The Use of Life
Fair · RPG · 2025
Steam Deck VerifiedThe verdict
NO RUSH.
Fair at $19.99. Buy it if you want it.
- Length
- 6.9h
- Value
- $2.90/hr
- Reviews
- 91% of 832 positive
Watch this gameOne alert at $12.89 or less.
Buy now or wait
Last cut ended 11 days ago.
- Next sale
- Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4
Sources: IsThereAnyDeal, Valve.
What drives the score
How to read this
Grades run S to D, read from the buyer's side. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
About the game
The Use of Life is a multi-ending adventure book style JRPG. The main character’s various attachments change in accordance with the choices the player makes, and the ending changes depending on “the use of life” you choose through your journey.
Minimum specs
Minimum on the Steam store: 8 GB of memory, DirectX 9 compatible graphics card. Windows only.
The value story
It has been discounted 25 times in the 4 years tracked here. The median cut across all of them is 20 percent, about 7 weeks apart. Today it is at full price, and its last discount ended 11 days ago.
Value puts it in the top 10 percent of the games it competes with. It is pricier than 86 percent of its genre, and better reviewed than 94 percent. Among the games that feel like it, Shadows Over Loathing ($22.99, scores 78) beats it on value, while it beats 再刷一把 PlayAgain ($8.99, scores 15).
More about The Use of Life
Of the 372 Steam-purchase reviews this site sampled, 1 comes from a buyer who refunded the game, sampled from reviews written May 2022 to August 2026.
At 6.9 hours it is a handheld-sized game, and Valve rates it Deck Verified.
The drop-off
45% start to 3% rarestNo achievement in this game marks the ending, so there is no finish rate. The curve runs from the most-unlocked achievement to the rarest, and its shape is where players stop. Steam global achievements
Players
- Players online
- 3 when we last checked, on Sep 30, 02:53 UTC
Player counts from the Steam Web API.
What players say
Absolutely amazing game! Wholeheartedly recommended. The gameplay is great. It's challenging, but not unreasonably so, and you have tools available to tweak the difficulty settings as you see fit. Your stats actually matter quite a lot too, as beefing up your vit, tech, and speed (or not) makes fights feel drastically different in terms of the reaction time needed. The classes (the 4 advanced ones you can work...
2 more reviews, 1 not recommended
Hard, but forgiving and engaging combat with good systems and cool world building. The definition of a hidden gem.
While I very much like the story and consider it well thought out, emotional, and player choice being impactful despite the lack of clarity what your actions will do a lot of the time. I can't recommend the game due to how ridiculously brutal the combat is and the poor balance especially when it comes to end boss fights. Not going to bother with the hard mode, I'd say gameplay aside, the game would be a 9/10 but I'm...
Steam reviews, mixed to its ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
No data upstream: critic score (Metacritic).
Cite this score
The Use of Life scores 61/100 on the BANG Score (fair value) as of Oct 19, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/1483370/the-use-of-lifeReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 28, price as of Oct 18. A number here look wrong? Tell me and I will check the inputs.