Deal | This open-world RPG, loved by 87% of players, is now 86% off on Steam

Some games quietly earn their reputation among the kind of players who actually finish them. Urtuk: The Desolation is definitely one of those. It launched in February 2021, built by a solo developer named David Kaleta, and has spent the years since racking a "Very Positive" rating on Steam across over 2,500 reviews — without ever making much noise outside popular RPG circles. A current 86% discount brings it to $1.95, which matches its all-time low. The sale ends June 24, 2026.

The setup is pretty grim and economical: Urtuk escapes a facility where scientists have been experimenting on unwilling subjects using Giant bone marrow. This leaves him with a fatal mutation and no clear future. He recruits a warband and sets out across a blighted, low-fantasy world to find a cure. There are no elves or orcs here, but you'll find desperate, misshapen factions scratching at each other in the ruins of something older.

Combat plays out on procedurally generated hex grids where positioning matters a lot. Height differences affect damage, certain tiles apply debuffs or status effects, and death pits can eliminate anything pushed into them  — which means every battle is partly a puzzle about the terrain and partly a test of how well you've built your party. Flanking an enemy with two units triggers automatic critical hits,  so good positioning isn't just helpful. Rather, it's the core language of the game.

Characters unlock traits by performing specific actions in battle — performing the same action enough times reveals a bonus effect. The permadeath is real but forgiving enough: a downed character can be patched up with medicine once, and only dies if they're wounded a second time without treatment.

Players have reported 200+ hours of play and still find the game engaging, which is remarkable for a $1.95 ask. It runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Check out Urtuk: The Desolation on Steam here.

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