The best low-spec PC games

The best low-spec PC games

Perfect games to play on the go with your laptop or on your older system.

Multiplayer 

Strategy 

RPGs 

Puzzle & Adventure 

Action & Platformers 

Story games

On the hunt for something new to play on your low end PC or laptop? You may be shocked just how great some of the lower spec games look. While gaming laptops power up every year, not everyone has a fresh laptop with a GTX 2080 in it. Some people need a notebook for travel, which often means not being able to play the most demanding PC games. Fortunately, in this golden age of gaming, we have countless great low-spec PC games to enjoy, whether it's an indie or an old classic from Steam's bottomless buffet.

This is our selection of the best games for laptops and low-spec rigs—games that will gas you up without burning down your system. We've rooted through and explored all sorts of genres, so you'll find quick pick-up-and-play games alongside complex RPGs that you can lose days in. There are choices that can become your new main squeeze, and others that are great when you just have a few minutes to kill time between meetings.

These are mostly newer games with accessible system requirements, but of course there are tons of classic PC games, from Doom to Half-Life 2, that will run smooth as silk on any modern laptop. Check out GOG's old games or the Internet Archive's in-browser emulation library.

BEST LAPTOP GAMES: MULTIPLAYER

Among Us

Among Us - A red crewmate points at a white crewmate while two ghost players point at the red player.

(Image credit: Innersloth)

Release date: 2018 | Developer: InnerSloth | Link: Steam

If you're up for a bit of subterfuge with friends, Among Us is one you can be sure they'll be able to play almost no matter how old their machine is. It even has cross-play between PCs and phones if that's all they have handy. Among Us is a familiar format to anyone who's played Werewolf or other similar group tabletop games. A crew of brightly-colored space engineers are stuck trying to repair a ship while discovering who among them (get it?) is the imposter trying to murder the rest. The fun is in how well you and your friends can fool one another more than fancy lighting effects, so it's an easy one to pick up and play on a low-spec machine. 

Untitled Goose Game

Untitled Goose Game - Two geese honk at a young boy cowering in the street.

(Image credit: House House)

Release date: 2019 | Developer: House House | Link: Official site

The not titled goose game is plenty short and so are its required system specs. If you somehow went dark on the internet in the weeks following the Goose Game's launch, you may have missed how many goose memes it birthed into the unsuspecting mainstream social media sphere. The Goose Game is a charming little stealth puzzler about being a terribly foul goose on the loose in a quaint little British village. In our Untitled Goose Game review, Luke Kemp says "I can’t remember the last game that made me laugh so loudly and so often while I was playing it."

Portal 2

Portal 2 - Two robots hug each other.

(Image credit: Valve)

Release date: 2011 | Developer: Valve | Link: Steam page

We could have included pretty much any Source engine game here, such is the impressive way it scales to lower-spec hardware. (Admittedly, that might be because it's getting on a bit.) While Half-Life 2 shines these days with visual mods and at higher resolutions, Portal 2 remains one of the funniest, smartest puzzle games around, even if you had cause to play it at 800x600 with all the settings turned to 'Low'. You're not playing this one to be wowed by fancy graphical effects—you're playing for Stephen Merchant's, J.K. Simmons', and Ellen McLain's terrific voice acting, and of course for that bit with the potato.

Minecraft

Minecraft Nether Update key art - A player wearing Netherite armor walks through a stylized rendition of The Nether surrounded by Hoglins and Pigmen.

(Image credit: Mojang)

Release date: 2011 | Developer: Mojang | Link: Official site

Civilization 5

Civilization 5 - A hex grid map in Civ 5 with fields and cities

(Image credit: Firaxis)

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Release date: 2010 | Developer: Firaxis Games | Link: Humble Store

Civ is usually a safe bet when it comes to low-end machines, and you won't need too beefy a PC in order to play the second newest entry in the series. Just don't go blaming us when you forget to sleep, so embroiled are you in your quest to wipe the warmongering Gandhi from the face of the Earth. 4Xs in general tend to be quite kind to laptops, so if you meet the (slightly less modest) requirements, it's worth casting your eye over Amplitude Studios' fantasy-themed Endless Legend, and Triumph's Age of Wonders III as well.