I've been a PC gamer pretty much my whole life. I haven't played every title, but I have run across some really high quality free games that I think should get special mention. These aren't chintzy little arcade games made in Flash, these are top notch full length well made PC games with high replay value and hours upon hours of quality entertainment.
In no particular order we begin with:
Team Fortress 2
- Genre: First Person Shooter MMO
- Publisher: Valve, 2007
- Price: 100% Free
- Website: www.teamfortress.com
Team Fortress is, imho, the best FPS I have ever played. From the cartoony graphic style to the strategic and tactical depth of class builds, team composition, and the rewards for pure skill, this game is flat out awesome.
Don't let the whimsical graphic style fool you, this game delivers everything that a fantastic shooter should. The game is primarily online so you'll be trading kills with real people all over the world. You can play single player against bots if you like, but most players will quickly outgrow that and venture online where the real fun is to be had. As the title implies, their is an implicit emphasis on teamwork. Each round will have an objective like capture the briefcase, king of the hill, or assault / defend the base, all of which will require teamwork to complete. There are 9 different classes to choose from, each with a distinctive play style and weapon choices that are fulfilling to learn and master and compliment each other, once again playing into the need to work together as a team. Games are often very competitive, but almost always in a fun way where you can not wait to get back into the fray. Matches are often short but start up again in seconds. Since each team is constantly adding new players every time one of your mates decides he's had enough you never feel obligated to play for any length of time. Furthermore TF2 has something that most FPS never will; personality. Simply watch the 'Meet the Team' movies and you'll see what I mean. I have logged well over a hundred hours on this title. Everything about the game runs smoothly (unless you have a bad internet connection) and the combination of a graphic style that ages well and well honed, well developed game play makes this old game a timeless classic.
The business model for this game is completely 100% player friendly and free. Every class, every map, and every game-mode are available right from the start. Every weapon is unlockable by simply playing (random drops after games). Players can purchase weapons and upgrades for money, but this does not give them an advantage over players who don't put money down, it simply unlocks these items faster. Even the aesthetic items (hats) are available to players who play for free although they take a ridiculously long time to get without simply buying them.
All in all, a high quality and unique FPS with years of feedback and experience implemented to make it the best FPS it could possibly be and it's 100% free.
League of Legends
- Genre: Difficult to Identify (tactical team-based RPG MMO?)
- Publisher: Riot Games, 2009
- Price: 100% Free
- Website: www.leagueoflegends.com
League of Legends is currently the most popular MMO in the world. If you are into PC gaming and you haven't at least heard of LoL then something aint right. You choose from one of like a bazillion 'heroes' play as and then you are paired up with up to four other players to go compete against the enemy team in the "Fields of Justice" (a big arena with three lanes, jungle in between, and a river down the middle). You are only ever in control of your one character and you must use your character's abilities, the map's ambush points, and your team's assistance to try and kill the other team's heroes and wreck their towers. As you kill heroes and AI controlled 'minions' you will earn gold which you use to buy new items which increase you hero's stats / abilities, eventually becoming powerful enough to blow up their base. It's a fairly simple concept in theory, and the game is easy and fun to get into, but the longer you play the more you realize that the game has an incredible amount of depth. Each of the bazillion champions is unique and brings something special to the arena. Some are easy to learn and others very complicated. Different combinations of champions make the team play especially interesting. The game is unbalanced, but in a healthy way. No one champion or strategy is over powered because each champion and strategy are so different that whenever one champion or strategy becomes dominant it is only a matter of time before it is countered by a new one or a previously forgotten one. Regardless of champion or strategy though, this game really knows how to reward skill. The battles are fun and replayable over and over with other players or with bots. You are generally placed among team mates and opponents with a similar skill level to yourself, so this game is accessible to new players and hardcore competitive veterans alike.
The business model for this game is clever and 100% friendly to the player. Every champion and customization bonus (called runes) can be unlocked by simply playing the game and earning IP with each game. You could, in theory, unlock all of the characters and all of the upgrades by just playing. Even better though, League of Legends will alternate a set of champions that everyone gets to try out for free every two weeks or so, so that you can try out other champions without needing to gamble with your hard earned IP. You can also purchase 'Riot Points' with real cash and then use those RP to purchase heroes, upgrades, and 'skins'. Players who pay for game content with real money have no advantage over those who have earned their content by playing. The only thing that paying players have access to that non-paying players do not is purely aesthetic options, different costumes and 'skins' for your champions which have absolutely no bearing on game-play.
All in all, a fantastic, well crafted skill based and team focused game with infinite hours of potential fun and 100% free.
Dwarf Fortress
- Genre: Management / City Building
- Publisher: Bay 12 Games, 2006
- Price: 100% Free
- Website: http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/
Dwarf Fortress.... oh Dwarf Fortress. Wow, how do I introduce this game? Perhaps with a disclaimer. This game is not for the casual gamer or the faint of heart. It uses old-school text based graphics and interface and is about as intuitive as driving a tank blindfolded... but oh Dwarf Fortress... how I love thee...
Dwarf Fortress is a purely unique experience. It has three 'game modes' but I'm only going to address 'Fortress Mode' where you are put in charge of a group of seven dwarves who embark to create a new home in the great and treacherously deadly world. You tell them what to build, which trees to chop down, what sort of food to eat, what sort of armor to wear (and the long arduous process of how to build said armor), and so on. The game is micro / macro management to the extreme. You are in charge of absolutely EVERYTHING for the dwarves under your care. The game looks and feels like ye olde textbased DOS game, but it is probably one of the largest and most complicated games ever created. The entire world, every single dwarf, every single event, every single goblin and weapon and barrel of ale is recorded for the entire game world... and the world builds itself for years before you even begin to play. Every time you embark you are already a part of an entire universe that has been put into motion. Each one of your dwarves has a full on personality and history that they remember and make mention of in the engravings and art objects you will need to make in order to trade for materials.
What do you do in Dwarf Fortress exactly? Well, you use the keyboard to designate what areas will be dug out and what trees will be chopped down. You designated which workshop will be placed where as well as which of the bazillion different types of goods and resources will be stored for easy and efficient use. You tell each workshop what to make and how many to make. You tell the dwarves how to wire their mechanical bridges and doors and traps to make truly innovative defense systems. You instruct them as to which places are safe to go under different levels of alert (which you must manually activate). And they go. You never have direct control over them though, only indirect suggestions of what needs doing and the dwarves with their individual AI sort themselves out to go and do those things.
The game has a learning curve like the Grand Canyon and many an expedition will die... horribly... and often. This title is really more of a simulation than a game. Your objective is to build a home for your dwarves and exist. It starts out easy at first. The dwarves find a peaceful little area to call home, so you dig out a spot where they can sleep at night and chop down some trees to make beds and barrels to store the food and ale which is produced from a farm. Then more dwarves migrate to your fledgling outpost and you decide to dig deeper so that everybody has a room and maybe venture out to the river to include fish on the menu. Then you set up a production line so that your craftsdwarves have easy access to rocks and jewels to create items for trade so that you can plant new types of crops or get better tools. Then more dwarves come and you're beginning to consider a metal smelting production chain and maybe some walls and drawbridges to keep the pastures and the overland crops safe from goblin raids... Before you know it you're managing the freaking Mines of Moria and after having delved too deeply and too greedily you're locked in a bloody battle with an army of goblins, demons, cave spiders, and some nameless elder beast monster thing forgotten since the creation of the world!
Thankfully there is an extensive wiki to tell you what the heck everything is and how it works. There is also a very helpful set of add-ons and tools (the Lazy Newb Pack) to make entry into Dwarf Fortress much easier and nicer on the eyes (it includes a graphics pack)
The attention to detail in Dwarf Fortress is simply astounding. Since the graphics are practically non-existent but your imagination begins to fill in the gaps. I once watched small letter 'c' move around the map chasing a glowing green '*' and so I paused the game to access the 'look' feature to tell me what these symbols represented. The 'c' was a cat that had a full on description and the '*' was a firefly. The cat was chasing the firefly... and had somehow managed to get outside even though I locked the doors. Even the cats have personality in Dwarf Fortress.
As already mentioned, this game is not for the faint of heart but there is no city builder or management game like it anywhere. The difficulty and the learning curve is part of the "fun".
The business model is to pay what you would like as a donation if you liked it. It's a free download. The game is still in pre-Alpha, which means that more content will be added to an already full and well crafted 'experience'.
Lord of the Rings Online
- Genre: MMORPG
- Publisher: Turbine Inc, Midway Games, 2007
- Price: "Freemium" (friendly)
- Website: http://www.lotro.com/en
Basically World of Warcraft in Middle Earth with some tweaks to make it work well. You enter the world of Middle Earth as a level 1 warrior / champion / hunter / bard / burglar / rune master / etc and through questing and adventure you acquire new skills and abilities with which to go out into the world and continue to quest and adventure. It's the timeless WoW formula of MMO that we've all come to know and love and it's free... ish.
The business model is 'Freemium' where you can play for free but can only unlock premium content with 'Turbine Points'. Certain classes, Unlimited wallet space, mounts, larger inventory storage, Mid - High level instances, items, crafting recipes, and zones will require you to turn in Turbine Points to access them. You can purchase Turbine Points from the online store or you can earn Turbine Points by accomplishing various challenges and deeds scattered throughout Middle Earth. I don't know if you can earn enough Turbine Points to unlock all of the premium content, but I know that you earn enough to acquire a mount and gain larger access to the auction house fairly quickly.
For those who have read the books / seen the movies and have taken an interest in Tolkien's world this game is a treat. References and ruins of ancient kingdoms, iconic locations and people, and an awareness of canonicity have been woven into this world.
I haven't attempted the PvP portion of the game just yet...
All in all, a well and carefully crafted MMO with beautiful settings and smooth and balanced game play which might be 100% free if you are really dedicated to hunting down those Turbine Points.
Star Wars The Old Republic
- Genre: MMORPG
- Publisher: EA / BioWare, 2011
- Price: 'Freemium' (annoying)
- Website: http://www.swtor.com/
Basically the tried and true World of Warcraft formula except in the Star Wars Universe with a few notable tweaks to make it different. The game story picks up where BioWare's Knights of the Old Republic I and II left off (about a thousand years before the events of the prequel movies). You can play for either the Republic or the Empire as one of four classes, each of which morphs into one of two 'advanced classes' at level 10 (so 8 classes total). You go out questing and adventuring like your typical MMO but BioWare has added the element of narrative to the mix. Every quest is fully voice acted and you get to interact with NPCs through a variety of choices of dialogue which are also voice acted. The addition of narrative is fun and even compelling if you enjoy story-telling... which is Bio-Ware's strong suit... but if you don't care for such things then it's basically a less popular WoW.
The business model is an annoying implementation of 'Freemium'. Each of the classes and advanced classes are available and so is all of their story up to level 50 (the highest level) but instances, using the auction house, PvP, mounts, action bars, and nearly every item worth having requires Cartel Coins which are acquired by paying money for them online. Unlike Lord of the Rings Online, you can not acquire these Cartel Coins by simply playing the game, you must pay for them. This wouldn't be so bad if the game weren't designed to severely limit you early on and continuously show you what you COULD be getting if you bought a subscription. While I'm sure it is 'possible' to finish the main story-line up to level 50 I'm not sure how anyone could manage it with only 2 puny action bars and at least 3 dozen abilities that all need to be used. I got too frustrated to keep playing when they gave me options for quest rewards and 3 out of the 4 options were for subscription players only and they visibly penalized my XP for not having a subscription.
All in all, a good game... possibly even really good, but a really poor implementation of the Freemium system.
World of Tanks
- Genre: Strategic MMO
- Publisher: Wargaming.net, 2010
- Price: 'Freemium' (Professional)
- Website: http://worldoftanks.com/
World of Tanks is a unique game that finds a good balance between tank simulation and engaging competitive MMO game-play. In each game you pilot (?) a tank and together with your 14 team members work to destroy / outsmart the enemy team. Every match is 15 vs 15 and the game modes are capture the flag and attack / defend. The maps are well crafted and change often enough to offer a wide variety of strategic and tactical game-play.
You start out with a collection of humble WWII era Tier I tanks from the nations of Germany, Russia, USA, Britain, France, and China. You earn XP and silver coins depending on how well you do in each match with which to research and purchase upgrades for your tank as well as access new vehicles. There are different 'classes' of vehicle, each of which has its own strategic worth and different game-play; Light Tanks, Medium Tanks, Heavy Tanks, Tank Destroyers, and Artillery. Following the tech tree for each nation can be fun and working your way up into the higher tiers of vehicle brings out the nuances in each vehicle type even more. Once you blow up you are dead and can either continue as an observer or leave the match (which rarely takes longer than 10 minutes).
Special word needs to be given to the strategic game-play. In order to do well in this game you will find yourself imitating and possibly spending some time to research actual tactics that tank commanders used in WWII. Things like camouflage, spotting, elevation, and facing make a huge difference in how well you do in a match. Being aware of how your armor is slanted and how you face the enemy will increase the chance that shots will ricochet off of you and do no damage at all. Patience and skill is always rewarded whereas typical FPS run and gun tactics will most likely get you killed very quickly.
The business model is a well implemented type of 'Freemium'. In order to access the 'premium' content you need to purchase 'gold' (which is purchased with real money). Only certain tanks are considered 'premium' and can only be purchased with gold. These tanks are only marginally better than other tanks of that tier, which means that people who pay money get a small advantage but not enough to be frustrating to everyone else. Gold also allows you to purchase permanent paint jobs (as opposed to paint that falls off after a month if you purchase it with silver) and powerful 'gold rounds' of ammunition (which can also be purchased with silver for a hefty fee). Buying a subscription with gold will increase your XP and silver per game and allow you to create a platoon of up to three people to enter matches together. All other tanks (as well as forming a platoon of two) are available to the players who do not purchase gold. I say that this is a professional setup of the 'Freemium' system because it's not in your face and you can have tons of fun without it and don't feel limited or under-powered in any way. However, some of those premium tanks look pretty good and by the time you get to about tier VII the extra silver per match would be nice because it begins to cost lots of silver to repair your blown up tank and resupply your ammunition stores. It's not in your face but it's tempting.
All in all, a fantastic and unique game, very well designed, and a blast to play and, if you can withstand the temptation to purchase gold, 100% free!
Pirates of the Burning Sea
Pirates of the Burning Sea is the only naval simulation MMO available. You start in the Caribbean as a captain for one of the four nations (Britain, France, Spain, Pirates) and use your ship and sword-arm to quest about the Caribbean and make trouble for the other nations. The game-play is purely unique. For the ship to ship combat part of the game you are sailing your vessel and need to be conscious of wind direction, cannon range, reload times, and which part of you is facing the enemy when they are lining you up for a broadside. Ship battles kind of feel like slow motion chess where you need to constantly be thinking ahead to take advantage of the wind and position yourself to inflict maximum damage while at the same time staying out of your enemy's arc of fire. You start out by fighting NPCs either for a quest or out on the high seas, but a skirmish between players can have up to six players on either side pummeling each other with cannonballs. Port Battles feature up to fifty players on each side. Fighting alone is very different than fighting in a fleet. Fleet tactics, the type used in authentic ship battles from the 1600 - 1700's are essential to effective teamwork. Your ship only has so many 'durability points' (how many times you can sink before your ship is just gone) so be careful out there.
Pirates of the Burning Sea
- Genre: Ship Simulation MMO
- Publisher: Sony Online Entertainment, 2008
- Price: 'Freemium'
- Website: http://www.burningsea.com/page/home
Pirates of the Burning Sea is the only naval simulation MMO available. You start in the Caribbean as a captain for one of the four nations (Britain, France, Spain, Pirates) and use your ship and sword-arm to quest about the Caribbean and make trouble for the other nations. The game-play is purely unique. For the ship to ship combat part of the game you are sailing your vessel and need to be conscious of wind direction, cannon range, reload times, and which part of you is facing the enemy when they are lining you up for a broadside. Ship battles kind of feel like slow motion chess where you need to constantly be thinking ahead to take advantage of the wind and position yourself to inflict maximum damage while at the same time staying out of your enemy's arc of fire. You start out by fighting NPCs either for a quest or out on the high seas, but a skirmish between players can have up to six players on either side pummeling each other with cannonballs. Port Battles feature up to fifty players on each side. Fighting alone is very different than fighting in a fleet. Fleet tactics, the type used in authentic ship battles from the 1600 - 1700's are essential to effective teamwork. Your ship only has so many 'durability points' (how many times you can sink before your ship is just gone) so be careful out there.
For the sword fighting portion of the game you, as captain, leap into the fray with your weapon of choice and together with your crew / allies hack and slash and shoot your way to victory. If you feel that you've weakened the enemy crew enough with grapeshot you can board their vessel and engage them in hand to hand.
In between these two game modes you'll either be walking around various ports or traveling in your ship in the big Caribbean map, taking advantage of the wind and sea currents, waving to passing players, and avoiding the 'red zones' (or prowling within them) which is where players can fight each other.
The leveling system is typical. Killing ships and completing quests gives you XP and coin. XP gets you levels which in turn allow you to unlock new abilities. The abilities and classes are varied enough to make the experience different over a number of characters. Ships are varied in their statistics and created for different types of game-play strategy. Ships can be upgraded with a variety of options that increase as you level up.
The game features a player run economy where every ship, every cannon ball, and every upgrade and consumable is crafted by the players and sold via the auction houses. (this is reminiscent of Eve Online's economy model) Players will be able to build plantations, mines, processing factories, shipyards and a host of other economic buildings to gain the resources required to make their own stuff and sell it to other players, but never enough to be self-sufficient. This encourages players to ban together into various 'societies' so that they can build the big ships by working together.
What further sets this game apart is the level of PvP interaction. Almost every port in the game can be captured by any of the four nations. Aggressive players begin by blockading a port and killing all the NPCs that sail to and from it. This will eventually create a 'red zone' around the port so that players can begin fighting other players and NPC fleets of warships begin to appear. As the level of disorder grows, so does the red zone. Economically minded players can smuggle in weapons and supplies for the rebels within the port to further increase disorder. Eventually, if the attackers are not driven away, ownership of the port is decided in a 50 vs 50 port battle where everybody brings out their best ships to fight. Once one of the four factions has earned enough conquest points, everybody from that faction gets a 'you win the map' award and the board resets.
The business model is another 'Freemium' but I purchased the game when it first came out so I haven't actually played with the Freemium restraints. I think you can play right to the end and access all of the ships and auction house options, but you are limited to two economic buildings (as opposed to 10) and only two characters.
* As tempting as it might be, don't make your first character as a pirate. This game is a simulation, and pirates had some serious disadvantages over against the other three nations.
Overall, a unique game with well polished ship simulation mechanics and engaging multiplayer elements (if you're into playing with other people in an MMO) and Free...ish.
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