A Steam sale can produce two very different emotions: the quiet triumph of finding a beloved game for the price of a fancy coffee, and the immediate panic of realizing the cart has somehow become a small municipal budget. This particular five-game lineup is refreshingly disciplined. At the listed prices, Tomb Raider (2013), Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, Grim Dawn, A Plague Tale: Innocence, and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy total $23.75.
That is a notably varied PC backlog in exchange for less than $25: a survival-minded action adventure, a carefully plotted stealth strategy game, a deep action-RPG, an unsettling historical stealth tale, and a colorful linear comic-book space opera. The listed discounts and their end dates can change, so treat the prices as a snapshot rather than a permanent new law of digital economics. Still, the bundle offers an unusually good chance to match a game to the mood of a long weekend rather than forcing every player to spend dozens of hours in the same kind of world.
The five-game cart at a glance
- Tomb Raider (2013) — $3; the Survivor trilogy was listed at just under $11 through September 7.
- Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun — $4, down from a normal $40.
- Grim Dawn — $3.75; its Steam user rating was listed as 94% positive.
- A Plague Tale: Innocence — $4.
- Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy — $9, compared with a normal $60 Steam price.
The standalone-game total is $23.75. Buying the Survivor trilogy instead of Tomb Raider on its own would naturally change the math, but it also puts an entire Lara Croft arc within reach for a relatively small increase.
Tomb Raider (2013): a $3 reboot with a bow at the ready
Crystal Dynamics’ Tomb Raider reboot from 2013 remains an accessible opening move for anyone wanting a cinematic adventure with exploration threaded through it. The game reframes Lara Croft’s early journey in a more intense survival-adventure mode, while keeping the series’ interest in tombs, ruins, secrets, and environmental traversal. Its combination of third-person action, bow use, upgrades, and backtracking gives it a structure that brushes against Metroidvania territory without abandoning its big set-piece storytelling.
The bow is central to the game’s feel: it supports stealthy approaches and gives fights a tactile, scrappy character. The broader production has also been praised for its presentation, from environmental detail and animation to the work put into the plot, performances, and visual design. A few character types may feel familiar, but the overall package helped establish the tone of the modern Survivor era.
At the listed $3 price, it is an easy recommendation for players who missed the reboot, want a focused action game with a real sense of place, or simply have an urge to climb something extremely unsafe. The Survivor trilogy option, listed at just under $11 until September 7, is the better route for anyone already confident that they want more than the opening chapter.
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun: stealth measured in plans, not panic
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is for the player who sees an enemy patrol and does not ask, “Can I defeat that?” but rather, “Could I spend 20 minutes arranging an immaculate five-person solution to that?” Set in Japan’s Edo period, the game is a real-time isometric stealth strategy experience built around scouting, timing, distractions, specialized characters, and repeated experimentation.
Its levels are one of its major attractions. Each scenario functions like an elaborate miniature: guards move through routines, townspeople keep busy, hazards and routes overlap, and the camera can linger over a world that has been likened to a lovingly built diorama. That visual charm is not merely decorative. In a game where observation matters, the readable spaces and carefully staged environments support the constant cycle of studying, planning, trying, and revising.
Real-time stealth tactics can sound intimidating to people whose usual strategy is “save, make a noise, hope,” but Shadow Tactics earned its reputation by making detailed planning satisfying. The listed $4 price is a remarkable drop from its normal $40. It is likely the strongest fit here for players who value level design and patient puzzle-solving over reflex-heavy combat.
Grim Dawn: a Victorian apocalypse with plenty to loot
Grim Dawn occupies a different corner of the action-RPG map. Often regarded as a spiritual successor to Diablo II, it brings isometric combat and treasure hunting into a grim, Victorian-inflected fantasy apocalypse. This is not Warhammer, even if the atmosphere may cause a double take from anyone with a fondness for ruined empires, monstrous threats, and worlds that appear to have misplaced their sunshine several centuries ago.
The game has long appealed to players looking for something more demanding and deliberate than the most immediately sugary loot-chasing experiences in the genre. More recent updates have moved elements of its design toward a top-down Soulslike feel, a direction that has divided some longtime followers. For some players, that evolution is a drawback; for others, it is exactly the kind of friction and weight they want from combat.
For newcomers, $3.75 is an unusually low-stakes entry fee to a game with a substantial reputation. Its Steam user feedback was listed as 94% positive, which is useful context, though player ratings are not a substitute for deciding whether its particular flavor of action-RPG complexity suits you. Choose Grim Dawn if the appeal lies in making a character build, excavating piles of gear, and exploring a bleak setting with more menace than merriment.
A Plague Tale: Innocence: historical dread and overwhelming odds
A Plague Tale: Innocence is the cart’s most openly harrowing selection. It is a stealth adventure set in a rat-infested version of 14th-century Europe, specifically late 1349 in Aquitaine, France. The setting is not simply window dressing: the historical backdrop, tragedy, and oppressive atmosphere shape the experience at every turn.
There are understandable comparisons to The Last of Us, especially in its character-focused travel through danger and its grim, emotionally charged mood. But A Plague Tale has its own identity, driven by medieval imagery and the unnerving threat of swarming rats. The game has been described as tense, frightening, and designed to create a real feeling of vulnerability. It is a shorter, concentrated adventure—roughly eight to 10 hours—rather than an endless open-world commitment.
That makes the listed $4 price particularly appealing to anyone seeking a substantial narrative game that can be completed over a few evenings. It also serves as a sensible earlier stop for players who recently encountered the action-oriented prequel Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy but have not yet played the rest of the series. Expect a beautiful but bleak journey, not a cozy historical vacation where the local wildlife behaves normally.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: the $9 spacefaring sleeper
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is the most expensive game in the group at $9, yet that is still far below its listed normal Steam price of $60. Five years after release, it remains a game many people may have overlooked amid the baggage left by the live-service Avengers project and broader fatigue around the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That context likely made it harder for this distinct, single-player adventure to reach the audience it deserved.
Unlike a live-service grind, Guardians is a linear comic-book game centered on storytelling, character interplay, inventive combat, and serviceable puzzles. Its setting is a major draw: the game leans into vibrant pulp science-fiction, with strange alien worlds and creatures that evoke old-school sci-fi cover art. Outside flashbacks to 1980s Earth, its locations are presented as especially strong showcases for that imaginative cosmic tone.
This is the choice for anyone who wants a lighter counterweight to A Plague Tale’s dread or Grim Dawn’s apocalypse. It is not consequence-free—there are still fights, hazards, and galaxy-sized trouble—but it carries a more playful, wisecracking energy. At $9, it takes up the largest slice of this tiny budget while also offering the lineup’s most lavishly colorful spectacle.
How to pick the right one first
The sensible answer is to buy all five at the listed total, then stare at the library with the solemn confidence of a person who has successfully acquired choices. The more useful answer is to pick the game that matches the time and energy available.
- Want immediate third-person action and exploration? Start with Tomb Raider.
- Want to solve dense, precise stealth scenarios? Start with Shadow Tactics.
- Want a systems-heavy action-RPG and dark fantasy loot chase? Start with Grim Dawn.
- Want a concise, story-led stealth adventure with genuine unease? Start with A Plague Tale: Innocence.
- Want an upbeat, linear sci-fi romp with Marvel characters? Start with Guardians of the Galaxy.
The list also makes a fine companion to a broader look at what smaller and stranger PC releases are doing, including this recent indie game roundup. Big catalog games and offbeat newcomers can coexist peacefully in the same Steam library, at least until storage space enters the chat.
For $23.75 at the stated sale prices, this is a notably balanced five-game PC haul. There is no requirement to tackle it as a marathon, and no need to pretend every game should appeal to every kind of player. The value is in the range: five polished adventures that approach action, stealth, role-playing, horror, and superhero storytelling from very different angles.
