10 Best Survival Games To Play On Steam Deck

Valve’s handheld offers a great deal of versatility for PC gaming and gaming as a whole, and that freedom lends itself well to some of the best survival games available on Steam Deck. Survival games offer exciting open-ended gameplay loops when at their best, with many of them available on PC.

Thanks to the technical flexibility of the Deck and the community-driven support, games that aren’t strictly labeled as Verified can run well on the handheld device. This means that whether a player is looking for a great indie game on Steam Deck or a full AAA experience, the Steam Deck is an excellent fit for a variety of beloved survival video games.

Related:10 Best Feel-Good Video Games

10 No Man’s Sky (2016)

There are few comeback stories as successful as the likes of developer Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky. When the game initially launched in 2016, it was plagued by barebones gameplay features but, thanks to some lengthy post-launch support, it has been revolutionized to be a breathtaking and richly immersive sci-fi game.

Exploring countless procedurally-generated planets with their biomes is the biggest pull and the plethora of customization options allows players to make it as easy or challenging as they see fit. This combines to make its gameplay loop of exploration, trading, resource gathering, combat, base building, ship upgrades, etc. consistently engaging. These limitless possibilities and relatively low technical demand make it a thrilling adventure in the handheld form factor of the Steam Deck.

9 Valheim (2021)

Open-world survival games, in particular, have a lot of room for invention given the sandboxes they play in, and developer Iron Gate Studio’s Valheim is one such indie game that combines wonderfully bizarre concepts. The game blends Norse mythology with open-world survival to surprisingly impressive effect, especially for its current build.

Valheim has been critically praised for being the rare example of an Early-Access game with refined polish to its gameplay. Starting from scratch, players have a liberating amount of freedom to interact with their environment and shape their Viking characters’ build in any direction, with combat encounters often proving to be thrillingly decisive to progression. The fact that it runs natively on Linux makes it a seamless fit for Steam Deck’s SteamOS. Likewise, it’s a great candidate for pick-up-and-play sessions as short as 30 minutes or three hours.

Related:10 Games With The Best Post-Campaign Content

8 The Forest (2018)

When many players think of the genre “survival-horror,” it’s likely that the many excellent Resident Evil games will come to mind. However, indie developer Endnight Games’ The Forest takes that concept to an even more literal – and open-world – degree that translates well to Steam Deck.

Critical reception for the game was strong, with many reviews highlighting its balance of terror and survival gameplay loop as the highest point. Scrounging up resources and upgrading skills is even tenser when taking into account the fear factor of fighting off endless onslaughts of cannibalistic creatures, and with a tantalizingly mysterious story at its core. Just as well, the low technical demand will allow for multi-hour sessions on Steam Deck at high performances.

7 Dying Light (2015)

In the AAA space, open-world survival horror has also seen some success with the likes of developer Techland’s Dying Light. While Dying Light 2 introduced new RPG mechanics, the original’s moderately positive critical reception focused on combat, fluid controls, and the dynamic open world.

It follows an agent tasked with infiltrating a Middle-Eastern quarantine zone, with the somewhat plain premise making for a much more tense open world when it comes to gameplay. Dying Light focuses on parkour-based controls, which goes well with the Steam Deck’s comfortable ergonomics. Even more exciting are the zombies, as they pose particularly great threats at night to maximize the scares.

Related:10 Games Everyone Should Play Once

6 Subnautica (2018)

Sci-fi makes for a natural use of space for a premise in any medium, but Unknown Worlds Entertainment’s Subnautica takes things underwater. This open-world survival game sees players explore an oceanic alien planet after a lone space survivor finds themselves stranded.

The game is played in first-person, greatly helping Subnautica‘s immersion factor, letting players intimately discover underwater life in one of the best underwater horror games. It makes for a unique experience, as players will need to build their base and gather resources while fully submerged in an uncharted world. Subnautica can be easily tweaked to run optimally and for nearly a few hours thanks to the indie title’s reasonable demand and addictive gameplay loop.

5 Tomb Raider (2013)

Lara Croft has arguably been a PlayStation icon since the days of the original PS1. Since then, she’s gone through several reboots, with the most recent being the Definitive Survivor Trilogy spearheaded by Crystal Dynamics and Eidos-Montréal, which gave a more cinematic and gritty spin on the character. 2013’s Tomb Raider is also the perfect PS3-era game when it comes to technical requirements to fit the Steam Deck’s performance profile in 2023 and beyond.

2013’s impressive Tomb Raider is one of the best in the series, thanks to its marriage of cinematic storytelling and open-world survival gameplay. Tonally, the game – and the rest of the trilogy – does well to set itself apart from the swashbuckling atmosphere of the acclaimed Uncharted series, using the darkened tone to set the stage for the mechanics themselves. In addition to cathartic combat with a variety of weapons, survival is another pillar of the gameplay loop as Lara scavenges for resources.

Related:10 Games Getting A Remake In 2023

4 Ark: Survival Evolved (2015)

Studio Wildcard’s Ark: Survival Evolved admittedly had its fair share of technical problems – and then some. And while the game hasn’t made a massive technological turnaround, the recent update debatably makes the ambitious open-world survival game even more addicting.

Ambitious is one the best ways to describe Ark: Survival Evolved, as it throws players in a punishing sci-fi open world where, starting from nothing, players need to arm and equip themselves, build shelters and fortresses, and amass a legion of tamed dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. The game also has a large file size that can be managed by downloading DLC separately, but expanding the Steam Deck’s storage is still a must.

3 Rise Of The Tomb Raider (2015)

Tomb Raider laid out a solid foundation in 2013, and Crystal Dynamics’ sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider deserves a mention as a worthy action-adventure survival game. This game is certainly more demanding, but the native Linux support and the handheld’s power make Lara’s gripping continuation a good venture on Steam Deck.

Visually, Rise of the Tomb Raider is an impressive improvement over what was a good-looking game for its time, and it still scales well to the Deck’s resolution and power. The world’s unique locations make for great reasons to explore, scavenge, and solve puzzles. The reception was strong for Rise and is argued as the most refined of the trilogy mechanically.

Related:10 Action Games With The Best Storylines

2 Don’t Starve (2013)

Indie developer Klei Entertainment’s Don’t Starve is a game that cleverly combines survival and roguelike elements with charming horror gameplay. The Steam Deck is, in general, a great fit for indie titles, making this game a good contender for well-optimized gameplay and extended sessions.

Don’t Starve is partly praised for its striking and endearing use of art direction, likening it to a Tim Burton animated movie. And as far as gameplay goes, the launch reception was positive to its use of procedurally-generated dungeons to affect combat and resource management. Alongside the free multiplayer DLC, subtitling the game Don’t Starve Together, the game becomes an excellent fit for local or online co-op.

1 State Of Decay (2013)

The aptly-named developer Undead Labs’ State of Decay 2 may have received middling critical reception, but its original effort is still a solid zombie-survival romp. State of Decay was fairly well-received for its cocktail of gameplay styles and makes for a good horror game to play on Steam Deck.

Using elements of action-adventure, shooter, stealth, and survival games, this apocalyptic zombie game tests players’ resourcefulness and endurance through its various gameplay systems. In between third-person combat with the undead and engaging in base building, players will also need to deal with the threat of diminishing resources and preventing group morale from crumbling in the face of adversity. It’s the perfect zombie game for those that want to test their mettle as survivalists on Steam Deck.

More:10 PlayStation RPGs To Look Forward To In 2023