The Steam Deck has taken the gaming world by storm since its launch, providing a handheld portal to PC gaming that delivers console-quality performance on the go. With its versatile form factor and controls, beefy specs, and SteamOS integration, Valve‘s new handheld is perfectly suited for sprawling open-world adventures.
Open-world games thrive on freedom and immersion, allowing players to explore richly detailed worlds at their own pace. The Steam Deck brings desktop-level power to a portable form factor that makes it easy to get lost in these vast game worlds whether you‘re at home or on the move.
We‘ve rounded up 10 of the best open-world games that truly shine on the Steam Deck. From the endless hills of Hyrule to the towering spires of the Lands Between, these handcrafted worlds feature tons of quests, characters, and secrets to uncover across hundreds of hours.
What Are Open-World Games?
Before diving into the list, let‘s briefly overview what defines an open-world game. These games break from linear, level-based design in favor of vast, interconnected 3D environments that players can traverse freely. Some signature open-world mechanics include:
- Freedom of exploration: traverse the world without set paths, often using vehicles, fast-travel points, and more.
- Dynamic NPCs/wildlife: the world feels alive with creatures and characters that behave and roam independently.
- A mix of story missions and side content: open-ended structure weaves together self-directed exploration, side missions, collectibles hunting and more with pivotal story beats.
- Player choice/customization: freedom to battle enemies strategically, develop your character build over time, choice and consequence in quests altering outcomes.
When done well, open-world games create a deeply immersive experience as you uncover secrets and carve your own unique journey. The Steam Deck brings uncompromised open-world gaming into a handheld form factor for the very first time.
Now let‘s get into the top 10 open-world games that are best suited for Steam Deck.
#10 Horizon Zero Dawn
Kicking off the list is Guerrilla Games‘ acclaimed action RPG Horizon Zero Dawn. Set in a strikingly realized post-apocalyptic open world where massive animalistic machines now dominate earth, Zero Dawn empowers players with fluid mechanical combat and diverse tools for strategic takedowns.
From lush forests to snowcapped mountains, Zero Dawn‘s world is stunningly rendered and encourages exploration to uncover the mysteries of its past. Intelligent creatures like robotic T-Rexes roam landscapes rich in ruins, quests and secrets to uncover.
The Steam Deck handles Zero Dawn‘s demanding fidelity with solid frame rates at native resolution while leveraging its controls for precise aim on the go. With its varied regions and threats to overcome, Horizon makes for an epic odyssey on Deck.
#9 Death Stranding Director‘s Cut
Renowned developer Hideo Kojima‘s epic courier sim Death Stranding receives enhanced performance and content on Steam Deck. Players traverse surreal alien-infested frontiers to rebuild connections between isolated cities as legendary porter Sam Bridges.
Death Stranding opens up inventive asynchronous multiplayer that lets you assist other players by building infrastructure and leaving helpful items in their worlds. Its expanded Director‘s Cut adds racing challenges, wacky Half-Life missions and more.
While polarizing with its heavy exposition and novel "strand" genre, Death Stranding offers up rewarding journey filled with breathtaking vistas and eccentric characters perfectly paired with Steam Deck.
#8 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
CD Projekt Red‘s acclaimed dark fantasy epic The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt delivers one of gaming‘s richest open worlds. As mutant mercenary Geralt of Rivia, players battle supernatural beasts and make gut-wrenching choices that shape the fate of the war-torn Northern Realms.
From thick forests to coastal villages, the Witcher 3 overflows with unforgettable quests, compelling characters and meaningful decision-making across its 100+ hour main campaign and stellar expansions.
While originally released in 2015, Wild Hunt‘s visuals still shine on the Steam Deck‘s 7-inch screen with buttery frame rates. With full controller support and tweaked text size, hunting monsters has never been more immersive on the go.
#7 Valheim
Independent developer Iron Gate Studio struck survival gold with their voxel-based Norse adventure Valheim. Stranded in purgatory after a heroic death, players must craft weapons and shelter to conquer mythical biomes and appease the gods.
With richly atmospheric visuals and a tightly tuned gameplay loop of exploring, gathering, building and fighting, Valheim strikes a perfect balance for losing dozens of hours in its mystical procedurally generated world either solo or with friends.
Valheim has been a word-of-mouth Steam phenomenon thanks to its enchanting atmosphere and rewarding progression that plays exceptionally well with the Steam Deck‘s controls whether relaxing at home or on an airplane tray table.
#6 Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga jam packs the entire iconic sci-fi saga into one massive open-world punch filled with smashing, collecting and humor. Players freely explore 24 planets collecting Kyber Bricks and unlocking over 300 playable characters across nine films worth of content.
Skywalker Saga modernizes the familiar Lego game formula with enhanced combat, tools and movement to deliver deeper open zone exploration and content density than ever before. Jabba‘s Palace and Starkiller Base have truly never looked better realized in block form.
From snappy blaster combat to piloting the Millenium Falcon, Skywalker Saga‘s slick controls and performant engine purr like a tooka cat on Steam Deck. The Complete Saga never misses a beat even when played in fully mobile mode.
#5 Terraria
The 2D sandbox adventure Terraria has cemented itself as a modern multiplayer crafting classic thanks to its expansive progression systems, biome diversity, boss battles and deep building tools. Select world seeds unleash procedurally generated maps and structures offering unlimited adventure potential either solo or cooperatively.
Terraria absolutely sings on Steam Deck with buttery frame rates, intuitive touch controls for inventory management and user interface scaling perfect for its retro pixel art style. Hundreds of weapons, gear sets and crafting recipes unlock for players willing to test their exploration mettle against challenging events, monsters and towering bosses.
With substantial updates still rolling out over a decade after launch, Terraria continually rewards Steam Deck users dipping into its addictive sandbox adventure loop on the couch or backyard hammock.
#4 Outer Wilds
Mobius Digital‘s Outer Wilds reinvents the open-world mystery template into a compact yet unforgettable sci-fi saga spanning just over 20 hours. As the newest recruit of Outer Wilds Ventures, players freely chart course to explore the bizarre secrets of a fully real-time solar system trapped in an endless time loop.
Wilds‘ intimate open zones encourage non-linear discovery filled with aha moments and emergent storytelling. Planetary orbits, sand vortexes and stellar explosions keep exploration dynamic while retaining tightly crafted Metroid-style world building.
Thanks to Outer Wilds‘ stylized art and moderate technical demands, the Steam Deck handles its cosmic sights and clever puzzles without performance issues. Wilds delivers a condensed yet unparalleled open-world experience that‘s easy to progress in short bursts ideal for mobile play.
#3 Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Sega‘s eccentric Japanese crime sim Yakuza: Like a Dragon transports the series signature goofy sandbox beat-em-up action into a fresh modern RPG layer cake. Aspiring gangster Ichiban Kasuga explores a vibrant reimagining of Yokohama brawling goons and helping townsfolk while unlocking Jobs ranging from breakdancer to chef.
Like a Dragon retains the franchise‘s perfect mixture of melodrama, slapstick and culture appreciation layered into its dense city blocks overflowing with ramen joints, arcades, karaoke bars and more to discover. Mini-games like racing go-karts, batting cages and SEGA arcade classics round out this jam-packed adventure.
The Yakuza series has always paired perfectly with controllers making Steam Deck the definitive way to manage Ichiban‘s chaotic party-based combat system while appreciating SEGA‘s signature world density in handheld mode.
#2 Elden Ring
Hidetaka Miyazaki‘s epic dark fantasy Elden Ring sets a new watermark for open-world design in terms of scope, variety and player freedom. From Software‘s signature tense third-person combat extends to a sprawling, haunted kingdom practically begging to be explored from every possible angle thanks to player-summoned mounts, shortcuts and hidden passages.
Elden Ring hands players vague clues to discover Story Dungeons housing nightmarish beasts and demigods in vast legacy intricate level design. Meanwhile, optional Catacombs, Caves and mini-dungeons dense each zone with optional challenges guarding unique new Sorceries, Ashes of War or Talismans.
While demanding on hardware, FromSoftware‘s masterful port already runs excellently on Steam Deck with a recent patch enabling a very playable 40 FPS experience out the gate. With its refined controls and portable form factor, Elden Ring fulfills its potential as the quintessential on-the-go quest.
#1 Marvel‘s Spider-Man Remastered
Sony‘s blockbuster open-world web-slinging adventure soars at a silky smooth 60 frames per second in Remastered form on Steam Deck. Players swing through a gorgeously realized Manhattan as the iconic wall-crawler, balancing high flying Hero missions against street level crime and citizens to rescue.
Insomniac Games fills their take on the Big Apple with thoughtful worldbuilding touches sports unique indoor/outdoor setpieces, from thwarting an out of control Oscorp experiment over Times Square to an epic clash on top of the Washington Bridge. Dozens of iconic nemeses like Scorpion and Vulture round out ambitious large-scale encounters across the city.
Marvel‘s Spider-Man Remastered checks every box for Steam Deck excellence between its strong default graphics settings, stellar performance, and exceptional integration of motion controls for web swinging. This superhero sensation has unanimously earned its spot as Steam Deck‘s #1 must-play open-world game.
Open-World Wonder on the Steam Deck Awaits
The Steam Deck has already proven itself more than capable of bringing uncompromised open-world experiences on the go. Paired with exceptional input methods and tweaked settings, these vast game worlds sing whether relaxing on the couch or venturing into the wilderness IRL.
We hope this list has showcased Steam Deck‘s strengths through some of gaming‘s most memorable living worlds filled with quests and secrets to uncover. These 10 games only scratch the surface of possibilities still yet to be explored with Valve‘s versatile handheld.
As Steam Deck shipments accelerate and development continues, its library grows more formidable by the day. Let us know some of your favorite open zones realized on Deck so far or what you hope to journey through next! The road goes ever on as portable players venture forth into new realms of discovery.
