DESOLATE
Skip · RPG · 2019
Steam Deck UnsupportedThe verdict
SKIP IT.
It scores 19, under the fair line, at $14.99.
- Length
- 14.4h
- Value
- $1.04/hr
- Reviews
- 66% positive
Watch this gameOne alert when it is worth buying.
Minimum on the Steam store: 8 GB of memory, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 or analogue with 2GB VRAM, 10 GB of storage. Windows only.
DESOLATE is a first person horror survival experience. Form a research team with up to 4 players and explore an open world filled with mysteries and unsolved questions, or do it all on your own.
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
The value story
It has never been cheaper than $2.99. That was November 2025. 87 discounts in the 9 years on record. They run about 70 percent off, roughly 5 weeks apart.
It is pricier than 77 percent of its genre, and less well reviewed than 84 percent. Among the games that feel like it, The Evil Within 2 ($39.99, scores 66) beats it on value, while it beats ZOMBI ($4.99, scores 15).
Of the 500 Steam-purchase reviews this site sampled, 14 come from buyers who refunded the game, sampled from reviews written June 2021 to August 2026. That is more refunded reviewers than 9 in 10 paid games this site has sampled to the same depth, and among the 3,162 games in its genre sampled this deeply, 136 have a larger share. The typical game sits near 5 in 1,000, so the score docks it. 4 of the 14 refunded reviewers were past Valve's two-hour window when they wrote the review. Inside the two-hour refund window, 36 percent of the 1,225 reviews written there were positive, against 66 percent overall, and those are 20 percent of everything written about it.
The main story runs 14.4 hours. Doing everything runs 52, 3.6 times as long.
The drop-off
56% start to 2% 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
3 players online when we last checked, on Sep 28, 01:47 UTC.
Player counts from the Steam Web API.
What players say
God, man. Desolate is a sort of gameplay experience that isn't exactly memorable for most, but it will always occupy a spot in my head. This game brims with potential. Problem is, devs sort of lost interest in the really cool world they were attempting to build. For that matter, if you're playing this game for the first time cause you saw it on sale, I have a word of advice- ignore all side quests until you complete...
Played this for a dozen hours with pals, but didn't like it. A lot of people compare it to Stalker and I can see that, but I just didn't find it that enjoyable. Not a fan of 'everything is very dark here's your crappy flashlight, now go on an overly convoluted and complicated FETCH QUEST' as a gameplay loop.
Steam reviews, mixed to match its Steam ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
No data upstream: critic score (Metacritic).
Cite this score
DESOLATE scores 19/100 on the BANG Score (a skip) as of Oct 2, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/671510/desolateReviews 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 17, price as of Oct 1.
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