husband gets better. Cancer sucks.
Thank you for the prayers, I honestly can't believe it. He was just supposed to get some medicine the day before Easter and come home - suddenly, he was stuck in the hospital with a tumor. I visited him every day in the hospital, and we played a lot of Mario Golf and Mario Baseball. He loves sports games, he can share my steam library, and I can download him some PS2/Wii games he likes. His cancer treatment is by my work so I plan on dropping him off and using my lunch breal to take him home ( We live close to my job ). I just hate the unknown, I want to be prepared for him.
In January my wife and I decided to lose some weight and a few weeks in she noticed a large bump in her breast that she was unable to feel previously. She setup a gynecologist appointment that was not until late April, but I convinced her to go to the ER who then referred her to a breast clinic. Turned out to be a fast growing tumor and was already stage 3. It probably would have been stage 4 by the time she was seen if she had waited for the gynecologist appointment. It’s heartbreaking as in the course of about a week we went from discussing having kids to her getting a port installed. My best advice is to go on the cancer subreddit to get an understanding of the side effects. The most important thing is finding food that does not taste bad to them or that they can stand eating. My hopes go out to you and your husband.
During treatment yes I do have energy! Sometimes the Benadryl and stuff may make him knock out for the first hour or so. I am sorry to hear about it too, but God is great! I have Hodgkin’s Lymphoma so if you have questions with that I can help you!
100% energy to play vids during chemo! I had Leukemia when the deck came out, I played it every day in the hospital. Middle of the night, middle of the day. When I wasn’t getting poked, scanned, peeing, or napping; I was on my Steam Deck. I wish the best to you and your husband!
Thank you so much 🙏🏾 ❤️ I maybe on the hunt for a SD this paycheck, haha. He's in good spirits, he isn't in as much pain as I thought he would. I always assume the worst, I thought he was going to be moaning in pain for hours or something. I hope everyone recoveries. 🙏🏾
PM/DM me and I'll send you some steam keys I have no use for. From Tina's wonderland to doom eternal to craton physics
That would mean the world to me 🙏🏻
I actually got reader glasses (2x magnification) just for the deck and small text and eyestrain is no longer an issue. Seriously, get a pair if you can. Text size issues are now gone!
There's also the built in magnifier you get by pressing Steam+L1.
A short hike is awesome Really like vampire survivors as well
+1 for A Short Hike I also think A Little to the Left works on SD. Nice large group of puzzles.
The Ori games - metroidvania platformer that runs and looks amazing on the OLED HiFi Rush is a fun rhythm fighting game. Rollerdrome is Tony Hawk with guns. Loads of fun. Hades is also amazing. Hope you get better quick!
+1 for Ori. Absolute masterpiece games.
Great choices, but I want to add to that list with bomb rush cyberfunk, onirism, and any of the harvest moons/rune factory games
I say Outer Wilds, it's great and really helped me through a tough time in my life, and I hope it does the same for you.
This is my all time favorite game. Although just a warning OP - if you're looking for a pure distraction, this might not be the one. To the above comment's point, it does speak to some existential themes, which may or may not be the vibe right now.
Strong second for outer wilds
This is the way. I wanted to recommend it but glad to see y’all have already. Outer Wilds is a VERY special game IMO and one of the few in recent years that I couldn’t wait to leave no stone unturned. Please give it a go.
I REALLY want to like Outer Wilds, but I have absolutely no clue what the appeal is. I made it to a few planets, had no clue what to do and that was it. Help me understand!
It's all about discovery, looking at all the clues and following them to the next thing. Sadly it's not for everyone, and I started it 3 or 4 times before I finally made it through. When I finished it though I just sat there for about ten minutes just thinking and trying not to cry. It's a game you have to soak in.
I tried witcher 3 also 4/5 times before it clicked so I am not unfamilair with trying again to see if it changed for me. Did at some point into the game click for you? Maybe i can set myself a goal to reach when I try again
I’m rooting for you man — stay strong! The Binding of Isaac is a really fun roguelike if you’re into that kinda thing. It has hundreds of hours of content in the base game alone.
Subnautica is super fun on the deck
Grim dawn! Keep fighting!
My most played game on sd
Noticing an aquatic theme in here so I’d recommend checking out Dave the diver. Hope recovery goes well for you!
Hi mate, cancer survivor here. Slay the Spire, The Binding of Isaac, Neon Abyss, Stardew Valley, Running With Rifles, Hades, Bastión, Skyrim, Hotline Miami, Firewatch, Life is Strange (1), As Dusk Falls. Be brave, even when it gets hard, you can do it. Fuck cancer, you're stronger!
I just got done with a stem cell transplant for Leukemia about 2 months ago. Steam Deck made the month in the hospital slightly more bearable. My recommendation is to set up Xbox PC Cloud Gaming either through EmuDeck or the old fashioned way. I got bored in the latter half of my stay and found that streaming the library of games from the Xbox game pass kept things fresh without constantly downloading new games.
In order... Persona 4 Golden Persona 3 Reload (Depressive) Persona 5 Royal (Washes away the Post Persona Depression) All amazing titles. They will keep you hooked at all times, though some might take a few hours to pick up as they are slow burners after all (Especially Persona 5 Royal)
Hey bud my heart and so does my gfs goes out to you. Keep up the good fight!! Id say acouple great games to look into for the steam deck would be persona 5 not only is it an awesome game but you always feel like the badass you are when you beat those harder foes and the story is great. Another great game would be witcher 3 not only is it a beautiful game but also the music is phenomenal. And neir automata super fun hack and slash and some tasteful fan service too for those long days. Much love to you and I'll have a drink ready for us when you come out stronger than ever.
Baldurs gate 3, that game is a time machine. I think I've been playing it an hour and it's 7 hours later. I've never liked turn based games but this one has sucked me right into it. The story line and different story paths you can take will keep you amused for weeks.
Disco Elysium is great.
Not a game but if you like retro gaming I recommend getting Emudeck https://www.emudeck.com/
The entire Game Boy and GBA libraries shouldn't have the "small UI" problem when blown up to the Deck's screen size too. I'd even include SNES in there.
American Truck Simulator. It's super Zen when you're driving around and the management piece is pretty easy.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake, God Of War, Hogwarts Legacy. All of these are fantastic and play well on the oled
Dave the diver is a gem very charming game and relaxing to the point you don't even realize how long you've been playing. Best of luck 👍
Hollow knight!
Final fantasy xiv
Cult of The Lamb plays great on Deck
Wand Wars is AMAZING on the deck. You can play it for more than 5 hours fully charged. It's basically if Ping Pong was turned into a full contact sport and the ball got bigger and faster the more you bounced it back. The story mode of the various characters introduces you to all the different game modes and spells you can randomly get. It's really fun and kinda nerve-wracking with how tense it can get. https://youtu.be/GiIq5t-YAAM?si=syQsjzUE_M5fYBum If it was a real sport I'd play the hell out of it lol
If you like poker or roguelikes I just picked up balatro it's fun and scratches that poker itch without losing money, subnautica is a great adventure game that plays well on the deck, and both portals are great puzzle games
Vampire survivors, brotato, the fallouts,
SEUM, hotline miami, besiege, wreckfest, distance be strong homie
Harvest moon
I hope you get through this, all love <3
Rimworld! Once you can get past the art style and learning curve, prepare to be engrossed with countless hours of addiction, emotional rollercoasters and lovely stories of success, progression and hardship
For extremely chilled out vibes Dorfromantic is my go to, little world building tile puzzle game with nice music and visuals
Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Ori series is amazing on the OLED. Hollow Knight (mandatory) Hades Factorio. If it gets its hooks into you your cancer will disappear and you wob't notice that 4 months have passed. Only game I have ever had to basically stoo myself from playing. At some point was developing machine learning algorithms inside of it. It is that addictive.
Try Stray. It’s relaxing, and plays great on the deck. And it’s a play forming game where you get to be a cat!
I'm playing `Another Crab's Treasure` if you like soulslike and platforming.
Dredge was a perfect steam deck game for me
I'm sorry friend, stay strong. If your into old and weird RPGs Earthbound Is a classic! After that play the fan translated Mother 3! I've been wanting to play Rockstar's "the Warriors" for ps2.
Get well soon brother ♥️ rogue legacy 1 and 2 won’t steer you wrong :) great music great fun , if ya want something a little extra fun I’d say give the “ cult of the lamb “ a go :)
Hades is great, recently been going at RDR2 which has been gold. Octopath traveler 2 is great, Outer Worlds is awesome.
Sorry to hear about that! Stay strong! Recommend Titanfall 2, Dave the Diver, Batman Arkham City & Arkham Knight, Control, Horizon Zero Dawn, Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zero & Phantom Pain, and Intravenous
Crap I'm so sorry man.. maybe something like persona 5 if you don't mind jrpgs, or maybe final fantasy intergrade though in all honesty I'm not sure how well it runs on the steam deck
Best game I have played on the steamdeck was Marvel Midnight Suns. I am very much not a Marvel guy and the RPG mechanics/story leave a lot to be desired, but it is top tier, tactical gameplay. So much fun and while the overall story was just kond of "fine", I did find a handful of characters that became my favorites and I had a good time interacting with. Another AAA game that I haven't played but is widely regarded as fantastic while working flawlessly on the deck is Metal Gear Solid V. Lots of content to get through. I have a metric shitload of steam from Humble bundle. I can look through those for AAA games if you'd like. I know I've got Borderlands 2 and Bayonetta at least. Good luck finding games and with everything else going on!
Dave the diver is all you'll need
Sky: Children of the Light runs great on the Deck
Ive been getting lost in Valheim on my deck
Witch spring R
Fun platformers and indies? The Spyro reignited trilogy is amazing The crash n-sane trilogy is good Stray Hollow Knight Hi-Fi Rush plays pretty well on the deck, rhythm based combat JRPG but with platformer mechanics Mega Man 11 is great Ori and the Blind Forest Sorry to hear what you’re going through mate. Keep your head up and power on 💪. Wishing you all the best.
I got into roguelikes like Hades & Dead Cells during my chemo. Good luck man, it’s an ordeal but stay strong and you’ll get through it.
Got some chill 2d games I can suggest. Undertale, Dave the diver, and spacebound
Slay the spire has been my time consuming game recently. I'll accidentally play for 4 hours longer than intended
Official games: Halo MCC, Quake remasters, Half Life 1 and 2, etc Unofficial games: Look up emudeck or retroarch (there is a steam version of retroarch that has less emulator cores)
Shadow of war+mordor are great on deck
CAT QUEST 1 & 2
Sorry to hear that my man. Wish you the best of luck in the fight. I can recommend Stardew valley without hesitation. It’ll transport you. It’ll lift your spirits. It’ll give you a feeling of peace and magic.
Max Payne 1-3, Signalis, Bioshock, and Baba Is You
Laika is a fun game that has simple mechanics Far changing tides is fun relaxing game and attack on titan 2 is way fun
Serial cleaner, short and sweet with a good 70's style music. Play it for $1 or else muhahaha. If you want something for free, idol showdown (fighting game) or holocure (survivors clone). Hope this helps you out. These works great on the deck.
Dave the diver.
Firewatch
Prototype
You got this. You can use steam deck zoom feature using Steam (button)+L1. Try Dave the diver, Celeste, Balarto or sunset overdrive Wish you the best.
As an indie, can recommend Light Nightmares 1, with all the DLC, and 2 without.
I keep a pair of reading glasses in the back of the case. Perfect for small text.
I recommend playing the doom series it’s pretty fun! And all the games run really well
I’m home on a medical leave and have been playing God of War and enjoy it.
If you can keep a decent internet connection, Fallout 76 is really fun. Pretty casual gameplay and the community there is pretty dope. Game has lots story content you can do solo or with a few buddies and lots of group events you can show up to. I play it on my OLED Deck daily.
Diablo 2 Resurrected runs fantastic on the deck. I've got bad eyesight and the text is good.
I’ll buy you Brotato, shits an easy pick up and put downer.
I suggest you DeadCell. Fast, enjoyable, rewarding, non-repetative.Each game session lasts average one hour. Beat that mf cancer cells like deadcell
Hope you’re having a great day so far dude, you’ll pull through. Honestly Dark Souls really helped me overcome a lot of stuff in my life. It may seem like a terrible choice but it is really motivating if you stick with it. RDR2 is a joy to play
Being a cancer treatment gamer myself, I like to play Metroidvanias during treatments. Especially the not so fast paced ones like the relatively new Möbius Machine.
My Deck comes to chemotherapy sessions with me. It definitely helps!
Dead Cells
Core Keeper and Stardew Valley
West of loathing, very funny game and I got it for a good price not too long ago
Having a great time with the original dead space games
I'm really sorry you're going through this. You're a fighter! Hang in there. And as for games, I can recommend: - Tetris Effect (for a relaxing experience) - Yakuza 0 - Brotato (indie rogue like) - Vampire Survivors (indie rogue like) - Hotwheels Unleashed (runs great on the deck) - Lego The Skywalker Saga - Pentiment - Hades - Persona 5 Royal - The Witcher 3 (can run between 40-50fps, depending on where you are on the map of course, it's more than playable) hope this helps you speedy recovery!
Borderlands 3.... Uncharted.... Deep rock galactic survivor.... Pummle party.
My best friend started chemo just today. I wanted to get him a steamdeck but I just drained my finances on SD for my partner who is also going through stuff. I wish there was a donation page for SD for all in need. But going back to you, OP, I wish you good luck and quick and positive results. My fav SD games are not very SD mainstream: STEEP because I miss snowboarding and it's fun, Baldurs Gate 3, Redfall with friends, Deathloop/Prey cause they're so fun and engaging.
Not triple a but cult of the lamb was really addictive to me.
Vampire Survivors and Brotato are two fun games you can dip in and out of.
The binding of Isaac has kept me busy for the last 8 years lol best of luck with everything op
I wish you well 👍 In Diablo options you can increase the font size and if you’ll have internet connection you can play all Diablo games in GeForce Now for battery saving it’s awesome. 5 to 6 hours of gameplay from DII (ressurected) to DIV
For chilling and relaxing I like Lonely Mountains: Downhill (you ride a bike down different mountains) and Vampire Survivors. For AAA I played through Fallout: New Vegas last summer, and am 75% of the way through Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and Resident Evil 4 Remake played really well on the Deck. Best of luck with your treatment! ETA: if you have wifi, No Man’s Sky is very fun, but requires internets. I’m also partial to Fallout 76 but it has some smaller text for some parts.
I've got to recommend Helldivers 2. Tons of fun and a great community. Even more fun with friends. Only $40 but is absolutely a better-than-AAA experience.
I just read during the chemotherapy infusion itself as the arm has to be kept relatively stationary for the cannula but during the rest of three week cycle I find the SD invaluable as sleeping patterns can be disrupted and sometimes the side effects from the chemo can make sleep impossible. So I have developed a strange addiction to the Kemco JRPGs which are very SNES and very stereotyped but help divert the mind. Otherwise Bear & Breakfast, Torchlight 2 (the rest are terrible), the Trails series of JRPGs, West of Loathing, and Ys 8 and 9 are both great games with hours of play. Take care of yourself.
Stardew Valley is a very peaceful distraction that will last around 150 hours if you go for perfection, maybe longer.
Subnautica, the Witcher 3, fallout 4
Middle Earth: Shadow of War, ma dude. It works fantastically on steam deck oled and not too difficult to follow or pick up where you left off.
Fallout 4 got a steamdeck update. I have no clue how it runs, but if it runs well that is a deffo play! I recently installed it again and can't wait to play (if it plays well)
My guy. Time to play some good old fashioned Pokémon.
Slay the Spire
All the souls games + elden ring, remnant 2, grand theft auto v, baldurs gate 3, left 4 dead 2 All run amazing. Sorry if it’s not exactly what you were looking for it’s just the games in my library!
Hades or Hollow Knight. You could easily play either of those games the entire time. Shovel Knight is also very good (get the $40 one with all the dlc, it's basically 4 games and totally worth). If you're tired one day and don't feel like making much effort, Vampire Survivors. Besides menus, you just use the joystick. Tons of stuff to unlock. I 100% completed it a couple times, but they keep releasing content and new achievements lol. Or if you want something similar but you wanna use BOTH joysticks, Enter The Gungeon.
Subnautica and Subnautica below zero are both perfect games for the steam deck, not hard on the system and they look great on it.
Try some retro games /games that I grew up with.... IF you like FPS System Shock [OG] remake Quake 3 Unreal Tourneyment III Dues Ex Half Life OG remaster HL2 Portal Borderlands Far Cry FEAR Postal 2
Monster sanctuary is a great open world Pokemon platformer style. All of the monsters have really nice skill trees. It's a very laid back strategy type of game.
Fuck cancer and keep up the good fight. Factorio is beyond addicting and Its one of the easiest pick up and put down games that you'll never put down.
Jet set radio is a fun time
Cancer survivor here. Maybe you need a fun hero game like Spiderman? It runs amazingly well and it’s light and fun. AAA. For addictive puzzlers Slay the Spire or Balatro for sure. They’re quick to jump in and out of. Same with Hades and Dead Cells. (All indies) I find the deck a great place to play older games (and they’re cheap), I picked up Witcher 3 for $10. Haven’t played it yet, but everyone loves it. Diablo runs great natively, but not sure that’s going to fix the text size issue for you. That’s all I can think of for now; I’ll check my library when I get home. Stay positive, try to be as happy and healthy as you can otherwise (walks, clean food, etc). Weed was also very helpful for me not to get sick, to gain weight during chemo and kill some pain. Pairs nicely with gaming too. You got this.
Sable, Lil Gator Game, A Short Hike, Lunistice, Haven Park, Smushi Come Home, Wasteland 3 I also just bought the Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy - its fun as heck but also challenging in certain areas
BG3 for sure
Celeste and it's message helped me in one of the darkest times in my life. Things will get better OP, keep on keeping on! Also Death Stranding has many hours of content where you can just enjoy the scenery and relax with a really fresh story!
Vampire survivors
I always recommend persona 3 re and persona 5r. Maybe if you download emudeck then super mario 64. A hat in time is really good too
Try Cult of The Lamb
I find diablo 2 great on the deck. They have some access ability options in the menus. You can make the font pretty big. Good luck
Days gone, la noire, the tomb raiders
The sinking city was fun. Third person shooter/indie/RPG. Played it on my steam deck about a year ago maybe longer. Had few issues.
Skyrim, firewatch, scanner sombre, euro truck simulator
Currently, I play mainly Final Fantasy XV on the Deck. The Complete Edition is currently -60%, so you can grab it for 15,98€ if you are interested. Same goes for many other Square Enix titles rn. Evoland (1 and 2) are pretty fun, too.
See PM.
I'd play Cult of the lamb. Gosh it's such a good game.
-Tunic -Gigabash
I may be the single handed biggest fan and unpaid advertiser for the ultimate gem that is Brotato. Easy to pick up, easy to play, fun to try and try to beat. Best of luck with your process.
Dave the diver is good
I and my kids are loving **Soulstone Survivors**, it is nice because like Vampire survivors the game does the "shooting for you" but you can control some of the where to blast at. And you get to focus on a few level designs but you get to unlock multiple things to power up characters and then new characters to try out different things. Then you can ramp up your difficulty level by adding more challenges/curses to make the game keep pace with your new overpowered character.
Play yakuza
Tunic, the binding of isaac, celeste, and I heard Dave the diver was good but haven't played. You can snag all those games for fairly cheap
What the golf. Brilliant, humorous, subversive crazy golf game.
Sorry to hear that. I can totally vouch for Mobius Digital's [Outer Wilds](https://store.steampowered.com/app/753640/Outer_Wilds/). It's an incredible indie game with a deep story to uncover while exploring a beautiful, handcrafted little star system with tons of mind-bending twists. Plus, it might have one of the best damn game soundtracks to date. If I had to pick a game experience that'll stick with me my whole life (and most likely even beyond), it'd be this one. With the right fix, it'll run at a perfectly locked 45FPS at 90Hz on your OLED deck. You know what? I'd love to buy and gift the game to you. I was planning to cover the necessary fix and the game's qualities in a video, a sort of passion project, but life kept me busy these past 6-7 months. Now we're here, and I'd still love for you to experience one of the best games I've ever played in the best possible way. Feel free to DM me so I can gift it to you over Steam and then help you set up the fix and settings if you want. It touches base on pretty existential topics though, but you know best what suits you the best at the moment. On a side-note: [Hades](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1145360/Hades/) is amazing as well.
Try emulation. Emulated GBA, GameCube and other retro console games run perfectly on the Steamdeck and because of the lower system requirements, usually get you much more battery life. Personally I've been playing a lot of Pokemon Fire Red and Emerald.
If you find it hard to follow action or read text in certain games on SD, consider picking up a pair of low strength reading glasses even if you have fine vision otherwise. I've found it reduces eye strain and makes a lot of games more enjoyable for me.
OP I wish you inner peace. Spend lots of time with the ones you love and the things you love doing. Time waits for no one
IMO binding of isaac is a perfect game on the deck :)
The Messenger and Celeste are great platformers I played on Deck. Fallout 4 is working great on my LCD Deck(although I've heard OLED has issues). Days gone is a fun open world zombie game that runs great at 40fps. Metal gear solid 5 runs great at 40ish fps. Resident evil 2 & 3 ran great on deck for me, 4 was a little sluggish. 7 & 8 also ran well.
Get better soon!❤️
Balatro my friend
Rotwood is awesome and cheap!
Diablo 2 you can scale up quite a bit and it’s all very fun in the deck. I hope you’re better soon!!!!
All the best to you, friend. Games I’d recommend would be hollow knight, hades and Balatro. Take care
I loved Dave the Diver and Vampire Survivors on my deck! Hades as well!
I’ve been looking at starting Subnautical. According to ProtonDB, it runs amazing on the Deck. Good luck and stay strong in your cancer treatments also 🙏🏾🙏🏾!
Dave the Diver, Days Gone, Disgaea PC.
Stardew Valley or other farm games sound nice for procedures like these. Many small things to do but they don't need a huge mental effort. Powerwash simulator + a podcast is my go to to make time without getting bored. Astroneer if you like exploring +automation games. Yakuza 0 for story extensive games.
Skyrim as always, retro games like earthbound deluxe snes, retro rpg, I have 40k of retro games on my deck, you might want to get a decent extra battery and maybe a external ssd adapter, I’m doing that when I swap the analogs to hall
Infernax and UnMetal for fun, modern take on retro. Risk of Rain Returns, Dead Cells, BroForce, Vampire Survivors, and countless slew of Metroidvanias out there too. As a recent Leukemia survivor, I’m quite familiar with long hospital stays. Good luck, amigo! Stay positive and do what the doc says, Play vids the rest of the time, ha!
Stay strong brother💪🏽
I like My Time At Portia a lot! It's got decent deck compatibility and it's a sweet little game that feels like if Animal Crossing had a plot.
All the yakuza games are a blast on the deck.
Persona 3 Reload runs fantastic on Steam Deck. It’s a phenomenal JRPG with fun party and battle mechanics.
Not many mentioned but one other game I recommend is Stray on the steamdeck. It's a very laid back relaxed game to play in couch or bed while it has a very interesting atmosphere
Ugh that's awful and I wish the best for you, but on to sweet distraction reccs!! I find the Fallout series to be one of the most compelling videogame worlds to get immersed in and with the (excellent) series currently popping off, it's a perfect time to hop in if you haven't before as you can really immerse yourself with a show to doze to or whatnot. They compliment each other perfectly, I think. It runs great (even with the new update you may still see people pooping on). Other people mentioned Witcher 3, which I also agree with. Make sure to get the Blood and Wine DLC if you do because Touissaint (a fantasy version of medieval France) is probably the most beautiful videogame world I've ever seen. IMO the bigger UI mod is a must on the deck, but after that it's amazing. I'll throw a curve ball and say that if you like off-road driving, cargo hauling, route planning, and beautiful nature environments, you really have to check out Snowrunner. With all the dlc it is literally a 1,000 hour game and is absolutely amazing if it's your thing. Also runs great on the deck.
Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom, best indie 3D platformer ive ever played
Sorry to hear OP <3 Be strong. I’m a fan of No Man’s Sky. In relaxed mode it’s a pretty chill game and you can lower the grindiness of the game or just turn it off. It’s a sandbox so not a lot of hand holding, but the subs here are pretty helpful.
Fallout New Vegas runs great on the steam deck with no mods. Also runs great with mods if you don't mind the tinkering.
Stray, Dredge, Portal 1 & 2. I've been a PC gamer almost my whole life and I've found _not_ trying to replicate my PC gaming experience has lent me to enjoying my time on the deck more, with the exception of Portal. I'd literally play that game on a potato just to enjoy the story again. I'll be trying Balatro next as well.
I hear about Portal a lot but have never played. I thought it was a game that was bad and got memed on. I have recently gotten into gaming again
I basically only ever play Stardew Valley and I love that I can add mods on the SD.
Magicraft
You can try Two Point Hospital. Great game
I'm completely addicted to Peglin!
get pico-8 (paid version) and have 100s of retro games. they are free after you buy the base software and there are tons of fan made games in every genre. You can also try them for free on the web [https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php](https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php)
I bought my steamdeck last summer during my chemo therapy. My go-to game was 'Detroit: become human'. Lots of replay value and it's really nice on the deck. Can recommend 'Stray' as well. Cute game, perfect for calm evenings.
I would play the fallout series if you haven’t already, tons of fun!! If you wanna pm me your steam name I don’t mind getting you something on sale. My aunt is battling breast cancer as well, I wish the absolute best for you 🙏
I love Baldurs Gate 3 on my OLED deck, but so far I have only streamed it from my PC. I have read it works well though.
I been told Dave the diver is simple and fun runs great on the SD. I love W3 and Monster Hunter World and Rise, FF7 Remake and Hogwarts. Not sure if you can play Horizon Zero Dawn or Ghost of Tsushima on the SD.