Steam Autumn Sale 2023: best RPGs to grab at a discount

Somewhere between super hardcore action RPG and roguelike, Project Zomboid isn’t like all the other undead girls. The only thing that’s guaranteed in this game is that you’re going to die. When you are dead, your character turns into a zombie and stalks the world as you’re dropped in as a new character with new abilities and weaknesses. Perhaps you’re a mechanic who’s scared of blood, or you’re a thief who can’t stop coughing. No other game will make you think about the pointlessness of self-improvement as Project Zomboid when you’re killed after spending two in-game days learning how to hotwire a car. Project Zomboid is on sale for $13.39 – don’t let the Early Access tag put you off because it’s more feature-complete than most triple-A games. 

Smash some things, get stronger, and smash even harder things on the off-chance you might get +1 piercing. Now this is gaming at its most lab-tested. Diablo 4 isn’t the deepest of RPGs and it’s not one where choices matter, but you won’t care when your necromancer is capable of making every corpse on the battlefield explode in a cloud of claret. The Standard Edition of Diablo 4 is on sale now for $41.99.

Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t on sale so welcome to the next best thing. Divinity: Original Sin 2 ran so Baldur’s Gate 3 could sprint. Playable either solo or with three friends, Original Sin 2 lets you go deep into roleplaying, giving you each individual goals that can, and often will, compete with each other. And even when you’re not at odds, watch out for your friends accidentally setting the entire battlefield alight. Divinity: Original Sin 2 is on sale for $17.99. 

An open-world, tactical RPG where time management is as important as your strategies in battle, Wartales does exactly what the name suggests, using the mechanics to create deeply personal stories about your little gang of misfit mercenaries. There’s nothing else quite like it and you can grab Wartales in the Steam Autumn Sale for $26.24.

Not just one of the best RPGs on Steam, Disco Elysium is one of the best games ever made. Period. You play as a bedraggled cop who’s working a murder case while trying to battle his own demons and being judged by everyone you meet along the way. There’s no combat, but you can fail dice rolls based on your statistics and beliefs. But failing here is often even more fun than coasting through. How many other games let you smash into a wall while doing a John Woo dive and flipping off a hotel manager? Disco Elysium is on sale on Steam for $9.99.

People might have ragged on it at launch, but Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the best RPGs ever made. Great characters, an incredible world, and sound design that will puncture your eardrums. It even has good combat, which is rare for this genre of first-person open-world RPGs. Cyberpunk 2077 is $29.99 on Steam right now and it’s the best the game has ever been, complete with fast-paced vehicular combat and an “Overdrive” ray tracing setting for people with supercomputers tucked under their desks. 

There aren’t many games that make me well up, but Final Fantasy 7 can do it with its score alone. Some of the best music and characters in gaming reside here, and this remake is a great way to experience it all – even if the ending goes completely off the rails. This version comes complete with the Yuffie-focused DLC and you can grab it on Steam for $34.99. 

If there were a game award for style, Persona 5 Royal would take it home every year. God, it’s boring to talk about a game’s UI being good, but it is – it’s good. It’s slick and stylish and it swishes around as you move through menus, which you do a lot in this turn-based JRPG about breaking into people’s brains and forcing them to find their hearts. Persona 5 Royal is on sale on Steam now for $35.99.

Mass Effect is possibly the best trilogy gaming has ever seen, and this Legendary Edition – with upgraded graphics, controls, and all the DLC packs – is the best way to experience it fresh or return to it and visit your old space pals. Grab Mass Effect: Legendary Edition for $11.99 on Steam.

If you’re looking for something completely off the wall, consider playing Yakuza: Like a Dragon, which puts you in the shoes of a former Yakuza member and total airhead turned vagrant. In this contemporary twist on the JRPG formula, the protagonist imagines he’s playing Dragon Quest whenever he gets in a fight, which means you can summon lobsters and fully grown men who have a diaper fetish. Yep. Yakuza: Like a Dragon is in the Steam Autumn Sale for $11.99.

If stupid isn’t your bread and contemporary settings aren’t your jam, Kingdom Come: Deliverance plays it (mostly) straight-faced, casting you as a blacksmith’s son who’s caught in the middle of a war during medieval times. It’s Skyrim with the fantasy elements taken out and deadly and precise swordplay shoved in. Pick Kingdom Come: Deliverance up on Steam for $7.49.

Do I really need to tell you why The Witcher 3 is good? Does anyone even not own it at this point? Well, it’s on Steam right now for $9.99.