Nosotros often talk most the latest and greatest graphics cards and playing games at the highest settings, but at that place are times when that'due south merely not an option. Any the reason may be, in times like these, it's nice to have a library of fun games that won't melt our processors.

Fortunately, there are a multitude of older games and even newer indie titles that are friendly for low-end PCs and laptops with integrated GPUs. Browsing through Steam or your preferred PC game platform trying to find something fun to play that won't revenue enhancement your system can be exhausting. That's why we've compiled this listing of 25 great games we can wholeheartedly recommend.

Even if your hardware is a few years old, most of these titles will work just fine.

Some are platonic right out of the box, while others can use lower settings depending on what kind of hardware you accept on manus. Generally speaking, you lot'll want to be running at to the lowest degree a dual-cadre CPU, an integrated GPU from the last few years or ameliorate, and nearly 4GB RAM.

For testing I tried them all on my wife'due south three year old laptop that only has Intel integrated graphics. This may still exist more modern than your average erstwhile laptop, but it's not a gaming automobile by any means. If you're however unsure, y'all can download demos of many of the games, and Tin can You Run It is also a good place to check to see if your gear is upwards to snuff. Let's get to it.

Oxenfree

Oxenfree from Nighttime School Studio is a must-accept on any organization, and cheers to its minimalistic, nonetheless very stunning graphics and animation designed by Disney alumni, it is ideal for your older laptop. You play as the protagonist Alex, a teenage girl on an overnight excursion with friends to a mysterious island that used to be a World War II armed forces base. The kids accidentally open a spirit gate and see ghosts and discover otherworldly letters from the past.

The real depict of the game is the chat system, as every conversation can alter the form of the narrative. Yous will spend the majority of the time exploring the island and trying to find a way to close the ghostly rift. The puzzle elements are challenging but non likewise hard. The gameplay might not be anybody's cup of tea, but the story is what really drives the game.

Purchase it from: Steam, GOG, Microsoft

FTL: Faster Than Calorie-free

As its proper name implies, FTL puts you lot at the helm of your own faster-than-light starship. The game plays from a pinnacle-down perspective showing your arts and crafts's various compartments or rooms. Each of your ships five systems, Sheilds, Engines, Medbay, Oxygen, and Weapons, are housed in these rooms and are run by your crew. Your overarching mission is to evangelize "data" to the Federation, simply you lot will have many encounters forth the way, some friendly and most non so friendly. To make matters worse, equally you lot jump at light speed from system to organization, you lot will have a Rebel fleet dogging your trail. If it catches upwardly to you, your ship will be destroyed.

FTL battles take place in real-fourth dimension, but you can pause to strategize and give your coiffure commands. Y'all will always take something to exercise, whether information technology be managing your ship's systems or commanding your crew to make repairs or fight boarding parties. The game is very challenging even on easy difficulty because every game is randomly generated. We played for 27 hours and were never able to reach the Federation, but every playthrough was unique and fun.

Buy information technology from: Steam, GOG, Humble Bundle, Microsoft

Factorio

Although the game is still in early on access, Factorio is a well-operation game worth your time. In a manner, it is similar to SimCity, except instead of building streets and buildings, yous create conveyor belts and factories. Yous will collect resources and construct everything by mitt at offset, merely as y'all progress, your factories will become more and more circuitous and automatic.

Yet, building a massive manufacturing empire while raping the world of resource makes enemies with the alien populous — "Spitters," "Biters," and "Worms." Eventually, you will have to fend off attacking foes using turrets, tanks, and various other weapons. Developer Wube Software has the official release slated for September 25, 2022, but don't let that stop you from buying the very stable and about consummate build right now.

Honorable Mention: Sim City 4 Deluxe Edition
Purchase information technology from: Steam, GOG, Humble Bundle

Borderlands

When first-person shooter Borderlands launched in 2009, developer Gearbox marketed it as having "87 bazillion" different guns. In authenticity, the game's "Procedural Content Cosmos System" is capable of randomly generating over 3.five million variations with dissimilar attributes, but who'southward counting? Information technology too provides each weapon with a slightly unique look.

While primarily a shooter, the game has a rich RPG-like character development system allowing players to customize one of four classes, each with unique abilities and skill trees. These elements combined with vehicular combat, open up-earth surroundings, a multitude of side quests, and an adaptive four-actor multiplayer cooperative manner makes Borderlands a title that you can revisit multiple times with each new playthrough seeming fresh.

Honorable Mention: The Elderberry Scrolls V: Skyrim (vanilla version)
Buy it from: Steam, Apprehensive Package

Untitled Goose Game

Untitled Goose Game from indy publisher Panic Inc is a more than recent championship. Players presume the role of a pesky town goose. The town is split up upwards into sections with each having a set of missions or tasks to complete, like stealing items or tricking villagers into doing something. The game combines stealth and puzzle elements and oddly enough developer House Business firm said information technology drew inspiration from Mario 64 and the Hitman series.

With its simplistic graphics, it is piece of cake to permit this game fly under your radar, but its gameplay is fun and silly enough to make it a expert option for lower-terminate systems. Its only real flaw is that it is as well short. Nearly players can complete information technology in a couple of hours.

Buy information technology from: Epic Games Store,​​ Steam (subsequently this year)

Hotline Miami

Hotline Miami is a top-down shooter initially launched by Devolver Digital in 2022. You play every bit an unnamed protagonist (fans refer to equally "Jacket") in 1989 Miami. The game is divided into Capacity, with each having several stages. Missions brainstorm with a telephone message that ultimately has Jacket facing off with a Russian Mafia operation. The goal is always to gruesomely eliminate all the bad guys in that location.

Starting each phase unarmed, Jacket must apply stealth, at least until he finds a gun or melee weapon. He likewise has access to masks, which can be found on bodies. Each disguise comes with unique buffs to help get through the stage. While information technology is an action game, information technology is also somewhat puzzle-oriented in that players must figure out how to complete areas without being killed, which is non easy. If you can't go the leap on an enemy, you volition likely perish and take to start the level again.

Its retro graphics combined its 1980s-inspired soundtrack requite it an almost GTA: Vice Metropolis vibe. Its construction makes it great for playing in short bursts, like while y'all are waiting to board at the airport.

Honorable Mention: Neon Chrome
Buy it from: Steam, GOG, Humble Bundle

Cuphead

Despite its cartoonish, beautiful graphics, Cuphead is one of the more than taxing games on the list, both on your hardware and your sanity. Studio MDHR's 2022 bullet-hell is one that many have institute frustratingly difficult, so it's not for anybody. Even so, once you lot get the hang of its levels (afterward dying many, many times), it becomes addicting. The sense of relief and satisfaction after completing a stage is a suitable payoff.

Yous play equally either Cuphead or his brother Mugman. The 1930 style is reminiscent of the old "visit-the-snackbar" animations with their anthropomorphic popcorn and sodas dancing around. Coupled with its cool soundtrack, the game makes for a fun experience whether you are watching someone else die or you are playing yourself.

Buy it from: Steam, GOG, Apprehensive Bundle

Hack Series

Perhaps one of the more than underrated titles on the listing, the Hack series consists of 3 hacker simulators from developer i273 — Hack Run, Hack Run Zilch, and Hack Time. They harken back to the days of text adventures, so you can literally run them on annihilation. The games put players in the shoes of a hacker who receives an "offer' from a foreign "employer" that seems to know more than it should about his (or her) skills.

The story plays out from a control line prompt as you lot infiltrate a mysterious corporation snooping on emails, running scripts, and uncovering clues to delve deeper and deeper. The puzzles can exist quite challenging at times, requiring a very keen attention to item. It is easy to miss clues every bit the text scrolls off the screen, only diligence pays off, and it is quite satisfying when you crack some of the more security-hardened systems. If all else fails, i273 added a hint system in the most recent updates for those who go stuck. These games are all worth their very inexpensive $3 price signal.

Honorable Mention: Uplink
Buy information technology from: Steam

Half-Life Series

Released in 1998, Half-Life remains a classic that has been updated and remade on multiple platforms. The showtime-person shooter puts you in the shoes of Gordon Freeman, a scientist at a research facility known as Black Mesa. Thank you to an experiment gone wrong, Freeman finds himself battling creatures from some other dimension. The 2004 dystopian sequel, One-half-Life two, is set 6 years after the dimensional rift caused by the Black Mesa Incident. This fourth dimension he has to debate with the Combine, a multidimensional gild of beings that conquered the Earth inside 7 hours later existence unleashed.

Honorable Mentions: One-half-Life: Blueish Shift, Half-Life: Opposing Strength
Buy it from: Steam

West of Loathing

Asymmetric's Westward of Loathing is a goofy, open-globe risk done up with stick figures. In fact, the whole game looks like a middle-school student's art project, simply don't let the childish graphics fool you. The followup to the browser-based game The Kingdom of Loathing, is funny, filled with Western clichés that volition have yous laughing out loud. It plays like a roleplaying game with a hand-drawn stats sheet and everything.

Yous will be facing demon cow, cowboy skeletons, goblins, and other crazy villains in turn-based combat. In that location are enough of quests and exploring to go along yous decorated for a long while, Pardner. Best of all, those simplistic graphics nosotros mentioned means the game is likely to run on a potato.

Buy information technology from: Steam, GOG, Microsoft

Bridge Constructor Portal

In a spinoff of Clockstone'due south Bridge Constructor games, Bridge Constructor Portal adds a new element to the recipe, namely Aperture Science portals. You play every bit 1 of the Discontinuity Science Enrichment Center's new hires. Your chore is to engineer functional bridges in examination chambers (60 in all). By functional, we mean cars and trucks have to get from i side to the other without it collapsing. Making it all the more complicated is portals that teleport the vehicles from one area to some other, often with enough force to topple your structure. The gameplay is bones only is non piece of cake once you reach the college levels. In that location is even a cameo of GLaDOS to help you lot through the tutorial. Not to spoil anything, only there is still no cake.

Honorable Mention: Span Constructor
Buy it from: Steam, Apprehensive Parcel, Microsoft

Into the Breach

Into the Breach is another strategy title from Subset Games, the makers of FTL. However, this i is plough-based. The plot puts you in command of three mechs from the futurity pitted against giant bugs called the Vek, which threaten humanity. The gameplay is similar to other games of this nature.

Battles have place on a filigree, with each mech existence able to move a certain number of squares and attacks within a turn. The mechs are equipped with unlike weapons and abilities, so conscientious idea is required to defeat the enemies faced in each round. The retro graphics are well done and easy on the system requirements.

Buy it from: Steam, GOG, Humble Bundle, Microsoft

Hearthstone

Hearthstone is Blizzard'southward competitive menu-contesting game. Its complexity and depth have thrust it into the professional person esports arena, merely that does not mean it cannot be enjoyed by the individual up for a casual experience. The game is set in the Warcraft universe with ix classes to play every bit — Warrior, Shaman, Rogue, Paladin, Hunter, Druid, Warlock, Mage, and Priest. Your choice determines what hero cards yous tin employ during matches.

Rounds are played using customizable decks of cards with the object of reducing your opponent's striking points to zero. Collecting and organizing decks is a metagame itself. Four types of cards with four levels of rarity (rarer being more powerful) lead to immensely strategic decisions outside of the main game. Add together to that, Blizzard'due south quarterly expansion of card sets and those deep into the game will find themselves spending hours merely planning their deck.

Hearthstone has decent AI for playing solo against the computer, but information technology was really designed for 2-actor competition. Afterward going solo for a while to get the hang of things, you discover yourself drawn toward matches confronting players regardless of how much you may hate multiplayer games. The resulting challenge is rewarding and dramatically builds your conviction and skill.

Purchase it from: Blizzard

Civilization 5

No list of strategy games would be complete without a Sid Meier'south Civilization title, and fortunately, Civilisation 5 is tame enough that it won't kill your depression-end hardware. You get-go the game with a single settler in the year 4000 BC. Plough past plough, you will build a city and expand it into an empire. By researching technologies, you proceed your quest for world domination confronting other nations over the course of vi,050 years.

Gainsay strategies are deep, with several types of armed services units to practice your conquering. However, conquest is no breeze. A lot of idea goes into successful campaigns, so it is non for the impatient.

Honorable Mention: Age of Empires
Buy it from: Steam, Apprehensive Parcel

Portal

Portal is ready in the Half-Life universe, although this is but credible through references fabricated during the game. You play as Chell, a female exam subject at an abandoned facility chosen Aperture Science. The game is more of a outset-person puzzler than a shooter. Your only "weapon" is a handheld device that can make entry and exit portals on flat surfaces.

The only "enemies" you face are automatic gun turrets and an evil rogue AI known as GLaDOS. Most of your time is spent trying to figure out how to get through test chambers using the portal gun. Portal ii is much more of the same, albeit with a reluctant alliance between Chell and GLaDOS to outwit a new antagonist named Wheatley. The sequel also introduces a two-player cooperative campaign.

Buy it from: Steam

StarCraft Two

Starcraft II is a slight departure from Blizzard'southward original Sci-Fi real-time strategy game. While y'all tin can still play as one of the three species Protoss, Terran, and Zerg, The campaigns are less linear. That is not to say that developers have made it non-linear, the storylines still progress as you would expect. Notwithstanding, you don't go from one gear up mission to the side by side. Instead, you can select from a multifariousness of tasks to achieve your end goal. There are also a few new mechanics to mix things up. For example, some battlefields take lava that slowly flows through it, eating upwards the ground and forcing y'all to move troops to loftier ground. Aside from that and a few other surprises, StarCraft 2 is notwithstanding the familiar formula of gameplay that made Blizzard's RTS sagas famous. Build your base, research applied science, and build an unstoppable army.

Buy it from: Blizzard

Orwell Series

Orwell is set in a dystopian world heavily influenced by George Orwell's 1984, hence the proper noun. There are two episodic games in the series — Orwell: Keeping an Centre on Yous and Orwell: Ignorance is Strength. Like to the Hack series (above), the game simulates a computer with the player in control of it. However, it departs from in that location. You play equally an operative for "The Nation," a totalitarian government with a estimator system set upwardly to spy on everyone.

You volition snoop emails, monitor surveillance cameras, and other Large-Brotherly duties. The narrative plays out as you uncover clues and facts related to a serial of bombings. The graphics are simple and stylistic, photos make heavy utilize of polygons to give it a surreal digital feel. The puzzles are not likewise hard, which is okay considering the narrative is what drives this title. Y'all virtually go a sense of doing something naughty as you pry into the lives of the "suspects" in the game, which fulfills whatever voyeuristic urges y'all may have without breaking the law.

Buy it from: Steam, Humble Parcel, Microsoft

Minecraft

Unless yous accept been living under a rock, not much needs to be said about Minecraft. The game has sold more than than 180 million copies beyond multiple platforms and has effectually 112 million monthly active players. The sandbox building sim has generated online video content, real-globe merchandise, and spinoff games such as Minecraft: Story and Minecraft Dungeons. It has also acted equally a palette for artists who have created stunningly cute environments and creations like Elysium Fire's sprawling Cyberpunk 2077-inspired city.

Minecraft has no goals, and there is no winning in the game, but possibly more than a game, Minecraft has turned into a platform with a huge community behind it and unlimited ways to play within their worlds. At its heart, Minecraft is like a massive Lego building ready. Creations are just limited by the player's imagination and the blocky graphics -- which have non changed since its 2022 release -- make it perfect for weaker hardware.

Buy information technology from: Microsoft

Deadlight

Deadlight is a 2022 side-scrolling survival horror title from Tequila Works. The game is ready in the Pacific Northwest and depicts the action with silhouetted against stunningly rendered backdrops. The year is 1984, 145 days later on the breakout of a pandemic. You control a character named Randall Wayne who is trying to catch up with his friends after being left behind in a warehouse.

The atmospheric platformer has many environmental puzzles and hazards to effigy your manner through. The infected zombie-like creatures, referred to as "Shadows," present a constant threat to your survival. You start with only your wits, but will before long come up beyond weapons every bit you go further along, including an axe, a pistol, and a shotgun. Ammo is very express, and then your master tactic will exist avoiding the Shadows and finding a way past them or using those ecology hazards to dispatch them.

Buy it from: Steam, Humble Package, Microsoft

Limbo

Limbo is a 2D-platformer in the same vein as Deadlight. It fifty-fifty uses a similar silhouetted graphical manner but done up in moody greyscale. The game mechanics are much the same, too. You can climb, jump, push or pull objects, all to figure your way to your goal. It is a dark game involving a young boy who wakes up in a forest on the "border of hell." He is searching for his missing sister while encountering hostile denizens, including a giant spider.

Virtually of the gameplay involves solving ecology puzzles and avoiding traps that usually kill yous before you even know they are there. And you will dice many gruesome deaths. Some of the death scenes are grisly, even in silhouette. For the squeamish, developer Playdead included a setting to filter the expiry scenes, which it does by flashing to black.

Buy it from: Steam, GOG, Microsoft, Humble Bundle

Diablo 2

If you lot adopt your action RPGs more onetime-school and meridian-down Diablo II is difficult to beat. The game takes place in the randomly-generated world of Sanctuary shortly after the events in the get-go Diablo. You play as one of five different characters — The Amazon, The Necromancer, The Barbarian, The Sorceress, or the Paladin. There are also The Druid and The Assassin if you have the Lord of Destruction expansion pack.

Using the unique abilities offered past each grade, yous volition unravel the mystery behind the corruption spreading throughout the state and discover the truthful motivations of the Nighttime Wanderer introduced at the offset of the game. Your quest will ultimately take yous facing the Dark Lord of Terror himself, Diablo. The graphics are dated, simply with retro games making a comeback, that is non necessarily a bad matter, and it is definitely a skillful thing for laptops and low-finish hardware.

Purchase information technology from: Blizzard

RimWorld

RimWorld is another sim/strategy game where y'all are trapped on a planet in the outer reaches of the galaxy. Your goal is to build a spaceship to escape into space. To attain this, you have to manage a colony, enquiry technology, and bargain with game events, including natural disasters, pirate raids, and intercolonial conflicts. The game randomly generates events and colonists, including their stats, personality, and backstory, then no ii playthroughs volition ever be the same.

The depth of the game is enormous. You volition continuously exist juggling duties keeping shut tabs on food production, inquiry, defenses, and various other factors of survival. This depth makes the game very challenging, but at that place are six difficulty levels giving players a more than granular command of the challenge than nigh other games of this type, but it is nevertheless not a walk in the park.

Purchase information technology from: Steam

Magic: The Gathering Arena

Magic: The Gathering Arena is the digital version of the card-collecting game of the same proper noun (albeit without "Arena"). It is somewhat similar to Hearthstone in its overall concept but plays much differently. The main difference boils down to defense.

Attacks in Magic are always targeted at the opponent's hero. That actor tin can so cull to utilise a minion or other bill of fare to block that attack. In Hearthstone, players tin choose to assail minions specifically to weaken defenses. The add-on of an opponent sub-play makes for a more drawn out battle rather than the quick time-limited matches of Hearthstone. However, information technology likewise makes for a significantly more than tactical game.

Hearthstone often feels like solitaire because there is no pause of your plays during your turn. On the contrary, in Magic, your opponent can actively try to defend and thwart your moves as yous make them. So if yous are into a carte game with a scrap more depth, Magic: The Gathering Loonshit is the mode to get.

Honorable Mention: Gwent: The Witcher Card Game
Buy it from: Wizards of the Coast

Invisible Inc

If you like your plow-based strategy with stealth and cyberpunk elements in the mix, you might want to try Invisible Inc. The yr is 2074, and mega-corporations have taken over the earth. Invisible Inc is a spy agency that has 72 hours to become its powerful AI named Incognita installed in the enemy's figurer organization. To do this, the player must complete various missions to fix with cybernetics and other equipment that will assist them every bit they sneak near and hack computer systems before taking on the final enemy.

The gameplay is like to XCOM, with agents having a set number of action points to use during a turn. Time management besides plays a meaning role as everything you do eats away at your 72-hour fourth dimension limit. The procedurally generated levels mean that no two playthroughs are exactly the same. The visuals are simple and practical, making information technology ideal for PCs with specs on the lower finish.

Honorable Mention: XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Buy it from: Steam, GOG, Humble Package

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