It’s an unfortunate economic fact that good games – hell even crap games – cost money. We’re all used to walking into our local retailer with a spring in our step and gaming on our mind, steadfastly weaving our way through the crowds towards our intended purchase driven by the unseen energy that is anticipation.
This is followed by the less than fantastic feeling of running – desperately screaming for help – from the store with your game(s) under your arm and a white-hot, almost beautiful patch of flame and ash burning through your pants where your wallet used to be. But it doesn’t always have to be this way, there’s an often forgotten about ‘other world’ at your fingertips, a place where great gaming experiences lie in wait for you to find.
We’ve decided to save you the effort however, of having to scour the internet looking for them, and instead bring you an inventory of what we consider to be some of the best free games available. It’s by no means the definitive list, simply because there’s too much greatness out there being given away for free for us to ever contain it all in one place. Instead we have a selection, a platter of some of the shining gems that have the potential to amuse you for hours without leaving you begging on a street corner for loose change to help furnish your cardboard box abode.
So without further ado, we bring you ‘the list’ – with a good spread of everything from First-Person-Shooters to MMORPGs, take a look, find what you like and start playing.
Free Games #1: F.E.A.R Combat (FPS)There’s no doubt that even now – three years on – F.E.A.R is still one of the most polished, playable and downright beautiful FPS games on the market. While the single player game was a retail release, Vivendi/Monolith went on to release F.E.A.R Combat, a multiplayer only version of F.E.A.R completely free. The free release is in essence F.E.A.R without the single player campaign, focusing entirely on the arguably more fun multiplayer component of the title.
It’s missing the fine threads of scare-factor woven into the single player storyline like the little girl who pops up to torment you through the levels, but F.E.A.R Combat more than makes up for this by including an incredibly solid selection of official maps, polished graphics thanks to the Lithtech engine (capable of volumetric and per-pixel lighting for abundant in-game atmosphere) and the full array of awesome sci-fi weaponry present in the original retail game. If you’re in the market for a fast paced death-match game with the sparkle of a professional release but none of the cost, F.E.A.R Combat is perfectly suited.
Free Games #2: America’s Army: Special Forces (FPS)Quite possibly the best thing to come out of the US government is this free tactical shooter, initially developed as a quasi-training/recruitment tool for the US Army but having the side effect of being a thoroughly enjoyable and completely free FPS. America’s Army is akin to Counter Strike on a larger scale and with a more advanced engine but holding onto the same sense of realism that made CS such a popular game. It’s a definite change of pace from the ‘trigger twitch’ style of game play that comes with titles like Unreal Tournament, preferring to offer the player an accurate depiction of front line combat in a number of different roles like sniper, automatic rifleman or team leaders.
The game is team focused, with objectives carried out by either the assaulting or defending team. Due to the game being designed to reflect real wartime combat, fighting is done under the umbrella of ‘rules of engagement’ (ROE) which will reward the player with experience points for correct ROE such as completing objectives while decreasing the same experience pool for killing team mates with friendly fire or failing to protect assets. Adding to the realism factor is the fact that before you can play online, you must complete a series of compulsory training objectives, such as weapon use and in-combat movement. This means you’re pretty much primed and ready to go long before you’re deposited on a map to start tearing up players with an AK-47. America’s Army is a goldmine for players who enjoy a realistic tactical shooter that rewards skill and tactics as much as it does peppering the landscape with bullets.
Free Games #3: Alien Arena 2008 (FPS)Sometimes it’s not about tactics, subtle political nuances or complex character progression through a persistent system of skills.Sometimes it’s about running fast, and blasting people into little motes of plasma. Alien Arena 2008 comes screaming into our free games spot to fill such a void neatly and efficiently. The game builds on ID Software’s ‘CRX’ engine, providing a sci-fi multiplayer (and singleplayer) frag-fest in the vein of Quake or Unreal Tournament. The action takes place over a staggering 60 odd maps of mayhem, with players suiting up as very retro looking aliens before getting thrown into the action to obliterate each other.
Team Deathmatch and Capture The Flag are the order of the day here, with the CRX engine providing decent graphics with the occasional surprisingly sweet eye candy like bloom or accurate water reflections. Gaming is thick and fast; expect to respawn often and under heavy fire. That’s at the heart of the game, and appeals to those who want to fire up, jump in, mash keys and log out. It’s the perfect way to unwind after a hard day doing something other than gaming, and comes recommended for those with a penchant for laser beams and power-up laden multiplayer maps. It’s another open source release, so anyone on Windows, Mac OS or Linux can give it a try.
Free Games #4: Exception (Arcade)We’ll get the downside of Exception out of the way up front. It’s Japanese, which is fine – except if you’re not fluent with the written language you’ll have absolutely no idea how to configure anything in the options menu. Fortunately, we didn’t find a need to change any of the default settings for this amazingly addictive side scrolling shooter. Exception is a rocking blast-fest that takes the age old arcade game play of the side scrolling shooter, adds an up tempo soundtrack and slick 3D visual effects that leave you captivated level after level.
Flying your ship through waves of geometric shapes that loosely resemble enemy ships, you’ll find endless fun in blasting them into tiny blocks that persist on-screen for a while as floating debris. Holding the right mouse button down initiates a weapons lock on multiple targets unleashing a barrage of lasers in all directions. Every time you score a major hit the screen blurs and takes on a Matrix style bullet-time effect that’s effective in feeding the desire to continue the carnage. All these neat little touches, in combination with the much loved ‘boss fights’ at the end of each stage make Exception well worth a look.
Free Games #5: Shaiya (MMO)This game personifies the kind of quality and polish we’d love to see in every game that was free to play. Shaiya is the brainchild of Aeria games, and is a free to download and play MMORPG set in the high fantasy land of Teos. It’s heavy on the player-versus-player element, allowing players of the two factions ‘Alliance of Light’ and ‘Union of Fury’ to battle each other for control of Teos as well as the various monsters that inhabit the world. With two servers available for play and a healthy server population, Shaiya is an excellent introduction to the world of the MMO without the cost normally associated with them. Soft textures, gorgeous character models and some excellent anime influences make the world of Shaiya a treat to explore, with the player able to choose from a variety of character archetypes filling the usual warrior/mage/scout role. In typical MMO style, the player can complete quests to level their character, and form groups to complete objectives or attack players of the opposing realm. There seems to be very little that hasn’t been included in the Shaiya package with gamers able to tweak their characters abilities, fight epic battles and socialise in-game. There’s even free blogs and profiles set up on Aeria games homepage that allow you to connect with other players.
Shaiya is the perfect way for a new MMO player to get their feet wet before tackling something commercial – or if they like it enough – stick around to explore the world of Teos extensively. Rather than a monthly subscription model common to MMOs, Shaiya is supported through the optional purchase of ‘Aeria points’ via PayPal – in game points bought for money that can then be spent to purchase additional items or packages for your character in-game. It’s not compulsory, but obviously those who pour some cash into their character will be more powerful in-game than those who stick to the freebie model. Either way, Shaiya is a fantastic demonstration of how a fun MMO environment can be launched and supported without sticking you with a monthly subscription.
Free Games #6: Egoboo (RPG)This game is described by its creators as like Nethack, except with real-time 3D graphics, no Oracle and the ability to save your characters. While we’re not going to draw comparisons on that front, Egoboo does prove itself to be a tight little action RPG/dungeon crawl, with a visual style that’s reminiscent of N64 console style games, and we mean that in a good way. Primary colors, snappy music and a great atmosphere all drive you to keep playing so you can discover more treasure and more monsters. The in-game camera is positioned well, giving you a good eye over the action, and the variation in level designs, textures and bad guys keeps Egoboo from feeling like much of a progression grind. This isn’t one for the gamer who craves complexity and detail, but perhaps for the younger crowd or anyone looking for a break from any brain frying activity.
Free Games #7: Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (FPS)Another reason to love the GPL release of all things Quake III is Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, an oldie but a goodie in the world of free gaming. Originally slated for a commercial release, complications led to the whole thing being dumped out to the community as freeware, and we’re eternally grateful for that. W:ET puts you smack bang in the middle of World War II, with the opposing factions of Axis and Allies out to compete in objective driven game play across six official maps that’ll take you anywhere from North Africa to Europe. The game engine is showing its age a little, but still manages to afford some impressive periodic attention to detail both in the surroundings and the weapons.
There’s an experience system built in, allowing you advance your avatar’s skill set from match to match, although depending in the server configuration you will either retain or lose these skill advancements when you disconnect. There’s a strong community behind W:ET which makes playing it a joy, and the team focus makes for some ultra tense co-operation to get your objectives met and the round won. This game manages to put to shame many more recent commercial games, and is well worth a look. If you get bored with the vanilla game there’s also a plethora of mods available to tweak the game towards different styles. If you haven’t given Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory a try yet, do yourself a favour and download it now for some wicked 1930s tomfoolery with an M1 Garand.
Free Games #8: Anarchy Online (MMO)Developer Funcom is getting a mountain of press lately thanks to the release of Age Of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, but the company was involved in MMO development long before the release of the its latest brutal multiplayer title. Anarchy Online is a critically acclaimed science fiction MMO set in the year 29482 and follows the typical opposing factions model of most player-versus-player MMOs, this time it’s the hypercorporation Omni-Tek verus the rebel worker class, the ‘Clans’. Anarchy Online has all the staples of a commercial release, with stacks of fun character classes – fourteen in all – plentiful quests and worlds to explore either as a group co-operative effort or against other players if you’re feeling adversarial. Hell, it even allows player controlled mech warriors, which in our books is already gold star material.
Thankfully, you’ll pay a total sum of zero dollars for the chance to play the core Anarchy Online and its first expansion pack absolutely free of charge. Funcom have been running this ‘Free play program’ since 2004, and announced at the start of this year that it’ll be continuing through 2008. So for your zero bucks, you get a solid sci-fi MMORPG with good visuals, well executed trade-skilling (the ability to craft your own in-game items) refreshingly unique character classes and a living, breathing game world that continues to get top rate support from Funcom. There are also several expansions available to further enhance the game world, but you’re asked for a modest fee to purchase those. Like sci-fi and want to experience something massively multiplayer? Check out Anarchy Online, if for no other reason than you get to pilot a Mech.
Free Games #9: Kings Quest 1 (RPG)There’d hardly be a gamer alive that hasn’t at some point in their lives played one of Sierra’s ancient and much loved adventure game series. King’s Quest, Police Quest, Heroes Quest – to name but a few of the Quest line of games that drew us all into long nights and frustrating days solving grandiose 2D adventure scenarios. Anonymous Game Developers Interactive (AGDI) is a talented bunch of coders who are busy – as they put it – “reviving past adventures” by taking these old school games, touching them up with refreshed artwork and releasing them for us to enjoy all over again. To this end they’ve done a stellar job revitalising King’s Quest I & II with all new artwork rich in colours never imagined back when the originals were released, voice packs for in-game characters and a whole host of touch-ups that leave the key parts of Kings Quest intact to be loved all over again. A combined download of around 50MB, Kings Quest I and II should be on the hit list of anyone who wants a prettier trip down the gaming memory lane.
Free Games #10: Dofus (MMO)Yes, it’s just one ‘o’ away from having a really unfortunate name, but Dofus is one of those wonderfully odd games that seems to draw you in and leave you struggling to find a way out. With a huge anime influence, Dofus presents the player with a windowed mode game that’s largely 2D in nature, relying on sprites rather than 3D models to depict characters and surroundings. After account creation the player gets to customise a character to their liking, picking from a number of slightly off-beat classes and appearances, and are then thrown into a fantasy realm where they can complete quests and battle monsters alongside millions (yes, really!) of other players to progress their character.
The artwork in the game is stunning, with cute, colourful characters and static backgrounds with an attention to detail that makes them gorgeous to look at in their own right. The music – and indeed the whole environment – is bordering on ‘cartoon land’, which could make this suitable not just for the adult gamer, but kids as well. If you can imagine a well thought out hybrid of Kings Quest and Neopets shared between over three million players, you’ve got Dofus. It’s fun and appealing even if the learning curve (particularly for the turn based combat) is a little steep, and given enough time you’ll have trouble tearing yourself away. Coming in at around 150MB for the full client, there’s no reason not to give this a try, especially if you’re an anime fan or after some light-hearted adventure fun.
By James Matson, Gameplayer