Deciding on the very best indie games on PC is a task that involves some painful exclusion. The great indie boom triggered by digital distribution a decade ago turned out to be more of a Big Bang, firing small-team development into a plethora of directions that now defy simple categorisation. The sheer volume is intimidating, so we have plenty to choose from when compiling our list of the best indie games. Perhaps too much.
Jul 22, 2018 - Looking for the Best RPG games for Mac? And thanks to the 2D graphics, you can put yourself through this almost literal. Feb 6, 2019 - Here are the best games available on Steam for Linux and Windows. Action Games; RPG Games; Racing/Sports/Simulation Games. It is a 2D game which has received overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam.
But we should take stock, from time to time, to appreciate everything publisher-less development has given us. Some of the games listed below were built in a weekend by first-time coders, while others were crafted by former triple-A creators who’ve instilled their independent work with the same technical standards. They barely have anything in common but a healthy dose of idiosyncrasy and ideas that make Steam worth spelunking.
So what is our final shortlist of the finest indies around? It’s got everything, from puzzle games to narrative wonders, through pixelart games and the most gorgeous, graphically detailed gems. You’re going to want to play each and every one.
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The best indie games are:
Untitled Goose Game
Part comedy game and part puzzler, Untitled Goose Game casts you as a goose with a simple mission: cause a big ruckus in a quiet English village. You’ll start out terrorising a farmer, stealing his produce, radio, and keys for your own picnic, before graduating to bullying a small boy by tying his shoelaces together, stealing his glasses, and scaring him into a phone booth.
You have a number of to-do lists for each area of the village, not to mention a much larger list of bonus and hidden tasks, which will keep you pestering the inhabitants of this quaint rural idyll for many hours after the credits roll. Tasks get increasingly obscure, leaving you to experiment with all manor of mundane misdeeds until you discover the right sequence of events to sufficiently sully your victim’s day. For example, stealing the gardener’s radio while it’s blaring out music only lures him to your stash of stolen goodies, so the natural solution is to drop it in a pond before adding it to your collection of trinkets.
Thanks to some brilliantly convincing animations and a pristine low-poly aesthetic, Untitled Goose Game is a joy even when you’re stuck on a challenging puzzle. Whether you’re embroiled in a convoluted plot to steal a slipper or simply waddling around and honking at bystanders, this is the touchstone for grouchy goose simulation games.
Telling Lies
There’s something about rummaging through the unknown that never fails to pique our curiosity. In Sam Barlow’s Telling Lies, you’ll come to see that thrill as you sift through someone’s hard drive, jumping between threads of video recorded on the computer’s facecam to learn more about each character.
We seldom see a games successfully explore the intersection between interactive fiction and gaming. Everything unfolds to a simple rhythm as you log into your computer, and a search for love instantly pops up, revealing a series of clips you can watch. To dig further, listen out for select phrases and search the ones you think will yield a result – throwing up countless new avenues to explore.
Digging into these strangers’ backstories feels tense, too. You’re never allowed to feel like you’re in the safety of your own home. A reflection of your avatar is always visible, and the odd sound of chatter outside your flat makes you worry that anyone can burst in on your snooping without a moment’s notice.
Hypnospace Outlaw
In Hypnospace Outlaw, it’s your job to police the internet. You’ll spend hours trawling through Bebo-esque profile pages, fan sites, and forums banning users for everything from harassment to copyright infringement. Anyone young enough to remember the fledgling days of the internet is set for a steady stream of nostalgia as they navigate grainy instructional videos, floods of pop ups, and a cluttered, gif-laden desktop.
But Hypnospace Outlaw is more than a jaunt through ‘90s World Wide Web culture, and it doesn’t take long for it to transform into neo noir thriller about the perils of mass surveillance and censorship. The theme is echoed in the gameplay. As Rachel says in her Hypnospace Outlaw review, “The game doesn’t hold your hand as you try to solve its puzzles, and Tendershoot’s smart storytelling and wholesome humour will keep you hooked until the end.”
Hynospace Outlaw does an extraordinary job of drawing you into its surreal interpretation of the web, and – just like it was back in 1999 – it’s all too easy to lose a couple of hours reading through teen dramas you don’t care about or customising your desktop with an unpalatable array of gifs, wallpapers, and virtual pets.
The Witness
In some ways, Jonathan Blow could be credited with kickstarting this whole indie boom almost a decade ago with time-bending puzzler Braid. His second project, The Witness, is an entirely different kind of puzzle game beast: big production values, a whole bucolic island to explore, and a real sense of ‘event’. In just two games, Blow has managed to capture the evolution of what ‘indie’ can mean.
The Witness carries an air of importance in its world and subdued narrative, but those elements betray the core experience. It’s all about the line puzzles. The same basic format is used for all the game’s 600+ puzzles – The Witness can take 100 hours to complete – but each new one you approach introduces fresh rules that complicate matters in a different way. The Witness entirely revolves around a learning curve that it expects you to discover for yourself. You first have to figure out the rules of a type of puzzle, then how to apply those rules in new ways, before usually breaking those rules in order to encompass new ones. The fact that the game helps you through this without any sign of a tutorial or rulebook is testament to Blow’s design abilities.
Rocket League
It should have been wildly obvious from the beginning that ‘football with cars’ was a formula with no other possible outcome than to be among the best indie games. And before you point out that Psyonix’s previous car-football effort – Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars – flouted that rule, it was probably the name that put people off. So there.
Go faster: With the best PC racing games
Rocket League pits two teams against each other to score goals while turning over engines at a high RPM, bouncing balls from bumper to bumper, and blasting them to the back of the net with a quick boost of acceleration.
It’s arguably simplicity that has made Rocket League a huge success story: there’s no equipment to struggle with, no metagame to master, nor classes to understand: you simply drive with a combination of tactics and aggression. Not sure of those tactics? Our Rocket League tips guide can help. Learning tricks to more successfully pass and mastering ball control adds depth should the game really strike you, but at its most fun, Rocket League is an exceptional piece of casual bliss.
Inside
Playdead’s follow-up to Limbo feels remarkably similar to its monochrome predecessor at first, but Inside proves itself to be significantly more refined. The muted colours feel less stylised than the bright whites and dark blacks of Limbo. Environments have more depth, detail, and the lighting is more sophisticated: cavernous factories and facilities are brought to life as you march in lockstep to evade capture.
Your protagonist’s face is blank but his groans when his jumps land and yelps when he’s pursued by rabid dogs are more expressive than many other leading characters in games. When masked people drown the boy whose life is in your hands, it’s all the more harrowing.
It couldn’t top some of the best horror games for scares, but horrifying mysteries are a major part of Inside. As you run further into its world the puzzles become more complex and lend themselves to more questions – why are corpses being re-animated, and how can you use them to progress? It’s a superb marriage of mechanics and plot that refuses to explain itself as it pulls you further into its dark world of surveillance and industrial science. Inside also has one of the most debated and intriguing final acts of any videogame. It’s absolutely worth seeking out for yourself.
Into the Breach
Not just one of the best indies of 2018, but also one of the year’s best strategy games, Into the Breach is a turn based strategy indie by Subset Games where you control giant mechs in an effort to defend human civilisation from the bug-like Vek who have been breeding beneath the Earth’s surface.
By keeping the battlefield to an intimate eight by eight grid, Into the Breach challenges you to think carefully about your approach to combat and makes you regularly switch up your tactics. Enemies can be blocked, killed, or moved around the grid, giving you plenty of tricks to deploy in your desperate bid to save humankind. Each randomly generated level requires new tactics, and realising that it’s easier to simply delay the Vek than to destroy them only adds to the strategic puzzle in front of you.
Oxenfree
Oxenfree is pretty good at everything it does, but it becomes one of the best indie games on PC for its excellence in one area: conversation. Made by Telltale and Disney alumni, this beautiful teen drama has the most natural speech system in games; well-written chatter that flows between friends and never awkwardly pauses while you choose a dialogue option. Instead, you’re offered a few choices that, when selected, protagonist Alex will slip into the ongoing conversation. Abstain from choosing and she’ll simply stay silent, allowing her buddies to continue and drive the story forward themselves.
And what a story it is. A sort of X-Files with teenagers, it sees a typical ‘cabin in the woods’ horror adventure expand into something with significantly more merit. Puzzles, exploration, and character development drives this gem, and the multiple endings will have you re-playing to experiment with how the core friendships at the heart of Oxenfree pan out.
Hotline Miami
A hazy close-quarters combat game that turns the top-down tussles of the original GTA into a new martial art, Hotline Miami is a brutal, neon-soaked tribute to grindhouse ultraviolence. Every day a mystery caller asks you in no uncertain terms to kill a building-full of bad guys. You’ll make your way through each room, murdering as you go, with a variety of blunt, sharp, and ballistic weapons. Bite the dust and a quick tap of the reset key has you ready for action again. It’s a key you’ll be pressing an awful lot.
You’ll find yourself doing things you’ve only watched anti-heroes do: opening a door into Goon #1’s face, ripping the throat and the shotgun from Goon #2, pulling Goon #1 up to your chest to act as meat kevlar, shooting the face off Goon #3 and hurling his pool cue across the table, where it connects with the chin of Goon #4. From PC gaming schlub to Ryan Gosling in just a few short repetitions.
Also like Ryan Gosling’s ultraviolent films, the follow-up, Hotline Miami 2 isn’t so great, so best stick to the original.
Stardew Valley
There’s a lot of love for Harvest Moon among the PC community despite the series being exclusive to Nintendo consoles. That’s why Stardew Valley captured the hearts and minds of so many. A cute role-playing management game, it plays to the farming strengths of the popular Harvest Moon games, while simultaneously being its own brand of charming.
You’ll begin life in Stardew Valley with an inherited farm in dire need of repair. As you plant new crops and inject life into your land your focus will shift to exploration of the world around you. The valley is in similar need of loving attention, and it makes for the perfect project to unwind with night after night. It’s also home to the marvellous Stardew Valley co-op mode – in case you’re after some co-op games – and a place to experiment with the plethora of Stardew Valley mods.
Bursting with personality, Stardew Valley is an unmissable adventure for anyone craving the village life.
Gone Home
Left to discover why the big old house on the hill recently occupied by your parents and sister now lies empty, Gone Home sees you wander between rooms and dig through the domestic debris – turning over pizza boxes and checking the sleeves of cassette tapes for clues. It’s a voyeuristic voyage that can’t be captured in a Twitch playthrough: rather than being pulled through a story, you’re pushing; sifting through the interconnected lives of three generations.
Related: The best action-adventure games on PC
The real game is in piecing together the fragments of family history, parenting problems, and teenage angst that you find, and drawing conclusions. You’ll find a revelation that you come to yourself is much more satisfying than one handed to you on a platter.
What Remains of Edith Finch
Speaking of big old houses on a hill, Giant Sparrow – the folks behind console-only The Unfinished Swan – have a mystery for you to solve in a secluded part of Washington State. What Remains of Edith Finch takes cues from the exploration of games like Gone Home and Firewatch, but it also features new ideas and refinements to this form of drama that culminate in one of the best examples of storytelling you can find in gaming.
Edith Finch is a collection of powerful stories about the Finch family and, as the titular Edith, you travel back to the family home to unravel the truth behind the ‘curse’ that’s rumoured to have caused the deaths of your relatives. Narratives spanning multiple generations cover the difficult subjects of depression and bullying thoughtfully and creatively, but it’s how these ideas are brought to life through gameplay that astonishes. Prepare to have plenty of feelings rush over you in this two-hour indie beaut that we picked as one of the best PC games of 2017.
Dead Cells
Dead Cells is a ferocious action-platformer where death comes swiftly, and often. It’s a curious concoction of different genres, but ultimately settles on the description of rouguevania, a mix of interconnected areas with unforgiving combat. It’s a neon-drenched and bloody brawler that has you explore dark dungeons and terrible towers where save points are non-existent and enemies are brutally punishing.
Read more: Here are seven other games like Dark Souls
Dead Cells is tough but you’ll keep returning to play due to its fast-paced action and variety of upgrades that stay with you even after death, letting you make incremental progress with each fresh start. The spurt of blood as you strike enemies feels amazing and speedily powering your way through monster infested areas is devious fun.
Undertale
In a traditional RPG, you’d make a start by exploring the outskirts of a troubled town before you begin to bolster the arsenal of your chosen character. It’s a safe assumption that you’ll be solving any problems you encounter with fists, swords, or magical abilities. In Undertale, however, murder can be treated as a last resort – as we sincerely hope applies to you in real life.
This 16-bit indie is one of the best RPGs around, you can subdue, pacify, and even flirt with enemies that stand in your way. How you approach everything that stands in your way throughout the game actually impacts the story and how characters treat you in the future. Leave enemies alive and they’ll show up later and probably make friends with you. But, if you’d rather go with the usual bloody murder then that’s just as valid.
Speaking of the story, you play a kid who falls into the world of monsters, and then has to find a way to escape. What ensues is an endearing adventure that’s consistently well-written, full of memorable characters and one-liners you’ll trade with friends, and a wonderful soundtrack to boot.
Gunpoint
Gunpoint is a 2D stealth-puzzle game that begins with defenestration and doesn’t ease up on the windowpane hate crime thereafter. You play as hired spy Richard Conway, who one day finds himself to be the chief suspect in a murder case (he didn’t do it, obvs).
Missions present you with a tall building to master and ask you to traverse a maze of alarms, locked doors, and armed guards to reach your goal – delicate data you’ll either retrieve or destroy.
You can point guns, if you like, but you’ll soon learn that a lightswitch is the most powerful weapon available to you. You might link it to the elevator call button, for example, so that guards are plunged into darkness the very moment you hit their floor. Or rewire the switch so that the man who heads instinctively to it when things go dark instead opens a locked door that stands between you and your target. Smug satisfaction guaranteed.
Celeste
The mountaineer that pulled at everyone’s heart strings, Celeste wasn’t just one of the best indie games in recent years, it was our pick for the best PC game of 2018. Its pinpoint, simple controls make it an excellent and challenging platformer, while its narrative takes the genre to a whole new level.
You play as Madeline who has decided to conquer the icy mountain Celeste by reaching its summit. You’ll fail countless times to Celeste’s tricky levels, but thanks to a quick respawn time and some thoughtful messages of encouragement, Celeste spurs you on even when it gets tough. If the challenging gameplay of Celeste puts you off playing, then there’s no need to worry as there are a variety of assists you can turn on so you’re free to enjoy the story regardless of your skill level.
Celeste’s story about a young woman struggling with her anxiety intertwined with its challenging platforming was why we crowned it our game of the year in our PCGN awards 2018.
Papers, Please
The year is 1982. You are an immigration inspector at the border checkpoint of Arstotzka, tasked with protecting your homeland from terrorists, wanted criminals, and smugglers. You’re under pressure to process as many arrivals as possible with any mistakes you make reflected in your salary. If that wasn’t bad enough, the money you do bring home is desperately needed to care for your family, who are inevitably going to get sick in your cramped housing arrangement. Work hard or pay a nasty price.
Papers, Please is the best indie game for examining your own morality. Bribes are waiting for you every day, asking you to risk the safety of the country you work for in exchange for the comfort of your family. Will you split up a couple who only have half the correct papers they need? The obvious answer might be no, but you’ll soon learn that the risk is they could be an enemy of the state, cleverly taking advantage of your kindness. Will you acquiesce to the bloody requests of a mysterious anti-government organisation? Or will you accept your miserable life at the hands of the communist state? It’s up to you to stamp your decision in ink.
Night in the Woods
Night in the Woods’ arresting 2D artwork pulls you in straight away. It doesn’t let up either, as what unfolds within the smooth frames of its animation is a subtle story about being a twenty-something with a lost cause. As the anthropomorphised feline Mae, you return to your home town of Possum Springs after dropping out of college. Things are very different here now that the coal mines have closed, an industry that was the lifeblood of this facsimile of small-town America.
The game’s thoughtful writing is moving, amusing, and regularly tackles big subjects like depression, the impact of economic upheaval, and mental illness. Seemingly inconsequential moments will stick in the mind long after the credits roll. You’ll probably venture back into the game to have those optional chats with Mae’s friends and locals, but you’ll still find yourself hankering for more in this narrative-driven adventure.
The 2D platforming gameplay and minigames aren’t much of a challenge as they’re mostly used to flesh out the world of Possum Springs and allow Mae to access hidden areas. The real obstacles are found within Mae’s mind as you experience the traumas and difficulties of being a young adult in this special game.
Kerbal Space Program
Kerbal Space Program has a cutesy exterior that conceals a cold, unyielding space travel simulator game at its core. This is essentially NASA Tycoon – a game about doing maths and then pointing a homebrew rocket at the stratosphere, praying it makes it through.
Take off and the trajectory of your rocket are yours to worry about in minute detail. It takes a certain level of skill to fire your rockets at precisely the right time, and lots of trial and error to orbit a planet rather than overshoot or meet its rocky surface at 10,000 mph.Getting home again is for experts but it can be achieved later through rescue missions if you put your mind to it.
Kerbal rewards players willing to set themselves challenges or take on government and private contracts to raise funds and explore a branching tech tree. That tech tree could be used to create something utterly refined, or – since the game’s freedom knows no bounds – a ship from the zany world of sci-fi. Whether the latter actually works is an entirely different issue. It’s that lack of boundaries that makes Kerbal Space Program one of the best indie games we’ve played.
- More Rocket League:
Thus ends our roundup of the best indie games on PC. Be sure to seek out our list of old PC games if you want to take that indie vibe one step further a go full hipster. With that list of cultural highlights done and dusted you’re free to go and play outside, or return to your favourite triple-A multiplayer game – whichever you prefer.
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What are the best free Steam games? If you are bored and penniless, you don’t need to fear a gaming drought. Steam is full of games to play without spending a penny (no, not like that). What’s more, many of them are very good indeed: games that are just as much fun to play as their full-price, wallet-destroying siblings.
In recent years, free games have become the norm, with some even overtaking paid-for triple-A tiles as the leaders of the PC gaming hobby. Take a quick look at Steam’s most-played list and you’ll see that a significant proportion of the biggest games in the world happen to be free-to-play.
So, because we desperately care about the health of your bank account – and honestly worry about how much money you’re spending on your nasty gaming habit – we want to help you find all the free games worth your time. Below you’ll find a bounty of free Steam games, all available to download and play right now. What are you waiting for?
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$234.39
The best free Steam games are:
play nowWorld of Warships
There are heaps of quality tank games available on Steam, but prospective admirals have far fewer options. Fortunately then, there’s World of Warships, which is not only one of the very best naval warfare simulation games, but also a free Steam game. With 200 of the titular warships for players to unlock, from destroyers and cruisers to battleships and aircraft carriers, players can rest assured they won’t run out of new toys to aim for. Not that you’ll notice the grind: the multiplayer naval battles of World of Warships are pure spectacle.
Play nowWar Thunder
In World War II soldiers would often hear thunder in the distance and prepare themselves for rain, only for them to discover it was actually War Thunder; a tank game about planes and tanks shooting each other. Gaijin’s flight game straps you into a mind-shattering variety of authentic 1940s war machines and tasks you with surviving countless dogfights and land battles with other players.
It is a game that is constantly being updated and improved, with the the biggest additions providing whole new types of vehicles like warships for massive naval battles. To help you make sense of it all we have put together a guide to the best War Thunder tier 1 planes, and a tank battles guide, too.
Play nowCrossout
Crossout is a post-apocalyptic MMO action game from Targem Games in which you craft and build monstrously-sized machines and use them to bash others in explosive online matches. So it is basically what you used to do during your childhood with Lego, but with the magic of computers.
You can craft a wide variety of vehicles – from small, nimble buggies to rugged off-roaders – with an arsenal of weapons just as large: get your murderous hands on power drills, machine guns, and rocket launchers, or even stealth generators if you fancy a quieter approach. With an arsenal like that, it is easy to see why Crossout is one of the best free Steam games.
As you fight, you build your reputation with your chosen Crossout faction. In PvP or PvE (where you can even fight user-created bosses) engaging in some good ol’ shooting will grant you new parts and blueprints to continue your vehicular crusade. If you need a hand getting started, just consult our Crossout beginner’s guide.
Play nowNeverwinter
Neverwinter is the MMO take on Bioware’s classic and beloved RPG, taking you to the Forgotten Realms and pitting you against hobgoblins, kobolds, and much, much worse. It is a surprisingly robust action-MMO, with a strong emphasis on skill-heavy combat and a pretty world to explore.
There is a bit of a push for players to buy things in the in-game store, but you can do everything without paying a penny. That even includes playing the frequent expansions, such as the recent Swords of Chult update that adds a new skirmish and refines the PvP elements.
Play nowStar Trek Online
Star Trek Online is an MMO set in the unmistakable sci-fi world of the starship Enterprise, where you are given a ship, a crew and sent off on sci-fi adventures that feel authentically Star Trek. Though it’s ever-ageing, it continues to get regular free updates that add new, elaborate episodic missions, additional gear, seasonal events, and even the crew of Deep Space Nine in Star Trek Online.
The story also has a tangible impact on the evolving galaxy. While there is a cash shop and premium ships, the game continues to be extremely generous toward free players, allowing them freedom in their exploration of the final frontier.
Play nowRift
Rift is an exciting MMORPG from Trion Games, and it is a pretty popular free Steam game. Set in the epic fantasy world of Telara, you will be embarking upon a journey that sees your character grow, develop new skills, wield special weapons, and defeat dangerous beasts. It’s got everything you could want from one of the best MMORPGs.
Once you have decided which faction you will be siding with – either the Guardians or the Defiant – you can start your adventure in this massive, rich world. You also have plenty of choice in which Calling you choose. Will you be a Warrior, Cleric, Mage, Rogue, or Primalist? Or, if you just want to bypass all that rigmarole, you can choose a Purpose: a pre-made profile so you can just get stuck in straight away.
Play nowTrove
Don’t be fooled by its blocky, Minecraft-like aesthetic, Trove is a hardcore MMO for players that live for the grind and action-adventure combat. In Trove you start by picking from a selection of fantasy-inspired classes and set off across a series of realms, constantly leveling up, fighting cube-y monsters, delving into dungeons, and unlocking new gear, which you can show off back at your home base. If you’re a hoarder at heart then Trove will appeal to you.
Play nowStar Conflict
Do you long for a free Steam game that is effectively one gigantic, endless spaceship dogfighting simulator? Star Conflict takes the idea of player-driven stories spawned by Eve Online and condenses it to a much more action-packed, combat-oriented experience with a much more gentle onboarding process.
Related: Read about the best space games on PC
When you are not skirmishing in nimble fighters or massive frigates, you can simply explore the beautiful, vibrant cluster of ancient worlds scattered through its sizeable void.
Play nowWarframe
Warframe lets you play as a space ninja, and that is probably all that you need to know to start getting excited. Beyond that, it is a third-person co-op affair that pits you against goons and other space ninjas, all wearing fancy ‘warframes’ that provide special abilities. It is a slick action game with a hint of Destiny about it, thanks to its buddy-up mission design and shared-world social environments. Part of the attraction is perfecting your own Warframe build so you can clear levels and grind faster than anyone else.
There may be a bit of grind involved if you want to craft the coolest gear, but you will be slicing people in half and powersliding around on your knees for most of that, so don’t be too concerned. It is one of the most popular free Steam games, meaning there is always people to play with, and frequent huge, updates like Plains of Eidolon and the even larger Warframe Fortuna expansion.
Play nowArcheAge
ArcheAge, Trion’s free-to-play MMO, begins very much in the mould of tradition: quests, crafting, and slightly humdrum fantasy adventures. Get past that though, and the game quickly makes way for high seas escapades as you and some chums set off on your very own ship, becoming wealthy traders or unfriendly pirates, preying on other players. It is a true sandbox MMO that is vastly accommodating to the ambitious merchant, explorer, or scallywag.
And the ambition is ever growing: the recent Legends Return update allows you to bolster your boat with dragon mounts, or return to the launch version of the game with ever-changing progression servers.
Dota Underlords
The first official auto chess game out of the blocks following Drodo’s Dota 2 mods, Dota Underlords, Valve’s mobile and PC effort set a high starting bar. It’s a bit more user-friendly than its custom inspiration and veteran players of the notoriously tough MOBA will feel right at home.
The big difference this free Steam game has to its big rival, Riot’s Teamfight Tactics, is the Dota Underlords items system. Rounds one, two, three, 10 and every fifth round after that are creep rounds that give you the choice of three items – some can be equipped, but others have global effects. This is largely what makes it distinct to Teamfight’s recipes mechanic, and it’s well worth a go.
MapleStory 2
MapleStory 2 is a colourful MMO that’s ideal for fans of deep customisation and entertaining co-op. Once you’ve chosen the perfect haircut and fashion style for your avatar, you and some virtual pals can explore and fight baddies in the gorgeously blocky, Minecraft-style universe of Maple World.
There’s plenty here to keep you busy: with public events, dungeons, bosses, mini games, and home-making to name a few activities – and if you need any help getting started you can read our MapleStory 2 guide. Even better, it’s a free Steam game, too. You can’t say fairer than free.
World of Warplanes
With over five different aircraft at your disposal with which to deal wartime airborne damage, this free Steam game puts you at the centre of perennial scrap during the Golden Age of military aviation with high-octane 12v12 battles.
This WW2 game lets you fight for the flags of seven different contemporary powers with environments that take inspiration from regions across the globe. There’s also over four thousand customisation options spread across each of your available crafts, which will certainly keep you busy.
Heavy Metal Machines
Wish that Rocket League was a little more Mad Max? Well now you can headbang and prepare for the apocalypse in Heavy Metal Machines, a 4v4 MOBA car action game. Help your team of hooligans nab and volley a bomb ball into the opposition’s goal to score with the first team to three wins the match. Even though the game in currently in Early Access the developers, Hoplon, have pinky promised that the game will now and always be free to play.
Each machine has its own abilities, play style and punk-inspired character, one of them being a batty old lady riding a reinforced hover bike. Each character has their own personality, heavy metal soundtrack, and a detailed background story over on the website. It’s hectic, explosive and good fun to play.
Warface
Warface is a gritty free-to-play first-person shooter that you can tackle with or against your friends in co-op or competitive versus modes. You will find plenty of variety while playing with others as you attempt to master a range of teamwork strategies and playstyles on multiplayer maps that change every day.
Read more: Check out the best FPS games on PC
Get to grips with the Rifleman, Sniper, Engineer, and Medic classes, and bask in the atmospheric environments that are beautifully rendered by Crytek’s CryEngine. With a substantial array of weapons and difficulty levels all available without spending a penny, Warface is a great option for some free FPS action.
Shadowverse
You might have spent many hours with Hearthstone, but a true rival to Blizzard’s epic CCG looks to be on the cards, so to speak. Shadowverse is an immensely popular game in Japan – quickly becoming its biggest of the genre after the mobile release in 2016 – and is already setting the rest of the world on fire. It is destined to be your next free CCG fix.
With the freedom of many strategies and playstyles to experiment with, and minimal RNG, Shadowverse always feels fresh. And that is before we mention the new card expansions that hit every three months. It is very easy to get started with, too: a tutorial, single-player story, and free card packs for beginners will get you going, but Shadowverse takes time to master.
Smite
Smite is a MOBA with a twist: you control your religion-influenced gods like you would in a third person action game, with the camera positioned behind them. This makes Smite feel a very different kind of 5v5 game, and the differences do not stop there. Smite has numerous modes, including the team deathmatch-influenced Arena. That said, it has still got plenty of familiar stuff: lanes, creeps, and items are all present and correct, and the pantheon of gods is being ever added to. If you are just getting started, check out our Smite beginner’s guide.
Skyforge
Science fiction meets fantasy in this action-heavy MMO where players gain power with the ultimate goal of becoming a deity. Lofty is an understatement, but Skyforge delivers countless hours of action with a lot less grind than average free Steam games. How? Skyforge does without traditional levelling structures and set classes and instead lets you progress you character based on your total stats and XP. As for classes, you can swap between any of the 12 unlockable classes at will, giving you plenty of flexibility when approaching a new combat scenario.
Realm Royale
Battle royale is Steam’s biggest export right now, with PUBG commanding the gaming hours of millions. But what if you don’t want to splash out on PlayerUnknown’s wares, and you don’t fancy leaving the perimeter of Steam? You need Realm Royale, the fantasy 100-player deathmatch from Hi-Rez.
While it may look a bit like Fortnite from the outside, dive into a match and you’ll soon see that Realm Royale has several of its own ideas that solve some of the genre’s long-standing problems. You don’t have to leave behind loot that’s unuseful; simply disenchant it into shards, and spend these at a Forge to craft new, legendary-grade weapons and armour.
But watch out: fire up the Forge and you’ll suddenly become the target of dozens of foes looking to swipe that new gear from under your nose. It adds a new level of tension to the mid-game, something Fortnite and PUBG has yet to crack. Need help mastering it? Here’s our Realm Royale guide.
Eve Online
One of the great MMOs of our time, EVE Online is now available to play without a subscription fee. This means that literally anyone with a PC can start their own voyage of discovery within the vastness of space. The only question is: who will you be? Unlike class-based fantasy RPGs, EVE isn’t about being a ranger or a warrior and saving the world. It’s about becoming a cog within a huge, player-controlled universe. So will you be a trader and help bring much-needed items to others? Or will you rise through the ranks of a corrupt corporation and engage in tactical sabotage against your enemies? These are just two of the countless thousands of paths that are available to you in this incredible, unrivaled MMO.
Paladins
It may get a lot of stick for looking like Overwatch, but Paladins has got its own take on the hero shooter formula. Using a deck of cards that imbue special passive abilities, you help your team capture control points and escort a siege engine to the front door of an enemy fortress – read our Paladins beginner’s guide for some advice on this system. Paladins Champions level up throughout a match, with each new level upgrading their skills by drawing new buff cards. Afterwards, you can open chests, pick up more cards for your decks, and voila, you’ve got a new favourite free Steam game.
Fractured Space
It is easy to think that every MOBA is a Dota clone, in the same way we all thought every shooter was a Doom copy in the 90s. But that is not true; the MOBA genre is expanding and offering new experiences. Take Fractured Space, for instance. It is a 5v5 game where players travel down lanes and destroy the enemy base. But forget anime-styled heroes and jungles; Fractured Space is a sci-fi epic. Kilometer-long frigates warp into battle, pounding the enemy with missiles and lasers, and explosions tear apart zero-g installations. There are hotkey abilities, but you will be activating anti-ballistic lasers rather than a flashy skillshot. It retains all the tactical finesse of a MOBA, but never feels like one. It is the first true progression for the genre, and you can captain one of its incredibly detailed ships for free on Steam.
Winning Putt
If the one thing you feel like your life is missing is a golf MMO, then Winning Putt is here to make sure your dreams are fulfilled. A multiplayer stick and ball sim built on the CryEngine, it allows you to create a character and train them up to become a worldwide leader in the art of hole-in-one. Using microtransactions you can pay real-world money for ‘enchanting material’ or a bigger shaft (steady). But, like in the best free Steam games, you don’t have to, and such trappings shouldn’t detract you. This is a golf game where you can play a round on the alien planet of Starglen, after all.
Path of Exile
Considerably more grim and gothic than other action games out there, Path of Exile is also blessed with one of the most compelling levelling systems seen in an RPG. An impossibly large and liberating grid of abilities and improvements awaits, ready to allow you to enhance your character in any which way you see fit. To unlock those tantalising abilities you’ll need to battle your way through the monster-infested world, making use of a combat system that is (whisper it now) possibly a bit better than Diablo III. On top of all that it also gets a massive expansion and new competitive league every few months like the recent Path of Exile: Betrayal update.
Team Fortress 2
What can one say about Team Fortress 2, Valve’s mega-popular, constantly evolving shooter? It has many hats. It is also extremely refined, always full of players despite launching in 2007, and gets frequent updates to fatten the game up with even more hats, modes, and maps.
Not on Steam: Read our list of the best free PC games if you’re not fussy about using Valve’s platform
But despite how much the game has grown in the nine years since it launched, it remains easy to pick up, especially if you have some chums to play with. The package itself now feels infinitely huge, with a great variety of game types, from the classic capture point Red vs. Blu games, to co-op Mann vs. Machine, where players band together to keep waves of murderous robots at bay.
Dota 2
Dota 2 is massive, second only to League of Legends in the realm of MOBAs. Millions of people seemingly play it constantly, always coming back to check out new characters and patches. As a MOBA with roots in the origin of the genre you know exactly what to expect: an eclectic roster of Dota 2 heroes, a huge list of powerful items, ten players, three lanes, and a massive emphasis on skill. You could spend days and days just thinking about the metagame, not to mention honing your talents by spectating the biggest matches come tournament season. Budding players need to get started somewhere with this free Steam game, so check out our guide to the best Dota 2 heroes.
Duelyst
Card games have become big business on PC, and it is all too easy for them to feel quite similar. Duelyst is unlike any card game out there, though. It combines the RNG and card drawing systems of games like Hearthstone with turn-based tactics mechanics. Each card you play summons a character onto a chess-like board, and you can move them around in order to flank enemies or escape them. This added layer brings a new level of thought and tension to a set of familiar rules. Combined with colourful, retro-cool art, Duelyst is one of the most original and captivating free Steam games.
Planetside 2
PlanetSide 2’s scale is something to behold. Whole continents are locked in constant conflict, with armies clashing over bases, vehicles speeding across the ground, aircraft lighting up the sky – it is glorious… until you die thanks to a sniper sitting a mile away. You will want to play with friends for this one, or at least be equipped with a microphone, as the chaos of battle only starts to make sense when you are in a squad that communicates. Think Battlefield’s capture-point style gameplay, but on a large, never-ending scale, with three factions locked in ceaseless combat. Absolute FPS bliss.
Closers
What should you do when a load of terrifying alien monsters invade your city through breaches in your very dimension? Since there is not really a precedent for it, we recommend hiring the closers, an elite band of psychic teens with a penchant for alien bashing. Choose one of five colourful characters from the Black Lambs team and introduce these beasts to their interdimensional maker with chains of ridiculous combos. In both PvE and PvP modes, you can smash aliens through the gravel with buses and slash them in a flurry of sword strikes. Now that is how to deal with an alien invasion. Closers is great fun for fans of anime games who don’t fancy parting with their cash.
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And there you have it: the very best games available on Steam that will cost you absolutely nothing. We’d even consider some of them the best games on PC. And since they all come at everybody’s favourite price, it means you can play even more games than before. Why not try them all and see which ones are for you? It’s not like it will cost you anything.
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