There\u2019s a holiday weekend ahead. Need something good to play? Here are five games that are all excellent and also wildly cheap right now on Steam.<\/p>\n
Tomb Raider (2013) <\/p>\n
What if Uncharted was more like a Metroidvania? That\u2019s one of the questions asked in the first game that kicked off the modern Tomb Raider revival. It\u2019s got great bow-and-arrow action and a good story, and it\u2019s currently only $3 on Steam<\/a>. Or you can get the whole Survivor trilogy for just under $11 (until September 7).<\/p>\n From the Kotaku review<\/a>:<\/p>\n You can feel the ambitions of the Crystal Dynamics creative team in the design of the game\u2019s component parts. The presentational elements\u2014plot, dialogue, voice acting and art design\u2014all shine. Some characters lean too heavily on type but not so much as to be really annoying. This is a beautiful game to look at, too, with great animations and modeling\/texture work that\u2019s bursting with vivid, horrid detail in the characters and environments.<\/p>\n Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun\u00a0 <\/p>\n Atmospheric strategy and great level design set in Japan\u2019s Edo period. That\u2019s what\u2019s on offer in Shadow Tactics, a strategy game that led a revival in real-time isometric stealth gameplay. Normally $40, it\u2019s currently just $4<\/a> to own on Steam.<\/p>\n From the Kotaku review<\/a>:<\/p>\n What keeps me poring over every map though, more than even the strategies and planning involved, is how pretty everything looks. There\u2019s a wonderful toy-like quality to the game\u2019s world, like it\u2019s a giant diorama made by master craftsmen, and it\u2019s a pleasure finding downtime to just pan the camera around and take everything in, from the gentle flowing of a river to the busywork of townspeople to the chaos of a battle unfolding around the map\u2019s edges.<\/p>\n Grim Dawn <\/p>\n It\u2019s not Warhammer, it\u2019s Grim Dawn<\/a>. Considered a spiritual successor to Diablo 2 when it was released a decade ago, the action-RPG takes isometric looting to a unique, Victorian-inspired apocalyptic fantasy world. It was always lauded as more hardcore than the pure sugar rush of some loot-based Diablo-likes, but recent updates have steered it more in the direction of a top-down Soulslike, to the chagrin of some long-time fans. For others, that\u2019s a plus.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve never dipped your toes in this pond before, you can currently do so for just $3.75 on Steam<\/a>. No Kotaku review of this one, so you\u2019ll have to trust the 94-percent positive rating from users on Steam.<\/p>\n A Plague Tale: Innocence\u00a0 <\/p>\n A Plague Tale: Innocence holds up as a beautiful and haunting stealth adventure. There are shades of The Last of Us here, reflected through the lens of a rat-infested 1300s Europe. It\u2019s sort of like an 8-to-10-hour playable movie, but a very good one. You can give it a shot for just $4 on Steam right now<\/a>, and it\u2019s the perfect follow-up if you recently played the action-oriented prequel, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy<\/a>, without having already experienced the rest of the series.<\/p>\n From a spoiler-filled Kotaku write-up<\/a>:<\/p>\n It\u2019s been so long since a game has truly scared me that\u00a0A Plague Tale: Innocence\u00a0caught me completely off guard. Tense, terrifying, and meticulously crafted,\u00a0Plague Tale excels at making you feel utterly helpless. Set in late 1349 in Aquitaine, France, the medieval setting is one of the game\u2019s strengths, distinguishing itself with the backdrop of a dark, and tragic, history.<\/p>\n Guardians of the Galaxy <\/p>\n Five years later, it still doesn\u2019t feel like Guardians of the Galaxy has gotten its due. Hurt by the mess around the live-service Avengers game as well as broader burnout with the MCU, the game failed to find the audience it deserved, and not enough people experienced one of the best linear comic-book video games of the modern era. The storytelling is great, the combat is inventive, the puzzles are serviceable enough, and the game looks crazy beautiful. It\u2019s the most expensive game on this list, but compared to its normal Steam price of $60, $9 is still a relative steal.<\/a><\/p>\n