The best laptop games: top 10 video games for your low-spec PC
This list of laptop games won’t melt your computer and most of them are fairly cheap to pick up on Steam, GOG, or another digital storefront.
If you’re looking for games for laptops, you’ve come to the right place. Not everyone is lucky enough to have a PC that could power a passenger jet, so we’ve put together a list of some lovely laptop games that won’t melt your computer. They might still melt your brain, but that’s on you.
Almost any PC will play these games, and most of them are fairly cheap to pick up on Steam, GOG, or another digital storefront. You might even survive the Netflix price hike now.
Whether you’re new to gaming or you’re a hardened pro, these are some of the best PC games around. Looks can be deceiving, you know.
Don’t Starve
Minimum requirements:
• Memory: 4 GB
• GPU: AMD Radeon HD 5450
• CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1.70GHz
• File Size: 500 MB
Survive in a Tim Burton-esque paper world where everything is trying to kill you and nothing makes sense. The world of Don’t Starve is a proper ecosystem and you’re waaaay at the bottom of the food chain. Build a base, craft survival tools, and see how long you can last. Whenever you think you’re getting comfortable, you’re sure to find a new way to die. Once death inevitably comes, you have to start again from scratch, but this time you’ll be armed with more knowledge, ready to brave this alien, incomprehensible landscape once more.
Play it now:
• Steam
• GOG
Minecraft
Minimum requirements:
• Memory: 2 GB
• GPU: Intel HD 4000
• CPU: Intel Core i3-3210
• File Size: 1 GB
The game that is all games. Build a pub with your friends and skull some pints. Create an intricate mining operation to extract ore from the earth. Craft powerful weapons and travel through portals to fight interdimensional threats. Build a massive castle protected by traps. Take part in fun minigames. The only limit to your fun in Minecraft is your own imagination, as long as what you imagine is made entirely of blocks.
Play it now:
Stardew Valley
Minimum requirements:
• Memory: 2 GB
• GPU: Intel HD 3000
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
• File Size: 500 MB
Become a master fisherman, chat up the locals, and grow crops in this lovely little farm life sim. Start with a rundown farmstead and turn it into a capitalist nightmare. Or don’t. There are plenty of ways to enjoy Stardew Valley outside of clearing away weeds and planting vegetables. Perhaps you’ll become a monster hunter and spend most of your time down in the mines. Or maybe you’ll just be a massive flirt and try to marry the townsfolk.
Play it now:
• Steam
• GOG
Slay the Spire
Minimum requirements:
• Memory: 4 GB
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 8300 GS
• CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.00GHz
• File Size: 1 GB
You don’t like card games? Don’t worry about it – Slay the Spire will sap dozens of hours of your time anyway. Simple on the surface, this is a game that reveals its complexity in layers, dishing out new cards and playstyles at a rate that keeps you pressing start for just one more turn. Before you know it, you’re divorced.
Play it now:
• Steam
• GOG
Into the Breach
Minimum requirements:
• Memory: 1 GB
• GPU: Intel HD 3000
• CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1.70GHz
• File Size: 400 MB
If you couldn’t get past the fact that Slay the Spire is a card game, how about a strategy game with massive mechs and killer kaiju instead? Taking turns on a grid, think of Into the Breach as a bit like chess, if chess let you punch giant ants through mountains. If that’s not appealing to you, consider checking your pulse to make sure you’re still alive.
Play it now:
• Steam
• GOG
Disco Elysium
Minimum requirements:
• Memory: 2 GB
• GPU: AMD Radeon HD 5450
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo Q6867
• File Size: 20 GB
Where most RPGs want you to fight and defeat a god, Disco Elysium puts you in the shoes (once you find them) of a deadbeat cop who’s spiralling into the abyss. Originally banned in Australia for its portrayal of drug use, this isn’t a game that does stuff just for shock value. It has something to say about addiction, the human condition, getting older, and every flavour of political slant under the sun. The writing in it is beautiful.
Play it now:
• Steam
• GOG
Papers, Please
Minimum requirements:
• Memory: 2 GB
• GPU: ATI FireGL T2-128
• CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1.50GHz
• File Size: 100 MB
Another game with something to say. Papers, Please has you play as a border agent for a fictional Eastern Bloc country, stamping papers or refusing entry. You’re paid like crap, your family is starving, and everyone who comes to the border has some kind of personal reason for wanting to cross. How do you balance your own needs against your conscience?
Play it now:
• Steam
• GOG
Hotline Miami
Minimum requirements:
• Memory: 512 MB
• GPU: ATI FireGL T2-128
• CPU: Intel Atom Z515
• File Size: 250 MB
The sequel to this got banned in Australia, but the original is a superior game anyway. Hyper violent, super stylish, and darker than a pint of Guinness, Hotline Miami sees you pull off a range of brutal gangland killings. Every bullet kills, every swing is fatal. When the dust settles, you’re forced to walk back through the carnage you created so you can think about what you’ve done.
Play it now:
• Steam
• GOG
Prison Architect
Minimum requirements:
• Memory: 4 GB
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4600
• File Size: 300 MB
The prison system in America is big business and you’re a cog in the machine. Build your prisons to maximise profit, look after the needs of your inmates, and quell any uprisings. Do you want to solve institutional issues that exist in real life, or do you want to make that paper? It’s your call.
Play it now:
• Steam
• GOG
Moonlighter
Minimum requirements:
• Memory: 4 GB
• GPU: ATI Radeon HD 5770
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9705
• File Size: 4 GB
On the surface, Moonlighter is a simple dungeon crawler – head into ancient ruins, fight monsters, and escape with the loot. But what happens outside of the dungeon is arguably more important here. You see, you’re a shopkeeper who specialises in rare artefacts. When you’re not delving deep, you’re selling your spoils. Watch your customer reactions to figure out how to price each monster component and watch your profits soar.
Play it now:
• Steam
— Written by Kirk McKeand on behalf of GLHF.
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