Indie developers are creating some of the best experiences in gaming right now, and indie games aren’t walled off behind expensive graphics cards and beefy gaming rigs. And if you are playing games for laptops, you can even game on the go. Lovely.
Because we’re nice, we’ve hand-selected some of the best laptop games you can play right now. Not only will almost any PC run these titles, but they’re mostly pretty cheap to pick up on Steam as well, which is always a bonus in a year when food, power, fuel, and even Netflix prices are on the rise. Anyone who plays games should at least experience everything on this list at least once. In no particular order, let’s dive in.
1Gunpoint
Gunpoint minimum requirements:
Memory: 1 GB
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 510
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.00GHz
File Size: 700 MB
What if you were a private detective who creeps around and slaps people unconscious with doors? It’s a question we ask ourselves every night, and Gunpoint provides the answer: it would be extremely fun. This is a 2D stealth game where you can rewire levels, turning every door and light switch into a potentially deadly weapon. Outside of that, you can pounce on unaware enemies and punch them to sleep, each click of the mouse raining down meat-based violence on their soft, pixelled faces. There’s a slapstick comedy to the immediacy of Gunpoint’s violence that you just can’t get anywhere else, and that’s what gaming is all about: lovely, lovely violence.
Play it now:
Steam
Humble
2FTL: Faster Than Light
FTL: Faster Than Light minimum requirements:
Memory: 1 GB
GPU: Intel HD 3000
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
File Size: 175 MB
Manage a starship as it tries to escape a fleet of enemies, navigating through star systems and dealing with threats – from asteroid fields to aggressive slug aliens – and opportunities – from valuable salvage to friendly slug aliens – along the way. FTL might have a minimalist, top-down visual style, but there’s a lot going on when you look beyond its basic graphics. Ship on ship combat is more tactical here than it is in most games where you take direct control – aiming at weapon systems to take them offline, cutting off an enemy’s oxygen supply, and sending over a boarding party are just some of your options. It’s a space game about putting out fires – sometimes literally, by opening the airlock doors and starving the flames of oxygen – while juggling metaphorical hand grenades.
Play it now:
3Don’t Starve
Don’t Starve minimum requirements:
Memory: 4 GB
GPU: AMD Radeon HD 5450
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1.70GHz
File Size: 500 MB
In a Tim Burton-esque paper world, you’re forced to survive, learn the rules and, oh, don’t starve. In a market completely saturated with survival games, Don’t Starve managed to carve out a unique niche. This isn’t some dull post-apocalyptic Earth where buff men in combat fatigues try to crack open cans of out-of-date beans – this is an alien, incomprehensible world that’s filled with threats you must study and learn over multiple playthroughs. And just when you think you’re getting comfortable – boom, you just found a new way to die. Death here means starting again from scratch, and your only progression is the knowledge you gained before your untimely demise.
Play it now:
4Minecraft
Minecraft minimum requirements:
Memory: 2 GB
GPU: Intel HD 4000
CPU: Intel Core i3-3210
File Size: 1 GB
What can anyone even say about this game that hasn’t already been said? Who hasn’t already played it? Minecraft is a cultural phenomenon. It’s a game that is all games. One part survival sim, another part boundless creation engine, it’s a place where you can be almost anything you want, as long as it’s made out of blocks. It’s even one of the best co-op games you can play. It also runs on the lowest spec PCs imaginable.
Play it now:
5Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley minimum requirements:
Memory: 2 GB
GPU: Intel HD 3000
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
File Size: 500 MB
Chill out, do some fishing, grow some crops, and chat up the local populace in Stardew Valley, a lovely little game about inheriting a farm and being a big, flirty git. Whether you want to become a money-hungry tycoon or the town’s favorite philanthropist, Stardew Valley will accommodate your greed/grace. Solo developer Eric Barone also keeps adding to it. He’s a legend.
Play it now:
6Slay the Spire
Slay the Spire minimum requirements:
Memory: 4 GB
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 8300 GS
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.00GHz
File Size: 1 GB
It doesn’t matter if you don’t usually like card games, you’ll lose dozens of hours to Slay the Spire regardless. It’s ‘Just One More Go: The Video Game’. Every single run feels distinct, and you constantly unlock a flow of new cards and items that get your mind racing about what you might be able to accomplish on your next attempt. It’s a strategy game with a dash of luck, but it never feels unfair.
Play it now:
7Into the Breach
Into the Breach minimum requirements:
Memory: 1 GB
GPU: Intel HD 3000
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1.70GHz
File Size: 400 MB
If you really don’t like card games, here’s a different flavor of strategy for you. Into the Breach gives you a squad of mechs and some kaiju to battle in grid-based, turn-based combat. It’s like chess, but cool. If punching overgrown insects into mountains doesn’t sound appealing, consider changing your entire outlook on life.
Play it now:
8Disco Elysium
Disco Elysium minimum requirements:
Memory: 2 GB
GPU: AMD Radeon HD 5450
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo Q6867
File Size: 20 GB
Most RPGs have you play as the chosen one as you battle against some deity, but Disco Elysium places you in the urine-soaked shoes of a deadbeat cop who’s caught in a spiral of self-destruction. You’re tasked with solving a murder that’s tied up in a union dispute, but the real story at the core of the experience revolves around self-discovery and recreational drug use.
Play it now:
9Papers, Please
Papers, Please minimum requirements:
Memory: 2 GB
GPU: ATI FireGL T2-128
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1.50GHz
File Size: 100 MB
If that last one was too cheery for you, consider being a border agent for a fictional Eastern Bloc country. Your family is starving, your wages are pathetic, and you have to juggle your own needs against the plights of the people coming through the border. Will you sacrifice your professional integrity for personal gain, or will you stand steadfast and do it by the book? When your food supply at home begins to run low, you might not have a choice. And what happens when empathy takes over reason? It might essentially be a playable spreadsheet, but Papers, Please is a powerful, memorable game stuffed with moral dilemmas.
Play it now:
10Hotline Miami
Hotline Miami minimum requirements:
Memory: 512 MB
GPU: ATI FireGL T2-128
CPU: Intel Atom Z515
File Size: 250 MB
OK, that last one was a bit heavy wasn’t it? How about a little violence, as a treat. Hotline Miami is a stylish, top-down shooter where you have to murder people as brutally and efficiently as you can. Throw hot oil over someone’s face, grab a bat, kick down doors, and pull out a shotgun – all while synthy beats pulsate over the action. But what’s this? You’re forced to walk back through the carnage you created at the end of each mission and reckon with your own brutality? Oh, now you feel bad? Boohoo. OK, we promise we’ll give you a happy game next.
Play it now:
11Prison Architect
Prison Architect minimum requirements:
Memory: 4 GB
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4600
File Size: 300 MB
The American prison system is big business and you’re a cog in the corporate incarceration machine. Build your own prison dystopia in this management game about erecting and running a slammer. Toy with the lives of your inmates or try to solve institutional problems that also exist in real life. See? Cheery.
Play it now:
12RimWorld
RimWorld minimum requirements:
Memory: 4 GB
GPU: Intel HD 3000
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
File Size: 500 MB
Controlling a group of people who just crashlanded on an alien planet was never going to be easy, but it’s even more difficult when you realize that every single one of your colonists has needs, and sometimes these needs conflict. One person’s horror at seeing a dead body is another psychopath’s joy. Whether you want to create a colony of slavers, cannibals, body modders, or religious zealots is up to you, but RimWorld will constantly surprise you no matter what route you take.
Play it now:
13Moonlighter
Moonlighter minimum requirements:
Memory: 4 GB
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 5770
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9705
File Size: 4 GB
A dungeon-crawling roguelite with a difference, Moonlighter places you in the shoes of a shopkeep who trades in monster parts and other spelunking spoils. You delve into dungeons and battle enemies in old-school Zelda-style combat, learning enemy attack patterns and viable tactics through repetition. Eventually, you beat each dungeon and its bosses, unlocking the next biome, where you’ll find even better loot.
As fun as all that is, it’s in-between this action where Moonlighter shines. You place your treasures and monster innards around the store, set the prices, and open the doors. From there, you judge customer reactions as they peruse and purchase, using them to gauge the sweet spot price for each item. You use the money you earn to forge better weapons and craft potions to allow you to dive deeper, and you use gold to upgrade your store to allow you to sell more efficiently. It all falls apart a little once you unlock the investment banker, but it’s still well worth playing and works on most laptops.
Play it now:
14Civilization 5
Sid Meier’s Civilization V minimum requirements:
Memory: 2 GB
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T7600
File Size: 8 GB
You can’t go wrong with a bit of Civ, a game you put on for “a few turns” and then the sun rises and you have to drive straight to work with baggy eyelids. This 4X strategy game sucks you right in. There’s something about watching your civilization grow and expand over the course of a campaign as you make friends with all your neighbors (except Gandhi) and create trading routes (with everyone except Gandhi) to see your people prosper. Well, that’s how it goes until your army is large enough to crush everyone (starting with Gandhi).
There are multiple routes to victory in Civilization 5 and no two games ever feel the same due to topography, the base civilization you start the game with, and which other nations you share the map with. If you want to make the hours (and Gandhi) disappear, there’s nothing better.
Play it now:
15Mini Motorways
Mini Motorways minimum requirements:
Memory: 4 GB
GPU: ATI FireGL T2-128
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.00GHz
File Size: 350 MB
If you’re looking for a strategy game that doesn’t involve a murderous Gandhi, Mini Motorways is one of the most relaxing around. It’s one of the best Apple Arcade games, but you can play it on a laptop just as easily. You’re given a top-down view of a minimalist city and you’re tasked with making sure its vehicles can ferry between color-designated depots. You do this by drawing out roads, highways, and bridges.
It’s a game about controlling the flow of traffic, installing lights, junctions, and roundabouts as needed to minimize congestion. When it’s calm, it’s one of the most meditative experiences on PC and mobile, but then you hit the tipping point, all hell breaks loose, and you load the level up for one more try with a new plan in mind.
Play it now:
Written by Kirk McKeand on behalf of GLHF.
16Untitled Goose Game
It’s a lovely day and you’re a horrible goose. Rampage around a quiet English town and steal human possessions. Honk all the while.
Untitled Goose Game is as close to a family-friendly version of Hitman as you can play. Instead of disguises, distraction is the key to success. Terrorize a town with your honks, steal the hat from a farmer’s head, and build a den of goose treasures. One of the best laptop games around.
17RuneScape
Most of us had a RuneScape phase at one point in our lives. Many don’t realize it, but it’s still going. There’s so much more to see and do if you ever want to revisit this free-to-play MMO.
Since it’s been around for so long (who remembers playing it in their browser?), it basically runs on any PC. Load it up, bask in the nostalgia, and get lost in the hundreds and hundreds of new quests that have been added over the years since you left.
18Rogue Legacy 2
A roguelite where you control characters across generations, delving into dungeons and getting slightly further each time, leaving your spoils for your offspring. Whether you’re playing as a knight or a chef, every class feels fleshed out and fun.
Then there are the traits. Some characters might not be able to stop farting, while others might see the world in black and white. It doesn’t matter that you keep bashing your head against a wall because every run feels distinct. Rogue Legacy 2 is an improvement over an already brilliant game.
