By I’ve been dropping into Tyr on my Steam Deck, and it’s easily one of the more interesting free-to-play shooters I’ve picked up recently. It’s an 8v8 tank arena game from Stoke Games that just hit Early Access, and instead of the usual twitch-shooter reflexes, it leans hard into positioning and teamwork.
What Tyr actually is
Tyr puts you in control of a heavily armoured vehicle rather than a foot soldier, and every tank handles differently. Each one comes with its own unique abilities, and you upgrade it as a match goes on, so a tank you’re piloting at the start of a round can evolve into something noticeably stronger by the end. Right now there are more than 12 unlockable tanks and 5 maps to fight across, all built around 8v8 team battles rather than free-for-all chaos. It’s genuinely more strategic than it first looks — good positioning and knowing when to push or fall back matters more than raw aim.
It’s also permanently free-to-play. The developers have been clear that all gameplay content is and will remain unlockable without paying, even once the game leaves Early Access — there’s a Founder’s Pack for anyone who wants to support development early, but it’s not required to access anything.
Playing it on Steam Deck
Valve hasn’t put an official Steam Deck compatibility rating on it yet, which isn’t surprising for something this fresh out of Early Access, but I had no trouble getting into matches and controlling my tank on the Deck. Given how new the game is, I’d treat performance and control mapping as still settling in rather than fully locked down, but the core loop of driving, aiming, and using each tank’s abilities translated fine to a handheld.
Worth jumping in now?
With Very Positive reviews on Steam already and a dev team that’s explicitly building this around community feedback during a planned 12-month Early Access period, Tyr feels like a good one to get in on early. Since it costs nothing to try, if you’re after something with more depth than the average arena shooter, it’s worth grabbing on your Steam Deck and seeing how a few matches feel.