Without a doubt, the biggest shake-up that 2022 brought for my video gaming was the arrival of the Steam Deck. Essentially a computer crammed into a beefed-up Nintendo Switch, the handheld has freed a vast array of PC games from the desktop and simply made it easier to play — and finish — more games.
The Steam Deck officially launched in February with a reservation system that meant I didn’t get mine until mid-July, which was still a far better experience than trying to get my hands on a PlayStation 5. Now, the wait time for the Decks has fallen dramatically and you can usually get one delivered within about a week of ordering it.
At its core, it’s a computer that allows you to play pretty much any game from your Steam library on the go with the limitation, of course, that not all games can be played with a controller though the Deck does have touch-sensitive trackpads, a touchscreen and extra paddles on the back. If you’re adventurous enough, you can also boot into the desktop mode and install games and other software that way.
They start at $400 for the base model and ratcheting up all the way to $650 for the one with the fancy anti-glare glass and a bigger, slightly faster hard drive (which isn’t necessary as it can install and run games just fine off a memory card).
In my day-to-day home life, the Steam Deck has made a meaningful difference when it comes to games. Prior to the Steam Deck, playing PC games usually meant I was sequestered off in my office at the desk I do my regular day job. It meant that longer, more involved games like base-builders and role-playing games as interesting as they may be got overlooked because I just couldn’t justify spending the entire night holed up in my office.
And, sure, when I do crack out the Steam Deck on the couch, it’s not exactly like I’m fully engaged with everyone else but at least it’s nice to be in the same space and the Deck’s easy suspend feature makes it easy to put the game on pause to watch a highlight catch on Sunday morning.
I haven’t gone down the hazardous paths of installing Nintendo emulators and the like, largely because I don’t need to. My Steam library is chock-full of games unfinished games in need of a second look. Here’s some of this year’s highlights:
One of my favorite genres is turn-based tactical RPGs that got their start with “X-Com” and “Jagged Alliance” but it’s also a genre that with few exceptions exists mostly the desktop PC. So beyond the Nintendo Switch’s surprisingly good “Mario + Rabbids” games, it’s been one that I’ve mostly missed out on in recent years. Thanks to the Deck, I’ve been catching up on them with one of the stand-out favorites being the indie game “Fort Triumph” that brings in a really fun set of tools to push, pull and topple columns onto your enemies.
Part “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” and part H.P. Lovecraft, “Cult of the Lamb” hit an excellent mix between cozy home builders and twisted cult manager. With a gameplay loop split between managing your village and forays into the wilderness to do battle with other cults, “Cult of the Lamb” was exactly the kind of game that travels well.
I may not have a big soft spot in my heart for the “Monkey Island” series, it still manages to bring up plenty of nostalgia of watching my older cousins play it and repeat its many corny jokes. The return to the series by its creators after nearly two decades away, though, hit me a little harder than I would have expected. Sure, it’s a game about an aging adventuring pirate but it also has some interesting things to say about the relationship between creators and their works.
And while the second half of 2022 was largely dominated with rediscovered indie games, the first half was almost nothing other than the great epic that was Elden Ring. A brutally hard open world game filled with mysteries to uncover, I poured many, many hours into it despite all the frustration it evoked. And while I had finally limped across the game’s finish line by the time that the Steam Deck arrived on my porch, it turns out that “Elden Ring” also runs great on the Steam Deck.
In some of my downtime between other games, I’ve returned to the Lands Between with a more relaxed, adventurous mindset on the Steam Deck and plenty of overpowered spells in hand.
Matt Buxton is a freelance writer and gamer. He can be reached at matt.a.buxton@gmail.com.
