What are the best games to play on laptops and low-end PCs?

Whether you’re looking for low-end PC or laptop games, you’ve come to the right place. The games listed below will run smoothly on an old PC with the computing power of a potato, according to ExtremeTech’s staff.

Low-end or older computers shouldn’t prevent you from enjoying immersive gaming. If your hardware cannot handle today’s games, don’t be afraid to play games released a decade ago. Our selection includes a variety of genres and types of games, including several that are mod-friendly. There are even some titles that can be run with integrated graphics. In some cases, UIs seem clunky – layouts only make sense if you remember gamers in the era were often limited to 640×480 or 800×600 resolutions – but quality usually prevails. Even if your hardware is outdated or your skill level is low, come on in! In the water, there is nothing to worry about.

There are pangolins

You can crit your enemies’ pants when you have a 64-bit CPU. It doesn’t matter if your 64-bit processor can legally drink. It. It will run this game. Alpha owners do not require a GPU or more RAM.

Penguin is a deck-building Pachinko roguelike that might appeal to fans of Peggle. Every playthrough’s map is navigated by an adorable green goblin (peg + goblin = Penguin). A boss is in each of the three acts ofver between fandoms. Several hat tips and orb puns can be found throughout the entire game. Svoltorb is a portmanteau of “swole” and “Voltorb.” Last but not least is Bob-orb, named after the Mario character Bob-omb. Obelisks and Daggorbs should not be overlooked. Any game would benefit from Wall Chicken! Floor tiles, trash mobs, mini-bosses, bosses, a giant tree, a wall, a worse wall, and the worst Rubik’s cubes are all present.

Once you’ve beaten the game, you can replay it in Crucible mode. Players face increasingly steep penalties and debuffs as Crucible’s difficulty increases. Penguin won’t put a lot of strain on the PC. Because of its 8-bit graphics and chiptune soundtrack, this game can be played on an old or slow computer. There are no in-app purchases in Penguin.

They number in the billions.

Various snipers will be encountered as you battle endless hordes with multiple snipers, four GB of VRAM, and Intel HD3000 graphics. Support for DX9 is available.

It doesn’t seem like zombie apocalypses are improving anymore, does it? The zombie apocalypse is free of microtransactions! In this tower defense game inspired by zombies, a mysterious plague has ravaged society for several centuries. Why did this happen? As you play the game, you will understand what’s in the newspapers. There are three game modes: survival, campaign, and user-created challenges. There are also minigames for horde-defense, survival, and RTS in the campaign mode. A survival map remains unlocked after it has been unlocked.

Shooting fish in a barrel can be fun when the difficulty level is low. At the highest difficulty levels, it becomes such a one-sided roll stomping that it will make you laugh while you lose. Gaining knowledge will help you fall entirely off your base. Zombies ruin everything like nothing else. However, they approach relentlessly from all sides… there are billions of them. You can see underneath the terrain and foliage by clicking in the middle.

World of RIM

To build a new home on the rim, you only need an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of RAM, and 1GB of free disk space.

RimWorld is an enjoyable game that combines Dungeons & Dragons, RTS, and ant farming. Instead of becoming one of the “pawns,” the player maintains a group of them thriving on a hostile planet. A cooperative story-telling RPG, RimWorld lets you set your win conditions. Dwarf Fortress, Firefly, and Dune were used as inspirations to give an idea of the game’s tone. There are several hazards, including:

• An individual who raids pirate ships.
• A marauding alien.
• The horrors of the deep are insectile.
• A threat of starvation or death caused by elemental extremes.

The game begins with your crew crashing on a procedurally generated rimworld. We are approaching the end of the day. Make sure you are protected!

Modders can find various content, storylines, and quality of life mods on the Steam Workshop of RimWorld. A bunch of mods slows down Minecraft’s load time. I haven’t played for more than six hundred hours for that reason alone. The addictive nature of this game is similar to that of Civ.

There are two portals in The Portal 2: The Portals.

In Portal 2, a Core 2 Duo CPU is recommended, while in Portal 4, a Pentium 4 is recommended. In both games, 4 GB of memory and 1 GB of space are required.

Are potato games possible without including Portal? If you haven’t tried Portal games yet, you should. Solving these annoying puzzles requires thinking about portals. Experience deep betrayal, evade lasers, and jump through space holes. Portal 2 supports co-op as well. In addition to Cave Johnson, Tenzin and Jonah Jameson are voiced by the same deadpan genius.

Almost as fast as light

Slide rules are essential for saving the galaxy. This game has the lightest system requirements out of all of them. For this game, you’ll need a processor with a speed of 2GHz, 1GB of RAM, and 175MB of disk space. In contrast, FTL only requires graphics capable of 1280×720 and OGL 2.0, with 128MB of RAM.

How about spaceships, pixel art, and chiptunes? It might be a great idea to binge-play FTL next. Take your ship and crew on an adventure through a randomly generated galaxy filled with glory and bitter defeat in Faster Than Light’s compact, low-overhead “spaceship simulation roguelike.” With permadeath, you can always get a second chance.

Runescape the old-fashioned way

A 2GHz i3 or thereabouts will do the trick. Broadband or compatible mobile device is also required, with 4GB of RAM and 200 MB of disk space.

Build your character in this free-to-play MMORPG and step into a low-poly medieval wonderland. PVP is your thing? What about puzzles? How about parkour? There are many skills you can develop in Runescape.

Additionally, this game can be played in many different ways. The experience is similar to Second Life. Hunting, fishing, gathering, and cooking are all possible. For slayer quests, you can roam around as a murder hoboTM and gain XP. If you want to settle down, you can buy and furnish a house. You can level each stat to your liking – no formal classes exist. Would you like to become a mage? Are you an archer? Is he a paladin? The powers of your avatar can be shaped exactly the way you want.

Make a braid

A 1.4GHz processor, 200 MB of disk space, and a gigabyte or more memory are required to play Weave Your Way Through Time with Your Wits. This game requires DirectX 9. The program is compatible with Windows XP.

This dreamy 2D puzzle platformer tells the story of a protagonist who has become “unstuck” in time. Like their character, the player must navigate a painterly world where only certain things move with time. Time rewinding and timeline manipulation are central gameplay mechanics. It is impossible to die, and it is impossible to lose. The fun isn’t forced upon you by halting your progress until you get it right, unlike rogue-type games and grind-heavy open-world RPGs (cough, ARK, cough). It’s OK to play onward if you don’t understand something and return when you’re ready.

A toaster could run this game. If you want to try it before buying, you can also get a free demo on Steam.

Meat Boy, Super-Meat

With a CPU of 1.4GHz or faster, a gigabyte of RAM, and 300MB of storage space, you will reach new levels of rage. Windows XP is required; DX9 is needed.

There is a reason why Super Meat Boy has a cult following. Get through the impasse you’ve been swearing at for an hour when you nail that sweet wall jump. A gamepad is also supported, as well as tight and responsive keyboard and mouse controls.

Super Meat Boy Forever is a sequel, but it’s an auto-runner with mixed reviews. As far as mechanics and plot are concerned, SMBF is more like an expansion pack than a new game.

Angry Birds 3

Use a processor of 1.2GHz or more, 128MB of video RAM, and 1 gigabyte of RAM to challenge Smaug. Storage space of about 320MB is also required.

There is nothing chiller than Bejeweled. The Pomodoro break is a great way to wind down after a Pomodoro session. By swapping pairs, create a lineup of 3, 4, or more lustrous jewels. This central theme is explored in different game modes. With endless combos and cascades, Bejeweled works as a wingman for you. Timed and turn-based methods, such as “Butterflies,” are also available for those who like stress. A genuinely disgraceful amount of time has been spent making just one more swap, hoping to hear “EXTRAORDINARY.” Free of in-app purchases, kids can also play this game.

Creeper World 4

You can fight the Endless Flood of Goo with any dual-core 2GHz CPU (64-bit preferred), 3GB of RAM, and 2GB of storage.

Take control of an arsenal of weapons to battle a mysterious blue goo that is hellbent on destroying the world. In Creeper World 4, 3D is used for the first time. Players remain engaged without being crushed by sudden difficulty spikes thanks to the steady challenge level. The best part is that you can try out a free demo on Steam before you decide to buy.

TD 6 of Bloons

Balloon-based enemies are powered by: A 64-bit 1.5GHz CPU, Windows 10, 4GB of RAM, and a graphics card that supports OpenGL 2.0.

Bloons TD 6 was originally a mobile game, and its roots are easy to see in the game. I love this monkey-themed tower defense game. Defend your defenses against an endless stream of increasingly troublesome balloons (“bloons”). Your task is to pop, zap, scorch, glue, and pop your way through the dozens of levels of Monkey Towers. (Are monkeys and balloons enemies in the wild?) The game’s bright, cartoony facade conceals a surprising level of complexity. There are varying degrees of difficulty, from nearly AFK to completely bonkers.

Hotline Miami 1 and 2

You can kill the Russian mob with a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 1GB of RAM, and a DX9 GPU.

The Hotline Miami games received rave reviews for their unique settings, gameplay, and storylines. In the first game, you play a nameless character called “Jacket” by the community. This game takes place in a gritty, distinctive version of Miami in 1989. What’s your mission? Kill the Russian mob in the area. Providing additional context around the story, Hotline Miami 2 deals with the aftermath of your actions. Jacket’s fate after your rampage is also answered by jumping ahead to 1991.

Doom of brutality

The power of any dual-core CPU, 2GB of RAM, and GPU with 256MB VRAM will allow you to liquefy demons, slay hellspawn, and reduce your enemies to a slurry.

Brutal Doom is quite different from the other games on this list. WAD files can only be run with the original Doom / Doom 2, their various shareware versions, or with your free WAD files. There are links to free maps you can play with the mod if you do not have any official WADs.

A modern FPS engine would create Brutal Doom if Doom were made today. Besides the pistol you start with, you can also choose from other weapons. Guns now have loading mechanics. Some enemy weapons were previously unavailable, including alternate weapons for the Plasma Rifle and BFG 9000. Jumping, mouselook, and aiming are all included in the game. Fast-rolling motion is included, along with additional difficulty levels.

This is great, in a nutshell.

We are among each other.

The Intel P4 2GHz, Nvidia GeForce 510, and 250MB of hard drive space are used to teach you how to distrust your friends and family.

A group of 4-10 players competes against one another in Among Us. The remaining players are Crewmates, while 1-3 players are Imposters. Imposters must be discovered by completing a defined list of tasks. During this time, the Imposters pretend to be Crewmates so that they can sabotage the ship without being detected. The next time your family manages to remain zen through four hours of Monopoly, challenge them to this game.

Bridge made of polymers.

Pentium 4 2GHz, 2GB of RAM, GeForce 7200 GS, and 150MB of storage are required for your Inner Civil Engineer.

Poly Bridge is a great puzzle game in the tradition of now-ancient titles such as The Incredible Machine. In this case, you must design bridges that can carry a certain number of vehicles while staying within budget. The game adds various hazards and the need to deploy construction techniques that I’m pretty sure the Army Corps of Engineers disapproves of once you reach the later levels (there are more than 60).

The game has a sequel (which I haven’t played yet). Reviews of it are a bit less enthusiastic than for Poly Bridge, with one stating it felt more like an expansion pack. On Steam, however, it has excellent ratings.

Elysium Disco

At an Adequate Frame Rate: Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 20GB HDD space, 512MB graphics card.

A drug-abusing, alcoholic amnesiac detective is hired to solve a murder mystery in Disco Elysium. There’s so much of this happening in games that you’d think some agency would ensure the names of would-be detectives are still remembered.

You will remember things about yourself as you work to solve a murder. A system of traits will also allow you to flesh out your character. A total of 24 skills are available in the game, all of which affect how the game develops. You may argue with yourself over the right course of action if you choose the wrong one (or the right one). Disco Elysium won Game of the Year from several publications and will run on 14-year-old hardware.

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden

Find Scrap On Core i5-760, Phenom II X4 965, GTX 580 / AMD Radeon 7870 HD, 6GB RAM, 8GB HDD.

Based on the tabletop Mutant Year Zero game, this is an XCOM-meets-Fallout title. Modern XCOM games will have most gameplay elements familiar to you. The gameplay of Mutant Year Zero combines some light RPG elements with XCOM’s gameplay.

You’ll have to do some Googling to figure out which buttons correspond to which keyboard functions. There are many similarities between the game’s plot and Fallout’s post-apocalyptic setting. Despite not being as deep as those sprawling titles, the game still feels like a spiritual sequel. In my opinion, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is an “AA” game. Although reasonably polished with solid ambitions, you won’t mistake it for a 400-hour dungeon crawler.

The classic version of World of Warcraft

Have you ever wondered if your computer is old enough to run for office? Visit Beautiful Molten Core if you do. Don’t you? Everything is OK with you. It must be an Intel HD Graphics 4000, AMD Phenom X3 8750, 8800 GT, or Radeon HD 4850. Unofficially, Classic probably runs on less. The frame rate on my 2015 Razer Blade Stealth with Intel 520 HD graphics was high enough to suggest some headroom in those already low-end graphics options. There is no mention of a DX11 GPU requirement for WoW Classic.

It wasn’t fantastical when an MMO primarily took place outside and required large groups of people to assemble (at least not for those reasons). WoW, Classic is everything you loved (or hated) about the original World of Warcraft. To be clear, I’m a biased fan, but just because I’m biased doesn’t mean I’m wrong.

It’s World of Warcraft: Classic, which is to say, #NoChanges (except for a few of the changes, but there aren’t that many). There’s a lot to love in the original version of Blizzard’s MMO classic, especially if you like games of this era in the first place. It may use the modern WoW engine, but Blizzard re-used the original WoW’s textures and assets. The result is a game that runs fine on low-end PCs, including Carrizo-powered AMD ultrabooks and Intel integrated graphics.

Untitled Goose Game

Chase People Like an A****** With Core 2 Duo 8500, Nvidia GeForce 510, 4GB of RAM, 820MB storage. The 510 is a bottom-end card from 2011, which means midrange or high-end cards 2011. As long as your GPU can handle DX11, you’re fine.

Untitled Goose Game challenges you to find the Canadian goose inside yourself. Yup. Don’t let the cute fool you. This is a game about being an unrepentant asshole. Since the joys of honking and flapping don’t require a high-end PC, Untitled Goose Game is another game that’ll run on just about any toaster you can drag out of storage.

Honk. Flap. Troll people. Get into places you shouldn’t. Steal stuff, trick humans, annoy pets, wash, rinse, and repeat with great relish. It’s a brilliant game for people turned off by “typical” titles looking for a silly, funny, low-key experience.

Arkham City

Soar Through Gotham On Any dual-core CPU at 2.4GHz or more, Nvidia 8800 GT or AMD Radeon 3850, 2GB of RAM. It supports Windows XP.

I’m sticking with Arkham City in this update rather than moving on to one of the newer titles. Arkham Asylum is, to be sure, still an excellent game, and it runs on an even lower-spec system than Arkham City. But between the two, Arkham City is the better overall Batman game. Batman’s general bag of tricks gets polished, and AC offers you playing time as characters like Catwoman, with her distinct moveset and animation style.

Arkham City feels as though it genuinely captures what it would be like to “be” Batman. The game also has a clever twist explaining why you face a never-ending army of thugs. If you want to find out if you’re going to like the Arkham game series, I’d say this is the best one to try. If you need something even gentler on system specs, try the original Arkham Asylum.

Into the Breach

Calculate Strategic Micro-combat Using: Any 1.7GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, 300MB storage, and an Intel HD 3000 IGP.

Into the Breach is a turn-based strategy game on small maps of 8×8 grids. From the makers of FTL, Into the Breach challenges you to beat back waves of attackers in turn-based combat. There are no XCOM-style probability fields to deal with here — you get complete transparency into what actions will be taken by your characters and the enemies you engage with.

Into the Breach launched in 2018, but it’s still winning recognition for its unique approach to turn-based combat today. Worth checking out if you’re looking for some turn-based combat options.

West of Loathing

Exploring spitoons and snakes requires a GeForce 7200 GS, a Core 2 Duo 7400, 2GB of RAM, and 4GB of storage. A Windows XP SP2+ operating system is required.

There is a “graphic” adventure game called West of Loathing that could be run on a Lite-Brite. Under its black-and-white stick-based graphics lies a classic adventure game with RPG elements, killer clowns, demon cows, snake oil salespeople, and spittoons to dig through. Laugh-out-loud funny dialog and irreverent humor make this a classic adventure game.

If you’re looking for a game that runs on anything and offers genuine laughs out loud, West of Loathing is your best pick.

STARTED VALLEY

Do you want to farm crops and help people at the same time? Please bring your pickaxe and a CPU that runs at 2GHz or higher, a GPU with at least 256MB of RAM and SM 3.0 support, 2GB of RAM, and 500MB of storage.

The Harvest Moon video game series heavily influenced the concept of Stardew Valley. Discover Pelican Town, make friends, fall in love, and restore your grandfather’s farm in a gentle, open-ended title that teases your curiosity instead of yanking you off on frantic quests.

In Patch 1.5, Stardew Valley received a second major content update. New villagers, NPCs, and quests await you on the new island. A local split-screen co-op mode and bug fixes are included in the update. A forthcoming update will add mod support to ConcernedApe’s vanilla source code via official cooperation with SMAPI’s creator.

Cuphead

If You Have: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+, Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT / AMD Radeon HD 3870, 20GB HDD space, you can visit the Era of Classic Animation (and try not to die). DirectX 9.0c support is required, but Windows 7 is still needed.

The visual aesthetic of Cuphead is unique – it mimics the “rubber hose” animation style of the early 1930s. Despite the frantic 2D platforming, you won’t need much power from your PC to beat it.

For those who like its animation and are seeking “Nintendo hard” fun, Cuphead is a great game.

Minecraft

The Skeledoot only requires a Core i3 3210 or A8-7600, Intel HD 4000, or AMD’s Radeon R5 family. You’ll also need 4GB of RAM, 180MB-1GB of hard drive space, and a monitor with a resolution of 1024×768. Long draw distances can challenge performance.

The open-world sandbox of Minecraft is engaging and endearing. Many attempts have been made to create functional (if simple) CPUs using Minecraft’s Redstone mechanic. In Minecraft, a game easily accessible to mortals, we will find a rich crafting system, dangerous mobs, and vast worlds. The game has also become a bastion of journalistic freedom worldwide, countering disinformation and censorship. To bypass Internet censorship measures such as the Great Firewall of China Golden Shield, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) uses the International Library of Alexandria within Minecraft.

Stacking 8-bit voxels on top of each other has inspired millions of people to spend billions of hours playing this game. There is a lot of creativity and expression hidden behind its simple graphics. Though Minecraft is an incredible crafting and building game, its ending is enough to turn even jaded veteran gamers away. It’s astonishingly evocative — if you know, you know.

Orcs Must Die, Orcs Must Die 2

The plot needs chickens. Order Rift defense requires a dual-core CPU with a clock speed of at least 2GHz, a GeForce 6800 or ATI Radeon x1950 with 256GB of RAM, 2GB of RAM, and at least 256MB of VRAM. It is compatible with Windows XP.

For mindless slaughter, we recommend Orcs Must Die, and Orcs Must Die 2. An army of marauding orcs is on the way. Against waves of orcs, trolls, ogres, and other evil creatures in this hybrid tower-defense/action game, you must burn, blast, freeze, smash, dissolve, shoot, and generally wreak mayhem. It is easy to learn but sometimes difficult to master.

OMD’s fun methods can be used to end monsters in style. How about traps that launch creatures through the air with spring-loaded springs? I agree with you. Which is better, acid sprayers or arrow traps? Yes, that’s correct. How would you feel if you could transform into a massive ogre, hurl fireballs, or transform orcs into chickens? Check.

Darkest Dungeon

Experience ancestors’ unimaginable horrors unleashed by 2GB of RAM, a GPU capable of OpenGL 3.2, and 2GB of storage. 1080p resolution on a 16:9 display is recommended.

There’s plenty of Lovecraftian horror in The Darkest Dungeon (hold the racism) and a simulation of mental health management. Throughout the stygian abyss, your heroes will be swarmed by the eons-damned creatures. The abyss will stare back at you when you least expect it…

You will enjoy Darkest Dungeon if you enjoy XCOM mods like “Longest War.”. No matter how much you master the game, there’s always a DLC or difficulty level to challenge you.

We have compiled a list of the best low-end PC games. I would appreciate it if you could share any with me. What older titles do you find yourself returning to despite more recent releases? What older titles still have a special place on your hard drive?