I picked out 31 must-play games going for $5 or less in the Steam Summer Sale
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Steam is an elephant, and we are all trying to describe it blindfolded. To bring order to this economic chaos, I have curated a list of must-play games—indies, cult hits, no brainer classics, all ones I like personally—that are $5 or cheaper in the 2026 Summer Sale. Five bucks is my threshold for "not a big deal," and unless the economy is even worse than I thought, it's likely yours too. If you got everything on this list together, it would be about $100 total, which is none too shabby for 31 games. The start of modern Larian. I'm more bullish about its comedic tone and lighter story than a lot of other RPG fans, but no one can deny that it's still got genre-leading turn-based combat, even as the studio has only improved on its own work. No, not Divinity: Original Sin 2. Despite some of the worst self-inflicted SEO out there, Divinity 2 is well-worth revisiting to this day. It's a relic of a different time, when Larian was following BioWare's lead rather than setting its own pace, resulting in something that visually calls to mind Dragon Age: Origins, but plays more like, I dunno, Jade Empire? That attempt at console-ization does make it a bit more approachable than Larian's other pre-Original Sin work these days. Notable as perhaps the purest expression of Larian's vision for RPGs before the first Original Sin, Divine Divinity arrived at the tail end of the CRPG's late '90s golden age. Even at this early stage, you can still enjoy the studio's unique sensibility, and it's an important text for anyone with an interest in the history of RPGs. A deranged, cruel, and irresistible RPG. Wrath of the Righteous and Rogue Trader are perhaps better introductions to Owlcat's work, but Kingmaker still got its hooks into me. I'm not a huge fan of this one's DLC, and honestly recommend skipping it unless you really gotta optimize your builds, so there's no sleight of hand to that $3.59 number. One of my favorite games of the 2020s, a vexing RPG with one of the deepest class systems I've ever seen, as well as some truly aggravating encounters. Still somehow a gentler and easier to grasp entry point than Kingmaker, by my reckoning. Unlike Kingmaker, I highly recommend the DLCs, even if it brings us over $5. Please don't tell anyone. Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened at all. Copy and paste environments, annoying enemies, a truncated development, and the best script BioWare's ever done. The studio was always better at characters than plot, so trading the hero's journey for something that felt more like three seasons of a TV show was a masterstroke. We may never see its like again. Does anyone else remember the multiplayer for this game? Did I hallucinate that? It was actually pretty brilliant: Repeatable co-op wave survival stuff that felt a lot like Left 4 Dead. It was smothered in its crib by the most deranged monetization I have ever seen anywhere, ever. Paying for gear and classes in a full-price retail game, the hubris is staggering. A crusty game par excellence, a "realheads know" RPG that has never gotten the love it truly deserves. At its most basic level: 2D Fallout with worse combat but even deeper elements of simulation and reactivity, all set in a Forgotten Realms fantasy world going through its industrial revolution. Don't forget Drog Black Tooth's Unofficial Patch. Firmly in the "no duh" bucket of games to get, but no matter how many times I see it on sale, the Mass Effect trilogy for five bucks feels special to me. If you are unfamiliar with Mass Effect: Think Bush-era Star Trek, but Kirk is a spec ops commando operator who doesn't play by the rules. Turn off the part of your brain that makes it difficult to talk to strangers about politics and just enjoy yourself. Still one of the GOATs, and no amount of post-launch creative turmoil can change that. It has been the #1 or #2 game on our Top 100 list every year since it came out, and I think that says a lot. Still the best Star Wars story ever told as far as I'm concerned, and if you don't trust me, why not hear out former PC Gamer editor Richard Cobbett instead? Be sure to grab the Sith Lords Restored Content Mod from the Steam Workshop. I'm currently replaying KotOR 2 myself on Steam Deck—I recommend grabbing Gravy's public controller profile to help with some camera wonkiness. I can also vouch for user revonvenom's cutscene crash fix outlined on Reddit. An unassailable classic of a shooter. Max Paynes 2 and 3 improved the storytelling and shooting, but there is a one-of-a-kind atmosphere to be found in the first game's snowy bloodbath. Looking back, this feels like a turning point, when Remedy started getting quirky. One can observe the aspirations of a surreal shared world that we're now seeing come to fruition with the Control-Alan Wake continuum. The level set in the abandoned theme park of a Twin Peaks/Twilight Zone pastiche is an all-timer, and feels like it rhymes with the killer amusement park level in Alan Wake 2. One of the original GOATs of bullet time, alongside Max Payne. It's funny: The thing I remember most from coverage at the time was how terrifying it was supposed to be. These days, fans seem to roll their eyes at Alma and stay for the tacticool shootouts. The sheer amounts of lore introduced by later games certainly didn't help. A game that still feels like the future of FPSes, five years on. It's abrasive, complex, and singular, despite tons of indie shooters cribbing off its notes in the intervening years. Thief or Hitman-style "real place" level design, but with zippy, movement-heavy shooting and some of the best level secrets and hidden stuff of any game. A game doomed by circumstance: Virtually everything that made Invisible War feel inferior to Deus Ex was a result of console compromise design on behalf of the then-cutting edge Xbox. It's still an entertaining immersive sim nonetheless, as well as a work of sci fi storytelling that feels fresh and prescient to this day. All the love to the Eidos Montreal games, but Deus Ex and Invisible War are simply smarter works of science fiction. Still the best kick in gaming, an all-time piece of melee combat design at the heart of one of the most slapstick games ever made. Dark Messiah's booby trap and bottomless pit-laden arenas still make it one of the GOATs of physics as gameplay. Even Arkane itself has never managed to fully recapture this aspect of Dark Messiah in its excellent later work. A snack of an FPS that still managed to steal my heart. It's the only boomer shooter David Szymanski has made since the much-beloved Dusk, and it has a similarly impish, pitch-black sense of humor. Chop Goblins' levels are few, but substantial, with tons of secrets and side paths. This is a great game to get with a friend too, thanks to its time trial-centric replayability and global leaderboard. One of the jankiest commercial products ever made with Valve's Source Engine, a game I and many others can't help but love despite its many, many flaws. The more horror and adventure-focused early areas alone are worth at least two bucks, before it all devolves into mediocre shooting. Where it all began for Arkane. Arx Fatalis is a prickly, complicated game that rewards patience. The one of a kind atmosphere and attention to detail in its underground society make it an all-time videogame locale for me, with the trappings of "normal" medieval fantasy life desperately masking the harsh reality of an existence deep below the surface. This is all that remains of a world whose sun went dark just outside living memory. The fourth game in the Dark Forces series of FPSes and the second game in the Jedi Knight series of hybrid FPS/lightsaber combat games. Jedi Knight proved a strong foundation, but Raven produced a style of FPS-inflected lightsaber combat that's never been replicated, and only recently, arguably been matched by Fallen Order and Jedi Survivor. Jedi Outcast's even better sequel. About the only thing that took a dip was the storytelling, and even then, Outcast was hardly Shakespeare. Otherwise? You get your lightsaber from the get-go, and while Outcast's levels could be hit-or miss visually and from a design perspective, every stage of Academy is a heater with some Star Wars juice. My favorites are probably the early train mission, Darth Vader's castle, and the late game Jedi tomb complex. Bloodborne, but it's a 2D platformer trading Cthulhu for Catholicism. The Game Bakers took inspiration from early modern Spain to produce something truly captivating and unique in Blasphemous' visuals and story. The original "deckbuilder" was actually getting caught cheating at lansquenet during the ancien régime then killed in a duel. Aside from a wonderful setting that's underrepresented in games, Card Shark boasts a swashbuckling story and unique core mechanic: Actually cheating at cards with complicated controller combos. An utterly haunting point and click adventure set in a cyberpunk Louisiana even closer to climate oblivion than the one in real life. Beautifully written, memorable, and boasting some of the most gorgeous images anyone's ever made in pixel art. The movie the game. Explore the internet I wish we had, a surreal, psychedelic expanse of GeoCities-esque webpages where something strange is afoot. Hypnospace remains one of the best "desktop simulation" games, even as others have attempted their own spin on the concept. Still my favorite Vampire Survivors-style game, which dresses the familiar format in the clothes of classic Diablo. I hit a wall of all the objectives and questlines I felt like completing a long time ago, but I still keep this one on my Steam Deck to noodle around in whenever I get that itch. Tons of indie devs are turning their hands to homages of FromSoftware's foundational King's Field series, but I've always loved how focused FlyKnight is. I beat it in about six hours, but it still sticks with me. Already a steal at six bucks, a 20% discount has made it relevant to this list of recommendations on an arguable technicality. I'm not much of an RTS guy, but this one lets you hop on the back of a dragon and intervene in the fights, which I've always thought was sick. I wish more strategy games would let me do this, just go Dynasty Warriors mode on a line of Napoleonic Musketeers in Total War or something. 2026 games: All the upcoming gamesDetails
RPG
Divinity: Original Sin
Divinity 2
Divine Divinity
Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
Dragon Age: Origins
Dragon Age 2
Dragon Age Inquisition
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Disco Elysium
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 - The Sith Lords
First Person Shooter (and more!)
Max Payne
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
FEAR
Cruelty Squad
Deus Ex: Invisible War
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
Chop Goblins
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
Arx Fatalis
Star Wars: Dark Forces 3 - Jedi Knight 2—Jedi Outcast
Star Wars: Dark Forces 4 - Jedi Knight 3—Jedi Outcast 2; Jedi Academy
Uncategorized esoterica
Blasphemous
Card Shark
Norco
Iron Lung
Hypnospace Outlaw
Halls of Torment
FlyKnight
Divinity: Dragon Commander
Best PC games: Our all-time favorites
Free PC games: Freebie fest
Best FPS games: Finest gunplay
Best RPGs: Grand adventures
Best co-op games: Better together
Source
Originally published at www.pcgamer.com.
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