I love an RPG, man, and going through my Steam Library, I realized a ton of my all-timers are on sale for pennies. Way more than 20, but I don’t make a modest-yet-comfortable middle class income for world beater advice like “You should buy The Witcher 3 on sale.”
Ditto for stuff like Mass Effect: Legendary Edition—after our initial shock and awe, it seems to perennially be on sale for $6 now—or Disco Elysium, which is a no-brainer at $10. You don’t need me to tell you that Fallout: New Vegas is a steal at 99 cents, although that is a delicious price for it.
So, instead, here are some less obvious RPG picks for your purchasing pleasure, all on sale for under $10 US—or a corresponding amount of British pounds I looked up on SteamDB at the very end of this process.
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Section: $5 or less
- Price:
$4.99$1.64 [£1.31] - Developer: Arkane
- Released: 2002
- PC Gamer review score: 85%
Arkane’s first-developed and least-played game. An old school, sprawling dungeon crawl in a subterranean world that channels Ultima: Underworld and Thief. Pro tips: Don’t play without the Arx Libertatis source port, and don’t be afraid to cheat and look up guides—this game can be as obtuse and unfair as it is compelling.
- Price:
$6.99$1.74 [£1.49] - Developer: Ion Storm Austin
- Released: 2004
- PC Gamer review score: 92%
Deus Ex’s much-despised, increasingly-reappraised sequel. Some smart, old-school sci-fi—cyberpunk, but not self-consciously cyberpunk if you take my meaning—with unfortunate level design and mechanical compromises on behalf of the cutting-edge Xbox home console.
- Price:
$9.99$2.49 [£1.07] - Developer: Arkane
- Released: 2006
- PC Gamer review score: 88%
Arkane’s second-developed and second-least played game. Feels like a fantasy version of Jedi Academy, with magic and swords instead of The Force and lightsabers. Boasts the most amazing quick melee in all of gaming, contributing to an earned reputation as one of the greatest slapstick games ever made.
- Price:
$5.99$3.89 [£3.24] - Developer: Troika
- Released: 2001
- PC Gamer review score: 90%
Bizzarro Fallout 2—some of the core developers of Fallout 1 founded their own company and made a one-of-a-kind RPG. A Forgotten Realms fantasy world in its own Victorian age, magic and technology clash politically and metaphysically. Undeniably worse combat than Fallout, but lets you speak with dead people, lead a squad of half-ogres, and pickpocket anyone in a supremely reactive world with unimpeachable vibes.
- Price:
$19.99$2.99 [£2.66] - Developer: Owlcat
- Released: 2018
- PC Gamer review score: 69%
The first outing from the sicko CRPG maestros at Owlcat. Like their other two games thus far, we reviewed its borked launch version somewhat poorly, but years of patches and support have polished it into something truly special. You should try the next game on this list first, though.
Section: Still single digit, baby ($6-$8)
- Price:
$19.99$5.99 [£5.39] - Developer: Owlcat
- Released: 2021
- PC Gamer review score: 76%
My personal 2021 GOTY and an all-timer CRPG. A 100+ hour quintuple-decker sandwich of a game with mind-boggling reactivity and branching paths, great companions, plus Too Many Subclasses (complimentary). Shout out to the eviler-than-the-bad-guys “Swarm That Walks” story path. Technically $6 right now, but you want the $15 version with all the DLC and my favorite subclass: The griffon-riding “Sable Company Marine” Ranger. Tied for best individual value on the list, imo.
- Price:
$29.99$5.99 [£5.29] - Developer: Warhorse
- Released: 2018
- PC Gamer review score: 84%
The first one, the predecessor to our 2025 Game of the Year. Are you a bad enough dude to find the jerk noble who killed yer da? Smaller in scope, but also an order of magnitude cheaper and easier to run than KCD2, with a first draft of everything that makes the sequel so special.
- Price:
$39.99$5.99 [£4.49] - Developer: Larian
- Released: 2014
- PC Gamer review score: 87%
Not exactly niche, but much more of an odd duck than its sequel. Incredible turn-based combat, character building, music, and visuals, but tough to get your arms around thanks to a lack of truly worthwhile respec and a complex skill system. Even the best-planned first playthrough builds are liable to fall prey to a five-hour mark restart and reroll. You cannot date your companions, as they hadn’t yet discovered the technology in Belgium.
- Price:
$17.99$7.19 [£6.70] - Developer: BioWare/Beamdog
- Released: 2002 (original), 2018 (EE)
- PC Gamer review score: 95% (original release)
A red-headed stepchild of a BioWare game with a so-so main campaign and killer expansion stories (included in the EE package). Boasts an all-timer modding community that has produced everything from mini-MMOs that operate to this day, to multiple mad lads’ outsider art, 100-hour RPG campaigns. Swordflight, Aielund, the Alazander modules, and the Blackguard Trilogy are some standouts. My other top dollar-for-value pick.
- Price:
$10.99$7.14 [£6.03] - Developer: Jozef Pavelka, Vlado Ganaj, and Tutto Passa
- Released: 2024
- PC Gamer review score: N/A
There’s something rotten in the state of Hungary, and you’re the drunk, washed-up knight who’s going to do something about it. Plays like an old school, stripped-down Dragon Quest from the NES or SNES, but tells a grounded, mud-and-chainmail medieval yarn that takes a dive into the uncanny and supernatural.
- Price:
$29.99$7.49 [£6.24] - Developer: Obsidian
- Released: 2016
- PC Gamer review score: 75%
About as obscure as Obsidian games get. The dark lord has already conquered the world, and you’re one of his dread plenipotentiaries sent to discipline a restive province. What do personal ethics look like in a world where the best case scenario is still a dark shade of gray?
- Price:
$9.99$7.99 [£6.80] - Developer: Cosmo D
- Released: 2022
- PC Gamer review score: N/A
You are a secret agent disguised as a pizza guy, sent to exfiltrate a colleague from a potentially hostile nightclub. A social, talky, nonviolent RPG with a one-of-a-kind surreal vibe and sense of humor. It is criminal that this game only has 500 Steam reviews (Overwhelmingly Positive) at the time of writing. Note: Short, but very replayable.
- Price:
$14.99$7.49 [£6.39] - Developer: High North Studios
- Released: 2024
- PC Gamer review score: 89%
A criminally, absurdly good, party-based CRPG that looks like an Ultima but plays like a turn-based Baldur’s Gate. Gives you a keyhole view of an interesting and bespoke fantasy setting full of memorable characters before turning the Cthulhu dial to 11 and sending everything to heck. The ending left me literally speechless.
- Price:
$9.99$7.99 [£6.80] - Developer: Troika
- Released: 2003
- PC Gamer review score: 79%
The second of the Troika trilogy (Arcanum, ToEE, Bloodlines). One of surprisingly few videogame adaptations of an OG Gygax tabletop module, it features a dizzyingly exact adaptation of v3.5 D&D (read: lots of feats, lots of numbers). Has stunning pre-rendered environments, a soundtrack with no right to be this good, and one of the most tabletop-authentic digital D&D experiences out there.
Section: Basically 10 bucks
- Price:
$19.99$9.99 [£7.49] - Developer: Obsidian
- Released: 2022
- PC Gamer review score: 88%
Perhaps the most achingly sad game Obsidian has ever made. The end of the second act destroyed me, while the end of the third lovingly glued me back together. A detective game with no right answers, so the act of accusing a suspect and condemning them to death feels like it stains your soul.
- Price:
$39.99$9.99 [£8.74] - Developer: Obsidian
- Released: 2015
- PC Gamer review score: 92%
An all-timer CRPG with underrated storytelling chops, killer classes, and the surprise 10-year anniversary addition of a toggleable turn-based mode. The two Pillars of Eternity and Pathfinder: WotR are maybe the highest skill ceiling, deepest CRPGs that have been made—I’ve been coming back to Pillars 1 for 10 years, and I’d classify my skill level as “intermediate.”
- Price:
$39.99$9.99 [£7.49] - Developer: Obsidian
- Released: 2018
- PC Gamer review score: 88%
PoE’s slightly messier, but prettier, more open-ended and ambitious sequel. One of the hands-down most gorgeous games I’ve ever played, the pinnacle of pre-rendered environment art. The addition of a nonlinear overworld plus sub- and multi-classes muddle PoE1’s razor-margin balance in favor of variety and possibility—a change I think was well-worth it. The storytelling chops? You best believe they’re underrated.
- Price:
$19.99$9.99 [£7.99] - Developer: Obsidian
- Released: 2010
- PC Gamer review score: 81%
Obsidian’s spy RPG, whose goofiness belies an astoundingly reactive and malleable story. A Global War on Terror caper that, against all odds, has aged like the sort of fine port a cadet branch Hapsburg who owns a Formula One team might drink. Alpha Protocol is smarter than Zero Dark Thirty, and I’m not even a little bit kidding. Protagonist Michael Thorton’s “Suave” persona is the most canceled man who ever lived, the bane of Human Resources departments the world over.
- Price:
$19.99$9.99 [£7.74] - Developer: Lovely Hellplace
- Released: 2024
- PC Gamer review score: 73%
Mini-Morrowind, with some Philip K. Dick, Harlan Ellison sci-fi storytelling that knocked the wind out of me. Quite the looker, too: Its chunky PS1, magitech-medieval society clings to the tiny asteroids above a red star. The combat is serviceable, the exploration fantastic, and the atmosphere unparalleled.
- Price:
$19.99$9.99 [£7.49] - Developer: Troika
- Released: 2004
- PC Gamer review score: 77%
One of my very favorite games. Plays like a proto-New Vegas where you’re one of those goth ravers from the beginning of The Matrix, but turned into a vampire. Cool-as-hell neo-noir that doesn’t take itself too at all seriously, with an all-timer soundtrack by Rik Schaffer.
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