Polygon

10 games to buy on Steam with your holiday gift card

So, you obtained a gift card to Steam through the holidays. When you personal a gaming PC or a Steam Deck, that’s like getting the important thing to town. There are such a lot of nice games on Valve’s PC gaming platform, and you’ll doubtlessly get so much for your cash (do you know that Steam gift playing cards will also be used to buy {hardware} just like the Steam Deck OLED?). So how will you presumably resolve what to buy?

That’s the place this publish comes into play, offering you with a pair handfuls of titles which might be getting some well-deserved consideration on Steam, in addition to informing you about the most effective offers on 2023’s high games taking place through the Steam Winter Sale that’ll final by means of Jan. 4, 2024.

Enjoyable truth: virtually all the games under are included in Polygon’s rating of the most effective games of 2023.


Deadly Firm

If in case you have a few pals who you want to play games with, take into account Deadly Firm, which prices $9.99 (observe: it’s in early entry). It’s a survival horror multiplayer recreation that may trigger rapturous screaming and laughter, typically directly. You’ll work collectively to collect scraps and loot from creepy locales, no less than for so long as you may till monsters or environmental hazards wreck you in essentially the most unpredictable methods. Whereas the sport is terrifying at instances, the proximity-based voice chat amps up the humor of dropping your buddies or barely escaping dying. Polygon’s video crew streams Deadly Firm on Twitch from time to time, and you’ll try a previous stream here.

Baldur’s Gate 3

Baldur’s Gate 3 Bard in the character creator

Picture: Larian Studios through Polygon

Whether or not you play games solo or with a crew, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a must-play recreation on PC. This RPG is closely steeped in Dungeons & Dragons when it comes to its universe and ruleset. That mentioned, you don’t want to have ever performed D&D to rapidly get immersed on this title. Every battle is turn-based, and also you command a crew of 4 characters, full with their very own weapons and spells. The fights are all the time thrilling, however what occurs exterior of fisticuffs is equally — if no more — riveting. You’ll make choices that alter your path by means of the sport, in addition to your relationships with key characters. When you’re intelligent, you may even speak your approach out of battles. There’s a lot risk at each flip that it’s unimaginable to see every thing that Baldur’s Gate 3 has to supply in a single playthrough. In the course of the Steam Winter Sale, Baldur’s Gate 3 prices $53.99 (usually $59.99).

No Man’s Sky

Two explorers walk along the exterior catwalk of a space station in the midst of a meteor cluster in No Man’s Sky

Picture: Howdy Games

Howdy Games’ first-person area exploration recreation No Man’s Sky is the oldest title on this record, having launched in 2016 to middling reception. Since then, the developer has delivered replace after game-changing replace, repeatedly elevating its personal bar to give avid gamers near-total freedom in area. Merely put, No Man’s Sky is a deal with for a way a lot it’s presently promoting for ($29.99), and the expertise is what you make of it. It may be a chill area exploration recreation the place you gather sources to improve your ship to its fullest capabilities. You’ll be able to focus strictly on constructing outposts. Or you may grow to be an area pirate, combating different gamers to seize their treasures.

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew

A screenshot from Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew showing the planning system with actions spread across multiple guards.

Picture: Mimimi Games

Most of us have performed tactical espionage games, however Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew places a spin on the idea — one which solely its developer, Mimimi Games, might have pulled off. The swansong for the studio is its greatest work, constructing on its earlier games like Shadow Ways and Desperados 3. Visually, it walks the plank and dives headfirst right into a pirate aesthetic, with characters and settings that my colleague Alice Newcome-Beill described in her evaluate as “Monkey Island-esque.” Throughout Steam’s Winter Sale, this recreation is $31.99 (usually $39.99).

Cocoon

The insect-like protagonist of Cocoon pauses before a bridge in a desert environment

Picture: Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive through Polygon

Cocoon is a puzzle recreation that doesn’t exit of its approach to clarify itself to the participant. However, like the most effective of its style, it’s designed to faucet into our curiosity, encouraging us to suppose exterior of the field (er, sphere). The dialog-free title was directed by Jeppe Carlsen, who additionally helped design different minimalist puzzle games, together with Limbo and Inside. It’s definitely worth the value of admission simply to expertise its ingenious planet traversal puzzle mechanic. This title is $5 off through the Steam Winter Sale, costing $19.99.

Hitman World of Assassination

Agent 47 crouches behind a low wall in Chongqing in Hitman World of Assassination’s Freelancer mode

Picture: IO Interactive

IO Interactive left lots of Polygon’s workers obsessed once more in 2023 thanks to the introduction of a brand new mode in Hitman World of Assassination. Its Freelancer mode places a roguelike spin on the sport, permitting you to grow to be much more of a brilliant agent if you’re on a sizzling streak of killing targets. Your success earns you objects, weapons, and intel that may make it simpler to clear more durable ranges you face later in Freelancer mode. Nonetheless, you return down to the underside rung should you die, preserving solely a few of these collectibles. It sounds punishing, however I promise it’s an excellent time. It’s additionally a unbelievable approach to get extra comfy inside Hitman, and to grasp its mechanics and tools.

IO Interactive’s massive $69.99 bundle that incorporates each map from its fashionable collection prices simply $27.99 throughout Steam’s Winter Sale.

Dave the Diver

Dave the Diver underwater aiming his spearfishing harpoon at a tropical fish.

Picture: Mintrocket through Polygon

In Dave the Diver, you do far more than merely dive. As well as to spearing fish and amassing supplies, you assist run a sushi stand at evening. As you repeat this cycle by means of the in-game day and evening cycle, you earn extra clients, which in flip helps you to broaden your restaurant’s capabilities to serve new sorts of meals and meals objects. There’s sufficient to get obsessed with, and that’s earlier than the sport introduces hook after hook within the type of minigames, a enjoyable story, and a listing of aims that by no means will get too overwhelming. Dave the Diver is healthful as heck, and it’s one in every of 2023’s greatest games (though it debuted in early entry in 2022). Throughout Steam’s Winter Sale, the sport prices $15.99 (usually $19.99).

Octopath Traveler 2

Picture: Sq. Enix

One among Sq. Enix’s greatest games of 2023 doesn’t have “final” or “fantasy” within the title, but it deserves an identical stage of consideration. Octopath Traveler 2 has the mandatory elements to be revered by its audience of RPG followers nostalgic for SNES classics like Chrono Set off. It has wonderful tunes and a enjoyable battle system, and every of its character’s tales are fascinating. We referred to it as “quintessential gaming comfort food,” so be sure that to take into account it if in case you have a spot in your gaming library for an journey that’ll take dozens of hours to end. This recreation is $41.99 throughout Steam’s Winter Sale.

Chants of Sennaar

A figure looks off into the distance from a balcony in Chants of Sennaar, speaking an undeciphered language

Picture: Rundisc/Focus Leisure

Not many games ask you to primarily be taught a brand new language. Chants of Sennaar does, however don’t confuse this creative indie title (one in every of Polygon’s favourite games of 2023, and some of the beautiful titles of the yr) for a brand new spin on Duolingo. The sport begins shrouded in thriller, because the participant wakes up from a sarcophagus. You’re given the straightforward activity to transfer by means of the surroundings, which is conveniently riddled with puzzles, the options to that are made simpler as soon as you understand the foundational pillars of the native language. Not simply that, your data is used to make sense of the tradition you’ve discovered your self in. The sense of discovery from piecing collectively the thriller is one thing that many avid gamers will get pleasure from. It’s simply price its $15.99 sale value.

Diablo 4

Everybody’s Steam library wants a giant, deep RPG which you could sink into through the winter. Diablo 4 is a unbelievable one. Months after debuting on Blizzard’s personal PC shopper (inflicting many Steam Deck homeowners to bounce by means of hoops to get it operating), it’s now out there on Steam. This entry hardly wants an introduction, however it deserves one. The newest entry in Blizzard’s revered Diablo collection made good on the identify by providing a cultured, rewarding expertise at launch. And it’s solely gotten higher since, whether or not you’re taking part in alone, with randoms, or with pals. Plus, extra content material is on the best way in 2024. And, with its Steam Winter Sale value at $41.99, it’s by no means been extra inexpensive on PC.

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