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By AllTechAdvisor
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Looking for the best free PC game? Whether you're broke or just frugal, free is a price point that appeals to everybody's purse. We've collated the few top free PC games guaranteed to deliver a near endless stream of complementary entertainment. All you need to spend is your time.
From military games to sci-fi to fantasy and back, MMOs to block builders to card battlers, it turns out that zero can buy you quite a lot.
1. World of Warships
World of Warships has now launched and it's awesome. While World of Warplanes struggled as a second act for Wargaming after World of Tanks, Warships is a lot more fun. At first you'll struggle to hit anything but give it a chance and the combination of action, strategy and team play will keep you coming back.
2. Rift
Rift was a phenomenal subscription based fantasy MMO - World of Warcraft in new trousers, essentially. It made its name by updating and improving itself at a ferocious pace: with new raids, new zones, and new world events appearing on a monthly basis. Now, it's entirely free-to-play: you can play it without spending a penny. It's a brilliant option: you can sink hours into it. Highly recommended.
3. ArcheAge
Archeage is closest thing we’ve got to a proper pirate MMO. You can try and master the endless sea as a notorious pirate or choose to be a humble peddler of crafted goods. Its labour system - how it gates content - may take time to get used to, but nevertheless it’s a really solid free-to-play experience. There’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t give this a try.
4. World of Tanks
One of mightiest free-to-play games there has ever been, World of Tanks is an accessible and exciting tank simulator that hides some complex game mechanics. It pits two sets of tankers against each other in team deathmatch. There are hundreds of vehicles to unlock across ten different tiers, from speedy scouts to hulking heavies. You’ll never believe so many tanks existed.
5. War Thunder
A massively multiplayer World War 2 combat game that effortlessly encompasses all of the explosions and excitement that tanks and planes are capable of generating. War Thunder's recent updates lavish the fast-paced battler with dozens of new vehicles and game modes. It's a free to play gem.
6. Star Wars: The Old Republic
After a long, slow start, SWTOR is now pretty great - particularly thanks to the Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion, which is basically 'Bioware does Star Wars'. It’s a fast-paced action-RPG with lightsabers and space combat and Jedi houses and bounty hunters and, if you go full dark side, you can fire lightning from your fingertips. Really.
7. Skyforge
Skyforge blends sci-fi and fantasy together for an action-heavy MMO that’s happy to ditch many of the rules so many other games adhere to. There’s no levelling or strict classes: instead you develop your character how you like and can swap between different combat roles whenever you wish. As you gain more power you’ll eventually become a god incarnate, complete with your own followers. But being a god comes with its own responsibilities though, and you’ll have to help defend the world of Aelion from attacks by hostile deities.
8. Nosgoth
A free to play combat game set in the Legacy of Kain universe, Nosgoth pits vampires against vampire hunters in tight deathmatch arenas. Asymmetrical abilities and diverse tactics keep the action as sharp as the bloodsuckers' pointy fangs.
9. Warframe
Everything’s better in space, as Warframe proves with its Ninjas in space theme. It’s a co-op third-person game where teams of ninjas suited up in powerful ‘Warframe’ armours head out to slice up bad guys, or just hang out at the dojo. It blends some MMO elements with the sensibilities of a more straight-forward action game, creating something slick, exciting, and very sociable.
10. Hex: Shards of Fate
At its heart, Hex is a two player card game. Hex’s rules are a little more complex than Hearthstone’s but we found it to be a more rewarding game. Both players have 20 health and draw cards from their decks to summon creatures and cast spells against each other. The spells and creatures can weave their abilities together to make powerful combinations. Hex is in free open beta right now, and with hundreds of different cards available, players are still finding new ways to combine them.
11. Star Trek Online
Who wouldn’t want to take control of a starship, explore the fringes of the galaxy, battle dangerous aliens and train an elite crew of pangalactic professionals? This is your chance to show the internet that you’d make a much better Picard than Picard. Or, at least, than they do.
12. Guild Wars 2
Guild Wars 2 is one of the best MMOs available. Even better, you can play a huge chunk of it for free. It works because it bucks the trend of so many games by scrapping ‘the trinity’ of players required to play: no longer do you need a tank, DPS, and healer character working together to be effective. Now, every class can contribute damage and keep themselves healthy. There’s a lot to do, from traditional questing for NPCs to zone events where everyone can suddenly get involved and work as a massive team to bring down a boss, or help a burning village.
You’ll need to pay to get into the Heart of Thorns expansion, but the base game is huge enough as it is, and the backlog of Living World stories now available to play means there’s plenty to see, explore, and get involved with.
13. Lord of the Rings Online
Turbine’s free to play MMO is the third most popular in the world, depending on who you ask, and it’s all because they ditched the subscription model and went full throttle towards a cash-free future. The LOTRO Store is where premium players can drop pennies, but otherwise frugal adventurers can lose themselves in Middle-earth just as easily.
14. Trove
Trove is the MMO equivalent of Minecraft, and exactly as good as that sounds. It's fast paced and fluid, with you exploring and dominating voxel worlds. What's neat is just how much you can customise the look of your character: every item dropped can be used to change your style.
15. Path of Exile
An action RPG in the mould of Diablo, Path of Exile is one of the most polished, well-executed games on this list. Adventure with a friend or two through hundreds of areas in a dark fantasy world that provides a dizzying collection of monsters to repeatedly click on until they squish. Path of Exile does feature a microtransaction system but it’s admirably unobtrusive and ethical.
16. Armored Warfare
In Armoured Warfare, the tanks of today and tomorrow are at war. The idea is that you're fighting as part of a modern day private military company. Big player versus player rucks are exciting, but if you're not into that, there's a co-op campaign you can play with your mates.
17. Wildstar
Wildstar is built for lapsed World of Warcraft players. It's a sci-fi MMO that looks and feels like a Blizzard game, but with one important difference: it's for the hardcore. Ignore the cutesy looks: at the top end of the game, you'll find raids that make Warcraft's easy-mode dungeons look like something for kids.
18. Smite
Following the same formula as League of Legends and Dota 2, Smite has teams of five gods trying to fight their way into their opponent’s base. Rather than giving players a top-down view of the battlefield, it chooses a third-person perspective, switching the focus of the game from tactics to action.
19. League of Legends
Inspired by the original Dota, this takes the same concept but introduces a different roster of playable characters that is constantly being expanded. Many players find League of Legends is both easier and more accessible than Dota, but it’s still extremely nuanced. 12 million players play it every day. You won’t struggle to find a game.
20. Hearthstone
Blizzard's world dominating card game is about as addictive as chips. Who's ever had enough chips? You've always got room for more chips, and you've always got time for another game of Hearthstone. Oh, and it looks pretty great on phones and tablets too.
21. Heroes of the Storm
It wasn’t going to be long until Blizzard entered the MOBA fray, and Heroes of the Storm is their stab at taking on Dota and League of Legends. Yet this 5v5 arena game isn’t just another Dota clone. Instead of a single map, Heroes of the Storm has many themed arenas that ask you not only to defeat the enemy but also complete side quests to help improve your chances. Not only does this provide variety, but it’s intensely fun.
22. Marvel Heroes 2015
Gazillion’s superhero MMO, has improved massively since it launched in 2013. The revised game, from Diablo’s creator David Brevik, is a lot of fun and one of the most played games on Steam. You can play as all your Marvel favourites and the game does a neat job of keeping up with updates in the Marvel universe with new content around stuff like the Age of Ultron movie release and the Netflix Daredevil show (pictured above)
23. Team Fortress 2
Valve’s class-based shooter has achieved legendary status thanks to its varied game modes, impeccable sense of fun, and being home to more hats than the world’s millinery stores combined. The whole game is free to play these days, from the standard shoot-everything-that-moves deathmatches to the fantastic Mann vs Machine co-op mode where teams fend off waves of robots.
24. Firefall
The ex-Blizzard lot at Red 5 done good, pulling together to create a kinetic and skill based third-person shooter-y sort of MMO. An intensely fun blend of PvP and RPG exploration that continues to go from strength to strength.
25. Planetside 2
Battle has never been so big. Imagine entire continents at war, with tanks, trucks and fighter craft alongside hordes of infantry. Throw that into the far future and you’ve got Planetside 2, a never-ending conflict on an incredible scale that’s pretty damn good looking to boot. There is nothing else quite like this out there.
26. Battlefield 1942
This was the game that the entire Battlefield series: a World War 2 first-person FPS that demonstrated tanks and planes and submarines and everything in between belonged in our deathmatch arenas. It may look dated now, but it’s still a fine example of World War 2 shootery, so take another tour of duty.
27. Mechwarrior Online
Pledge your loyalty to a great house or sign up for a mercenary company in this mech simulation. Whether you’re piloting a light or heavy mech, you’ll have to manage your weaponry and keep an eye on your system temperature. In the Mechwarrior universe, piloting a giant robot can be a technical and rather nuanced occupation. There is also stomping.
28. Tribes: Ascend
Tribes is probably the fastest FPS in the world. It’s set across huge levels of open valleys and leafy forests: you zip through them by skiing down mountains and jetting up hillsides. Just be aware that success comes from both ultra-fast reactions and clever teamwork.
29. Warface
Warface is a fast action military shooter: but less concerned with realism than it’s po-faced peers. Warfare wants you to do two things: co-operate with your team in fast urban deathmatches. And slide along on your arse while firing a machine gun.
30. World of Warplanes
Seize the free-to-play concepts behind World of Tanks, take them to the skies and you have World of Warplanes, a game of whirling dogfights and nail-biting bombing runs for teams of jet bombers and biplanes alike. Sure, it’s still in beta, but it’s getting sleeker and shinier with every release.
31. Magicka Wizard Wars
New entry into our list, this is absurd. Absolutely raving bonkers. A wizard-focused action RPG where spells fly faster than bullets. Mulitplayer fun where sizzling fireballs and searing beams slicing through friend and foe alike.
32. Black Mesa
It took nearly a decade, but it’s a now a real thing: Black Mesa is what happens when a mod team decides to recreate the original Half-Life in the Half-Life 2 engine. The result was a faithful and quite brilliant representation with a few new flourishes and without any of that Xen nonsense at the end.
33. Star Conflict
Take your dogfighting to the stars with this scifi take on fighter combat. Star Conflict gives you a hangar’s worth of gorgeous starships to launch into battle. Combat takes place in asteroid fields or high above distant worlds and the lasers fly hot, free and fast.
34. Heroes & Generals
Do you want to shoot all the guns and make all the decisions? War isn’t all about what happens on the front line, but nor is it about the decisions made back at headquarters, so Heroes & Generals is the perfect game for players who want to try a bit of both.
35. Runescape
Runescape holds the record for being the largest MMORPG ever, as well as for being the most updated game. Runescape has an enormous player base and a massive, ever evolving world to explore, full of challenges that you can choose according to your own interests. Want to fight, to complete quests or just to play minigames? In Runescape it’s entirely up to you.
36. Realm of the Mad God
A massively multiplayer top-down semi-twin stick shooter, this is all about you and your buddies filling the screen with bullets as you work together to blast your way through an increasingly challenging host of horrors, before facing down the final foe in his evil lair. Unlike many MMOs, character death here is permanent, so watch your step.
37. D&D Online
Do you want a chance to adventure in some of the most famous fantasy worlds there ever were? With D&D Online you can set foot in the Forgotten Realms and the land of Eberron, stepping into the well-worn boots of a thief or a spellcaster as you fight dragons and demons. It’s not often you get high fantasy for free.
38. RaiderZ
RaiderZ is an MMO with an unusual take on combat. You you directly control your character swipes and wings: you’re not simply pointing and clicking. It’s entirely down to you whether you roll out of the way of an enemy swing, or whether you jump past a monster’s defences to inflict that critical blow. It is good.
39. Dota 2
Two teams of five choose their heroes from a selection of hundreds, before taking to the battlefield to destroy the other side’s base. It’s no mean feat, as both bases spawn waves of creatures and are protected by powerful towers. Each player will need to make the best of their hero’s abilities in what is not only a game, but a sport. It’s tough, complex and it inspires fanaticism in its fans.
40. Digital: A Love Story
An adventure set in the early days of the internet, Digital is a game like nothing else. It presents you with an Amiga-style interface and has you dialing into the bulletin boards of old, a place where esoteric communities chatter and strange secrets are waiting to be found.
41. Spelunky
It says something about how special PC gaming is that one of the best platformers we’ve ever seen is still free. Spelunky is inspired by the 8-bit classics, but it randomly-generates its levels so that you have something new to explore every time you play. It also has snakes, boulders, ice caves and more bats than you can shake your shotgun at. If you can find one in the darkness.
42. Red Rogue
A black and white platformer of dungeon exploration, Red Rogue builds new levels every time you play and has a host of different weapons and powerful artifacts just waiting to be discovered. It introduces all sorts of canny game mechanics, such as backstabbing and even prayer.
43. Desktop Dungeons
This is the ultimate roguelike, the most distilled dungeon adventure yet and a game that fits into just fifteen minutes. You explore a single level of a dungeon, batter the monsters, collect the loot and see if you can last until the very end. Can’t quite make it? Then try it all again, but with a new character class. It’s quick, deadly and addictive.
45. Super Crate Box
This is a super-fast, super-dangerous platformer where enemies constantly drop from the top of the screen. Score points not by killing them, but by collecting crates, each of which has a new weapon for you, though some are much better than others. Let any of the monsters past you and into the fire below and they respawn more powerful than before. Repeat this formula and enjoy ad infinitum.
46. EnviroBear 2000
Imagine that you’re a bear driving a car with your furry bear paws. Imagine that you need to drive about the forest and collect food before winter arrives, but badgers and bees may find their way into your car and foil your efforts. That’s EnviroBear 2000. Play it.
47. The Battle for Wesnoth
This is one of the most impressive examples of a game made entirely for free, simply for the love of the challenge. Hex-based fantasy strategy is what it’s all about, with elven archers and orc warriors, but don’t think the setting means it’s lighthearted or easy. Wesnoth is a tough game, certainly as tough as any gritty, WW2 strategy game.
48. Ground Control
Real-time strategy without the base-building, Ground Control was one of the first games in its genre to emphasise the importance of terrain, letting you perch artillery atop hills or hide tanks just around the corner. You can even name all of your units, for that added personal touch.
49. Lemmings
If you haven’t played Lemmings, you haven’t lived. Hundreds of mindless humanoids need to be shepherded across a series of ever more dangerous levels towards an exit. At your disposal are a very limited selection of special powers that you can give them, such as the ability to build stairs, to dig through obstacles or to fall very gently. Each level is more complex and more deadly than the last.
50. System Shock
Not really a first-person shooter, but much more of a first-person adventure game, System Shock set you in the role of a hacker trying to defeat a rogue AI that had taken over a far future space station. While sometimes you’ll shoot your way out of trouble, most of the time you’ll be both exploring and solving puzzles in this atmospheric and sometimes downright creepy game.
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