Gaming can be a rather expensive hobby. Hardware like consoles or gaming PCs will run you up a huge bill, but even once you¡¯ve got them, the biggest and best triple-A titles ask for a fair chunk of change. While this may be worth it for the hours of entertainment they provide, it¡¯s reasonable to seek out some cheaper alternatives.
This is where the PC market shines, as fantastic indie games regularly hit marketplaces like Steam at rock-bottom prices. It was hard to pick out just a handful, but these are the best cheap PC games you can buy right now.
If you¡¯re looking purely for the most hours for the smallest price, Stardew Valley is by far the best game you can choose. This farming game has so much to keep you occupied that you can keep playing for as long as you want. You¡¯ll be planting crops, growing relationships, dungeon diving, doing tasks, and so much more. It¡¯s a game you can never put down because there¡¯s always something new just over the horizon.
Getting friends together to play a game is a hard task when you have to convince them all to buy it in the first place. That¡¯s why this classic Valve zombie shooter is such an easy sell: it¡¯s cheap and ludicrously easy to understand ¨C shoot the zombies. There is endless enjoyment to be had from being overrun by massive hordes as you shout and scream at each other to get the job done in the most chaotic way possible.
An unexpected smash hit of 2022, Vampire Survivors feels like the kind of arcade game that should¡¯ve died out in the ¡®90s, yet the more you play, the deeper it goes, and it never seems to stop. It¡¯s addictive to watch all the damage numbers flash on the screen as your small attacks grow into superpowered screen-sized nukes.
Sometimes you¡¯re not in the mood for intense gameplay and you just want a laugh instead. The Henry Stickmin Collection started life as a series of flash games but eventually got a big finale when it was released on Steam. It¡¯s an extremely silly game full of just about every video game reference you could imagine that will have you giggling from start to finish.
Your job in Papers, Please is simple: check people¡¯s passports, find any errors, and either accept or deny their entry to the country. The problem is the fictional government of Arstozka wants to make that job as difficult as possible as every day you¡¯ll be thrown new elements of paperwork you need to check before you can make a decision. Then you get some moral choices thrown your way and it quickly becomes one of the most intense and interesting games out there.
Minesweeper meets Picross is such a brilliant idea it¡¯s amazing it took this long to come about. Hexcells manages it though, with a bunch of head-scratching hand-crafted puzzles across three very cheap games, but it also has a seed-based puzzle generator, so you can keep playing forever.
Dicey Dungeons is a bit like Slay the Spire without any of the fuss. You progress through a series of battles against weird and whacky enemies, but instead of building a complex deck to do battle with, you just roll dice every turn. Despite the inherent RNG that comes with that, your strategies can be exceedingly deep and delightfully addictive.
While you¡¯ve likely heard of Undertale through one channel or another, if you still haven¡¯t ever played it, you should absolutely give it a try. It¡¯s pretty short for a JRPG, but it uses its limited time greatly, pulling you into a very strange world as you either destroy it or bring it to life through your actions.
Once known as ¡°2D Minecraft¡± Terraria has since shown that it¡¯s far more than that, now resembling more of an RPG than a classic survival/crafting game. With a wide array of discoveries and bosses to be had, Terraria is a game you¡¯ll never quite find the bottom of, especially as it is still being updated with new content.
While Starfield might give you a much more visually impressive adventure across the solar system, if you¡¯re looking for intense strategic battles in an unforgiving universe, FTL can¡¯t be beat. You¡¯ll be dealing with the many oddities you can find out in the universe as you manage your ship¡¯s resources in difficult battles as you fight your way to a final boss that will destroy you in a matter of seconds on your first attempt, but you can always go around again.
This article was produced as part of a partnership between Indiatimes and GLHF.