In what seems like a daunting, never-ending stream of new games, rereleases of old titles, sequels, prequels, and reboots, gaming is often viewed as a bottomless financial waste pit, or at least as a severely overpriced hobby.
To further complicate matters, gaming companies are constantly coming up with new ways to circumvent the $60 price cap – all-but-mandatory DLCs, bloated Season Passes, outrageous microtransactions, the list goes on and on.
Luckily for us gamers, the situation isn’t all doom and gloom – thanks to the many free games that we can play. Some of these are fan projects, others have been made gratis by online digital distribution storefronts such as Steam, GOG, and Epic, and then there are those that have had their copyright and/or purchasing rights lapse, so they effectively became abandonware.
While many of them can’t quite boast the same level of next-gen graphics, professional voice acting, and overall production values that rival big-budget AAA titles, they are nevertheless full of charm and enticing gameplay.
Here are some of the best free PC games and where you can get them from.
Related: Epic Games Free Games List
#1 Best Free Retro Adventure Remakes – King’s Quest I-III (2001-2011)
When discussing which game series contributed the most to video gaming as a whole, the King’s Quest titles are right up there at the very top.
Released way back in 1984, it was the first “modern” adventure game, featuring (at the time) never-before-seen elements in the genre such as character animation (up to that point, adventure games mostly consisted of static screens) and pseudo-3D movement.
In short – it single-handedly invented the graphic adventure game genre.
But, revolutionary as these games are, it only takes a single glance to conclude that they haven’t aged well – especially the first three titles. But, thanks to a dedicated team of fans, we can now play these relics of a bygone era with more contemporary amenities: better graphics, music, VA, sound effects, and a UI that is far more user-friendly.
Gameplay
If you’ve ever played a Sierra – or, indeed, any classic point and click adventure game – from the 1990s, you already know how the gameplay functions in a game such as this. Your player character has a goal (a quest, if you will) that they are working towards achieving, and it is your job to guide them through a series of obstacles in the form of puzzles.
To solve these problems, you will have to converse with the various denizens – both human and otherwise – that inhabit the game world, figure out what they want from you or how to defeat them, collect items, and then use them in logical ways and at appropriate locations.
Since KQ is based on myths and traditional folk tales, many of the creatures you will encounter, as well as the solutions to their problems, will be recreations (though usually with a twist of some sort) of well-known fairy tales like Rumpelstiltskin.
Being Sierra games, there are many ways you can die in-game, but these sequences are all pretty apparent and easily avoidable if you’re paying attention to your surroundings and what’s being said.
Thankfully, most dead-ends (where you could be stuck and couldn’t finish the game if, for example, you missed your chance to pick up an important item right at the start) have been removed.
Graphics & Audio
The updated graphics and audio make for a world of difference. Primitive, blocky visuals and ear-piercing electric shrieks masquerading as SFX have been replaced with lovely retro pixel art, pleasing environmental sound effects, a nice soundtrack, and even full voice-overs for all the characters.
Josh Mandel, the man who voiced Sir/King Graham in the original series, returns to lend his vocal talents to the character in all three of these remakes.
All in all, in style and presentation, it’s reminiscent of point and click adventures from the early-to-mid-1990s.
Story
King’s Quest tells the tale of one royal family: Sir (later King) Graham, his wife Valanice, and their children Rosella and Alexander, across seven (some fans will try to convince you that there are, in fact, eight King’s Quest games. They are wrong, ignore them) fantastical KQ games.
In the first game, we meet Graham, a brave and noble knight who has been charged by his liege to recover the Three Great Treasures of Daventry – Merlin’s Mirror, the Shield of Achille, and the Chest of Gold. If he can retrieve these lost artifacts, he will inherit the throne.
At the start of the second game, titled King’s Quest II: Romancing the Stones, Graham has settled into his life as the new king of Daventry. But, something is missing from his life – love. After all, what is a king without a queen? He receives a vision of a beautiful woman and soon sets off to find his bride-to-be.
Initially, the third game, To Heir is Human, appears not to be directly connected to the previous two, starring a different protagonist – Gwydion, a slave to an evil wizard. When he learns that the wizard is planning to kill him when he turns 18, Gwydion must come up with a quick plan to free himself before he meets a grizzly end.
All three games feature greatly expanded storylines, with all-new characters, situations, and quest solutions. The overarching plot now makes a lot more sense.
Overall Review/Final Thoughts
Many fan remakes come off as amateurish, or with an unfinished look and feel to them. Not so with AGD Interactive’s King’s Quest projects.
If you’ve always wanted to play the first three KQ games but were turned off by the archaic presentation, then you can’t go wrong with these wonderful fan remakes.
#2 Best Free Realistic Shooter – Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (2012)
Another legendary game that reshaped and redefined online gaming as we know it, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is not just one of the best FPS games of all time, but a worthy successor to the first Counter-Strike – a game that that was responsible for so much fun and frustration at the dawn of the 21st century.
As of December 2018, Valve has made the game free-to-play, much to the delight of millions of CS:GO fans worldwide.
Gameplay
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive could best be described as the quintessential Counter-Strike upgrade. Everything is bigger, better, faster, prettier, flashier (yes, including the flash grenades) than it was, while still retaining that undeniable sense of thrilling action that made the original CS so popular in the first place.
Players are sorted into two opposing teams – the Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists. Depending on which of the nine-game modes (Competitive, Casual, Deathmatch, Arms Race, Demolition, Wingman, Flying Scoutsman, Danger Zone, and Weapons Course) you have selected, the style of play and your primary objective changes.
These include classic ones such as planting or defusing a bomb, guarding or rescuing hostages, all the way to battle-royale brawls.
Depending on how well you’ve completed these objectives and how many enemies you’ve killed, you get money that you can spend between rounds to buy better equipment. Accidentally killing off your teammates results in penalties and less money earned.
Graphics & Audio
CS:GO is a game that aims to be realistic in every facet of its design, and its graphics and sound are no different. The weapons are modeled (and behave) according to real ones, the sound effects are likewise also recordings of actual weapon fire.
The Source Engine, despite showing its age, is still one of the most versatile and well-optimized game engines on the market. Character models are lifelike and the physics capabilities are as impressive as ever.
Story
There isn’t one. But if you can’t imagine playing a shooter that lacks a story, then maybe this isn’t the right game for you. For everyone else, here’s the plot synopsis: you shoot at the other team and try to avoid getting shot in turn.
Overall Review/Final Thoughts
If you love realistic competitive online shooting games, odds are that you’re already a long-time CS:GO player. In case you still haven’t tried it (for whatever reason), the game has been free for some time, so now’s the perfect opportunity to rectify this egregious omission.
#3 Best Free Action RPG – Path of Exile (2013)
What Counter-Strike did for the online FPS genre, Diablo 2 did for action RPGs. So, it was a disappointment for many players to see that Diablo 3 went in a completely different direction (though there’s hope that Diablo 4 will see a return to form) by stripping away one of the most fun and integral things about D2 – the many possible character builds you can make for each class.
The people over at Grinding Gear Games, sad that quality ARPGs were becoming rarer and rarer, made it their life’s work to craft the best possible game in the Diablo 2 tradition. Thus – Path of Exile was born.
Gameplay
PoE’s core gameplay is nigh-identical to Diablo 2’s – fast-paced, non-stop monster-slaying action. First, you will need to pick a class. There are six of them at the start: Duelist, Marauder, Ranger, Shadow, Templar, Witch, and a seventh class, the Scion, that you will unlock in Act 3.
Each class is focused on one or two of your core attributes: Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence. For example, the Ranger is a pure Dexterity specialist, while the Shadow is both a Dexterity and Intelligence oriented class. The Scion is the only character class that is aligned with all the attributes.
Later in the game, you will be able to choose from one of three distinct Ascendancy classes for each of the six classes (the Scion gets just one – the appropriately named Ascendant). The Duelist can become a Slayer, Gladiator, or Champion, the Marauder can choose to be a Juggernaut, Berserker, or Chieftain, and so on.
This doesn’t mean that you are in any way prohibited from branching out into other character concepts – these can be very fun to play and PoE’s fan community is constantly coming up with new and off-the-wall builds – but it will be harder than investing into skills that your class has a natural affinity to.
Speaking of skills, Path of Exile has one of the most impressive (and intimidating) skill trees in any game – a whopping 1325 different passive skills that will dramatically impact what sort of character you are making.
But that’s only one layer of gameplay – items are another vital component to the path of success in PoE. Finding just the right equipment that offers just the right bonuses for your build is paramount if you want to mow down hordes of enemies with efficiency and survive long enough to get the best loot.
Graphics & Audio
It could easily be argued that PoE walks a fine line between homage and outright ripping-off D2. Everything, from the classic “red, left health globe and blue mana globe to the right” UI design style, to the icon appearance and placement of your equipment slots, looks at least vaguely Diablo-inspired.
Not that this is a bad thing – the graphics look significantly less cartoony than the visuals in Diablo 3. The world of PoE is dark, repressive, dangerous, and its artwork reflects that.
The audio is also up to the task – ominous and plentiful noises are complemented by great vocal performances and an eclectic soundtrack.
Story
The majority of PoE takes place in Wraeclast, a continent that was once home to a mighty empire but is now a mere shadow of itself, haunted by packs or roving, murderous beasts and much worse. It is now used as a penal colony where, much like Australia started off as, prisoners are exiled.
Our character is one such convict and they must learn how to navigate the perilous lands of Wraeclast, uncover the secrets of the mysterious civilization that once ruled it, and gather like-minded survivors to their cause.
The game is split up into ten acts, followed by an epilogue, with new content – in the form of expansion packs – being released every few months. It is one of the best examples of games that have continued to be updated and reworked long after their initial release, and a good indicator of how gaming might evolve in the coming years.
Overall Review/Final Thoughts
Though the game can often get too grindy (not that this was ever made anything but completely clear by the developers – their name is Grinding Gear Games for a good reason), part of the appeal of games such as this is seeing your numbers go up and going from zero to hero in the course of the game.
There’s a good reason why Path of Exile is so prominent and accessible, and why it’s one of our picks for best free Steam games.
#4 Best Free Mature Visual Novel – Katawa Shoujo (2012)
Outside of their place of origin – Japan – visual novels aren’t that popular or particularly well-known, but they certainly have their fans. Katawa Shoujo is something of an anomaly and a game that has had a fascinating development cycle – from its inception all the way to release.
Originating as a single sketch by a Japanese artist in 2000, it was the subject of numerous discussions and lengthy analysis over on the 4chan website.
The image showed five girls with various physical disabilities and this sparked the users’ imagination – who are these girls, what are they like? Soon, an informal group banded together to make an entire game exploring these very questions.
Gameplay
Every standard visual novel follows, more or less, the same basic formula. You read text that follows a predetermined script until a crucial point in the story occurs where you’re offered a choice on how to proceed. Depending on what you choose, the story branches off into divergent storylines and you get an assortment of different outcomes and endings – good, bad, or neutral.
Being a typical visual novel, your ultimate goal is to romance the girl of your dreams and find true love. There are five potential girlfriends: Emi, Hanako, Lily, Rin, and Shizune, along with an array of other supporting characters. To get closer to the girls, you first must get to know them better.
All of them have their own personalities, likes and dislikes, and distinct relationships with the other girls – sometimes in the form of close friendships, but also occasional grudges.
Graphics & Audio
Visual novels take a very minimalist approach when it comes to their visual and sound representation. The graphics mostly consist of static (but very pretty) screens with the character or characters you are currently speaking with taking center stage.
Drawn in a typical manga style, they will shift poses according to their dispositions and responses, alternating between happy, sad, angry, and so on.
The game has some explicit sexual scenes, but if you do not want to see these, you can turn them off in the options – they do not impact the plot.
Story
The biggest reason to play Katawa Shoujo. The story follows high school student Hisao Nakai who learns that he has a congenital heart defect. To better deal with his newfound situation, his parents send him to a school that specializes in taking care of cases such as his.
There, he soon befriends young people who also deal with their own problems. To the game’s credit, it deals with these issues in an incredibly compassionate and humane way – every character, no matter what their situation or outlook is, is treated like a real person, not as a disability case to be pitied or scorned.
The romance path for every girl is written by a different writer, but they are very consistent in tone and characterization. It is recommended that you go through all of them – you may see a whole different side to a character when you are not involved in a romantic relationship with them.
Overall Review/Final Thoughts
On the surface, this can seem like a simple goofy little fan project. But, like Doki Doki Literature Club!, one of our favorite PC games, it conceals a lot of love and important things it has to say, if you are willing to listen and give it a chance – about feelings, about acceptance, both of ourselves and others.
#5 Best Free Real-Time Strategy – StarCraft (1998)
For all the flak that Blizzard Entertainment has gotten in recent months because of its botched Warcraft III remaster, Warcraft III: Reforged, it’s good to remind ourselves that they are the creators of some of the best RTS games around.
StarCraft 1 cemented Blizzard’s reputation as industry leaders and innovators and gave the world one of its most beloved video games. Shortly after Starcraft: Remastered came out in 2017, Blizzard made the original version free to play.
Gameplay
StarCraft is the ultimate template for a successful RTS – distinct warring factions, each with their own unique characteristics and exclusive units that allow highly-specialized tactics and styles of play.
In SC, there are three races for you to control: the adaptable, defense-oriented Humans (called Terrans), the Zerg, a race of bug-like aliens whose main tactic is to swarm their enemies using cheap, mass-produced mobs, and the psychically-gifted Protoss, who favor quality over quantity and overwhelm their foes with a combination of strong (but expensive) units outfitted with advanced technology.
Every SC player has personal favorites. Some love to fortify their defensive perimeter with bunkers stocked with Marines, others try to build up as many Zerglings as they can so they can keep sending them in waves to keep their enemies weakened and distracted, and so on.
It’s no wonder that StarCraft is still played professionally – it is a game that rewards quick decision making, agile reflexes, and adjusting to new developments on the fly.
Graphics & Audio
Classic StarCraft is a game that is certainly showing its age and you could never confuse it for anything else but a product from the 1990s. Despite this, it is still immensely playable to this day – the art style is unmistakable and you can always tell apart different units at a quick glance.
The remaster has remained more-or-less faithful to recreating every art asset in ultra high-definitions, but there is an undeniable quaint delight in playing the game in all its original pixelated glory.
The sounds are still some of the best to have ever graced an RTS, with the Zerg and Protoss characters particularly standing out for their SFX and voices.
Story
The story is told through three (six with the Brood War expansion, also included in the free version) campaigns, each of them consisting of around ten missions or so. Every race has their own heroes and agendas. For the Terrans, it is about surviving in the middle of a conflict between two ancient races, the mysterious, reticent Protoss and the ravenous Zerg.
The Zerg seek to consume all the other beings and incorporate them into their Hive Mind collective, while the Protoss are a splintered people, divided between clashing ideologies and past grudges.
What ensues is an epic tale of shifting allegiances, cosmic genocide, betrayals, and revelations.
Overall Review/Final Thoughts
Though many gamers prefer its younger cousin, Warcraft III – it is a bigger and more complex game, featuring more factions and heroes – StarCraft 1 holds a special place in the hearts of those that have played it.
It elevated the RTS genre with a sort of simple perfection and clarity of purpose and design. For all of those reasons and more – millions of people still play it each and every day.
#6 Best Free Old-School FPS – Shadow Warrior Classic Complete (1997)
Remember Duke Nukem? No, not that awful Duke Nukem Forever game – I’m talking about the awesome old Duke Nukem 3D from 1996. If you do, have you ever wondered what Duke would be if, instead of an ultra-violent, sassy-talking, guns-and-babes-obsessed macho blond man, he was an ultra-violent, sassy-talking, guns-and-babes-obsessed macho Chinese man?
Well, you’re in luck – let me introduce you to Lo Wang, our totally-not-Duke protagonist, the star of Shadow Warrior (Classic Complete Edition).
Gameplay
Shadow Warrior takes all the elements of Duke Nukem 3D – the over-the-top action, the intentionally so-bad-they’re-good quips, the machismo, the gore, the bullet-spraying mayhem – and tries to one-up them.
The already fluid and breakneck carnage of DN3D is made even more intense with the addition of melee weapons, sticky bombs, drivable vehicles, alternate fire modes, and other revolutionary features that impacted all subsequent FPS games.
Wang’s arsenal is impressive, even by modern FPS standards: shurikens, twin uzis, a katana, riot gun, railgun, and more. This allows you to go in guns blazing and then switch out to a melee weapon if you are low on ammo or if enemies are closing in – resulting in a very entertaining mix of ranged and up close and personal combat.
Graphics & Audio
Built using the legendary Build engine (which is still used to make new retro-styled games, the latest release utilizing this engine was 2019’s Ion Fury), Shadow Warrior is exactly what you would expect from a game from the mid-1990s – blocky, pixelated, low-res, and still delightful.
Just like Duke, Wang is a rapid-fire machine of lousy (or excellent, depending on your tolerance for) puns and weird comments. Some people might be turned off by perceived Asian stereotyping, but Shadow Warrior never seeks to offend but rather to put a smile on our faces by poking fun of inaccurate Western cinema representations of Asian cultures.
Story
As in most FPS games at the time, the story is barebones and only exists as a flimsy excuse to get the action going. Lo Wang, a bodyguard working for a Japanese conglomerate, discovers that the president of the company, Master Zilla, is planning to unleash an army of demonic creatures so he can take over Japan.
Naturally, Lo Wang, the action hero that he is, can’t let this come to pass, and, with blade and gun in hand, declares war on Zilla and his monsters.
Overall Review/Final Thoughts
In the last several years, there has been a renaissance of old-school shooters such as this. Masterpieces the likes of Dusk, Project Warlock, Amid Evil, Strafe, and others, have been made on the foundations that Shadow Warrior helped erect.
If you are a fan of this classic style of shooters, SW is a chance to go back and see one of the founders of this hectic genre and see how it all began. The Classic Complete version of the game over on GOG comes with both expansion sets – Wanton Destruction and Twin Dragon – something that is missing from the free version hosted on Steam.
#7 Best Free RPG/Adventure Hybrid – Heroine’s Quest: The Herald of Ragnarok (2014)
Ragnarok isn’t just the absolute best Thor movie, it’s also an important event in Norse mythology. A time when the Gods themselves will battle and die in a cataclysmic war that will end the world as we know it. No surprise, then, that it has continued to inspire our collective imaginations for generations to come.
Heroine’s Quest is a spiritual successor to the highly influential Quest for Glory franchise, a series that sought to combine point and click adventures and RPGs and seamlessly blend them together. Since these two genres already share so many similarities – this proved to be a resounding success.
Gameplay
As an amalgamation of adventure games and RPGs, Heroine’s Quest: The Herald of Ragnarok features gameplay elements of both genres.
The way this translates into gameplay is interesting – you still pick up objects, interact with your surroundings, and solve puzzles that impede your progress, but you also must have the appropriate skill at a high enough level, or otherwise, you may fail when you attempt to utilize it.
There are three available classes in HQ, all of them archetypal characters seen in almost every RPG: the strong, straightforward Warrior, the wily, crafty Rogue, and the wise Sorceress, wielder of the magic arts.
Every class has a different approach to solving problems – the Warrior might try to push on forward with brute force her way through, the Rogue would sneak around, unseen by her foes, while the Sorceress would come up with just the right application for just the right spell.
Because of this, the game has immense replayability potential, since each class has their own side quests, unique abilities, and other individual content.
Graphics & Audio
For a free game, HQ looks a lot better than most projects of its scope. Though the graphics are decidedly – and deliberately – retro-styled, every screen is chock-full of little details and loving warmth.
Considering that the game takes place during a supernatural winter, it could have been easy for all those snow-filled panoramas to get monotonous, but HQ’s developers avoided this problem with clever use of hearty colors and resourceful composition.
A big surprise for a project such as this, though definitely a welcome one, is that all of the characters in the game are fully voiced. You can tell that some of them are not professional voice actors and sometimes the lack of a budget is obvious because of poor audio recording quality, but considering the size and scope of the game – this is just a minor nitpick.
Story
Heroine’s Quest is not just a fun game, but also a very educational one. If you like Norse mythology, you will find all sort of references to mythical locations, creatures, spells, and rituals – from the titular ending of the world to the more comical aspects from those legends of yore, such as Ratatoskr, the evil squirrel that gnaws on the roots of the World Tree, Yggdrasil.
And if you are not all that knowledgeable in these myths – fear not, this is the perfect chance to learn more about Germanic folklore and traditions.
Plotting to start Ragnarok, the frost giant Egther has encased the town of Fornsigtuna in perpetual winter. The jarl of that town has issued a call to any hero willing and brave enough to help their community. Our protagonist is a young Heroine who has come to Fornsigtuna’s aid.
During the course of her adventures, she will visit surrounding villages, and travel all the way to Svartalfheim, home of the dark elves.
Overall Review/Final Thoughts
A fitting tribute to Quest for Glory, Heroine’s Quest is a nostalgic throwback to those good old days when games could be heroic in earnest, without being naive. When a character could be noble for all the right reasons and didn’t need a tragic (and cliche) backstory that explains why they want to help people.
Truly, it is a game that exemplifies what being a Heroine is all about: selflessness, bravery, and compassion.
#8 Best Free Card Game – Gwent: The Witcher Card Game (2018)
The Witcher 3 is generally accepted as one of the best RPGs of all time. Players fell in love with its sprawling game world, the fantastic quests, and complex, morally ambiguous characters.
But there was one other feature that hooked gamers even more than completing every Witcher Contract – the card game Gwent. A completely optional mini-game that Geralt could play with other NPCs in his leisure time, it was a fully-realized sport that could have easily been released as a separate product all on its own.
So, that’s exactly what CD Projekt Red did.
Gameplay
Like most card games – both in real life and virtual ones – Gwent is played with players taking turns, picking which cards from their deck they want to use, depending on the situation at (card) hand and their strategy.
Matches are played with two players and consist of three rounds – the winner being the first player that wins two rounds.
There are six factions that you can play, each of them having special characteristics: Northern Realms (NO for short and with a blue card back), Nilfgaard (NG & Black), Skellige (SK & Purple), Scoia’Tael (ST & Green), Syndicate (SY & Orange), and Monsters (MO & Red).
Each faction is based on the lore of the Witcher’s setting, and you can customize your playstyle according to multiple available decks and archetypes.
Graphics & Audio
Featuring many of the same characters and monsters from the Witcher games, Gwent looks (and plays) like a game board brought to life – dozens of animated parts and card portraits move in dynamic patterns with a phenomenal and expressive art style.
The sound component is also up to par – clanking weapons, marching units, snarling beasts, crackling magic spells, it’s all extremely well done and does a great job of making you feel like you are inside a real Witcher game and not staring down from a fixed top view perspective most of the time.
Story
Apart from referencing the events and lore of the books and games, Gwent doesn’t really have a story. It does feature a story campaign mode in Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales, which functions as a single-player version of Gwent for those that want to explore more of the events that preceded the Witcher trilogy. But, please note that, unlike the base game, this is a paid add-on.
Overall Review/Final Thoughts
Just like Path of Exile, Gwent is constantly being updated with new expansions that add cards, leaders, even factions – Merchants of Ofir, released in December 2019, being the latest one (at the time of writing).
If you have a fondness for intricate card games and have grown tired of Hearthstone’s incessantly grinding nature, then Gwent could be just what you are looking for. And if you are a fan of Andrzej Sapkowski’s dark fantasy universe, Gwent is the perfect thing to tide you over until The Witcher 4 is out.
Final Words
Of course, these are many other excellent free game titles that you can play for free – like the superb looter-shooter Warframe, MMO World of Tanks (2010), Neverwinter (2013), Fallout Shelter (2015), and so on.
Our best free PC games recommendations are sure to give you dozens – maybe hundreds, or more – of hours of entertainment, exhilaration, and plain old-fashioned fun. Regardless of whether or not you prefer your games to be more cerebral or on the action-packed side, there is something on this list for everyone to enjoy – completely free of charge.