What are the best multiplayer games on Steam?

Instead of building a deliberate feeling of suspense, Terraria uses bright palettes and arcade action to provide a fun experience outside of the survival elements. When those elements gradually appear one by one, each is all the more shocking from the contrast. See More

Top Pro

2D retro-platformer style

Top Con

No tutorial and un-intuitive menus

There is no tutorial to speak of and the menu system can be a bit cumbersome and confusing. See More

Top Pro

Extensive crafting system

The vast majority of items in Terraria can be used to create other items, often requiring specific crafting stations (which themselves must be crafted). This is the core of character advancement, since gear defines nearly everything about your character. See More

Top Pro

Fun combat

It starts out simple, with you whacking away at slow moving zombies and flying eyes, gradually shifting to more fierce and fearsome enemies such as flying demons, agile lizardmen, and many more. To survive you'll have to be always on the move, dodge enemy attacks, and be accurate when you retaliate. There are also plenty of weapons to choose from. Melee weapons such as swords, hammers, lances, and flails. Ranged weapons such as bows, crossbows, rifles, and miniguns. And various items that allow you to cast spells. Whatever you choose, it feels great to destroy hordes of enemies. See More

Top Pro

Intriguing world

Terraria uses a bright color palette and an upbeat chiptune soundtrack to ease you into its world. However, once you start exploring and spend time in it you'll notice it's not as cozy as it first seemed to be. Blood Moons that rouse the dead from their graves. Goblin armies trying to destroy everything in their wake. Vast and dark cave systems, filled with odd creatures and various dangers. Ancient ruins, teeming with the restless dead and evil spirits. Pockets of decaying land, thriving with misshapen monstrosities. It's really fun to explore and discover something new about the world of Terraria. See More

Top Pro

Multiplayer also an option with up to 8 player online co-op

Up to 8 online players can be invited to join a shared Terraria world, including worlds that are also used in single-player mode. This allows for large co-op or PvP games to be played, for those that are interested, meaning you can choose how you play. Build something big together, or destroy the other guy's base. See More

Top Pro

Large community

Terraria has a very large community as it is a very popular game. Released on just about every platform including mobile, PC/Mac/Linux, consoles, it allows for anyone to play no matter their prefered device. This also means that with many players comes many servers to play on as well as tutorials and Let's Plays. So finding content or help or just basic information on the game will be quite easy. See More

With proper planning users can "code" together very precise ways to create all the things needed for the game, some in very inventive ways that can differ quite a bit. This allows for tons of replayability. See More

Factorio

Top Pro

Endless solutions

Top Con

Can become rather repetitive

There's really little payoff for being able to build really long chains of automation, it usually results in being able to open a new tech tree which allows the player to continue the process of building automation chains ad infinitum, which, admittedly can become rather boring after a while. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Overwhelmingly Positive

Genre:Realtime Strategy (RTS)

The playing world is as large as you want to explore, it automatically generates it as you explore more areas. See More

Top Pro

Massive and infinite procedurally generated world

Top Con

Still in Alpha

The game is still in Alpha which means there will be bugs as well as missing features. See More

Top Pro

Cooperative or PvP building

Factorio also supports multiplayer, allowing many players to cooperate and assist each other, or work against each other in PvP. By default, multiplayer games run the CO-OP freeplay scenario where all players work together to launch a rocket with a satellite into space. See More

Top Pro

Under active development

The game is still in Alpha which means endless future possibilities. See More

Top Pro

Charming old school graphics

While not the most technically advanced graphics the look of the game is much like a game from the 90s but seeing it in action when an assembly line starts moving there is an impressiveness to it that suits the game quite well. See More

The game challenges your brain to use portals, cubes and other mechanics to solves simple or complex puzzles in interesting ways. See More

Portal 2

Top Pro

Mind bending puzzling

Top Con

Steep co-op learning curve

Although the single-player campaign features a gradual learning curve, co-op gives no mercy. The puzzles start off hard and only get harder. It is highly recommended that you play through single-player first if you are not familiar with Portal's mechanics. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Overwhelmingly Positive

Genre:FPS

Co-Op:2 Player Online / 2 Player Couch / 2 Player LAN

Controller Support:Full

In a game that requires perfect timing and teamwork, Portal 2 features many tools to facilitate teamwork. One of the most helpful is a 3-second countdown timer that can be initiated and shown to both players to ensure you launch that portal or jump at the perfect time. In addition, there is a marker that you can place on certain objects for your teammate to see as well as a setting that shows your partner's view super-imposed on the corner of your screen. See More

Top Pro

Well implemented tools that improve teamwork

Top Con

Unique co-op levels with co-op specific tools

In Portal 2, co-op is a completely different set of puzzles than the single player campaign. Almost all puzzles require a high level of teamwork that will leave you feeling proud of what you have accomplished. In a game that requires prefect timing and teamwork, Portal 2 features many tools to facilitate teamwork. One of the most helpful is a 3 second countdown timer that can be initiated and shown to both players to insure you launch that portal or jump at the perfect time. In addition, there is a marker that you can place on certain objects for your teammate to see as well as a setting that shows your partners view super-imposed on the corner of your screen. See More

Top Pro

Larger in scope than the first title

Portal 2 is larger in every way when compared to the first title, from the longer and more detailed story to the larger levels and new game mechanics. See More

Top Pro

Humorous voice acting by Stephen Merchant

Stephen Merchant (Extras, The Office UK, Life's Too Short) voices the character of Wheatley the robot in humorous fashion. See More

Top Pro

Hundreds of hours of user-generated content

The game has more than 60,000 co-op puzzles created by users through the Steam Workshop and through mods. Because it is user-generated content, the quality and size of these puzzles vary widely, including everything from simple, one-off chambers to full-fledged expansions with high-quality stories, voice-overs, and new gameplay elements (for example, Mel). See More

Top Pro

Main co-op campaign is short

The co-op campaign in Portal 2 is about 4 hours long for experienced players, meaning it could be beaten in a weekend. With almost zero replayability, this makes the game feel incredibly short. Luckily, hundreds of hours worth of user-generated content is available. See More

Top Pro

Both online co-op and local co-op

It is possible to play a multiplayer game for free online using the Steam servers, as well as locally on your machine using split-screen (the second player must use a gamepad controller if playing locally). See More

This game will run on old PC's/laptops without a problem as the game itself is quite old. It can therefore run on hardware that is mostly seen as low spec. So pretty much anyone can run this game as it will even work on integrated graphics on modern CPUs. See More

Age of Empires 2

Top Pro

Runs on very old computers

Top Con

Outdated

As it was originally released in 1999, Age of Empires 2 shows its age, particularly in terms of the UI and graphics. See More

Specs

Genre:RTS

Co-Op:No

Controller Support:No

While the graphics are slightly outdated, they were very well done for their time. And when combined with the history behind the game and its wonderful soundtrack, the game comes across as extremely polished. See More

Top Pro

Awesome ambiance with a great finish

Top Pro

Facilitates the user's preferred pace

This game neither gives the impression of being thrown to the wolves nor that of being left stranded on an island. Whether you want to move slowing and steadily through the game or take things at a more heightened pace, Age of Empires 2 will allow for both (with some minor planning). See More

The game starts out easy, with very little in terms of mechanics, and the single objective of not starving. Then, over time, new mechanics are introduced as you explore more of the game world. The game provides very little guidance, leaving players to figure out how things work for themselves. In addition to game mechanics, even goals and story elements are unveiled organically over time. See More

Don't Starve Together

Top Pro

Easy to get started but has a lot of depth

Top Con

Constant restarts can be drawn out and boring

The beginning of a playthrough starts out pretty slow, which is exacerbated by the fact that the player will need to restart many many times as the game is a rouguelike, so permanent death is something that will be encountered often. See More

Specs

Genre:Roguelike, Survival, Horror

Co-Op:2-4 Player Local

Random quips from characters, infotext and the world itself (such as the existence of werepigs) show glimpses of a dark sense of humor throughout. See More

Top Pro

Pleasantly twisted sense of humor

Top Con

Much grinding

The game requires quite a lot of grinding in order to gather materials that can be used to craft needed items. It is a slow process that may get repetitive as it will have to be repeated any time the player dies. See More

Top Pro

Great story generator

Goals and story elements are unveiled organically over time and they are different in each playthrough. See More

Top Pro

Uniquely atmospheric art style

Don't Starve has a very unique art style, using two dimensional or 2d characters and items in a 3d world gives a very interesting artsy feel to the game. The hand drawn look and feel to the graphics are a nice change of pace from ultra realistic games, but it doesn't take away from the suspense. See More

Top Pro

Fun crafting system

You need to learn how to craft a variety of things, from farms to ensure a steady supply of food to items like weapons and armor so you can survive the various evils you encounter while exploring. The crafting system has a lot of depth to it and there are hundreds and hundreds of things to make. See More

Top Pro

Very active modding community with numerous mods available

Using the Steam Workshop, Don't Starve has a very active modding community. With nearly 800 mods currently available, there are unlimited ways you can change your Don't Starve experience. See More

Top Pro

Lots of replayability

With randomly generated (customizable) levels, different characters, ever-unfolding story elements, and permadeath, the game offers a lot of variety within the goal of constantly striving to survive longer. See More

Top Pro

Easily customized to adjust difficulty

The game gives you a lot of world customization options. You can change the length of day, weather patterns, how much of each monster or resource spawns, etc. This effectively allows you to adjust how difficult you wish the game to be. See More

Top Pro

Rewarding roguelike gameplay

The basic gameplay revolves around gathering resources for crafting in a wilderness where the flora and fauna are constantly trying to kill you. Levels are procedurally generated. See More

Top Pro

There's never a dull moment

As the game progresses, it offers more and more mechanics that require constant attention to function properly. It becomes a constant re-evaluation of risk and reward. See More

It's a very optimized game and runs smoothly on even outdated hardware. See More

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Top Pro

Runs well on most hardware and even on older hardware

Top Con

Has a large skill gap

Since it's a pretty old game, most players are veterans at this point and have been playing for a long time. This may make it hard for newer players to jump in and play. See More

Specs

Genre:FPS

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive builds on the strengths of its predecessors, even though those predecessors have been constantly improving for over a decade now. Nonetheless, Counter-Strike veterans will feel right at home in Global Offensive, albeit with some minor differences. The MP5 is now the MP7, The TMP has left its place to the MP9 and you can't attach a suppressor to the M4. See More

Top Pro

Will be familiar to CS 1.6 and CS: Source players

Top Con

Can have a bad community

As it is a large game, it should come as no surprise that the community just won't be up to par. You may be kicked for strange reasons (like bottom scoring or the all too common random hacking accusation) and many could give you a 7 day ban. It can be very frustrating as missions in the mission system require you to play certain things while crossing your fingers. See More

Top Pro

Carefully-executed changes to existing maps

The updates and improvements made to existing maps have been pretty clever and useful. For example, cracked glass is more opaque, making it harder to go on a sniping rampage. Or the stairway which was added to the bottom of de_dust made the route more viable for the Terrorists, while keeping the original purpose of that area serving as a bottleneck. See More

Top Con

New maps and modes feel pretty mediocre

Even though old maps have been revisited and improved by a wide margin, new maps and modes released with CS:GO are pretty mediocre. Half of the maps available are locked under Arms Race (which is a re-imagining of the original community-created GunGame) and Demolition (GunGame without insta-respawn and bomb defusal) modes. These game modes feel pretty safe and unimaginative, especially for veterans who have played their predecessor. Some of the new maps are pretty compact and designed to act as instant-action meat-grinders akin to modern FPS (like Call of Duty) instead of requiring any tactics to win. See More

Top Pro

Driven by tactics and cooperation

Each round of CS feels more like a game driven more by careful tactics than a frivolous fast-paced and lethal paintball arena of which too many modern First-Person Shooters are guilty of. Positioning, timing and thinking are key ingredients of a successful game and cooperation is crucial if you want to win. See More

Top Con

Hard to see if you are hitting someone

One of the things that were changed in CS:GO is firing feedback. When someone is shot in GO, they don't wince, there's only a small amount of blood and audio that conveys the information that you are actually hitting someone. But omitting wince animation from character models makes it harder to see if you are actually hitting another player, especially at distance. See More

Top Con

Less time spent playing a game

This is a feature that makes kills and hits (no health regeneration) more impactful, but also a lot less time is spent playing the game, especially if you die early to a sniper peek. Newbies will be playing a lot less of the game than more experienced players. See More

TF2 has more than 10 game modes, plus variations on those, as well as community mods that offer a wide range of objective-based play. Classic game modes include Capture the Flag, Control Point, King of the Hill and Payload. There's also Mann vs. Machine, a co-operative game mode where you play against waves of AI controlled enemies. See More

Team Fortress 2

Top Pro

Multiple game modes allowing for great variation

Top Con

Random critical hits add a significant luck element to the game and push certain types of players out

In most 'public' servers, an option called 'random crits' (short for 'random critical hits') exists by default. This allows a random percentage of your shots to multiply damage by 3 for a shot, and also remove the damage drop-off over range. This 'feature' gets increasingly more annoying as you get more experienced, as you will die more often than your opponent having x3 or more damage over you, actively making their experiences and wins less meaningful. Some classes are especially burnt by this. Medics don't use weapons often, Snipers only have secondary weapons and melees, and Spies only have their revolver (and most sidegrades of that revolver remove this ability entirely). Quickplay (a feature most newbies use to get a match) also disables these servers from appearing in the list, so there are very few 'nocrit' servers because many don't know they exist. See More

Specs

Co-Op:6 Player Online / 6 Player LAN

Genre:Hero-based FPS

Controller Support:Partial

This game is mostly pay-to-gain, as in to get more weapons. You can randomly get things, though. You can use the things you randomly get to be also used in crafting recipes to make other things. See More

Top Pro

Fair free to play model

Top Con

Free accounts are slightly limited

Free accounts do not get rare and cosmetic items nor as many storage slots for items. Items are relevant as free accounts can only hold 50, while the game has much more than 50 pieces of equipment (that affect gameplay), let alone 50 weapons. While a premium account player can react to almost all situations with a counter item, with only 50 slots a newbie probably won't have or even be able to access it. A full inventory also means a free player will have to miss out or delete exclusive event items and cosmetics just to play the game as full as they can. A free account is upgraded when any item is purchased with real money from the store. See More

Top Pro

Good VR support

To enable VR support, type -vr in console. TF2 has 8 modes in which to control the game. They can be changed with the command vr_moveaim_mode in console. They offer choice in what combination of aiming and steering should be coupled to the rift and mouse and introduce the concept of dead zones - an area of the screen that controls differently when aiming or steering within its bounds than outside them. Typing vr_calibration in console gives access to adjusting interpupillary distance (distance between eyes). You can get that information from an optician or use the calibration tool to help figure it out and set it there. Calibration will help set accurate render point (camera position) and reduce nausea. See More

Top Pro

Includes Mann vs. Machine, a ridiculously fun co-op mode

Mann vs. Machine is a co-op mode in Team Fortress 2 that is comprised of gameplay in which 6 players team up to stop AI robots from deploying a bomb. Though not the central gameplay of Team Fortress 2, it is a mode that allows for co-op play to be enjoyed with the characters of the game. Mann vs machine works quite well over LAN and is very fun to boot. See More

Top Pro

Offline LAN support

As long as users last logged in to offline mode on Steam before trying a LAN connection, LAN will work. See More

Top Pro

Active, fun, creative community

The TF2 community is know for actively engaging in different TF2 related activities. They create shorts using the source filmmaker, sell items via the steam workshop, build real-life sculptures, etc. See More

Top Pro

Hectic FPS gameplay created by 9 distinct classes with lots of varied items

TF2 has 9 playable classes - Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demoman, Heavy, Engineer, Medic, Sniper and Spy. This allows for a range of playstyles. For example, the Heavy, starting with 300 health (going up to 450), wielding a machine gun and usually assisted by a Medic, will be commonly found on the front-lines soaking up lots of damage and pulling the enemy team's focus; at the same time the Engineer will try and avoid direct battle as much as possible, providing infrastructure (teleports, sentry, dispensers). Add to this hundreds of weapons for each class providing different stats and you have an impressive amount of variety in gameplay. See More

Top Pro

Fun, humorous gameplay, graphics and sound

This game has a history of over-the-top characters, visuals, voice-overs, and various other items, which altogether create an amusing world both within the game and outside of it as well. See More

Using solid black outlines and bright colors, this game looks great. It has memorable looks to it that makes it stand apart from other first person games. Very similar in style to comic books, the art is clean and bright taking advantage of a palette not often found in modern (brown and grey) shooters. See More

Borderlands 2

Top Pro

Great comic book art style

Top Con

Gameplay can become repetitive

Many battles can be cheesed by running away, taking cover, shooting, and repeating. The AI doesn't do much to pursue you which gives the player the advantage of using the same technique for most fights, which can become boring with time. See More

Specs

Co-Op:4 Player Online / 4 Player LAN / 2 Player Couch

Genre:Action RPG

Despite being an in-your-face action game with an generally serious plot, Borderlands 2 features an interesting yet slightly cliche sense of humor. This is even exaggerated in the side quests, which at times feature the funniest and most creative parts of the writing. This way the player can dive into the main plot and get an enjoyable action plot, while also being given the choice to go on side-quests that feature a break from the more serious overtones through an expanded sense of humor. Often the humor is meme based or low brow, which should appeal to a wide array of sense of humor. See More

Top Pro

Humorous writing in a game with a serious tone

Top Con

Limited visual customization of characters

As a game that is full of choices, it is somehow lacking in visual customization options. Borderlands 2 only features the ability to change your character's basic skins through different colored outfits. There is no way to customize the characters faces or body style. This can make for online games that often have the exact same looking characters, which can not only get confusing but does not allow for any sense of originality concerning each player's character. See More

Top Pro

Works on different OS's: Linux/Mac/Win

Cross-platform support means you can play with your friends no matter what OS they use. See More

Top Con

Tedious to check gun stats

You are hit with a ton of different weapons throughout the game that checking the stats on each can become tedious. This can be a pro to some but to others it can be an quite an annoyance. See More

Top Pro

Variety of co-op options

Borderlands 2 offers 4 player online co-op as well as 2 player split screen local co-op. There is even a way for two player local split-screen to play online with others. See More

Top Con

Lost loot due to sharing

The unfortunate downside to all of the loot is that it is anyone's game. Loot isn't reserved for each individual player when playing co-op and can be taken by anyone. So that means the first person to get to the loot can basically take all of it. this can lead to contention between co-op players, which basically goes against the idea of cooperative play. See More

Top Pro

Allows for multiple playstyles

Borderlands 2 is all about options. With hundreds of weapon options and 4 classes, you can have multiple play-throughs that will play completely different each time. Along with each class, there are multiple skill trees meaning you can tweak your character to exactly how you want to play. Even if playing the same class on multiple playthroughs, you can equip completely different skills which will make the experience much different from the last. This all adds up to a game that can be bent to the wants of the player, something that is highly configurable which makes for a gaming experience that is difficult to beat in customizability. See More

Top Pro

Tons of heavily customized and unique loot

Borderlands 2 makes it feel like Christmas every time you kill an enemy or open chests. Whether it's just ammo and health or a new mod, it makes killing enemies and finding chests much more satisfying than other loot based games through giving the player the potential for a good drop, which is always on the horizon. While many loot based games are based on this mechanic, the overall appeal of new loot is boosted by the randomized look and features of each weapon and mod. The guns (as well as other items) in Borderlands 2 have distinct visual features depending on their attributes. For example, a gun with a plus melee attack might have a blade on it. This is customization that goes beyond pallet swapping (where the same assets are used for different items that differentiate themselves through different colors) which makes you much more attached to the gun than a bunch of polygons should. Which adds to the appeal of discovering new items in the game. You will also find tons and tons of different types of guns. Six different types of guns exist in the game including pistols and sniper rifles. Each with eight different manufactures like Hyperion and Jacobs give an almost unlimited amount of guns you can find in the game. Being that the guns are randomized as they appear, it is difficult to find any two that are exactly alike. With the many different combinations available, you never know what attributes the next gun you will find will have. This also gives an individualistic experience to each player of the game as even if both went to the same areas, they will find wholly different items. See More

Top Pro

Enjoyable co-op play that focuses on teamwork

The varying classes and play styles are designed to work together and promote co-op play. One player may be a tank, with large guns and long lasting armor, while another may have medic abilities with a long range sniper rifle. This makes for a scenario where each class compliments each other, which is a fun way to work as a team when playing co-op. See More

While the game can be played in third person (which may work better in PvP), there is an option to play in first person view which keeps in tradition of the view found in other Elder Scroll titles. This gives this MMO the feeling of playing Skyrim or Oblivion, which should appeal to those who are fans or familiar. It is also a unique way to play an MMO, which could appeal to those tired of traditional third person view MMOs. See More

Elder Scrolls Online

Top Pro

Immersive first person play

Specs

Steam Rating:Mostly Positive

Top Pro

Built on twenty years of game lore

Elder Scrolls games have always placed the world's unabashedly bizarre mythology in the forefront, and ESO is no exception. Between quest storylines, hundreds of in-game books, passing NPC dialog, and the landscape itself, ESO presents a world that feels bigger than the player, and can be incredibly immersive. See More

Top Pro

High build variety keeps PvP interesting

Though "flavors of the month" will arise in any competitive game, ESO's versatile characters and MOBA-like limitation on simultaneous skill availability greatly reward creative builds and counter-building. See More

Top Pro

Limited skill bar encourages build variety

There are only six skill slots (five regular, one "ultimate") available at any one time. A character can swap between two equipped weapon sets, making at most 12 total skills available in combat. With well over 100 skills to choose from, finding two characters with exactly the same build is the exception, not the rule. See More

Top Pro

Unrestrictive class system

ESO's character system is based on skill lines; each class provides three. There are dozens of other skill lines, including all weapons and armor, which are open to all characters. Resource stats (Health, Stamina, Magicka) aren't tied to class either. This means any character can use any gear and be built to fill any role. See More

The maps in the game are designed quite well with labyrinth aspects being used quite a bit. Many areas have different vertical levels that will tie in at some point to other areas in the stage, which makes traversing them a quest in exploration. This makes for a great way to hide objects, which you will need to search out as well as provides plenty of places for demons to hide. Overall the level design is well thought out and will allow those that love exploration to have plenty to do and see. See More

DOOM

Top Pro

Fantastic level design

Top Con

Enemy design can get stale

While this is a game designed around throwing mobs of enemies at the player, it would have been nice to see more variation in enemy design for these mobs. There are many transformed human workers scattered throughout, which can get stale after hours of play. See More

Specs

Genre:Horror FPS

There are quite a few easter eggs and hidden secrets in the game, such as old school Doom 95 levels, a Commander Keen skull, a Terminator 2 animation or a hidden Halo toy that the player will fist bump. This give incentive to search out all areas of the game as you never know what you will find. See More

Top Pro

Fun hidden secrets

Top Con

Design may not appeal to everyone

Doom is focused on being an arena shooter at heart for single player and with multiplayer levels being designed without generating health but health pick ups, this is a game that harkens back to older shooters. Many players have moved beyond these gameplay styles and may not enjoy the old school feel of the game. See More

Top Pro

Powerful and customizable weapon selections

You start the game with a pistol, but almost immediately start getting new weapons such as the shotgun. During the gameplay new modifications will be unlocked for each weapon, which allows for a good set of customizability in order to fit with ones playstyle. Each weapon has two different mods that can be unlocked, each with their own upgrades. These are unlocked through combat kills, the more cool kills you make, the more upgrades you earn. Once all the upgrades are earned for a modification there will be a challenge that gets unlocked, once this challenge is completed another skill is unlocked that tends to be even more powerful that the others. Overall this give incentive to progress in the game in order to unlock newer and newer features for the gunplay in the game. See More

Top Con

The gore might not be for everyone

Many kill animations, particularly melee kill animations, are quite brutal. Some may find that level of graphic violence off-putting. See More

Top Pro

Refreshing single purpose gameplay

There is no character development, this is a single purpose game that makes itself very clear from the outset. You are in this game to do one thing, kill demons, sometimes in the most gruesome ways possible. The game is very unapologetic about this, which is refreshing in a time when many games focus on story and play out like an interactive movie. This is much more a throwback to simpler times, run and gun, and it can be quite fun. See More

Top Pro

Intuitive health system

The player can regain health in two ways, one by finding health packs scattered around the level and two by killing enemies. The latter is a great way to stay in the action as there is no real need to stop and search for health as long as you are continually killing enemies (which should be no problem). See More

Top Pro

Fast-paced, arena-style combat

The game has no cover-system and instead asks the player to react quickly to incoming threats. This is done through strafing, quick movements and quick thinking. By being able to dodge and jump the player needs to rely on very quick reflexes in order to succeed in the game, thankfully the game allows this to be done easily due to how nimble and mobile the character can be. This is very similar to Quake and Unreal Tournament styles of play. There is melee combat as well as gunplay. The melee has very gruesome and fun effects when using them, there is also a way to regain health through melee, so it will need to be used at times. The gunplay is also very solid and provides a good amount of guns to use, each with their own look and feel. See More

Top Pro

Old school style mutliplayer

There is no regenerating health in the multiplayer mode, users will have to rely on health and armor pickups, which are placed strategically in each map. This means each map has a certain flow in order to collect those items, much like how shooters were designed years ago. This gives an old school feel to the multiplayer and should appeal to those that miss this type of play. See More

Top Pro

Superb graphics that run quite well

The graphics in the game look extremely good, with plenty of particle effects and great lighting. Demons as well as bosses are animated with gusto and definitely put some fear in the player. What is even better is that the game was programmed well as it runs without any problems on a wide array of systems. Players should have no problem holding a steady 60fps as long as their graphics settings are set appropriately for their gear. See More

Top Pro

Longevity thanks to a level editor

There is a level editor included in the game meaning anyone can design their own levels. What is even better is that these levels can be shared online. This way there will be an endless amount of levels to play, making for a lot of longevity of play for those interested. See More

It can be pretty difficult to win by diplomacy or culture which does add some challenge to the game but it can get tiresome if one keeps winning by only military or timed victories. See More

Civilization V

Top Con

Most victories won by timed or military victory

Top Pro

Endless scenarios and replayability

Civilization V has a large assortment of nation leaders to choose from that have an even bigger assortment of scenarios that are able to play out for said leaders. Each game can be quite unique in this way as each leader allows for a different nation to be controlled. See More

Specs

Co-Op:2 to 21 Player Online / LAN

Genre:4X

Controller Support:Steam Controller Officallly supported

The Linux port currently does not support steam workshop, and as the mac port made by the same developers has not received workshop support despite having been out for several years, it is unlikely that it ever will. Though there are unofficial workarounds to get the mods working. See More

Top Con

No steam workshop support on Linux

Top Pro

Beautiful graphics

From the players cities and armies to the lush landscape, Civilization is quite a beautiful game for those with systems powerful enough to push the graphics to the limit. Even when on lower graphical settings the game looks lush and well animated. See More

Top Con

One unit per tile

Civ 5 restricts you to having one unit per tile, but has an AI unable to handle that restriction well, and doesn't even have decent pathing for units. Late game becomes a slog of ordering each unit individually due to poor pathing. See More

Top Pro

Fantastic tactical combat

Civilization V has a great combat system that feels very tactical over previous versions as there is no stacking of troops, but with the new hexagonal grid players can surround enemies as well as allow for better tactics when planning attacks. See More

Top Con

No stats on other Civ attitudes

Unlike past Civilization games there are no longer stats on the attitudes of the players surrounding Civilizations. This allowed one to see how each other nation felt about the player, but now that it is gone one has to guess, which is definitely not as helpful. See More

Top Pro

Customization through policies

Policies are used as a tool to gain a variety of customizations that benefit ones society. There is a branching tree of policies that will allow the user to pick certain aspects that will suit them best such as adding law or religion to ones society which will give gains in certain aspects. See More

Even when using well above the recommended hardware the game does show some performance issues as it is difficult to hold 60fps. While not the biggest problem thanks to this being a turn based game it would have been nice to see better performance and a constant 60fps when using what the developers recommended for best performance. See More

XCOM 2

Top Con

Performance could be better

Top Pro

It's fun to upgrade and manage your squad

As you progress through the game you can train and promote your soldiers to make them more effective in combat, unlock new abilities and upgrade their weapons armor. The interesting part of it is if a member gets injured (which is really easy to happen on the harder difficulties) they are not available for the following missions until they heal. So if you only upgrade one solider and he/she gets injured, you're in a really tough spot. The weapons, abilities, items and armor you can unlock are varied and interesting enough to make it really fun to progress through the game and build a custom squad based around how you like to go about your missions. See More

Specs

Genre:Tactical role-playing game, Turn-based tactics

You're always against the clock in one way or another. Globally your enemies are moving forward with their plans and unless you actively work towards countering them, they will win. You'll be short on cash, manpower, and will have to work with inferior tech. On the field most missions have turn limits forcing you to act aggressively. This scrambling for resources, making with what you can, racing against the clock creates great suspense that makes it all the more satisfying to win an important mission. See More

Top Pro

Excellent suspense

For players who put the time into Dota 2 to get past the early beginner phase, Dota 2 can become an extremely satisfying game. There's a reason it's one of the most popular eSports titles in the world. The amount of strategy, skill and variables involved make it a very deep game where anything could happen. See More

Dota 2

Top Pro

Incredibly deep gameplay

Top Con

You love and hate the game

While infuriating at times the addictiveness of the game keeps the players coming back. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mixed

Genre:MOBA

Top Pro

Game balanced well by IceFrog

Gameplay is balanced in the sense that while other MOBAs would have only around 30-60 viable picks for the competitive scene, Dota 2 has heroes and strategies in the game that are more varied, which enables more heroes to be picked in the competitive scene. Number of Heroes Picked in Dota 2's Recent Major Tournament in the past 4 months (as of July 2016) is 86/111 heroes picked and 100 out of 111 heroes picked. To compare between Dota 2 and LoL pick diversity, LoL has 64 out of 131 champions picked for LCS. There are also factors such as the ban/pick phase difference and the more rigid positions in LoL that may limit the viability for different playstyles and hero picks (typically it is 2 (AD, Support Bot) -1 (AP mid) -1 (Tank Off) - 1 (Jungler), with a possibility of double junglers in LoL). On the other hand in Dota 2, there are a lot more different positions compared to Lol/Smite such as Duo Mid (1-2-2), Traditional (2-1-2), One Jungler (1-2-1-1, most similar to league), One Roamer (1-2-1-1 as well with the difference being the hero roams the map for kills to create space for the mid and safelane rather than farm the jungle which can weaken a lane), Duo Roamer (1-1-1-2, all lanes are weaker in lane presence with the tradeoff being they get solo experience with two aggressive supports roaming), Trilane (1-1-3, Aggresive or Passive Trilane) and Abandoned Offlane (0-1-3-1 where the offlane is completely left empty due to a strong duo or trilane on the opposing team). More heroes are viable and balanced in Dota 2 partly due to the greater flexibility in laning. This can be attributed the mechanics such as creep pulling and creep stacking which allows the team doing trilane to make up for the shared experience between three heroes. Besides that, the existence of teleport scrolls that allow you to defend your towers or punish a tower dive also allows you to react and assist other lanes. In pub games, any hero/lane/lineup can work, and it is more about your individual mechanical skills (understanding of hero, combo execution, map awareness, last hitting, timings, item builds, flow) over the lack of coordination and teamwork (on both teams). See More

Top Con

Rude, toxic community

Many players feel free to flame and insult, especially in the lower ranks and from non-english speaking countries. See More

Top Pro

Start with all heroes

You don't need to unlock or purchase characters. See More

Top Con

Game has been broken down to make it noob friendly

Top Pro

Moba-leading graphics

When compared to other leading MOBAs, Dota2 has some of the best graphics to be found and has some of the best graphics for low end devices as well. See More

Top Pro

Has user-created custom games

Dota 2 includes Workshop Tools that allow users to create custom games as well as other play them. See More

Top Pro

Dota 2 has the world's biggest e-sports tournament

At The International 4 in summer 2014, players raised the prize pool to more than $10 million, one of the largest prize pools in E-Sports history. See More

Top Pro

Most diverse MOBA

This game has a steep learning curve, but it's well worth it. The games that came after Dota like League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm, Smite, and other lookalikes don't even compare to the complexity of Dota 2. Every hero is unique and valuable in one team composition or another. The amount of versatility of each hero is amazing as well. The mechanics by far destroy any other Dota style game (MOBA) and that's what makes this game top tier in it's genre. This game is the highest grossing E-Sport game in the world and will probably continue to be for a long time. See More

Top Pro

Regularly updated

Dota 2 is regularly patched and changed with new characters being introduced and balance changes made. This can prevent the game from becoming too stale as the tactics utilized by players changes often. See More

Top Pro

Can be played online and offline

With different Bots difficulty levels, if you play offline, you still need to be logged in Steam. See More

Top Pro

Players can trade self-made cosmetic items

The game includes a system for players to create, buy, and sell cosmetic items. See More

Top Pro

Fair free-to-play business model

Microtransactions involve only cosmetic items such as custom weapon designs or clothing colors and tickets to view live events. See More

Top Pro

Very active professional scene

Dota 2 has one of the most if not the most active professional scenes in e-sports today. See More

When you start out, it can be overwhelming. You have a country and three thousand infantrymen -- what can you do? You decide to attack your neighbor -- and they cut you down like reeds. You start over as a bigger country and attack a smaller neighbor -- and suddenly you're in a war against several large countries at once. You start again and this time you find a weak neighbor with no allies. You crush them and bring them under your control -- and suddenly you find revolutions popping up everywhere. Even after you've learned the basics, you'll still find yourself wondering: if I declare a holy war, will it cost me diplomatic power to annex territory or not? And it's often hard -- certainly in ironman mode -- to undo decisions, so small mistakes and misclicks can end up costing you a lot. The game does give you guidance in the form of alert bubbles in the upper left of the screen, informing you of the things it thinks are most relevant, and paying attention to those can at least show you what you might want to think about. In the later patches, the user interface has been improving to help reduce surprises -- and the game mechanics as well. For instance, rebel uprising progress can be tracked easily -- you won't be surprised by a sudden uprising of Najdi nationalists, and when you're in for a long-term peasant revolt, the game will tell you why it's happening, how to prevent it, and how to get out of it once it happens. But simply finding all these parts of the user interface takes time playing. Determining what's important takes experience. You can pause the game at any time and find all the data you can handle, but if you're not just extracting the important parts, the deluge won't help. Your best bet is to find videos of people playing the game with a bit more skill than you. Streaming is best -- you can ask questions, and most streamers will answer. See More

Europa Universalis IV

Top Con

Steep learning curve

Top Pro

Pausable/adjustable speed RTS

Play straight through on real-time, or pause for as much micro-management as is needed. No rapid attacks and the key here, it is pausable even though it can be a real time system. Basically time can be slowed, sped up and paused with most gameplay taking place somewhere in between. See More

Specs

Co-Op:12 Player Online / 32 LAN

Genre:Grand Strategy

Controller Support:No

Due to the in depth, meticulous gameplay mechanics, the games can take weeks to finish which some people may not have the patience for. See More

Top Con

Games can take a very long time

Top Pro

Lots of depth

EUIV is a simulation of global politics and war. There is a relatively limited set of choices you can make under normal circumstances: hiring advisors to improve your capabilities, hiring troops, about two dozen diplomatic actions in peace, and a number of different peace deal options when terminating a war. However, these interact to produce a large number of interesting decisions that affect your outcomes. If you want to annex a neighbor, do you declare a holy war on them, or do you fabricate claims on their territory and demand that they "return" this land to you? Do you ally a much larger nation that might try to force you to be their vassal? Conversely, do you try to improve relations with a much smaller neighbor in order to become their suzerain overlord, or do you attempt to conquer them directly and risk pulling their larger allies into a war? On top of that, there are hundreds of events that can occur once certain preconditions are met. Some of them are specific to which country you're playing as. Some require you to hire the right set of advisors. And if you don't keep your country's internal affairs in order, you may find yourself on the wrong end of a peasant's war or facing other national disasters. See More

Players can throw their opponents into huge industrial shredders or under the wheel of traffic to hilarious and gross effect. This is the goal of the game: taking out one's opponents in any way possible. See More

Gang Beasts

Top Pro

Outlandish ousting of opponents can be quite surreal

Top Con

No online multiplayer

The game can only be played on a single computer as it does not have a LAN or online features as of yet. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mostly Positive

Genre:Fighting

Co-Op:Local/Online Multiplayer

Controller Support:Full

Gang Beasts is available on both Windows, Mac OS and Linux systems. See More

Top Pro

Available on multiple operating systems

Top Con

No online multiplayer

The game can only be played on a single computer as it does not have a LAN or online features as of yet. See More

Top Pro

Not co-op

Although a really fun party game, the goal is to beat the other players and be the last man standing - in other words, there is no collaborative co-op. See More

Top Con

Not child friendly

While the graphics are cartoon-like and seemingly geared towards children, the gameplay is anything but. This is definitely not a game for small children due to the violence found within. See More

Left 4 Dead 2 requires players on the same team to cooperate in order to survive. This makes for an interesting team dynamic, as it will be increasingly difficult to make it through a level if any one player on the team decides to go off on their own instead of staying with the group and cooperating. See More

Left 4 Dead 2

Top Pro

Invigorating team-work dynamic

Top Con

AI lacks craftiness

The AI has a tendency to make ridiculous choices that can screw up what players are doing. This can become a big problem when relying on AI teammates in order to get through a level. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Overwhelmingly Positive

Genre:FFFPPPSSSSSSS

Co-Op:1 Player Online / 100 Player Couch / 400 Player LAN

Left 4 Dead 2 features a versus mode that pits two teams against one another. For the survivor team, it is basically the same game as the normal campaign. However, versus mode adds a new way for teammates on the opposing team to work together by playing as the infected, which opens up a whole new play style and set of strategies. See More

Top Pro

Unique and diverse co-op versus mode

Top Con

Not much different from its predecessor

While the game has been improved from the original, if you did not have much fun with Left 4 Dead, you will probably not get much enjoyment out of the sequel. It is essentially the same game and some have complained that it just feels like a large DLC update. See More

Top Pro

Local two-player and online four-player co-op

Left 4 Dead 2 supports two-player local co-op as well as four-player online co-op. See More

Top Con

Very difficult without team engagement

For those looking for a casual co-op experience, Left 4 Dead 2 probably isn't the best option. Without a good sense of teamwork and focus, this game can get very challenging. See More

Top Pro

Play as zombies or survivors

Experiencing both sides of the zombie apocalypse brings a fresh experience. See More

Top Pro

Melee weapons offer a more visceral gaming experience

Left 4 Dead 2 allows for the player's use of melee weapons. These create not only more graphic violence when playing (in comparison to that created when just using guns), but also a more personal and intimate experience. See More

Top Pro

Awesome game for singleplayer

One of the best co-op games for offline bot play. See More

Top Pro

Much improved from Left 4 Dead

If you loved the original Left 4 Dead, this game will be even more fun for you. Almost everything has been improved, such as the AI and multiple new additions to the game (like new enemies and weapons). See More

Torchlight 2 has all the typical RPG mechanics such as classes, loot, skill trees etc. However all the little touches and details come together to make playing the game really fun and a great balance between depth/complexity and being able to get started killing hordes of monsters. Killing monsters is very satisfying and the loot system keeps things very interesting without feeling like you're just grinding for better items. See More

Torchlight II

Top Pro

Well implemented and fun action-RPG combat

Top Con

Limited respec system

Much like an old school dungeon crawler, there is little to no useful respec system here. You can respec the last three skill points used on a character, but that is it. This tends to lead towards plenty of skills in the skilltree that ended up going nowhere, which are just wasted points. Unless you know specifically where you will be putting each and every skill point for your build beforehand, no respec may have an impact on making a perfect build. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mostly Positive

Genre:Dungeon Crawler RPG

Torchlight II is a multi-platform game that works on OSX, Linux and Windows. Which is great for users who dual-boot as the game can be played no matter what OS is booted at the time. See More

Top Pro

Works on different OS's: Linux/Mac/Win

Top Con

Lacking in story

The characters are flat and the overall story is pretty boring/standard. While not unexpected for such a game it would have been nice to have something other than loot driving advancement in the game. See More

Top Pro

Elaborate loot system

Loot in Torchlight II is varied and dependent on a wide array of circumstances. There are so many variables that come into play as to what a player will find that makes searching out better and better items a game in and of itself. See More

Top Pro

Varied level design

Unlike the first title there are many areas to see in the game that all have different looks. Plus there are large open ares as well as close quarter caverns. See More

Top Pro

Incentive to replay due to limited respec system

Much of leveling up is permanent, which not only gives a sense of connection to ones built characters but also means there is a large incentive to replay to make different builds. See More

Top Pro

Well implemented co-op

You can team up with up to 5 other plays to take on the hordes together. There is also a PvP mode if you'd rather kill your friends instead of team up with them. See More

Garry's Mod has a wide variety of community made add-ons, which deeply extends the games content and versatility. Pretty much, if you can think of it, someone has probably already made it. See More

Garry's Mod

Top Pro

Tons of community made add-ons

Top Con

Previously free to download

Garry's Mod used to be a free download but it is now a paid game on the Steam store. See More

Specs

You can do some really crazy things in this game thanks to all of the community mods available as well as the built in, in game tools. Pretty much any scenario can play out in the game, if you so desire. Of course the winning combination of funny tends to be when players are just goofing around. See More

Genre:Sandbox

Co-Op:Yes

Controller Support:No

Top Pro

Ridiculously funny gameplay

Top Pro

The games mechanics and mods allow for ridiculously funny gameplay

You can do some really crazy things in this game thanks to all of the community mods available as well as the built in, in game tools. Pretty much any scenario can play out in the game, if you so desire. Of course the winning combination of funny tends to be when players are just goofing around. See More

Top Pro

Tons of community made add-ons allows the game to continually grow

Garry's Mod has a wide variety of community made add-ons, which deeply extends the games content and versatility. Pretty much, if you can think of it, someone has probably already made it. See More

SpeedRunners is an intense race around a 2d course. The camera follows the player in the lead, so if you get too far behind you will go off the screen and instantly die. To stay in the lead you will need to dodge obstacles, use a grappling hook to move faster and intelligently use power-ups. See More

SpeedRunners

Top Pro

Fun and intense races

Top Con

No one plays it

Fun game, but only with others. The playerbase is now close to nonexistant. See More

RobustChantico's Experience

Loved it while it was popular. See More

Specs

Matches are quick and only take a few minutes to play, so it's a great game to play on your lunch break, or when you just have a few minutes of free time. This also makes for a good game to play with friends that have limited time to play online. See More

Top Pro

Short matches

Top Con

Difficult to play without a controller

Using a keyboard to play can be difficult as it is mainly designed around using a controller, so for those without a controller they may be handicapped playing against others that do. See More

Top Pro

Gives everyone a chance to win

The game is balances up in a way where it's naturally harder for the player in front to see upcoming obstacles, giving players behind great opportunities to get back ahead. This makes the game fun to keep playing in a group as you're unlikely to keep losing to the one over-competitive friend that tries too hard. See More

Top Con

Buggy

Like most Early Access games, bugs are to be expected. The game may crash to desktop and players may fall through the level, hopefully these get fixed before the full release. See More

Top Pro

Easy to pick up and play but doesn't get boring

You can get up to speed in just a few minutes as the controls are very simple to learn, but the game still has plenty of depth, as mastering when to use different skills on different levels keeps it fresh. See More

Top Pro

Interesting movement mechanics

The game has a freeing walljump mechanic as well as a grappling hook that can be used to swing across obstacles, pull towards ledges, etc. This makes for movements that are intuitive and fun as well as well controlled. See More

Top Pro

Level designer for extended gameplay

There is an included level designer so users can design their own levels making for endless playtime through inventing and playing ones own levels. See More

Top Pro

Fun power-ups

The game includes powerups like homing rockets, freeze rays and magma balls that can quickly change the game and add a level of randomness to each match making for a unique experience every time. See More

Top Pro

4 Player simultaneous, combined local and online

There are 4 slots per game, and each slot can be filled with a local player, a bot, a friend over the internet, or a random internet stranger. See More