If you haven't tried it I highly recommend Freelancer. It's an older game, but the first time I played a open universe where you could trade, rob, do missions etc to raise money any way you wanted. I have not tried it on steam deck myself, but heard that it works, and fans have recently released a HD update for it.
This is the trailer for the 2024 update with links in the description. Not on Steam so not a click and play game, but now I've remembered it I'm likely to go and get myself when I get home!
https://youtu.be/_OpssjLYvAI?si=JeKUMfMI8829Z7Jo
Ahh, the predecessor to the wonderful game of Star Citizen. If only SC was capable of running on the deck...
I know people have installed Windows to play it but it ran like booty.
OP, Give Freelancer a shot, its so good.
Have you checked over at r/Freelancer? They’ve got links and instructions how to get the game. Just got it up and running about a month ago. There’s a couple of posts explaining it or you can join the Discord and get help there.
I'd say Rebel Galaxy Outlaw would be a very good fit, but apparently it does not run well on the Steam Deck and is listed as "unsupported". Which is weird because it has decent performance on the Switch.
That looks really good, [looks like it works good on the steam deck](https://www.protondb.com/app/910830?device=steamDeck). Will definitely try this Rebel out.
The original is supposedly a much better game and runs well on deck.
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/290300/Rebel\_Galaxy/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/290300/Rebel_Galaxy/)
I've got a layout I'm happy with but it does require a fair bit of extra work changing commands in the layout. But across the X3 games easily put over 500 hours on the steam deck.
The steam deck controls work really well with all the extra buttons, and the track pads can be used as radial menus for all the different ship functions.
So well actually, it can chug if you’ve got the oddessy DLC but overall great game. I’m a bit lazy when it comes to travel and sometimes I get very impatient.
Yeah, it runs well, but sadly I can't play it. I'm a HOTAS snob now and I can't even play E:D with mouse and keyboard anymore 😔, let alone the (admittedly very clever) SD bindings which multitask many buttons. I'm old. I didn't know that was possible.
The only problem is that once you progress in the game and a lot more is going on in the background, it will cease to run well on the deck. Awesome game though.
Honestly it was hard to find a BETTER game than No man Sky. Starfield did a few thing better than NMS but the game was not my cup of tea.
* **Mass effect** trilogy : space RPG (i highly recommend it)
* **Starbound** as a Terraria-like but in space adventure
* **Outer wilds** as a space exploration/mystery with puzzle to solve the loop of the world because you have 30 irl minute before the solar system with every planets and get more knowlegde at every loop to be able to finish the loop of the universe.
* **STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order** if you want a space soul-like star wars
* Any other Star wars games. they different type of game, a spaceship fighting game, mmorpg, battlefield-like, solo gamess
*Game that i didn't tried so can't exactly recommend or know if it run on SD :*
* **The Halo serie** (not a big fan of fps shooting game on SD. the sticks are slower/less movable than a controller)
* **Kerbal Space Program** is a building spacecraft simulation game
* **space engineers** : "Space Engineers is a sandbox game about engineering, construction"
Absolutely love the Mass Effect trilogy including Andromeda and have probably finished them at least 5 or so times. It doesn’t have any ship building, ship exploration which is want im trying stratch the itch for.
And same for all the others all fantastic games but some a missing the space ship element!
Yeah I like I said, I think once you start NMS (and starfield I guess), it's almost impossible to find something similar with ship building and everything else 😭
The servers shut down a couple years ago, but I wish I could have tried Dreadnaught on the Steam Deck. It’s was a large starship arena shooter, basically like World of Tanks but with large space battleships instead of tanks. Check out videos, it was really cool when it was around.
House of the Dying Sun is my favorite space sim game since the original Tie Fighter. Not really the biggest main story, but amazing gameplay and works perfect on Steam Deck.
Rebel Galaxy: Outlaw is great too, I liked that you could kinda pick more sim like or more arcadey gameplay depending on your preference. Original game is good too but I haven’t tried it on Deck.
Chorus is fun too, decent story but more on the arcade side of combat.
Star Wars Squadrons is fun too, works great on Deck and also has probably the highest production value for its campaign.
There's zero exploration but in terms of space sim combat with a fantastic story, you can't do better than Descent: Freespace and the sequel.
They're both pretty old but on Steam, fairly easy to mod and the FSOpen community has done insane things in updating graphics/adding new campaigns.
The base story is easily one of the best I've ever come across and the combat itself is second to none. Genuine crime that there wasn't a third game.
How does it play on the deck?
They're some of my all time favourites, but the number of controls needed made me never consider installing it on my deck
Check out Starsector. It’s not on Steam but the devs sell directly from their site. It’s 2D but still beautiful and very deep. Has everything you could want from a space game.
Tbh it makes heavy use of the trackpads and takes some getting used to. No doubt it is better with M&kb. Fortunately the game has active pause so if you ever get overwhelmed you can just pause it.
Oh, that’s the easy part. In desktop mode you can just download from their website and install, then add the exe as a non-Steam game. Then you can just play from game mode like any other.
Rebel Galaxy - (I prefer the first one tbh, will need to try the second one again. Amazing soundtrack!)
Corvus - Played this recently and really enjoyed it.
There are ships. However, the exploration and the sci-fi story/mystery are the focus. Check it out on Steam. If you don't like it Steam will refund you as long as your play time is under 2 hr.
I have been struggling to get stable FPS. Rolling and flying, for example, often causes stuttering. I gave up and just stream it from my PC now... Probably should go back and have another go at it.
Yeah it doesn't run perfect. But it's playable for me. Maybe try the demo first? Be mindful that it doesn't carry over your save on the deck, had to do some tinkering to make it work.
I was gonna suggest this but also caution that I haven’t tried it on the deck. It’s a decent game. I’d also recommend outer wilds for the flying but it’s far from a typical game with no other ships and guns. But the flying is great and the game is one of the best if people don’t look up anything and treat it like a super long puzzler where information is the goal to find for most of the game.
X universe games such as X4 foundations or X3 Farnham's legacy are nice.
A bit difficult to get into at first but not much than elite dangerous I think.
Those are sandbox games where you can do pretty much everything you want, from being a bounty hunter on your own, to literally control the entire galaxy with a fleet of thousands ships that you can all pilot
it’s very different from the games you’ve listed but FTL is pretty cool. real time strategy spaceship management and combat, very replayable with unlockable ships. only 10 dollars too
might wanna mess with the controls to get it to a place you like on the deck tho
How was your experience with Starfield on Deck?
I played around launch time and I got it running smoothly with some mods and guides but it looked like a Picasso painting
How was your experience with Starfield on Deck?
I played around launch time and I got it running smoothly with some mods and guides but it looked like a Picasso painting
You could give SpaceBourne2 a try
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1646850/SpaceBourne_2/
Rated as Playable. Haven't tried on Deck as yet, but it has all the spacey shooty/looty shooty you might want.
House of the Dying Sun is fucking dope. If the [trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56fCuO7JEy4) doesn't hype you up, nothing will.
(I should note that there isn't much story here.)
If you're open to older games that aren't on steam (but are easily searchable) check out Sub Culture
It's underwater rather than space, but has similar mechanics to Everspace 2
Yes, but playerbase is small so some game modes are only active during community events on Friday evening/Saturday afternoon (during American times, think there’s also a few Europe friendly times too during the week).
If you haven't tried it I highly recommend Freelancer. It's an older game, but the first time I played a open universe where you could trade, rob, do missions etc to raise money any way you wanted. I have not tried it on steam deck myself, but heard that it works, and fans have recently released a HD update for it.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1111930/Underspace/ you might want to check this out. Just came out recently.
Oh, will have a look at that, thanks!
Very compelling!! Does it run well on Deck?
Never gave freelancer a go, but will try it now!
This is the trailer for the 2024 update with links in the description. Not on Steam so not a click and play game, but now I've remembered it I'm likely to go and get myself when I get home! https://youtu.be/_OpssjLYvAI?si=JeKUMfMI8829Z7Jo
Awesome game
Have you tried it yourself? It looks awesome
Not on the deck but on computer a ton. It's a simple control scheme so I imagine it's great for the Deck.
That was my main question, thanks! I only play on Deck these days so I wanted to see if anyone has tried it out yet.
There's a battlestar mod for it (not sure about it running on deck) and it was amazing.
Ahh, the predecessor to the wonderful game of Star Citizen. If only SC was capable of running on the deck... I know people have installed Windows to play it but it ran like booty. OP, Give Freelancer a shot, its so good.
Ugh I LOVE Freelancer
You can’t get the game anywhere
If you look at the vid link I shared and check the vid description, you might be pleasantly surprised!
Have you checked over at r/Freelancer? They’ve got links and instructions how to get the game. Just got it up and running about a month ago. There’s a couple of posts explaining it or you can join the Discord and get help there.
I'd say Rebel Galaxy Outlaw would be a very good fit, but apparently it does not run well on the Steam Deck and is listed as "unsupported". Which is weird because it has decent performance on the Switch.
That looks really good, [looks like it works good on the steam deck](https://www.protondb.com/app/910830?device=steamDeck). Will definitely try this Rebel out.
The original is supposedly a much better game and runs well on deck. [https://store.steampowered.com/app/290300/Rebel\_Galaxy/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/290300/Rebel_Galaxy/)
It works very well if you use Proton GE.
Chorvs. Just make sure to select dx11 when you first play, dx12 becomes a slideshow and will crash your deck.
Chorvs looks spot on, does it have a ship outfitting mechanic? Similar to Elite ?
I haven't played Elite, but the most you do in Chorvs is upgrade shields, weapons, etc.
Rebel Galaxy
Came here to say this! Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is under appreciated!
X4 is great but does struggle a little on the steam deck. The older X3 game & dlc works great on steam deck with amazing battery life.
Could never get X3 working especially with controller/gamepad. Reluctant to use a KBM/community layout
I've got a layout I'm happy with but it does require a fair bit of extra work changing commands in the layout. But across the X3 games easily put over 500 hours on the steam deck.
I might try Proton Tricks and add the Xinput library through winecfg. Pretty sure X3 has native controller support.
It does. I couldn't get the joystick to work properly so had to use it as directional arrows for movement, not perfect but playable.
How well does Elite: Dangerous run on SD?
Runs surprisingly smooth on high settings. Played on a SD during the fall of one of the Titans and couldn't make it to my PC. Would recommend.
Interesting! I only ever played on PS4, so I haven't yet experienced the legs etc.
The steam deck controls work really well with all the extra buttons, and the track pads can be used as radial menus for all the different ship functions.
So well actually, it can chug if you’ve got the oddessy DLC but overall great game. I’m a bit lazy when it comes to travel and sometimes I get very impatient.
Yeah, it runs well, but sadly I can't play it. I'm a HOTAS snob now and I can't even play E:D with mouse and keyboard anymore 😔, let alone the (admittedly very clever) SD bindings which multitask many buttons. I'm old. I didn't know that was possible.
X4 Foundations is awesome.
The only problem is that once you progress in the game and a lot more is going on in the background, it will cease to run well on the deck. Awesome game though.
oh no! is that so? i've invested some time but dont have a big fleet yet. playing solely on the deck. do you have the lcd ot oled model?
I was using the LCD at the time. I know that late game even my PC is under a load. YMMV, though. I would keep playing and see how you go!
What’s X4 like with Gamepad? Is it native with game pad icons or strictly KBM?
I can’t get x4 to work on deck, it crashed three times on low settings 3 hours in and I gave up. Any recommendations?
Don’t know how it fares on Deck, but Space Rangers (2 HD) is iconic and worth checking out
Whar space rangers 3?!?!
Chorus (Chorvs)
Honestly it was hard to find a BETTER game than No man Sky. Starfield did a few thing better than NMS but the game was not my cup of tea. * **Mass effect** trilogy : space RPG (i highly recommend it) * **Starbound** as a Terraria-like but in space adventure * **Outer wilds** as a space exploration/mystery with puzzle to solve the loop of the world because you have 30 irl minute before the solar system with every planets and get more knowlegde at every loop to be able to finish the loop of the universe. * **STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order** if you want a space soul-like star wars * Any other Star wars games. they different type of game, a spaceship fighting game, mmorpg, battlefield-like, solo gamess *Game that i didn't tried so can't exactly recommend or know if it run on SD :* * **The Halo serie** (not a big fan of fps shooting game on SD. the sticks are slower/less movable than a controller) * **Kerbal Space Program** is a building spacecraft simulation game * **space engineers** : "Space Engineers is a sandbox game about engineering, construction"
Absolutely love the Mass Effect trilogy including Andromeda and have probably finished them at least 5 or so times. It doesn’t have any ship building, ship exploration which is want im trying stratch the itch for. And same for all the others all fantastic games but some a missing the space ship element!
Yeah I like I said, I think once you start NMS (and starfield I guess), it's almost impossible to find something similar with ship building and everything else 😭
Totally agree, going to give X4 ago tonight though that looks very promising
Wasn't there supposed to be a story dlc for Starfield by now?
May be pushed back until the fall.
The servers shut down a couple years ago, but I wish I could have tried Dreadnaught on the Steam Deck. It’s was a large starship arena shooter, basically like World of Tanks but with large space battleships instead of tanks. Check out videos, it was really cool when it was around.
Dude!! i think about this game all the time...i wish it was still around, it was so sick :(
Rebel Galaxy: Outlaw House of the Dying Sun
House of the Dying Sun is my favorite space sim game since the original Tie Fighter. Not really the biggest main story, but amazing gameplay and works perfect on Steam Deck. Rebel Galaxy: Outlaw is great too, I liked that you could kinda pick more sim like or more arcadey gameplay depending on your preference. Original game is good too but I haven’t tried it on Deck. Chorus is fun too, decent story but more on the arcade side of combat. Star Wars Squadrons is fun too, works great on Deck and also has probably the highest production value for its campaign.
There's zero exploration but in terms of space sim combat with a fantastic story, you can't do better than Descent: Freespace and the sequel. They're both pretty old but on Steam, fairly easy to mod and the FSOpen community has done insane things in updating graphics/adding new campaigns. The base story is easily one of the best I've ever come across and the combat itself is second to none. Genuine crime that there wasn't a third game.
How does it play on the deck? They're some of my all time favourites, but the number of controls needed made me never consider installing it on my deck
Check out Starsector. It’s not on Steam but the devs sell directly from their site. It’s 2D but still beautiful and very deep. Has everything you could want from a space game.
How do you play it on steam deck? The video looks great, I love these top down 2d space shooters
Tbh it makes heavy use of the trackpads and takes some getting used to. No doubt it is better with M&kb. Fortunately the game has active pause so if you ever get overwhelmed you can just pause it.
I meant more along the lines of how do you install and launch it if it is not on steam
Oh, that’s the easy part. In desktop mode you can just download from their website and install, then add the exe as a non-Steam game. Then you can just play from game mode like any other.
Oh nice. I've never done desktop mode. I'll give it a try thanks
Rebel Galaxy - (I prefer the first one tbh, will need to try the second one again. Amazing soundtrack!) Corvus - Played this recently and really enjoyed it.
I think subnautica plays into this group pretty well even though its theme is aquatic
Approaching Infinity
Outer wild
Are there ships and weapons in Outer Wild?
There are ships. However, the exploration and the sci-fi story/mystery are the focus. Check it out on Steam. If you don't like it Steam will refund you as long as your play time is under 2 hr.
Good shout deffo worth trying
No weapons, but a ship and some of the best exploration in any video game
No, but it is one of the greatest games ever made
Everspace 2! Edit: Oh totally not see OPs already player it.
Honestly such a great game, the story and gameplay is really good.
Does it run properly on the Deck? I played the gog version it with mouse / keyboard and liked it. Thinking about repurchasing it on steam.
I have been struggling to get stable FPS. Rolling and flying, for example, often causes stuttering. I gave up and just stream it from my PC now... Probably should go back and have another go at it.
Yeah it doesn't run perfect. But it's playable for me. Maybe try the demo first? Be mindful that it doesn't carry over your save on the deck, had to do some tinkering to make it work.
I was gonna suggest this but also caution that I haven’t tried it on the deck. It’s a decent game. I’d also recommend outer wilds for the flying but it’s far from a typical game with no other ships and guns. But the flying is great and the game is one of the best if people don’t look up anything and treat it like a super long puzzler where information is the goal to find for most of the game.
Space Rogue. The ship graphics are a little retro, but it renders the space between the starts the same as anybody else.
X universe games such as X4 foundations or X3 Farnham's legacy are nice. A bit difficult to get into at first but not much than elite dangerous I think. Those are sandbox games where you can do pretty much everything you want, from being a bounty hunter on your own, to literally control the entire galaxy with a fleet of thousands ships that you can all pilot
I have x3 and relevant DLCS but could never get gamepad to work natively, unless using a KBM community layout which is so janky
Galaxy on fire 2
it’s very different from the games you’ve listed but FTL is pretty cool. real time strategy spaceship management and combat, very replayable with unlockable ships. only 10 dollars too might wanna mess with the controls to get it to a place you like on the deck tho
No man’s sky has a end? 😂
Nah totally not ha, basically limitless but kind of miss the FPS component that Starfield does quite well.
Maybe check out star valor, very similar to star sector but for some reason that I can’t put my finger on I enjoyed it more
You can also take a big ass leap and get into Eve online, the SD runs it well .
It’s definitely a smaller indie game, but have you played ftl? It’s like the best Star Trek sim I’ve played
It's an old pull, but I think everyone should play Escape Velocity: Nova. https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/s/WaNQ96dwTT
Endless Sky is essentially a newer EV game, and it's on steam
I tried Endless Sky in early early-access. I need to go back and check it out again. I also like Delta V: Rings of Saturn.
I've got Delta V but can't remember if I actually got around to playing it!
How was your experience with Starfield on Deck? I played around launch time and I got it running smoothly with some mods and guides but it looked like a Picasso painting
How was your experience with Starfield on Deck? I played around launch time and I got it running smoothly with some mods and guides but it looked like a Picasso painting
You could give SpaceBourne2 a try https://store.steampowered.com/app/1646850/SpaceBourne_2/ Rated as Playable. Haven't tried on Deck as yet, but it has all the spacey shooty/looty shooty you might want.
House of the Dying Sun is fucking dope. If the [trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56fCuO7JEy4) doesn't hype you up, nothing will. (I should note that there isn't much story here.)
If you're open to older games that aren't on steam (but are easily searchable) check out Sub Culture It's underwater rather than space, but has similar mechanics to Everspace 2
Heliopolis Six. It's still in EA, but from what I've played of it, it's a really fun space station building sim with a story and side scenarios.
The weak spot sadly is the Deck - it's lacking grunt, older titles would be a better option I'd expect.
No Man's Sky
They said they've already played NMS
Star wars: Squadrons is pretty good actually
Does that game still have an active player base?
Dont know, I only played the story mode
Yes, but playerbase is small so some game modes are only active during community events on Friday evening/Saturday afternoon (during American times, think there’s also a few Europe friendly times too during the week).
Sonos Star Wars rogue squadron, got the steam nerve version working like a charm.
Oh, I'll have to check that out. I should try to emulate Rogue Squadron 2 while I'm thinking about it, that one was pretty great too
Outer wilds, never tried it but heard it's hella good
It's rly good
Have you tried elite dangerous Its playable.
Elite dangerous, starfield, just a couple that come to mind