Steam Deck

May I throw „Cassette Beasts“ in the mix? Is it premium as in the seventh installment of a series that lost its soul with the second release? As in costs 60+€ and is a collectathon with no heart? No. Not premium.

But it has

• tons of replayability. Gotta catch them all.
• an intriguing story that is surprisingly mature for a pokeyman game
• fan-tas-tic soundtrack

Also lots of stuff to find and discover. Also also does not break the bank. Also also also does not eat the SteamDecks battery for lunch, because it’s only 2D. And finally, for us old people, the combat is turn based. You will not fail because of lacking reflexes.

If you choose one of the three, note that:

• Cyberpunk is still pretty flawed and has issues and you'll get less battery life though it's a lot better now than at launch and certainly playable
• FFVII Remake is only half of the original FFVII, so you'll end on a cliff hanger and be waiting for the continuation
• No Man's Sky started with tons of issues but is now really content filled and open and polished and at this point pretty well liked

Based on those, I would lean towards No Man's Sky since it has the least amount of concerns (in my opinion).

But if you just want a good story, NieR: Replicant and NieR: Automata are amazing and worth checking out (we have a Lemmy at !nier@lemm.ee) and I'd just really recommend it for the plot alone. Both are on sale and run pretty well, and Replicant is the first game while Automata is the sequel, and opinions heavily vary on which is better on story since they are both fantastic but Automata is more polished. They're also both standalone, so you can play in either order, though I'll always recommend Replicant first. They aren't perfect games but will nail the music and plot, as those are the things most highly praised about them. They're also very depressing!

Rain World isn't AAA but it certainly feels premium and I'd recommend it if you want a really beautiful and interesting open world, but be warned that it's incredibly hard. It's not a game for everybody but it's really amazing and I think it's worth mentioning because the world is huge. Great music there too!

You can’t go wrong with picking up Hades, game feels like it was made for a handheld, however it’s not really a premium AAA game like the ones you listed.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the LOTR Shadow games (Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War). Both play great, have a open world, tons of content, and are usually on sale for <$10

What about a Turn-based RPG like Yakuza Like A Dragon? It's open world, plays great on the deck, has amazing world building/ambience to it and it's incredibly replayable. You can frequently find it on sale (or get a cheap key from G2A) and its sequel is coming out soon.

For me, it feels like an old school RPG with modern quality of life improvements and plenty of character.

FF remake is one I have recently finished and it was excellent though as others have said it's only half of the original.

Control is excellent

Hades is one of the first games I played on my deck, I put around 50 hours into it.

Shadow of Mordor and shadow of war were both tremendous fun and have lots of offer for the nemesis system.

A plauge tale innocence was fun I picked up the second one but haven't had a chance to start it and I want to get into the story like the first.

Horizon zero dawn really sucked me into the story and I found it hard to put down, often I would stay up much later than is reasonable after putting the kids down.

God of war 2018 was also great and I enjoyed playing it very much. It made me setup emudeck and play gow1 and 2.

Tomb Raider and it's sequels were fun though I didn't play those on the deck.

The rub is the shorter gaming sessions, which as a parent of young children I know all too well. Complex games lose their thread if you're away from them too long and since it sounds like you want a pick up and play/ put down for awhile relationship with it, I probably would err toward No Man Sky of the bunch. Another poster suggested Hades which is an even better choice if you aren't married to first person games.

If you liked Skyrim and are looking for a similar fix, don't sleep on the Fallout series, especially New Vegas.

Thanks all for the insightful recommendations.

I’ve decided to hold on Cyberpunk for now and definitely pick up Control (thanks @trankillity)!

Probably will also pick up GTA5 just to drive around in and putz around.

I have Skyrim as an RPG that I only played a few hours on, so probably skipping on VII remake for now.

And last, probably picking up No Mans Sky.

Cheers!