Good games for bad laptops - my laptop is a piece of shit

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Door Kickers 1 and 2 - Top-down tactical game where you control a group of operators (SWAT for 1, spec-ops for 2) and create plans to complete an objective.

Thief: The Dark Project and Thief II: The Metal Age - First-person stealth games where you go around levels and steal shit. Considered the best stealth games by many. Has a ton of fan missions made by the community.

Deus Ex - First-person RPG and redpill simulator. Deals with subjects like terrorism and class division. Focuses mostly on stealth.

Half-Life 1 - Valve's claim to fame. For some reason, my laptop's performance hates the flashlight in the Goldsrc engine. I use Xash3D instead, an alternative engine to Goldsrc mostly known for being able to run on mobile devices.

F.E.A.R. and the Extraction Point expansion (avoid Perseus Mandate) - First-person action "horror" game where you are the protagonist in a John Woo movie. Horror is eh, but most people play it for the gunplay and movement. Extraction Point is basically an upgrade.

Trackmania - Racing game where you complete tracks as fast and as perfect as possible. Somehow manages to run on toasters while still looking pretty.

Moonlighter - A mix of a Zelda-esque roguelike and a merchant sim. You go through dungeons and gather items to sell at a shop. Comfy artstyle.

Factorio - A game for nerds and Minecraft redstoners where you build automated factories and genocide the local bug populace. A word of caution: it's digitized crack cocaine, so avoid it if you don't want to ruin your life.

Cave Story+ - A neat indie metroidvania. I haven't played it yet, but I heard it can run on potatoes, and has a great story.

Shovel Knight - A retro, NES-style indie metroidvania where you beat creatures with a shovel.
 
A "modern" Intel Celeron can emulate Dreamcast and older consoles pretty well so you should be fine with them. PS2, PSP and Game Cube can be harder to emulate, but if keep to native resolution and don't mind the occasional slowdown you play a lot of those games too.
 
Start looking around for free games. Generally, they don't get as much praise or recognition, but there are some really great titles out there. Since they tend to be smaller-scale, you shouldn't have many issues in performance.

People have mentioned roguelikes, and I'd definitely agree. You know those basic computers that offices will buy in bulk, and are only meant to run spreadsheets, emails, and company software? I have yet to find a roguelike that doesn't run smoothly on those things.

Mount & Blade and Warband should be okay, so long as you don't turn up graphical effects that much.

Virtually any computer post-2010 shouldn't have any issues running Morrowind.
 
I have a dell inspiron 5000 series with a core i7 cpu and 7.8 GB of usable ram, it can run Civilization V. No greater game is needed.
 
Most 8-bit indieshit games. Sims 4 runs surprisingly well on terrible hardware, too.
 
If you like isometric CRPGs, then you'll have a lot of options. I personally recommend:
Underrail
Baldurs Gate 1 & 2 (do NOT play Siege of Dragonspear and get the non-enhanced edition copies)
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Icewind Dale
Planescape Torment
Neverwinter Nights DLCs
 
I second openxcomextended. There are some mods out there for the game that is simply fantastic. (There is a literal warhammer 40k mod for it.)
 
MarvinTheParanoidAndroid said:
That literally tells me nothing. What kind of CPU does it have?
Click to expand...
I played a lot of Super Meat Boy on a 2008-2009 Core2Duo laptop with whatever Intel IGP was around back then, so it works even though Flash sucks ass.

Jagged Alliance 2 have been mentioned and it is fantastic but please be patient in the beginning because the controls are a bit weird. It opens up into a RPG of sorts. It's a controversial opinion but play in Sci-Fi Mode. And play Master of Orion 2, it's really good. Age of Wonders 2 is a good companion to Heroes of Might and Magic 3.

A lot of indie games should work fine, they don't have the budget to go nuts with the graphics but on the other hand, they might not have the budget or skill to optimize their game. Use the refund policy on Steam if so.
 
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