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

Play your role with the best RPGs in the current Steam Sale
Steam Autumn Sale 2023: best RPGs to grab at a discount
Steam Autumn Sale 2023: best RPGs to grab at a discount /

It’s 2023 and the Steam Autumn Sale is here for your wallets, purses, pockets, and bank accounts. Thousands of games are discounted across Valve’s storefront – we already rounded up the best strategy games in the Steam sale – and we’re here to help you wade through the mire.

Here are the best RPGs you can pick up in the Steam Autumn Sale right now.

Project Zomboid

A survivor standds in front of a store, barricaded off with parked cars, and there are dozens of dead zombies on the ground on the other side in Project Zomboid.
The Indie Stone

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. 

Diablo 4

Diablo 4 Lilith key art showing Lilith
Blizzard Entertainment

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.

Divinity: Original Sin 2

Larian Studios

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

Wartales

Wartales keyart showing the title and medieval warriors.
Shiro Games

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.

Disco Elysium -- The Final Cut

A shootout on the gritty streets of Disco Elysium.
ZA/UM

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.

Cyberpunk 2077

Keanu Reeves in Cyberpunk 2077.
CD Projekt Red

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. 

Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Intergrade

Square Enix

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

Persona 5 Royal

Persona 5 Royal key art.
Atlus

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: Legendary Edition

Mass Effect key art showing several characters.
EA

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.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Sega

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.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Warhorse Studios

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.

The Witcher 3

CD Projekt Red

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


Published
Kirk McKeand
KIRK MCKEAND

Kirk McKeand is the Content Director for GLHF.  A games media writer and editor from Lincoln, UK, he won a Games Media Award in 2014 in the Rising Star category. He has also been nominated for two Features Writer awards. He was also recognized in MCV's 30 Under 30 list in 2014. His favorite games are The Witcher 3, The Last of Us Part 2, Dishonored 2, Deus Ex, Bloodborne, Suikoden 2, and Final Fantasy 7.  You can buy Kirk McKeand's book, The History of the Stealth Game, in most bookstores in the US and UK.  With a foreword written by Arkane's Harvey Smith, The History of the Stealth Game dives deep into the shadows of game development, uncovering the surprising stories behind some of the industry's most formative video games.  He has written for IGN, Playboy, Vice, Eurogamer, Edge, Official PlayStation Magazine, Games Master, Official Xbox Magazine, USA Today's ForTheWin, Digital Spy, The Telegraph, International Business Times, and more.  Kirk was previously the Editor-in-Chief at TheGamer and Deputy Editor at VG247. These days he works as the Content Director for GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage, serving media partners across the globe.  You can check out Kirk McKeand's MuckRack profile for more.  Email: kirk.mckeand@glhf.gg