From single-player action to family couch games, we have you covered. So why not have fun during the break as we break down the best steam games under 20 dollars !
Best Steam Games under $20
Rainbow Six Sieze – Best FPS Games on Steam under $20
The developers at Ubisoft created one of the masterpieces in FPS. Rainbow Six Siege isn’t as easy as your point and shoot games. Your mechanically gifted aiming will help you cross one of its many obstacles. It is punishing for solo queue players, as it is difficult for them to win. You need to grind hard as a team. This is a squad-based shooter, running around the map solo won’t be fruitful. Rainbow Six Siege looks like your average FPS adventure, with an aim based mechanism. However, when you add the difficult map pool and skill-based operators, it turns from easy to hard in an instance. Yes, there are 20 maps and 54 operators, each with their unique skill-sets. There are several modes like Hostage Rescue, Terrorist Eliminations, and the famous being Bomb Defusal Scenario. Each match scenario starts with two fractions, where one gears up to defend and reinforce its objective while the other finds intel about the objective. Sounds easy ! — but that is not how this game works.
Remember the 54 operators !!! The player chooses one operator each round and cunningly plan to win the round. Each operator has its unique set of skills like Tachanka’s Mounted LMG or Caveria’s silent steps. All the operators are not free. They are behind a paywall or reward system. If you play persistently, then you will be able to unlock all the operators. But most of the players opt to pay for the operators. As there are different maps, it means different use of strategies and teamwork. The whole map environment is destructible. Players can create an opening in the wall to gain a vantage point. But your opponents can break in via another wall, so there are a lot of possibilities to get in. Your consistent head-shot aim might not ultimately win the match but still helps in the long run. There are tons of entry points in the map and small nooks and cranny to peak-fire. So map knowledge is also an integral part of mastering Rainbow Six Siege. Rainbow Six Siege has a strong pillar for team play strategies; coordinating with your team, sharing intel, relaying information will help you win the match. Even after the player dies, the player can still transmit information to their teammate. The spectator aspect allows a player to be fully involved in relaying information even though they are dead. Ubisoft keeps on updating the game with new maps and operators as a yearly pass and cosmetic weapon items. Ubisoft wants the players to keep on spending real money on the game, but its inventory system is quite bad. The UI doesn’t let you filter and search the items, making it a cluttered mess. The Year Pass is kind of a mixed bagged feeling as you are getting newer maps and operators but it feels like you are buying a pass to spend more money on the Year Pass items and weapon cosmetics.
What We Like:
Rainbow Six Siege presents a player an opportunity to strategize before going forward to complete an objective. Running and gunning will not work for you unless your opponents are newbies. With tons of operators to choose from, it allows for flexible strategies and endless possibilities to win. Maybe Steven Strange can look up the thousands of possibilities for you to win. And GOD BLESS the destructible environments as it opens up tons of ways to breach on the objective or flank the opponents. Why go through a door when you can bust your way through the walls, ceiling, and floor? Team play and customization intrigues me more than the aiming mechanism, as it demands building excellent communication and teamwork skill.
What We Don’t Like:
The Pay-system, you are buying the game for $20, and you get eight operators. Either you have to grind real hard or pay real bucks for more operators. Further, the Year Pass system is not appealing. As mentioned earlier, you’re removing a paywall to pay for cosmetics. It is better than a random loot box. Newbies need a lot of learning to do as there is tons of content and skills. Yeah, you can transition your aiming from other famous FPS franchies, but learning each operator’s skill and using it according to the map will be hard, and if the team members don’t coordinate, it will be one hell of a bad experience. Rainbows Six Siege has the most competitive community out there, along with tons of high-class tournaments. If you think you have the skills to compete on the top echelon of the skilled hierarchy, you can. But coming from a casual scrub and FPS lover, this is the best FPS games on Steam under 20 dollars. Total active players: 55 million Developed by: Ubisoft First released: April 7, 2015 Price: $18.99 ESRB Rating: Mature 18+ Platform: Xbox , PC , PlayStation
Subnautica – Best Steam Survival Games Under $20
If the calming depths of an ocean looked safe, you’re wrong. The blue depths of the ocean presents an unseemly threat even though you face no other players. Subnautica is the best survival play experience you will get, and I assure you, you will want to play it again. From the start, Subnautica puts you in your survival instincts. After your space shuttle gets destroyed, you are ejected through a pod to an unknown aquatic alien planet. As soon as you land, you are welcomed to an aquatic biome with awe-inducing visual and stunning life forms. From the surreal shallow kelp forest to the dark depths of the ocean, Subnautica will keep you on the edge of the seat with its remarkable storyline and gameplay. As coming from a survival standpoint, you need to complete a mission and find resources to get out of the island alive. Subnautica puts you into the deep depths of the ocean to build your escape from this unknown planet. Crafting, increasing your ocean base, and finding food and drinkable water is the most crucial factor for survival. You might think how scary this survival game is? Trust us, it is. From the point of gathering your resources and finding new equipments and further progressing on the story, you will face some abominable creatures on your way. The player does get some defense mechanisms, but that will only help in the short term. As you progress down the levels, you will face significant and humongous monsters to which none of your defense works. In a helpless situation like this, you will have to think about what your next move should be?? Stealth is always an option. Subnautica introduces stealth items and skills to creek past the big leviathans as you hunt for items. As you creek into the dark depths of the ocean, the only form of help is the moonlight and your audio awareness. The stunning SFX gives you the feeling that you are entering the depths of the ocean and identifying the creatures living in it. As you try to survive the alienated water, Subnautica never drifts away from the main story line. Subnautica connects the story with some stunning audio lines during missions keeping players interested.
What We Like:
Subnautica has a compelling storyline and stunning visuals. Even though being a survival adventure, it has the best storyline, and the gameplay doesn’t drift off. With hundreds of aquatic life and biomes to explore, it just increases the immersive gameplay. Not forgetting the audio, — Subnautica has it all. It does have some grinding element to it, but not as much to dismay your experience.
What We Don’t Like:
It has its fair share of render distance problem even with a high-end system. For its stunning visual and storylines, the render distance problem can be omitted. True, this is the best steam survival games under 20 dollars that we don’t want you to miss out on. The game won the best survival game award in 2018, so why miss out on it?? Total copies sold: 5.23 million Developed by: Unknown Worlds Entertainment First released: January 23, 2018 Price: $8.49 ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+ Platform: PC, Xbox, Playstation
Grand Theft Auto V – Best Multiplayer Games On Steam Under $20
GTA V is a classic open-world multiplayer game with tons of updates and content. The game features vibrant graphics and online features to have some fun times with friends. GTA V has a solid single-player option with a side and main missions. Play as Franklin, Trevor, or Micheal in the single-player campaign with multiple endings. Roam around the streets of Los Santos doing criminal activities, but why not try to be a regular citizen abiding by the law? The map is big and has tons of places to roam and loads of activities to perform — there are just endless possibilities. The best part is you can play it from third person prespective and first person perspective. If you are sick and tired of playing the single-player campaign, then hop onto the multiplayer server. The multiplayer server is the most vital part of the GTA franchise. With tons of updates coming every month, GTA V is packed with tons of content and DLCs . Everything is here. The multiplayer also ports some excellent features from the games like calling Lester to get off the cops, hiding your current location. The best part of the multiplayer mode is the social interaction; you create your character interacting with other players and join them to finish the quest. But that means other players can come and thrash your heist session too.
Besides the quest, there are tons of mini-games for you and your friends to play and have a great time. It looks like an endless multiplayer scenario but with some limitations as all perfect games have some flaws. Some bugs are nice to exploit and fun to prank your friends with, but some are severe, and sometimes you have to restart the missions altogether. Plus, there will be no online sessions without a hacker inside. It is quite fun when you get along with the hackers. Also, doing crazy kinds of stuff to crash the server is also quite enjoyable. But when a hacker tries to kill you time after time, it ruins your play session. But you can still make a private session with your friends, but who likes to play in private when you can piss off other players and jump on the server doing random stuff or joining a roleplay mission? Roleplaying is a massive thing for GTA, and people seem to like the Roleplay aspect of GTA a lot.
What We Like:
The Open world environment comes with tons of updates from Doomsday Heist to the latest Diamond Casino Heist. GTA V offers us a wide variety of non-stop action. The best part is, there are tons of opportunities online, and with the frequent update, it looks like the game grows and grows sequentially with every new update. The constant update makes it the best multiplayer games on steam under 20 dollars which you can grab it right now.
What We Don’t Like:
The anti-cheat system and bullying. GTA V faces rampant cheaters and hackers in-game ready to ruin your session, and bullying is the worst part. Players constantly kill you in-game, and if you successfully piss them off, then you are going to have a tough time fighting them. They will even follow your missions, and with their meddling, you can’t even finish your missions properly. Kind of harassment till you rage out of the session or uninstall the game as a whole. Total copies sold: 110 million Developed by: Rockstar Games First released: September 17, 2013 Price: $19.99 ESRB Rating: Mature 17+ Platform: PC, Xbox, Playstation
Doom – Best Shooter Games On Steam Under $20
The classic reboot of the original DOOM, Doom 2016, is hands down the best shooter game that you will have hands-on experience in. Do you like gun firing and demon-slaying? Doom is the play fueled by “RAGE” and is a shooter’s paradise. Step into the shoes of a Doom Slayer as you roam around Mars and depths of Hell, killing demons. Your only mission is to kill the demons. You work your way through each level killing demons and the level bosses. As you progress further you usually divert from the story. Doom has a platforming and puzzle-solving interaction to cool down from shooting demons. Who doesn’t want to kill a demon causing threat? As the demons weaken, they flash, waiting to be glory killed by the player. The glory kill is gruesome and fun to watch as you slice the demons in half or break the skull of the demon with your bare hands. The satisfaction from a glory kill dramatically improves as you see the demons dropping XP, Health items, and ammo like confetti. Ah, those unique glory kill animations just make your day. As a Demon Slayer, you gain experience and resources from each level. The guns wielded by the player are upgradable through the resources and experiences. With each experience gained, you can get perks, each helping you increase your efficiency to kill demons.
Customization of the guns makes it more fun, modding a mini-gun to fire shotgun bullets to upgrading your assault rifle to shoot mini projectiles. As satisfying it might seem to shoot rockets at the demons, keep an eye on your ammo count. Aside from the platform jumping and glory kills, the game has some Easter eggs and hidden items on the map. Most people usually don’t search for these hidden items. But if you really get interested, you will invest more time finding the hidden items elongating your play session. Doom 2016 features a multiplayer mode, which is average at its best. The multiplayer had different modes like Domination etc. but wasn’t as inciting as other shooters. The multiplayer is basic and kind of off. It doesn’t pop off like the famous FPS shooter multiplayer. The multiplayer offers a fast-paced player vs player team action. Players will sway away from multiplayer objectives and go for the Demon Rune. The Demon Rune lets you transform the player into a Demon. When you become the Demon you can basically one-shot anyone in the arena. Players mostly enjoy the multiplayer to become a demon, tearing your enemies apart. Other than that, everything about the adventure is stunning. The metal music on the background suits the ambiance of each level as you kill demons headbanging to the music.
What We Like:
The Shooting mechanism is fluid, and the weapon upgrade mechanism and the enemy classes are great. With the game mechanism, the game level and gameplay are best and retains the playstyle of the original DOOM. The storyline is great even though the demon slayer doesn’t speak at all. Just a silent rage fills him as he shoots his way through the missions saving the world. The Doom 2016 is the best reboot that you will get from the developer. Based on the Vulkan API, the game is optimized and has no significant bugs. The developers have done a great job optimizing the game and presenting it, which we all loved. Doom 2016 is one of the best shooter games on steam under 20 dollars. I assure you, you won’t regret buying it.
What We Don’t Like:
The multiplayer aspect of the game. The multiplayer isn’t that great. Rather than finishing the objective, players opt to take the rune and just go killing other players. The multiplayer is out shadowed by the Single Player Campaign, which is kind of expected. The multiplayer isn’t as good as the famous FPS like Call Of Duty and Counter-Strike. Doom Eternal might change all of that, but Doom 2016 faces significant criticism with its multiplayer mode. Total copies sold: Over 3 million Developed by: id Software First released: May 13, 2016 Price: $19.99 ESRB Rating: Mature 17+ Platform: PC, Xbox, Playstation
Celeste – Best 2D Games On Steam Under $20
Platforming and Precise movement is the thing you should master when undertaking missions in Celeste. Celeste is a 2D platformer game where you play as Madeline, a young girl who is trying to survive from her inner demons and depression. Your journey starts on the Celeste mountains battling through the problems and having an adventure. There are tons of characters to accompany you on the way. Celeste is like your basic 2D platformer game, but it presents the player to increase their skill level and precision. Even though it looks like an easy old fashion game, you need to perform each step precisely. As the story progresses, the level hardens, demanding your precision and jumping. You can jump, glide, and dash across the platforms. As the level progresses, newer platforms and terrains confuse the heck out of you. There will be a moveable platform giving you momentum or a platform that follows you as you jump across obstacles. There are tons of variables in the game which will help you in your level or even outright kill you. Celeste has fast but timing-based precision gameplay. As fast as your death comes, the game quickly brings you back to the last checkpoint. There is no load screen between your death and the previous checkpoint. With each level, there are extra levels, hidden ways, and the gameplay further cemented itself with its sensational soundtrack. The additional levels are hidden, harder, and darker than the main levels, but they improve the storylines. As hard as the mechanics will be, there are tons of character and sequences which help you to enjoy the game a lot. In the middle of the play, after the frustration of several failed tries, you are prompted to calm down as calming the in-game character from her fear.
What We Like:
The gameplay and the environment. It is immersive, and once you start gaming, you will not stop grinding to finish the story of Madeline and find all the extra levels. As you play Madeline, you will experience how it feels to fight against depression and overcome it. The level designs are gorgeous, but they push players with painstaking hard efforts to finish levels.
What We Don’t Like:
There is simply nothing that you can hate about the Celeste. It might be hard, but as level progress, the player slowly catches up to ease the experience. With nothing to dislike about it, it makes one of the best Platforming games on steam under $20. Total copies sold: Over 500,000 Developed by: Matt Makes Games Inc. First released: January 25, 2018 Price: $19.99 ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+ Platform: PC, Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo Switch
Cuphead – Best Low End PC Games On Steam Under $20
The retro theme settings of the game take you back to the older 1930s hand-drawn animated games. Cuphead is a class-retro style game with some of the hardest levels in gaming history. Don’t confuse it for a child’s game, its graphics may look childish like the old Disney movies, but it is hard. The animation and the gameplay go in hand to hand with the audio bringing back the nostalgia of the 30s. Cuphead looks cartoonish, but is unforgiven at best. The levels have 3 types; Run and Gun, where you run around the map and shoot enemies to progress another level. This gives you breathing space from the boss battle. The shooting mechanism feels like Contra. Bullet Health Shooting mode is where you tackle enemies with limited health; each enemy has their pattern. Mastering the trends and movements will only get you past the level. The last being the platforming battle where you shoot opponents while dodging enemy’s strikes, similar to the Bullet Health Shooting. The platforming battle is kind of like a one v one fighting sport, but they have a lot of variables making it fun. The level progression is unforgiving. There are no checkpoints and health pickups on the levels, making it worse while gaming. The limited health and hard levels make it frustrating to play. And when you think you learned all the patterns to defeat the boss, you get deceived every time.
The developers went too far to randomize the pattern of each boss battle. This refreshes the game experience a lot, but the frustration builds up when completing each mission. However, sometimes it might look like the level might be hard to handle, but it all depends on the player’s movement. Cuphead has some excellent fluid control; all the mistakes that you do in it is your own fault. The levels are intricately designed to challenge the user and his movement with unexpected hurdles and tight maneuvers to dodge incoming threats. As good as it looks, it is unforgiving. There is co-op mode to call in your buddy for help; it will still make you suffer due to the crammed gameplay. But as the level progresses, you can upgrade your weapon and find more secrets powering your character. But if you want to switch your weapons, you have to restart the level again.
What We Like:
The cartoonish look gives every boomer a run for their money. The nostalgia hits you while playing the Cuphead. The level design and game mechanics remind of the old retro time. It gives you the run for your money, the retro arcade-style game mixed with the storyline is fantastic. The best thing is that it runs on a low-end PC. A PC with a dual-core processor and decent graphics is the basic requirement to run Cuphead. The developer made a cool game matching with the low-end hardware dating back 15 years. God, we love developers who think about low-end gamers too. As it runs on a dual-core system, it is one of the best low end pc games on steam under 20 dollars.
What We Don’t Like:
Cuphead is challenging, and there is a lot of grinding to do. The double jump parry movement has issues, but that is ignored. The levels are hard, and with the always-changing pattern in-game, it is quite hard to master it. Plus, without prior knowledge, you will suffer a lot as the game is unforgiving. So buckle up if you really think that you are up for the task. Cause you won’t get checkpoints and weapon changes in levels. You need to grind to complete all the missions. Do you have what it takes? Total copies sold: Over 4 million Developed by: 4A Games First released: September 29, 2017 Price: $8.19 ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+ Platform: PC, Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo Switch
Metro Exodus – Best Action Games On Steam Under $20
The successor to the Metro: Last Light, Metro Exodus, brings you to the majestic scenic beauty of Russia. After the events of the Nuclear War, You play as Artyom leading your band of Spartan Rangers to leave the Russian Metro. But as you roam around this sandbox world, you are presented with mutated beasts, fighting against humans and avoiding internal conflicts. Metro Exodus is an open sandbox game that has a lot of terrains, from the icy ground, murky forest to the silent desert. It even brings back the dark and anxiety-inducing tunnel systems. Each terrain looks visually stunning and breathtaking with the graphics upgrade. With those graphics, comes survival, stealth, and action rich gameplay; the gameplay is scary and unexpecting most of the parts. As you play along, it brings back the fear of games like Amnesia. The never-ending fear of enemies popping up from unknown and dark corners of the building to the charging mutant dogs from the jungle. The player has tons of guns in Metro Exodus, but wielding a weapon doesn’t mean you can run and gun them. Each enemy has its own weak spots and unique attacks. For each enemy, you need to exploit their weak spots. If you go shooting without knowledge, then all you are going to do is waste the ammo. Plus, ammo is also scarce, so players have to reserve their ammo for the main boss. If the mutated beast is not the only enemy, don’t forget about the environment . As good looking it may be, the environment changes and threats like Sandstorm frequently occurs in your journey; reducing your vision, making it easier for the beasts to jump on you scoring an easy kill.
Metro Exodus surprisingly succeeds in bringing back the scary horror-filled gameplay into the sandbox. The open sandbox settings even fit perfectly with the Metro Exodus game style, where the developers never seem to give you an ample open space for the players to breathe. As the player progresses, they needs to scavenge for resources and items to upgrade or craft their weapons. The game has a main crafting table at the training base, but then you will have a small crafting area in your backpack. The backpack is the handiest thing while you are away from the base. The quick crafting comes handy in the vast open world, and the bag helps to quickly change attachment on the fly, making tackling opponents easier. The backpack lets you freely roam the sandbox world without needing to go back to the base to get some supplies or change your gun loadout. Even though the gameplay might be fluid, the storyline isn’t as great with repetitive boss battles and no protagonist to fill you in the story. The story just revolves around traveling the sandbox and surviving to exit the Russian territory. Even though there are no protagonists in the game, the interaction between the NPC and some human life forms throughout the map relieves some tension while exploring the open world. Interacting with them lightens the mood and gives a feeling of companionship in the nuclear holocaust. The action and the sandbox world just makes it one of the best action games on steam under $20.
What We Like:
The sheer vast worlds and the graphics of the game. Metro Exodus still retains the older gaming features of the last Metro franchise in an open society. The threat and terrain always warn a player to plan and save their ammo. The game calls you to identify the opponents and find their weak spot rather than blindly shooting at them. Plus shooting isn’t going to help, stealth and awareness are highly needed. The vast majority of terrains, opponents just even further enhances the player experience. With unexpected appearance to an insurmountable number of opponents, the game will make you keep your senses tingling. The crafting backpack is an additional feature that is quite handy while you’re exploring the far and wide lengths of the habitable lands.
What We Don’t Like:
The gameplay may be excellent, but the story is quite lacking. Even without a protagonist, Metro Exodus is good until you have the same boss battle over and over again. The game with its ongoing boss battle parts further away from the story making it little bland compared to other story-based games. But when you play the games, you will find it more like the Fallout franchise. With no significant bugs, it is great to see an action game like this in the market. Total copies sold: Over 200,000 Developed by: Studio MDHR Entertainment Inc. First released: February 14, 2019 Price: $14.99 ESRB Rating: Mature 17+ Platform: PC, Xbox, Playstation
Overcooked 2 – Best Co-Op Games On Steam Under $20
Seeing Gordan Ramsey shouting at other chefs in a chaotic kitchen might look amusing and fun. Why don’t you step in the world of Overcooked two and experience the same tension in a cartoonish form as you look to serve the zombies invading your Kingdom. The cooking is chaotic and funny, with improvements beating its older version. Overcooked 2 brings a coop game mode to a whole new level. As a player, you are tasked to cook food, prep, and wash the dish. It has a similar play style to the older Overcooked game but has added a throwing mechanism. The throwing mechanism helps the player to easily pass food items to another player, saving some time, and serving the food faster. But it meant that they added some more difficulty. The kitchen is messy, and the stoves have a randomized layout. The messy design comes with a moving platform; the kitchen keeps on moving with various patterns. It is a platforming game, and it is hard if you are new to the genre. Overcooked 2 has obstacles in the form of fires and roadblocks making it hard as you progress. Further, Overcooked 2 has a single-player mode where the player plays as two chefs switching between them. The throwing mechanism makes it more comfortable in the single-player mode and makes it more bearable. The single-player mode has its campaign with over 40 levels. It is quite fun to play with your family. The Co-op missions and the funny graphics automatically puts itself as one of the best Co-op games on steam under 20 dollars. The co-op feature of the game makes it a better option as a couch game, and it also has a multiplayer feature. The multiplayer feature allows players to play with their friends and also features a matchmaking system. You play the multiplayer game, and you need to communicate with other players to beat levels and your opponent. The game needs communication between the players too, or else the dismantled workload might lead to a loss. Overcooked 2 simulates how a restaurant works but in a comic fashion. But this is better as a couch game, played among families and friends communicating and helping each other out. It is fun to see the chaotic situation and messy communication between the players. Watching people shouting at each other and trying to beat other players’ timing is quite hilarious.
What We Like :
The gameplay is hilarious and funny as you throw food on stoves or pass it to other players. It is quite frustrating due to the obstruction, but as players catch up with gameplay, it becomes fun as you try to beat the time and reach the top of the leaderboards.
What We Don’t Like:
Overcooked 2 is best and has no error, but due to the low campaign mission, it might be easy and unfilling. But other than that we have no other complaints. Total copies sold: Over 700,000 Developed by: Ghost Town Games Ltd, Team17 Digital Ltd First released: August 7, 2018 Price: $8.49 ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+ Platform: PC, PS4, Xbox, Nintendo Switch
What is Steam?
Steam is a digital game distribution store owned by the company Valve. Valve first launched Steam in 2003, distributing their classic title like Half-Life and Team Fortress, etc. Later on, other vendors started including their games and services into Steam making it one of the biggest Digital game distribution stores. There are over +100,000 titles in Steam, adding more daily.
How to check if my PC will support the games?
Steam always provides the system requirements on the store page. Each game has its system requirements on its store page. Websites like “Can I run it” also check the system requirements and tell what is the optimal settings for one to play on their system.
Can I get a refund if I don’t like the game?
Yes, Steam offers refunds but with some terms. You can ask for a refund within 14 days of purchase and have lower than 2 hours of playtime. However, Steam doesn’t offer refunds for a steam game key.
Conclusion
I hope you all liked what we have here for Best Steam Games under 20 dollars. There might be other gaming gems that we missed, so comment down other games that would be better, or let us know if you try the games that we have mentioned above. Gaming will definitely pass your time, making your summer holiday fun. So why not hop down and join for a great gaming session. Happy Gaming!
