Obscure Steam Deck Games I Actually Finished (Real Hidden Gems)

Hey everyone, Adrian here.

Almost every "best Steam Deck games" list is the same handful of popular titles you probably already own. So this is the opposite, a bunch of obscure ones instead.

I played every single one of these on my Steam Deck and I can vouch that you can finish them all with little to no issues. They were worth my time and I reckon they are worth yours too. I have put the Deck status, the review score, and an honest catch on each, so you know exactly what you are getting into.

Those Who Rule

Deck Verified · 90% (1,036 reviews) · Tactical RPG, Strategy RPG, Turn-Based

Hexagonal Fire Emblem with (optional) permadeath, and the closest I've felt to that "I wish I can forget it all and play it again" Skyrim feeling. At launch a few classes were clearly stronger than the rest but the dev actually listened, rebalanced everything and added a brutal difficulty that yanked me right back in. The story stays out of the way and does not get cringey and items genuinely change how you control/play a unit. One Deck warning, for whatever reason this thing eats battery for the graphics it has. Plays totally smooth just not one for long trips.

Starcom: Unknown Space

Deck Verified · 93% (4,350 reviews) · Space Sim, Exploration, Action RPG, Story Rich

Went in trying to scratch a Starsector itch and honestly it went a bit past what I expected. You only ever control one ship but that ship is properly yours. You start with a core then bolt modular everything onto it and design the whole thing. Go peek at r/StarcomGame and you'll see builds that look insane but is actually practical once you think about them. In Starsector I just auto-equipped because you're juggling dozens of ships, here it's one ship and it feels way more personal. The difficulty spikes are good too. They forced me to actually learn the upgrade system which I dreaded at first because I am not a designer-brain kind of guy.

Shardpunk

Deck Verified · 93% (773 reviews) · Tactical RPG, Survival, Turn-Based Tactics, Steampunk

XCOM but top-down in a grimy ratpunk world. It can be rough around the edges I'll be honest. There's a limited set of enemy types so the game cranks difficulty by just throwing more and more bodies at you, and once you notice that it breaks the immersion a little. The endless reinforcements weren't my thing. But I still had fun and I actually finished it, even if I had to push myself through the last few missions just to see the final level. Easy one to test, give it two hours and refund if it's not for you.

Songs of Silence

Deck Verified · 81% (2,674 reviews) · Strategy, Turn-Based, Tactical, Fantasy

Gorgeous art and a nice story, and I like that the combat gives you ways to win even when your army is smaller than theirs which feels rewarding. You're defending your own backline while trying to crash into the enemy's, and some fights you're honestly better off avoiding. It does get repetitive though, mostly because the optimal play ends up being filling your army with the most expensive unit and spamming it. Still glad I played it.

Chef RPG

Deck Playable (Early Access) · 88% (2,638 reviews) · RPG, Cooking, Life Sim, Management

Still in Early Access and honestly I'm fine with that, let them cook (hehe). It's only rated Deck Playable rather than Verified but I genuinely don't remember hitting any major issue when I played. It got a touch repetitive for me, but big caveat, I played this a year ago and I'm deliberately waiting for it to leave Early Access before I jump back in.

Drova - Forsaken Kin

Deck Verified · 94% (9,490 reviews) · Action RPG, Exploration, 2D, Character Customization

Drova has the kind of world building that quietly pulls you in. It got me so invested that I spent hours just deciding and researching which faction to join, even when it meant spoiling myself a little. Fair warning, you do have to pick one to progress the story. I won't spoil the fun of that choice though, that part is yours to make.

It is a persistent world too, which I loved. Enemies don't respawn except at specific story points, so backtracking never turns into a chore and exploring always feels worth it. The little touches sell it, like the bodies you left behind still lying where they fell, a quiet reminder that you have already been through a place.

The combat might be the best I have played in a top down. Your inputs need intention, especially early on when some areas are gated by difficulty, so the game keeps nudging you toward where you are actually meant to go. And it gives you room to play your way, with traps, consumables, and if you are stubborn enough, you can finish the whole thing bare fisting enemies.

Full honesty, I almost left this one off. At 9k reviews it is not exactly "obscure", and that is the whole theme here. But leaving it out felt wrong. This game deserves a lot more recognition, especially now that the Gothic remake is out.

Personal bonus, and this one fully breaks the theme: Dead Space 3

Deck Playable · 73% (14,572 reviews) · Action, Horror, Co-op, Sci-fi

Mostly Positive and only Deck Playable, not Verified. This was EA's first real attempt at enshittification at scale, the love triangle is completely unnecessary, but the core gameplay loop is genuinely a fun time. Couldn't finish it back in my high school days. Played it again a while back but the EA launcher almost made me drop the game. I even refunded the DLC, but that necromorph de-limbing itch was still there. Finished the base game this time. Won't be back for a while but no regrets.

Honestly that whole mess is exactly why it made this list. The devs clearly cared, they even snuck in some genuinely cool stuff that quietly pushed back against EA's mandates. I am hoping enough time has passed that the folks who wrote it off when the drama was at its peak give it another shot now, and that the newer crowd who missed all of it just get to enjoy it for what it is. And hey, if enough of us play it, maybe EA finally notices and gives us something new in the Dead Space universe.

How I find stuff like this

Digging up obscure but well-reviewed games is basically the whole reason I built SecludedGems. It reads what you already play and finds hidden gems matched to your taste, each with an honest reason it fits, the catch, and the Deck status, so you do not have to bounce between five tabs just to vet one game. But this post is not really a pitch, these are just games I genuinely enjoyed and finished on my Deck. If even one of them ends up worth your time, that is a win.

Adrian