Best PC games with low requirements (2023)

We pick up several great games without special requirements that can be enjoyed on a veteran computer.

Having a computer to play new games requires upgrading the machine at least every four to five years (on average, it happens) and investing a sum of money that usually exceeds the price of consoles. Access to PC Master Race makes us look at video games differently and scratch our pockets, which isn’t always possible or desirable, especially if we’re talking about the latter. Can you play on a computer with low-end hardware? The answer is yes, albeit with logical sacrifices that not all gamers want to make.

We devote this report to a review of games with minimum technical requirements to play on almost any modern low to mid-price range computer, although logically meeting some minimum standards nowadays. The following lines serve as a recommendation for games, especially for those who, by fate, travel, or lack of a powerful desktop computer, are forced to survive by relying on a laptop far removed from so-called gaming hardware. Or because we travel with a working laptop.

This is our pick of the best games with low PC requirements, although before we get to the subject, we should clarify that there’s no exact science regarding technical conditions. Games can change their engines over time and thus increase their needs. It can also happen that particular hardware doesn’t work, and it seemed to with a specific title. Also, sometimes sacrificing aspects such as resolution, texture quality, or filters, we can get a decent PC game on ‘chips.’ Also, sometimes the minimum requirements are to play at 60fps. Still, some genres have no problem playing with less smoothness. If there’s one thing that’s special about a compatible platform, it’s that it adapts to all situations.

Games with good graphics and low requirements

Tomb Raider

Lara is back to life thanks to a saga reboot that’s perfectly suited to one of the most popular heroines in video game history. An entertaining story in a good action and exploration game that’s adapted to modern times and has plenty of places to explore and excavate to spend a good handful of hours in.

Minimum requirements: Intel Core2 Duo 1.86GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.1GHz, 1GB RAM, NVIDIA 8600 or AMD Radeon HD 2600 XT, 12GB free space, and Windows XP Service Pack 3.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

This is one of the best superhero games ever, featuring the best Batman we’ve ever seen in the world of video games. He must battle several famous DC villains as he explores Arkham Asylum in a game that combines action, sandboxing, and remarkable graphics for its time.

Minimum requirements: Intel 3GHz or any AMD Dual Core, 1GB RAM for XP 2 for all other OSes, NVIDIA 6600 or ATI 1300, DirectX 9, 8GB free hard drive space, and Windows XP.

Rayman Legends

Rayman is back in style in 2013 and has left us with one of the best platformers of the decade, combining great pacing, good level design, colorful and excellent graphics that made us enjoy a delivery that’s hard to match.

Minimum requirements: Pentium IV 3GHz or AMD Athlon64 3000+ 1.8GHz, 2GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 6800GT or AMD Radeon X1950 Pro, 6GB free space, and Windows XP SP3.

Paladins

SMITE offers a free-to-play team-based FPS with strategy and customization elements, where we have to play against different champions, confront other players, level up, collect unique maps that will give us extraordinary abilities during the game, and other mechanics that made the game little by little discover its niche in competitive multiplayer FPS.

Minimum requirements: Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or Althon X2 2.7 GHz, 2GB RAM, ATI Radeon 3870 or NVIDIA GeForce 8800, 10GB free space, Windows XP SP2.

Survival games with low requirements

Rust

Rust is one of today’s modern PC survival games, despite having over 7 years under its belt, which also makes it reasonably affordable in terms of technical requirements, even though we have an open world with lots of vegetation, hundreds of enemies, and dozens of animals and NPCs in front of us. The goal will be to feed yourself, build a shelter, survive, and eventually become the strongest player on the server.

Minimum requirements: Intel Core i7-3770 / AMD FX-9590 processor, GTX 670 2GB / AMD R9 280 graphics card, 10GB of RAM, 20GB of storage space.

Don’t Starve

In the survival game genre, we always have attractive recent offerings such as The Flame in the Flood, which needs a more ‘modern’ team, but there are also stellar games that are less technically demanding and will keep us trapped for hours. The variant we recommend is a genre icon: Don’t Starve. Full-fledged, artistically diverse, and even with multiplayer options.

Minimum requirements: 1.7 GHz processor, 1 GB RAM, Radeon HD5450, 500 MB HDD, DirectX 9.0c, and Windows 7.

Terraria

Dig, fight and build. That’s the summary of Terraria, a survival game with a retro aesthetic and total freedom in randomly generated worlds that has managed to win over millions of players on Steam.

Minimum requirements: 1.6GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 20MB of disk space, Shader Model 1.1-compatible graphics, Windows XP.

Unturned

A title set in a typical world where zombies have taken over and where we are one of the few survivors left on the planet. Explore, fight, search for food, harvest, and seek shelter in a game that didn’t immediately go viral and relies on a pure Minecraft-style dice aesthetic.

Minimum requirements: 2GHz processor, 4GB RAM, 4GB hard drive space.

They Are Billions

The latest phenomenon on Steam is developed in Spain and combines features of the strategy genre with some touches of survival. In They Are Billions, we must establish our colony and protect it from waves of millions of infected trying to end the lives of the few survivors left on Earth.

Minimum Requirements: 2GHz dual-core CPU, 4GB RAM, Intel HD3000 or Radeon or NVIDIA with 1GB VRAM, 4GB free space, Windows 7.

Project Zomboid

Project Zomboid is a project that has been in Early Access for a few years now and puts us in the shoes of a zombie holocaust survivor who must collect, build, grow, fish, and fight for survival in a game with role-playing elements and a vast map.

Minimum requirements: 2.77 GHz dual-core Intel processor, 2 GB of RAM, 1.23 GB of free hard disk space, graphics compatible with OpenGL 2.1.

MOBA-like online games with low requirements

League of Legends

What does it take for an online computer game to succeed? Several factors, but certainly one of them is that it runs on as many computers as possible. Riot Games applied this maxim when launching League of Legends and has continued to maintain it, even with updates, over time to ensure that the MOBA runs on as many computers as possible. You can run League of Legends at a more than decent level on almost any low-end PC.

Minimum requirements: 2 GHz processor, 1 GB RAM, 8 GB HDD, Shader 2.0 compatible graphics, DirectX 9.0c, and Windows 7.

Dota 2

League of Legends didn’t take long to find competition. It’s not for nothing that the cross between the Riot Games saga and the Dota series is worthy of being known by its fans. Despite the smaller community, Dota 2 has retained its type within MOBAs and is another recommended option if you like the genre. You don’t need a NASA computer to be able to play the game decently.

Minimum requirements: Intel 2.8 GHz dual-core or AMD equivalent processor, 4GB RAM, GeForce 8600/9600 GT or Radeon HD2600/3600, DirectX 9.0c, 15GB HDD, and Windows 7.

Online games such as MMORPGs with low requirements

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft, as it were, remains the most complete MMO option unless your computer is upgraded. Blizzard has updated its engine several times, raising the minimum requirements. Still, it continues to retain type on low-end computers, where we’re willing to sacrifice visual beauty in exchange for performance. One of the most recommended options in its genre.

Minimum requirements: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 or AMD Phenom II X3 720, GeForce GT 440, Radeon HD 6570 or Intel HD 5000, 2GB RAM, 45GB HDD, and Windows 7.

WoW Classic

Last summer, Blizzard released World of Warcraft Classic, a return to one of the first MMO versions adapted to run on modern computers and to take advantage of the various server and network enhancements we can find today. Otherwise, we see the most classic World of Warcraft experience, which is flawed and, in turn, has lower requirements than the current WOW, so it’s ideal for those with more modest hardware.

Minimum requirements: Windows 7, an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 or AMD Phenom 8750 processor, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT or AMD Radeon HD 4850 graphics, and 2GB of RAM.

Genshin Impact

Genshin Impact has been one of the most popular MMOs of the past 2020. A game that can be played on any platform, from PC to consoles to mobile devices, has attracted millions of players to a magical and extraordinary world enjoyed by several fans of the genre. Having appeared on so many different platforms, we’re dealing with a relatively fair game in terms of requirements, which doesn’t mean it has terrible graphics. It’s pretty beautiful from an artistic point of view.

Minimum requirements: Intel Core i5 processor or similar, NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 1030 graphics card or higher, 8GB of RAM, 30GB of disk space.

Neverwinter

Another game to appear in this section is Neverwinter, an MMO based on the Forgotten Realms of Dungeons & Dragons, which has surprised players with numerous updates, lots of content, and good gameplay depth, making it one of the most-played MMOs on Steam, all without requiring a potent computer.

Minimum requirements: Core 2 Duo 1.8GHz processor, NVidia GeForce 6600, ATI/AMD Radeon X1300 or Intel G965 Express graphics card, 2GB of RAM, 23GB of disk space.

Valorant

In the summer of 2020, Riot Games released Valorant, a shooter that became the benchmark for competitive shooters, betting on a game formula halfway between CS:GO and Overwatch that is very well balanced and has many ingredients to keep its players engaged. Also, one of Riot’s goals was to move in very modest teams, finding a shooter with very low requirements.

Minimum requirements: Intel i3-370M processor, Intel HD 300 graphics card, 4GB of RAM.

Apex Legends

One of the kings of Battle Royale is on a playable level and one of the least demanding as it was developed on Valve’s modest Source engine, making it ideal for those of you with low resources on your computer. In addition, we have before us one of the most attractive, moving, fun, and addictive games of its genre, which is currently experiencing its best moment.

Minimum requirements: Windows 7, 3.8GHz Intel Core i3-6300 or AMD FX-4350 4.2GHz processor, NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 or AMD Radeon HD 7730 graphics, and 6GB RAM.

Amid Evil

Amid Evil is a tribute to the first-person shooters of the 90s. If Dusk, also featured in this report, was a nod towards Doom or Quake, we find numerous references to Heretic, Hexen, or Blood in this game. All of this is accompanied by an excellent shooting system and very well-designed levels that will please all fans of retro FPS.

Minimum requirements: Windows 7 64 bit, 2.5GHz processor, 4GB RAM, and Intel HD 4400 graphics.

DUSK

DUSK is an FPS that delights the most experienced players, who see it as a worthy successor to the first Quake in mid-2019, with very addictive gameplay that reminds us of the best games of the genre and shallow requirements that allow us to enjoy it, practically, in a toaster.

Minimum requirements: Intel Dual Core 2.4GHz, 2GB Ram, GeForce 9800GT, Windows 7.

Fortnite

This Battle Royale has become a viral phenomenon thanks to its fun and addictive gameplay and, above all, the tremendous work of Epic Games, which adds new content to the game every week, giving players challenges, new weapons, skins, and even the craziest game modes. It also doesn’t require a NASA computer to play, making sense since it can even run on mobile devices.

Minimum requirements: Intel Core i3 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM, Intel HD 4000, Windows 7.

Left 4 Dead 2

If you’re looking for an intense co-op action game with little difficulty for those who want to test themselves, we recommend Left 2 Dead 2, a game that, despite being a few years old, remains just as fun and reliable on PC. You don’t need to have the latest hardware to play it. It should run pretty smoothly and without problems. All you need now is three more friends to play it in a good gaming session.

Minimum requirements: Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz, 2 GB RAM, 128 MB graphics, DirectX 9.0c, 13 GB HDD, Windows 7.

Review Other Interesting Games

Team Fortress 2

Want an online game with team combat, first-person shooter, and character class that’s also free? Team Fortress 2 is the best option you can download on your PC. It runs on Valve’s universal Source engine, making it a perfect candidate to put hours of gameplay into your Steam account. It’s many years old, but it hasn’t lost its fun.

Minimum requirements: 1.7 GHz processor, 512 RAM, DirectX 8.1, NVIDIA GeForce 8, ATI X1600 or Intel HD 3000, 15 GB HDD, and Windows 7.

Overwatch

If you want to take the first-person shooter genre a step further, your not-so-modern computer might be able to run Overwatch decently. Blizzard agrees with Riot Games on a policy of developing games compatible with a wide range of hardware. With Hero Shooter, they’ve achieved this by sacrificing some visuals and resolution.

Minimum requirements: Intel Core i3 or AMD Phenom X3 8650, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460, Ati Radeon HD 4850 or Intel HD 4400, 4GB RAM, 30GB HDD, and Windows 7.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

We continue our recommendations in the shooter genre and do so with a timeless classic in its most “fresh” version: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Also, the brainchild of Valve’s Source engine, the famous anti-terrorist versus terrorist multiplayer, has a way of running on an extensive range of computers. You won’t play more modern games such as Rainbow Six Siege, but you’ll be more than content with CS.

Minimum requirements: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 or AMD Phenom X3 8750, 2GB RAM, 256MB graphics, DirectX 9.0c, 15GB HDD, Windows 7.

Half-Life 2

The list of games that use Valve’s Source engine and run on low-end PCs could be completed with many more suggestions, but we want to include one more, which is inevitable if you’re a fan of first-person shooters. It’s Half-Life 2, a game that today I can run on almost any PC with more than acceptable image quality and that offers a gripping narrative adventure on the height of what’s expected from Valve, who have created games in the past.

Minimum requirements: 1.7GHz processor, 512MB RAM, DirectX 8.1 compatible graphics, 6.5GB hard drive, and Windows 7.

Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter

If you prefer to eliminate first-person stress and not complicate your existence with plot twists, our offering is called Serious Sam. It’s a game with years and several installments under its belt, but it’s still enjoyable, believable, and insane. Revisiting this 2000s classic in HD doesn’t require a lot of hardware.

Minimum requirements: Pentium IV 3 Ghz or AMD Athlon 64 6500, 1 GB of RAM, GeForce 7600, Radeon X1600 with Shader Model 3.0, DirectX 9.0c.

Halo Spartan Assault

If you’re an action fan looking for another experience that gives you a different perspective on the genre, a good recommendation for your PC gamer on the verge of retirement would be Halo Spartan Assault (also Spartan Strike). You can find it cheaply on Steam (4.99 for both games), and it’s perfect for resting your head while completing missions with a well-aimed shot.

Minimum requirements: dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, DirectX 10, Radeon 3670, NVIDIA GT 8600 or Intel HD 3000, 2.5GB HDD, and Windows 7.

Lineage 2

Lineage 2 is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed and published by NCsoft. Originally released in 2003, the game has undergone numerous updates and expansions over the years, with the latest being “Lineage 2: Essence” in 2020.

The game is set in the fantasy world of Aden, with players choosing to align themselves with one of three races – human, elf, or dark elf – and one of several classes, such as warrior, mage, or healer. Players can form parties with others to take on quests and engage in combat with various monsters and other players.

The game’s graphics are somewhat dated by modern standards, but still offer a level of detail and visual flair that is impressive given the game’s age. The sound design is also top-notch, with a stirring musical score and well-designed sound effects.

One of the biggest strengths of Lineage 2 is its community, which is passionate and dedicated. The game offers a wide range of social features, such as guilds and player-run events, that help players form lasting friendships and engage in cooperative play.

However, the game’s main weakness is its steep learning curve. New players may find it difficult to navigate the complex game mechanics and systems, and the lack of guidance from the game itself can be frustrating. Additionally, the game’s grind-heavy nature can be a turnoff for some players, as it can take a significant amount of time and effort to progress and acquire new gear.

Minecraft

Minecraft, a sandbox video game developed and published by Mojang Studios, has become one of the most popular games of all time, selling over 200 million copies across all platforms since its first release in 2011.

The core elements of the game are exploration, crafting, and survival. Starting from scratch, players must gather resources, create tools, build structures, and defend themselves against enemy creatures in a blocky environment. The game’s open world allows for almost unlimited creativity, as you can build anything from simple houses to complex machines and sprawling cities.

The game’s graphics are intentionally simple, and the beauty of the retro blocks is mesmerizing and iconic. The sound design is also excellent, with pleasant music and sound effects that help immerse the player in the game world.

Minecraft’s greatest strength lies in its versatility and flexibility. The game’s community has created countless mods and user-generated content, allowing players to customize the game to their liking and add new features and mechanics.

Minecraft also has a multiplayer mode that allows players to join teams for cooperative and competitive play. Players can join servers run by other players or create their own, and the gameplay and visuals can be highly customized.

Simulation games with low requirements

Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley is a charming and relaxing farming simulation game developed by ConcernedApe and published by Chucklefish. The game was released in 2016 and has since become a fan-favorite among gamers of all ages.

In Stardew Valley, players take on the role of a character who inherits a farm in a small town. The player must manage the farm by planting and harvesting crops, caring for animals, and selling products to make a profit. The game also includes fishing, mining, and combat elements, allowing players to explore the town and its surroundings.

One of the standout features of Stardew Valley is its relaxing gameplay. The game moves at a slow pace, allowing players to take their time and enjoy the process of managing their farm. The game also has a day-night cycle, where players must balance their time between farming, exploring, and socializing with the other characters in the game.

Another highlight of Stardew Valley is its charming graphics and soundtrack. The game has a retro-inspired 16-bit art style that is both colorful and engaging. The music is also relaxing and fits perfectly with the game’s overall tone.

Stardew Valley is an excellent game for players who enjoy relaxing gameplay and management simulations. The game’s low system requirements make it accessible to a wide range of players, and its charming graphics and soundtrack make it a joy to play. Overall, Stardew Valley is a must-play game for anyone who loves farming simulations or just wants to unwind and relax after a long day.

RollerCoaster Tycoon

RollerCoaster Tycoon is a classic amusement park management simulation game developed by Chris Sawyer Productions and published by Hasbro Interactive. The game was first released in 1999 and has since become a beloved title among gamers of all ages.

In RollerCoaster Tycoon, players take on the role of an amusement park manager and must build and manage their own theme park. The game features a variety of rides, attractions, and amenities, such as roller coasters, water rides, restaurants, and shops. Players must keep their guests happy by providing a safe and entertaining environment while also managing finances and park maintenance.

One of the standout features of RollerCoaster Tycoon is its depth of gameplay. Players must balance the needs of their guests with the financial demands of running a successful park. They must also design and build their own roller coasters and other rides, taking into account factors such as speed, excitement, and safety.

Another highlight of RollerCoaster Tycoon is its charming graphics and sound effects. The game has a retro-inspired art style that is both colorful and engaging. The sound effects, such as the screams of the roller coaster riders, add to the overall excitement of the game.

RollerCoaster Tycoon is an excellent game for players who enjoy management simulations and building games. The game’s low system requirements make it accessible to a wide range of players, and its depth of gameplay and charming graphics make it a joy to play. Overall, RollerCoaster Tycoon is a classic game that has stood the test of time and is still worth playing today.