Your guide to the Steam sales: the best games, deals, and all the other info you’ll need.
Ready your wallets, gamers: some big ol’ discounts are coming to Steam this week.
The game distribution platform has announced it’s kicking off its Steam Summer Sale until July 5, with an abundance of price slashes coming to its expansive library of titles.
While Steam always has an ongoing roster of weeklong and weekly deals, they’re never quite as exciting as the big extravaganzas we see in their seasonal sales.
In this guide we’ll keep you up to date with the best deals and discounts available on the platform, and how to get the best out of the sales.
For Honor: Ubisoft’s melee-focused fighting game sees medieval knights, samurai, and vikings face off in a gritty mashup of historical warfare, and has one of the deepest combat systems of recent memory. This deal sees both the Standard or content-packed Deluxe editions fall by 75%, while the bargain Starter Edition is also half-price.
Firewatch: This mystery adventure game puts you in the shoes of a fire lookout in the National Forests of Wyoming, uncovering clues about a decades-old mystery with just a walkie-talkie for company. Stunning environments and a well-told story made this a must-have game of 2016 – or 2018, with a summer sale offer of 75% off RRP.
Bioshock franchise: The original Bioshock was a runaway success, praised for its thrilling combat, masterful storytelling, and one of the best narrative twists of any FPS game to date. For a brief time, the summer sale will let you dip into Bioshock, Bioshock 2, or the skyward Bioshock Infinite for a sizeable 67% off.
XCOM 2: Turn-based tactics, an alien invasion, and a team of mercenaries ready to die for you. A 67% price cut has made this challenging strategy game more accessible than ever – though if you really want to show those aliens what for, the XCOM 2 Collection bundled in four DLC packs and 2017’s War Of The Chosen expansion.
Left 4 Dead 2: Valve’s cooperative zombie shooter Left 4 Dead 2 pits four survivors against a procedurally-generated undead horde, and has an absolute blast doing it. And at 90% off RRP, it’s basically free…
Undertale: This fun, kooky indie RPG won over players with its playful dialogue, in-fight minigames, and option to play through its six-hour dungeon-crawler campaign without harming a single soul. After a reasonable 50% discount, this universally-acclaimed game was looking better value than ever.
Batman franchise: Steam offered a fleet of 75% discounts across Rocksteady’s acclaimed action-adventure games (Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, Arkham Origins, Arkham Knight… you get the idea) and even Lego Batman: The Videogame, for those wanting a lighter take on the caped crusader.
Super Meat Boy: This tough-as-nails retro platformer is as rewarding to play as it is punishing – and you could play through its 300+ levels for a whopping 90% off RRP. With a big sequel planned for this year, too, now is the time to get some practise in.
LIMBO: Playdead’s bleak, monochrome platformer follows a young boy in a forest searching for his lost sister, and won high praise for its gripping atmosphere and minimalist art style. You can zip through it in only a few hours, but the hefty 75% discount means you’re definitely getting bang for your buck.
Tomb Raider franchise: The iconic explorer has seen a huge transformation since her debut outing in ’96, moving from polygonal poster-girl to complex, conflicted heroine. And with 70-90% discounts across the entire platforming series, this is the perfect time to join her on that journey…
Other deals you may have missed
Whichever way you approach the Steam Summer Sale (or any other Steam deal-a-thon for that matter), you’re guaranteed to pick up something at a great price.
But there are a few techniques and tricks that are worth using if you want to get the most out of the sale.
Gone but not forgotten, here’s our collection of all the best deals we’ve seen up until this point. Use them as a point of reference for what you should be expecting – or, you know, lament the ones that got away.
Shadow of Mordor bundle: Perhaps the definitive Lord of the Rings video game, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor was lauded on release for its stellar combat, open-world action, and an intelligent Nemesis system that. If 50 Game of the Year awards weren’t enough to convince you, a hefty 70% discount on the Shadow of Mordor/Shadow of War bundle certainly should have been.
Half-life: Yes, it’s old. But is it still one of the best game franchises in history? Yes. Yes it is. And frankly, at 93% off it didn’t matter if it was garbage. Which it isn’t. It’s great. And 93% off – that was pretty much free.
The Witcher 3: Inarguably the game of 2015, The Witcher 3 is also now widely considered the best RPG of all time. A sprawling dark fantasy epic, it’s a beautiful game, and one that’s a great showpiece for your souped-up gaming PC too.
And, with the Game of the Year Edition being heavily discounted in the Steam Summer Sale, it was a fantastic way to jump into this monumental game, and get all of its DLC at a discount too.
The Valve complete pack: If, by some small miracle, you were a PC gamer that was yet to try any of Valve’s homegrown titles, this was your chance. The Valve Complete Pack was a staggering 91% off its usual asking price, including all the Half-Life games and episodes, every Portal game, every Left 4 Dead game, a bunch of DLC and much, much more.
First off, you shouldn’t expect brand-new games to get the really steep discounts that have become synonymous with the Steam sales. You may see a 5%, or even 10% discount on games that have been recent big hits, but if they’re still new enough to be spinning money without needing a price cut, don’t expect that to change now that the sale is here.
But, with the exception of the newer titles, pretty much the entire store receives a 25% discount, if not higher, with a select few seeing a massive 90% off the list price. While the store now highlights what Valve considers the best deals, it’s worth noting that flash and community sales are no longer in the mix, so feel free to pick a title on sale when you like – its discounted price will stand for the duration of the sale.
