10 Best Games That Run on Bad Computers (2024)

If you're rocking the budget baller PC gamer lifestyle, or you just have a terrible school laptop and still want to find games to play on your limited hardware, I've got a list for you. As someone who spent the greater half of her life without a good computer, I know the feeling and I know some great games to play.

All of these games hit around 30 FPS at least on my awful ~$200 laptop that I use almost exclusively for writing because doing anything else makes it heat up and makes the fans scream in pain. You'll probably be surprised what juice you can squeeze out of horribly-slow machines.

10 Persona 5 Royal

A Surprisingly Optimized Cult Classic.

4.5/5

JRPG

Franchise

Persona

Platform(s)

Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S

Released

March 31, 2020

Developer(s)

Atlus, P-Studio

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Publisher(s)

Atlus

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

It might be surprising to see it on this list, but Persona 5 is actually very performant on low-power machines, which makes some sense, given it started life as a PS3 game. On my laptop, I saw around XX FPS on low settings, though I didn't mess with things like resolution scaling, which could improve that number.

It's genuinely playable, and especially since it's going for an anime aesthetic and has few moments where you need reaction speed and high framerates to succeed, it's an easy recommendation if you're looking to dive into a massive RPG and don't mind somewhat compromised visuals.

9 Terraria

Usually Performative, Always A Good Time.

This one's gonna vary heavily on computer specs and on what you're trying to do in-game, but most of the time, Terraria will run just fine if all you want to do is play vanilla on a small world, and when you add in mods or larger worlds, it gets iffy, but is usually okay.

When the winter storms hit Texas in 2021, I played through Calamity Mod entirely on my laptop, and the only thing that lagged was the final boss, and it got me through that experience of not having power for most of the time. Works no matter the system and always great.

8 Among Us

Social Deception Doesn't Take Horsepower.

If you want a game you can play with friends, regardless of if they're on phone, console or PC, Among Us is always a good bet. It'll run just fine on just about any system, including my clunky ol' laptop, so as long as you can run simple browser games, you're probably good to play Among Us.

It's a simple game, and only really good when you've got friends to play with, but if you do, then it's a great time and nothing is framerate dependant, so even if you're lagging, you can still have a great time. If you somehow have not already played Among Us.

7 Sonic Mania

Technically Triple-A, Absolutely Smooth.

Sonic Mania is a special case, as it's a rare time a Triple-A studio with a massive franchise lets indie devs work on a game, and it's also incredibly optimized and one of the best Sonic games out there. It can also run well on Phones, and apparently the 3DS and the Wii, so it'll probably work fine on any computer.

Only issue that could potentially lag a computer is the 3D special stages, but that's only if your computer is genuinely abysmal (for reference, they run well on a Raspberry Pi). It's a super fun speedy platformer with tons of content to dig through and great on any machine.

6 Any Source Engine Game

Valve's Greatest Run Great.

You might see a game like Portal 2 that still looks great to this day and think "Nah, my garbage computer can't run that", but you may not know that they're actually incredibly optimized, running just fine on pretty much any machine you throw at them.

This is a bit of a catch all, but really, any Source (1) game will work just fine, which includes every Portal game, Half Life 1 and 2, Garry's Mod, and quite a few more. This engine is just ridiculously efficient, and you might not know you can easily boot these games up.

5 Celeste

Peak Platforming, Ran Easily.

If you're looking for one of the all time greatest platformers, Celeste is up there, and despite how good it looks, is super optimized with a customized engine built to make use of every ounce of performance your computer can muster.

Given the game can get hard and require super precise timing at points, framerate matters a ton, and even if you're on bad hardware, it'll probably still run at 60 just fine. On top of that, the game is just a great 2D platformer with insane attention to detail and awesome fundamentals, so you should give it a shot.

4 OneShot

Having A Bad Computer Doesn't Mean You Won't Cry.

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One of the most emotionally driven, best on PC games ever is OneShot, and given it's a simplistic RPGMaker game (despite what the puzzles would have you believe), it can run on just about anything, and I'd absolutely recommend doing it on PC over consoles.

It has quite a few elements to both its narrative and gameplay that simply don't work as well if you aren't playing it on your personal computer, so that's why it's so high up. It runs great, is an incredible experience and needs to be experienced on PC.

3 Balatro

Gambling Efficiently.

ba

5.0/5

Strategy

Digital Card Game

Roguelike

Platform(s)

PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S

Released

February 20, 2024

Developer(s)

LocalThunk

Publisher(s)

Playstack

$15 at Playstation Store

If you're one for poker (or just like card games and Roguelikes in general), Balatro is a game you might have already heard of , but if you didn't know, you can run it on just about anything. The flashy effects might look fancy, but they're well optimized.

I'd imagine there can be some slowdown on underpowered machines if you get massive scores at max speed, but that's a niche edge case and I haven't ever had a performance dip with this game. Give it a go.

2 Rivals of Aether

Competitive Fighting On Any System.

If you're looking for a competitive, Smash Bros. esque experience that doesn't take a great computer to run consistently, Rivals of Aether is a great time. It's super efficient, running at a consistent 60 without breaking a sweat on just about any machine.

The only thing that might cause frame drops is overloading the game with a ton of mods from the workshop, but I feel like you're just asking for it at that point. Regardless, if you're playing normally, even online, it'll pretty much never drop a single frame.

1 Stardew Valley

If It Can Run An OS, It Can Probably Run Stardew.

4.5/5

RPG

Simulation

Platform(s)

PC, Xbox One, Android, iOS, PS4, Switch

Released

February 26, 2016

Developer(s)

ConcernedApe

Publisher(s)

ConcernedApe

Multiplayer

Local Multiplayer, Online Multiplayer

See at Playstation Store

Now, for the everpresent Farming RPG/Dating Sim/Roguelike/all around great time, Stardew Valley is one of the all-time greats, and it runs on a computer the size of a thumb drive. It's incredibly optimized and I've never seen this game drop frames in my life.

On top of that awesome performance, this game can also last you forever , controls best with a keyboard and mouse, and is generally just a great time no matter the strength of your computer. Give it a shot, you won't be disappointed.