There’s never been a better time to be a roguelike fan and own a Steam Deck, as the Endless Replayability Fest sale is live on Steam until May 20. This new game festival focuses on titles that keep you coming back for more, and no genre embodies this principle better than roguelikes.
The Steam Deck is well established as one of the best handheld gaming PCs, and you’re never short of games to play thanks to Valve rating over 14,000 games as Verified or Playable. In this latest Steam sale, we’ve found five incredible roguelike games you have to play that work great on the Steam Deck.
Balatro
Balatro is a poker-inspired roguelike that took the world by storm when it was first released, and players are still chasing game-breaking high scores. Taking the roguelike concept and applying it to a card game isn’t new, but the way in which Balatro is presented certainly is.
It takes a card game like poker, which many people around the world will already know and may even have played, and reworks the gambling aspect to retain the high-stakes fun, while also making it work as a single-player experience.
You’ll never truly understand the hype about Balatro until you try it, and there’s no better time to do so, as it’s currently part of the Endless Replayability Fest sale and is Steam Deck Verified.
Crypt of the NecroDancer
Crypt of the NecroDancer may sit under the roguelike genre, but it’s also a music and rhythm game. Having first released back in 2015, if you’ve somehow not tried it yet, I can’t recommend it enough.
The gameplay is super simple, seeing you navigate dungeons where your hero and their enemies all move to a beat. While the premise might sound easy, it’s quite difficult to master, and the 15 levels included in the base game do a great job of gradually ramping up the difficulty while never completely overwhelming you. Crypt of the NecroDancer is Steam Deck Verified.
Darkest Dungeon
Another classic roguelike, Darkest Dungeon is an adventure game that sees you take a party of heroes on a dangerous journey, playing with elements of Lovecraftian horror, Dungeons & Dragons, and board game-style exploration.
Despite the difficulty, you’ll grow attached to your heroes and do everything to keep them alive, while also slyly recruiting their replacements should they perish, creating a gameplay loop that never grows old. Darkest Dungeon is Steam Deck Verified.
Inscryption
As I mentioned when talking about Balatro, Inscryption is one of many deck-building roguelikes, but it stands out by creating a tension that sticks with you long after you stop playing.
The Steam store page summarized it best as a “love letter to video games,” mixing “escape room style puzzles and psychological horror into a blood-laced smoothie.” If you’re worried about the scare factor being a little too high, I would suggest that Inscryption is more creepy than scary, but it is well worth a try. Inscryption is rated as Playable on Steam Deck.
Descenders
While it might not seem like a roguelike at first, Decenders absolutely is a part of this genre. In fact, the developer even refers to it as a “rogue-bike,” which I’ll admit I laughed at a little too hard the first time I read it.
This downhill biking game uses procedurally generated levels and a choose-your-own adventure style progression that, as one user review puts it, “scratches an itch I didn’t know I had.” On top of the solid physics gameplay that has you constantly yearning for just one more run, there’s also a great licensed soundtrack that provides the perfect accompaniment as you launch yourself down a mountain at high speed. Descenders is rated Playable on Steam Deck.
Once you’ve given these games a try, it’s time to check out our picks for the best Steam Deck games, a list we keep updated with the latest and greatest games, each tested to make sure they work great on Valve’s handheld.