If you have a Chromebook Plus, then you also have access to the Steam client beta. That means there’s a whole universe of video games that could potentially run on your little laptop thanks to the Proton compatibility layer for Linux.
I own hundreds of games on Steam, most of which are on the compatibility list for my Chromebook Plus, so I tried as many of them as I could and these turned out to be the best, in my opinion.
I have a base-model Chromebook Plus with a Core i3 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 128GB eMMC for storage. So any of my performance impressions for the games below are essentially the worst-case scenario. If you own a Chromebook Plus with higher specs, then you can run games that my laptop has no hope of attempting, but the games I’ve listed below should run well onanyChromebook Plus.
I have tested each of these games for an hour or two and did not run into any issues, but, of course, that does not mean there isn’t some part of the game that might misbehave using the compatibility layer, just as it might on a Steam Deck.
8Final Fantasy 13
I originally boughtFinal Fantasy 13as a showcase title for my PlayStation 3 and brand new 51-inch 720p plasma TV. It was a beautiful game that pushed computer graphics at the time, so in the back of my mind it’s hard to imagine it running on a cheap laptop with integrated graphics.
Except, time has moved on and to my surprise the game runs pretty much at a locked 30fps at 1080p on my Chromebook Plus. I only played for a few hours (I got sucked in) but during that time the performance was perfectly playable. The biggest issue with this game on my Chromebook is that it’s huge and takes up half the storage! Sadly the Steam Beta for ChromeOS doesn’t yet support installing games on an SD card.
7Elder Scrolls Oblivion
I’m not talking about the excellent recent remaster, of course, but the original PC version of arguably Bethesda’s best RPG to date. I distinctly remember having to save up for a GTX 8800GT in order to play this game at good settings and frame rates, and now it plays pretty much perfectly on a cheap little laptop meant for light office work and school.
Sadly, despite originally being an Xbox 360 game, the PC version of Oblivion doesn’t have good modern Xbox controller support, but honestly this game plays much better with a mouse anyway, so not much lost there if you ask me.
6Undertale
It should be no surprise that this indie 8-bit style JRPG runs well on a Chromebook. It would run well on just about anything with a CPU and a screen, but it is a perfect little game to boot up on Steam when you feel like some retro-style adventuring and also having a little cry now and then as this subversive title catches you off guard.
5Doom 64
It would be easy just to put the original classicDOOMgames here, but everyone has played those by this point and they will run on literally anything.DOOM 64, however, has only recently been liberated from the Nintendo 64 and lots of people never got to play the true “DOOM 3”.
The game runs perfectly on my Chromebook Plus, and best of all it plays just fine with only keyboard controls, though gamepad support is there if you want it and you can use a mouse too.
4Borderlands 2
The bestBorderlandsgame in the series so far runs just fine at 1080p on a Chromebook Plus, as long as you’re willing to keep the settings at or near the lowest level, apart from texture settings which you can, of course, push up to take advantage of however much RAM your Chromebook has. The game’s cel-shaded graphics help it scale gracefully, so it still looks pretty good even at those lower settings.
3Disco Elysium
This weird and wonderful isometric RPG needs its settings toned down a little for my Chromebook to consistently stay above 30fps at 1080p, but given the play style and type of game this is, that’s not a huge issue. This is exactly the sort of slow-paced game you can enjoy after work or school, when all you might have with you is your Chromebook Plus. It still looks just fine at lower settings, and its strength is in the narrative anyway.
Dread Delusionis a first-person RPG with retro PS1-inspired graphics. I mainly play this on my handheld PC (and it has great gamepad support) but trying it out on my Chromebook Plus was surprisingly a good experience. Personally I turn the wobbly textures and geometry effects off in this game, and at 1080p it’s consistently above 30fps for the sections I played. I did have some mild audio glitching in the opening cinematic, but not in the game itself.
Dread Delusionis an awesome mix of old-school graphics and RPG mechanics, with some new-school polish, Worth a go if you likeThe Elder Scrolls: Morrowind,for example.
1Hades
Indie darling rogueliteHadesdeserves all the praise it gets, and I’m happy to report that the Steam version of the game runs pretty much perfectly at 1080p 60fps on my modest Chromebook Plus. However, at startup make sure you choose the DirectX version of the game. It might seem counterintuitive, but the native Vulkan version of the game is choppy running through the translation layer.
Of all the games on this list, I’d say thatHadesis the only one where you really need to use a gamepad. Although the game works with a mouse and keyboard, the moves you need to pull off with some weapons sets just aren’t ergonomic without a gamepad.
There are many more games that I tried that could be added to this list.Fallout 3works perfectly, for one thing. So ifOblivionisn’t your jam, you’re able to go in that direction instead. There are also games with native Linux versions, such asHalf Life 2, which is another game I had to build a whole PC to play back in the day. That also runs like butter, and it’s usually pretty cheap on Steam if you’ve never experienced it before.
Sure Steam on Chromebook Plus is still a beta feature, but if you already have a Chromebook Plus, and you already have a big Steam library, why not see which games run well, and it could save you from boredom at your next conference or between lectures?
