Steam has made a popular PC game from the 2010s free to download and keep, but the limited-time offer is poised to expire on October 12. After this, the PC game in question will revert to its normal price point, which is $5. This offer is available to traditional PC users, but not to Steam Deck users. The free Steam game not only runs on the Valve handheld, but is also Steam Deck Verified, which means it is tested and approved by Valve itself.
In addition to a free and new Capcom-like game, all Steam users can currently grab Daniel Mullins Games’ 2016 puzzle-adventure game, Pony Island, ahead of its long-awaited sequel. For those unfamiliar with this title, it was one of the indie hits of 2016 and the debut release from Daniel Mullins, who would go on to release The Hex in 2018 and Inscryption in 2021, the latter of which he is best known for, and a game that has been available for free itself. While Inscryption is Daniel Mullin’s most well-known game, Pony Island is actually his highest-rated, at least on Metacritic, where it has an 86. It couples this with a 94% approval rating across 8,015 user reviews. This is just short of earning it an “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating, the highest rating possible on the Valve platform. To this end, the game — which has never been released on console — is arguably the most noteworthy free Steam giveaway of 2026, though far from the only one.
As for the game itself, it is pitched as “a suspense puzzle game in disguise.” In it, you are in limbo between heaven and hell, trapped in a malevolent and malfunctioning arcade machine made by the devil himself. And the devil hates when his poor programming is exposed and his puzzles solved, so you will need to think outside the box and use all of the power of your brain to overcome the tricks the devil has put in place to prevent you from doing exactly this.
For those curious if the award-winning game holds up in 2016? Yes. It’s still the same game. In other words, it was a novel experience in 2016 made on a humble budget, so technological progress has not aged it. That said, you could argue it’s less novel than when it came out, largely due to the passage of time, copycats, and the ever-expanding indie scene.
“Deep, rich, and unsettling metanarrative packed in a 3-hour story. Wonderful game,” reads one of the most popular user reviews for it on Steam. Another adds, “A joy to play. Good puzzles, cool visuals, an interesting story, and it sticks around just long enough not to wear out its welcome.”
As the user review above alludes to, the game is not very long; hence the MSRP of $5. It’s about 2 to 5 hours long, depending on variables like playthrough style, completion rate, and puzzle-solving ability. Meanwhile, it doesn’t offer anything in terms of replayability.
The timing of the Steam giveaway arrives at a great time because, as you can see in the trailer above, it has horror elements that make it a great play for the broader Halloween season.
