2025 Steam Summer Sale Hidden Gems To Try

There’s a few days left in the Steam Summer Sale of 2025, and I find myself at a crossroads. On one hand, there are many amazing games on my wishlist on discount. On the other, I still have so many games to clear from my backlog that I’m currently still enjoying. The idea of getting Cyberpunk 2077 sounds great, but I’m still trying to clear The Witcher 3 and Satisfactory. Getting another AAA or AA game that can take over 100 hours feels very silly. Also by this point, people already have massive wishlists and many youtube reviewers have made great lists.

What should someone who likes sharing good games do in this situation? I still want to spend money on game development I love and appreciate, but also respect the tighter purse strings that many are having to deal with these days. With all this in mind, here is the list of qualities I set up to make this list:

1. The recommended games have to not already have a bunch of people recommending it for this sale.
2. The recommendations shouldn’t be from a major game developer (one exception).
3. The game should respect your time or be relatively short.
4. The game should be fun, obviously!
5. The game should be $10 or less.

With these restrictions in mind, I made a quick list of 6 very loose genre categories, picking two games from each category to suggest. The first choice is the one that came up faster for me while checking my library and the steam sale, while the alternate I think is a fun different take on the same genre that still could be great for some gamers out there.

Without further ado… the 12 games!

RPG pick: Coromon - A Monster Collecting Homage That Still Feels Fresh. $4.99.

If I had to sell Coromon to someone, it would be to simply say that it is an earnest homage to Pokèmon that still respects your time. Made in the Netherlands, it’s a classic ‘lets go explore the world and collect monsters’ that many people could identify on sight, and it walks a tightrope between attempting to give you the classic Pokèmon Red/Blue style experience while also having a bunch of modern polish.

I love the fact that you can shiny hunt in this game but it feels rewarding and more manageable, using a ‘potent’ system where each monster is ranked from 1-21, with the highest numbers having different looks. I enjoy that the combat feels more balanced while again, the classic ‘four moves to choose from’ RPG style. And I really enjoy the plot, which lets the game have some moments that feel more like classic boss battles than just ‘here’s a trainer with a slightly stronger monster’. Beating the game is about 25 hours long, but if you want to get absolutely everything, you can double that time easily. It’s a great bite-sized entry for those who have nostalgia for the genre but don’t want to buy back into an expensive series.

Alternate Pick: Cassette Beasts for $9.99. This is the monster-collection game for the gamer who wants things to get weird. Blending nostalgia with some 1980’s vibes, you and a team of adventurers use cassette tapes to turn into monsters and help save a town. It gets even stranger, since you can take two different forms and fuse them together to get different abilities.

This RPG is also a classic adventure-through-different-zones style game, but the tone and mood is much more unique. Again, about 20 hours of play, up to 50 or 60 if you want everything, so an amazing sale for that amount of fun.

FPS pick: Friends Vs. Friends - The Bite Sized FPS With The Biggest Laughs. $2.49.

The second time I played a round of Friends Vs. Friends, I was laughing so hard I couldn’t control my character. During the tenth round, my friends and I figured out a combo so broken and so hilarious that I couldn’t breathe for a good fifteen seconds from laughing.

This is a first person arena-style shooter where you are either playing 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 or free for all against your friends or people online. The twist is that, well, all of you have a collection of magic cards that cause absolute chaos. You want want to speed up your movement? Sure! How about summoning a shotgun or katana? What about cursing the enemy team to have Goldeneye style massive heads, or tossing down turrets, or freezing yourself into ice to survive a grenade, or-

The levels are very small on purpose, and a round can take anywhere from 1-5 minutes, tops. This is distilled chaos and silliness, where playing lets you unlock booster packs to get more cards, more options, and more chances to make your friends scream at you across voice chat “HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!”. I think Friends Vs. Friends works so well because matches are fast; sure, you might end up pulling off a combo that feels broken, but you can just reset and play again almost immediately.

Also being entirely frank: I want this game to get more credit and more players. When I saw the free-to-play microtransaction heavy game Fragpunk be introduced, it left a bad taste in my mouth, trying to claim how novel and new it was for using cards in a hero shooter while Friends Vs. Friends came out nearly two years earlier. Yes, there are some tiny DLC packs to buy, but they are clearly marked as skins and ways to help tip the devs, giving players new quests to complete to unlock them.

If you have a few friends who like FPSes, do yourself a favor and buy this game. It’s less than coffee to pick up, and even if you play just for an hour or two it’s absolutely worth the time. I haven’t laughed so hard at a game in a while, and the gunplay can be really fun while not trying to sucker you into buying $10 dollar skins.

Alternate Pick: Anger Foot for $9.99. On the other side of the genre, we have a single-player FPS where it’s just about beating the 5-8 hour long campaign. That sounds short… except each mission is supposed to be an auditory and visual assault on the senses. Thumping music, garish colors, and crass humor reign supreme here. The goal is to beat the levels fast, brutally, and with style, that way you can unlock new shoes.

Why shoes, do you ask? Well, you’re a sneakerhead that lives in a city controlled by criminal gangs…and they stole your collection, naturally. Good thing your melee attack is kicking enemies across the room and each pair of shoes you find adds a different twist on gameplay.

This is a game if you need a rage room, a good laugh, or a good challenge to keep testing yourself.

Roguelike Pick: Dome Keeper - The Horrors Persist, So Let’s Dig Deeper. $7.19.

Dome Keeper is a mash up of game mechanics that is infuriatingly addictive and compelling. Airdropped onto a planet to mine resources, your little base is attacked every night by shadowy monsters who hate that you exist. What you end up with is a gameplay loop which does an amazing job to keep the pressure building. During the day, dig for ore and gems. Use the resources to unlock upgrades and build defenses. Make sure you are back above ground at night time to defend yourself against the horrors, because time never stops or slows down. Remember, you need to find enough ore and gems to also build an escape pod off the planet, but every resource you put towards escape is one less towards defense… if you ever played the old arcade game Space Invaders or Missile Command, you’ll know what to expect for half the game, with the other half of your time spent frantically upgrading your firepower.

It’s an amazing game. I’ve sunk a horrific amount of hours into it, and haven’t returned in a year or so because I know if I do, it’ll be all I play for a week. Each run can let you try and build different tools and styles of defense. Even better, the devs spent years adding on free updates, including adding new domes, over a dozen new gadgets, and rebalancing things so you always have fresh things to play. Dome Keeper is great value at full price, and at less than $10 is a steal.

Alternate Pick: Monster Train for $7.49. I don’t think I have to do much to sell Monster Train. First off, Eric already wrote a great review of it, but secondly, you can see a picture of it and know what to expect. It’s a deckbuilder rpg where you have to survive by constantly cultivating an amazing deck of cards, the challenges getting worse and worse until some final boss. Classic Slay The Spire stuff.

Monster Train stands out though for a few reasons. One, it has amazing polish, including some amazing music tracks. Two, it has a unique art style and mood, with you attempting to ‘fix hell’ to restore balance to the world, while crazed angels attack you the whole time. Thirdly, I like its take on the genre, with you having to defend multiple parts of the train with your legion of demons instead of playing as a solo character.

This game does have a sequel that just released, but the original is a great value and still worth your time if you want another dose of roguelike card goodness.

Strategy RPG Pick: The Last Spell - The Most Exhausting Heavy Metal Strategy RPG You’ll Ever Play. $9.99.

I’ll be the first to admit that The Last Spell requires a little bit of commitment. Most strategy RPGs can be a bit involved, but this is a game that makes sure you feel its intensity. From heavy metal riffs to your heroes being outnumbered twenty-to-one, The Last Spell makes sure you feel as if you are fighting an uphill battle at all times. Think X-Com, but your heroes are surviving a horrific night against zombie hordes. The plot is that you are guarding mages attempting a massive spell to undo a magic nuke whose after effects have nearly destroyed everything.

There’s a roguelike element to this game, where your heroes attacks are decided by the weapons you can find and equip. Each mission is hours long, alternating between ever increasing waves of zombies and then you building up the destroyed town you are protecting to recruit more heroes, level them up, and find better gear. Each night has dozens, even hundreds of foes coming at you, and you will feel overwhelmed at times. Even with building ballistas and traps and having fireball spells, there will be times that winning feels hopeless. Naturally, it makes winning feel all the sweeter. Even if you fail a campaign mission, you unlock new possible tools and can just jump back in.

I love this game, but just know that each level can feel like a full campaign at times just because of the constant pressure of the enemy. I’ve had some amazing moments where victory truly felt like it was snatched out of the claws of defeat, and other times where I restart a level on the last wave because I know my heroes are already nearly dead as the horde shambles up. Give it a shot if you don’t mind sweating a little while enjoying some amazing pixelated animated carnage. Don’t worry, the soundtrack lets you know how epic your actions are the whole time.

Alternate pick: Dark Deity 1 for $4.99. This strategy RPG is much more of a classic Fire Emblem style game, with a story that’s roughly 25 hours or so. It feels like a tribute while also having some of its own ideas, like a more robust weapon system and some great comedic moments.

We reviewed it a few years ago, and still think it’s worth a look. There’s a newly released sequel if you would like, but the sale on the original game is fantastic, making both great options during the sale.

Action Adventure Pick: Enslaved: Odyssey to the West - A Great Throwback to 2010. $2.99.

I broke my own rule about no major developers for this game because I think it was an overlooked gem when it first came out in 2010. An action adventure game set in a very pretty post-apocalypse, Enslaved: Odyssey To The West has you play as two very different characters attempting to find answers and survive. Robots attempt to hunt you down the whole time as you platform across some sections and smash robots in others.

What sells the game for me is both its strange place in history and just how ambitious it was. It was made by Ninja Theory, and one of the two main characters, Monkey is played by Andy Serkis. The game used motion capture technology in ground breaking ways to really sell you on their movements and emotions, elevating a simple survival story to have some real gravitas. In comparison to very tongue-in-cheek games, Enslaved: Odyssey To the West leans into its plot and script with authenticity. I mean, just the name of the game itself is a cluse as to how its a loose adaptation of the chinese classic epic Journey To The West from the 7th century.

Is it a perfect game? Absolutely not, but I really enjoyed playing through it over a decade ago. It’s about 10 hours long, and for $3 is an absolute steal. If you want a story and campaign that feels a little different to modern games, or just want to enjoy a little gaming history, give this one a shot.

Alternate Pick: Grim Dawn for $4.99. Shifting the mood entirely, here’s an indie take on Diablo that still holds up 9 years later. Developed to be a spiritual successor to Diablo 2, it has an old school feel from the original two games in the series while still having its own personality. The devs still support it too, with there being multiple expansions you can find on sale and patches still coming out today.

A full playthrough is probably about 20-25 hours, but you can obsess about it for much longer trying to make perfect builds. Plenty of small expansions, some online or LAN co-op, and you can have a great time for very cheap if you just are looking to smash hundreds of foes.

“Cozy” Simulation Pick: Let’s Build A Zoo - A Secretly Strange Zoo Keeping Game. $6.99.

For this category, I was tempted to go with Jurassic World Evolution 2 due to its amazing discount, but Frontier games with its Planet Zoo and Coaster games is well established and doesn’t need the help. Instead, for those people who want to simulate running a zoo or park, I wanted to look at something stranger.

Let’s Build A Zoo looks like a classic indie take on a building game. Pixelated graphics, set up a park that people want to visit, work hard to add more and more cool animals to your collection…but then you find out that you can map their genomes? That you can actually make owlbears through gene splicing? How about how this game inexplicitly has a morality system?!

They could have phoned in this game, and they didn’t, adding weirdness in a genre I wasn’t expecting. There’s hours of gameplay here, so the fact you can pick it up for less than $10 feels like stealing. There’s even expansions that add dinosaurs and aquariums to an already packed experience.

Alternate Pick: Graveyard Keeper for $3.99. For those of you have have been infected by the Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing obsession (for good reason!), I will never stop suggesting Graveyard Keeper. Your protagonist isn’t trying to escape from the city, but is a normal person who wakes up in a medieval world where everyone thinks he’s the new graveyard keeper. You have a talking skull that helps you with autospies, a talking donkey that delivers your corpses (and sometimes wants help in plotting a revolution), and townsfolk so self absorbed they are parodies of themselves.

This is a game where you can harvest extra meat from bodies before you bury them to sell at concession stands, where it breaks the fourth wall when you die. Hell, there’s even a way to create automation ala Satisfactory in this cozy game… by taking bodies you are supposed to be burying and instead turning them into zombies.

It’s a wild ride, and again, for less than $5, is worth at least a look. It’s a bit harder to get into than some games in the genre, but some might think the challenge is a positive, not a negative. If you click with it, you can lose dozens of hours to Graveyard Keeper, and I hope it’s someone’s new favorite obsession.

Enjoy Steam Sales, But Enjoy Them At Your Own Pace

I’ve done steam sales where I show up with money to blow after a job promotion or getting a new computer. At other times, a steam sale can feel like a casino blackjack dealer, tempting you to ante in with money you really shouldn’t be spending. Right now, as many people are strapped for cash and I have some personal responsibilities to save up for, this Summer Sale feels more like the latter. I don’t want to discourage anyone from taking advantage of getting some games they’ve wanted for months during a good opportunity by saying all this; instead, I just want to say that whatever you go into the steam sale looking for, check in with yourself first. What is it that you are looking for? Will the games you purchase be your new obsession and take away from your current ones, or are you saving them for the next on your list? Being mindful of why you buy can always help you spend your money on what you really want, instead of feeling regret later.

What are you planning to buy? Have you gotten games you regret or found a surprise new favorite? Feel free to let us know here or in our discord - our community always loves hearing why a game has captured someone’s attention or heart. With all that said, good sale hunting to all! Remember that life is short, so play the games you really want to play.