Steam’s Highest-Rated Free Game Is Still Essential, 6 Years Later

Published Aug 22, 2026, 10:00 AM EDT

Tom Wilson is a Gaming Features Writer at Screen Rant. Over the past five years, Tom has worked as the Editor-in-Chief at The Game Crater, as a Staff Writer for GamingIntel, a List Writer at TheGamer, and, of course, as a Senior Writer at ScreenRant. Tom has experience writing reviews, guides, news, and features, and has been responsible for teams of writers, training them and editing their work.

Tom graduated with a Masters in Multimedia Journalism, and has since gone on to build up his portfolio of games journalism work.

Unsurprisingly, considering it is the home for almost every game ever made, Steam plays host to some truly exceptional experiences. From triple-A masterpieces to indies that continue to prove exactly why the medium of video games is a legitimate art form, Steam's best and brightest are unbelievably good and well worth playing. Among the very greatest and highest-rated games on the platform are a handful of free games, ones that deliver the same level of quality and content but without requiring the player to pay a dime.

Among some of the best free Steam games stands a truly essential experience, a must-play that should be on everyone's radar and in everyone's library. It has already been thoroughly enjoyed by tens of thousands of people, if not many more, and continues to be an engrossing and memorable experience six years after launch. If you're yet to play one of the highest-rated games on Steam, then now is absolutely your chance.

Steam's Highest Rated Free Game Is A Blast

Among all the highly-rated games on Steam enjoying their Overwhelmingly Positive status is a small indie project that's completely free and void of any and all microtransactions. It is a labor of love (rather literally) from developer vanripper, a thoroughly enjoyable, extremely fun, and ultimately satisfyingly head-scratching puzzle title with a hint of anime-infused narrative. If that sounds even remotely appealing, then Helltaker is absolutely and unequivocally for you.

In Helltaker, players assume the role of a human hellbent on gathering a harem of sharply dressed demon girls and will go to any lengths, including dying grisly deaths, to achieve their goal. Sure, it's a little tongue-in-cheek and a tad risqué for some gamers, but those who don't fall in love with Helltaker's admittedly impressive art style and penchant for horned women in suits will still want to check it out for its compelling puzzle gameplay.

Helltaker is completely playable on Steam Deck, making it a phenomenal experience to take on the go, so long as you don't mind nearby strangers staring at all the demon girls you've collected.

Behind the somewhat horny gameplay lies a frankly robust series of puzzles that see players attempt to get to a certain location while using only a handful of moves. Landing on dangerous spaces will cut down your number of moves significantly, so it isn't just about ensuring you've navigated its maze-like levels successfully, but also timing each move across each square carefully. While Helltaker skews on the shorter side, it is undeniably one of the most enjoyable short video games available on Steam.

If You've Never Played Helltaker, Now Is The Time

If you have somehow skipped Helltaker or simply never heard of it, then now is absolutely the time to play it. Both its art style and gameplay are pretty timeless, with it offering just the right amount of challenge to be entertainingly replayable and a narrative that's more than fun enough to warrant a complete playthrough. Coming in at just over an hour, Helltaker won't take you very long to beat at all, which makes it the perfect puzzle title to unwind with over a weekend.

Helltaker was released back in 2020, and in the years since then, the game received an anniversary update that added a new chapter, as well as a lot of love from its ever-growing community. Its developer also released another completely free game that currently has Overwhelmingly Positive reviews on Steam too, called Awaria. So, if Helltaker isn't your thing, then there's always Awaria as a back-up option, although I suspect many will likely enjoy it more than they're anticipating.

As aforementioned, Helltaker is also completely free. There aren't any hidden fees or demon girls locked behind microtransactions or gacha mechanics. It is just a great game uploaded by a passionate developer for free. With well over 50,000 reviews (97% of which are positive), Helltaker is clearly a worthwhile experience, if only for that initial hour of gameplay and demon girl collecting. So, do yourself a favor and play one of Steam's most highly-rated free games of all time, as I assure you, you won't regret it.