Gaming

hotline Miami, katana zero, osu.

Here you can find a bunch free software RPGs: https://libregamewiki.org/Role-playing_games

Also you can install MAME and download like 5000 arcade games from the 70, 80, 90, 2000.

Nuclear Throne. It's a fun Roguelike dungeon crawler. A run from beginning to "end" (last level before looping) can take 15min and I've spent 100s of hours playing over the years.There' are so many characters you can choose to play, each with its own unique special ability.

Omori, if you are into Motherlike games. More story based if that's your thing

The stalker series has some of the best gunplay of any low-end system game I've seen.

I know that you can run TES 4 Oblivion decently well on Linux with a Windows emulator (WINE). I had a few odd graphics glitches like a gigantic texture of a tree just completely taking over the sky. I guess it wanted to be some kind of Yggdrasil tree or something.

It ran well though, and on a early 2010-era laptop. I don't know about mod compatibility though.

Maybe a game like terraria? It's a native linux game and hella fun!

Or if you want a more chill game maybe something like Gris? It has a gold rating on ProtonDB so should work fine. Gives u the feels too which is a bonus.

Do you like ARPGs? Titan Quest is a Greek mythology themed Diablo II clone that has some nice improvements over D2. It's usually pretty cheap on Steam.

Not exactly text based, but the old sierra style games are still a blast to play. Leisure Suit Larry, Maniac Mansion, Thimbleweed Park. They sure don't need many resources to play.

While it may not exactly match up with the body of your message, I think this would fit the subject line rather well:

Dwarf Fortress

Brotato has very modest system requirements and kind has some elements of a micro arpg if you squint. I haven't tried vampire survivors on my low end system yet, but I'm hopeful it has similar system requirements as it has a similar sort game style.

Not sure if it’s your cup, but A Short Hike is a very relaxing and wholesome game

the EV games combine asteroids style flight with choose your own adventure text walls. I recommend Nova. You'll need to run it in WINE.

I've heard lots of good things about Chained Echoes, a recently released JRPG in the style of those older NES / SNES games. Might be up your alley. Runs natively on Linux afaik.

If you install ScummVM you can play most of the Lucasarts titles. All of these games are top tier (Monkey Island, day of the Tentacle etc) and you would enjoy!

Not an answer to your question but when you say " I find that it has battery issues trying to play anything fancy like Skyrim" do you mean that the battery drains while plugged in or that you are mainly playing while not plugged in and your battery life is really short.

If it is the former then you might just need to buy a higher wattage power adapter to sustain. The power draw.

Might be interested in Endless Sky? It's a 2d spaceship simulator/RPG. I haven't played it in a while but I only started encountering performance issues when my fleet was 40+ ships large and at that point I kinda get it

Baba Is You, Into The Breach, Ultima VII (with Exult)

classicube runs on everything, Minecraft-like written in c

Go nuts over on GOG!

So many great titles for cheap.

I quite like Mindustry, it's FOSS and on Android too, it is in most repositories/appstores

• Star Ocean First Departure (PPSSPP)
• Star Ocean Second Evolution (PPSSPP, Maybe even Yuzu?)
• Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth
• Stardew Valley
• Wargroove
• FTL: Faster Than Light
• Spiritfarer Farewell Edition

I recently played through every Deus Ex game on linux, first 2 are oibviously low end, and maybe Human Revolution , it came out in 2011. the original and Human revolution are pretty good if you like rpgs, Invisible war the second game is alright but pretty light on some elements that make those two great, cause it was made i think with thje original xbox in mind instead of pc.

caves of qud is quite good, its tile based roguelike.