The Best Free Games

Anything not related to Egoboo.

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PurpleSquerkle
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The Best Free Games

Post by PurpleSquerkle »

I think we should put together a list of the greatest free games ever, because... Well, just because.
Because I like games, and I don't have money. :mrgreen:

Maybe if this actually becomes interesting/cool/useful, we could sticky it or... I dunno.


At any rate, I would think we are more or less in agreement that Egoboo, Cave Story, Wesnoth, and Nethack should be on there. Thus:
Egoboo
If you're here, and you don't know anything about this, well... that's strange. Download it now.

Doukutsu Monogatari (Cave Story)
Cave Story is a platform shooter and is sometimes described as a "metroidvania." It's more exploration-based and isn't really divided into stages. It has several different guns and upgrades, a unique weapon leveling system, and a neat story with interesting characters and setting.
Its look and sound are very "old school" and it looks something like a SNES game.

The Battle for Wesnoth
Wesnoth is a turn-based strategy game with a fantasy setting. It has online multiplayer with several different factions to play as, as well as several long campaigns to play through. You can also just play a single game against AI, or against other people using the same computer (hotseat).

Nethack
Nethack is a roguelike / dungeon crawling game. It is incredibly deep and there are a lot of strange secrets to the game. It's nearly impossible to actually beat the game, though, especially since there are about three billion ways to die.




And here some other games; I think they're amazing, but I don't think (m)any of you have played them, so try them out:

N
N is a fairly simple platformer: You control a ninja, and your goal is to collect gold, open the door to the exit, and get to it to finish the level. You are timed for each level, and there are various robots trying to kill you. It features very nice physics (it's actually quite entertaining to watch your character die) and many, many different levels.

Iji
Iji is another platform shooter-ish sort of game, and although there are a lot of secrets and sort of an exploration aspect, it is stage-based, and often times there's no way to go back to where you were before, so it encourages multiple plays through. It has an interesting story, and the game changes somewhat based on your choices (whether you choose to kill as little as possible or destroy everything in sight).
There are plenty of extra unlockable things and secrets to find, too.

Savage: The Battle for Newerth
Savage is an interesting online game and it's sort of hard to describe. Basically it's a combination of an FPS and an RTS; you can be the commander and play it like a real-time strategy game, or you can control one of the actual units on the field. It has a unique setting that is sort of bronze age / early iron age-ish and sort of steampunk and sort of I don't know what all else.
Apparently the sequel is also free now, but I have not played it because it won't run on my computer. :(


So yes. Recommend games here. But not just good ones; amazingly great games.
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Post by Ben Urban »

I'm not the type to write reviews, so I'll just list them. And the links shouldn't be all that hard to find, but I'm feeling lazy right now.

Sauerbraten is always fun, if a bit repetitive.
Widelands is interesting, but rather slow.
And if you really love a good, complex story, try AlephOne.
Thanks to penguinflyer2222 for the avatar, and to penguinflyer5234 for hosting it.
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Post by Shade »

Oh, yeah, I actually know N. However, some of the levels are really hard, which made me stop playing at some point because I simply cannot unlock all the levels. >_<

Anyway, it's my turn!

Eternal Daughter (it's at the bottom of the page) is a jump 'n run game in a Metroidvania style - well, sort of, I think the game pretty much has its own style. There are plenty of secrets to find, tough challenges, a nice story and very addictive graphics and characters. You should really try it if you want a challenge!

Super Mario War (search their forums if you want to latest version, they're at 1.8 already) is a great Mario-style game - but it's not a classic one, mind you! It pretty much gives you the PvP multiplayer mode you've always wanted for the 2D Mario games! Stomp on the other players' heads to defeat them or shoot them with fire flowers and many other items, play capture the flag in Mario-style areas, be the first to grab all the coins, find the Yoshi egg before your enemies and take it to Yoshi and many more modes wait for you!

Also, how comes that Little Fighter II has not been listed yet!? :shock:
It's arguably the best and most fun fighting game I've ever played!


(All the links lead to pages with longer descriptions of these games, so click them if one of them looks interesting to you.)
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Post by kettlechip »

i love little fighter 2 AND N *but n is freaking hard*

go for the freeware game siege, (a puzzle rts, sorta game. really hard to describe as it is so unique. but if anyone asks ill get it to them. best with 2 people) its practically exinct *as in im one of the few people left on earth who have it! you will have to get from a site where i can upload it.*

ore no ryomi 2 deserves a spot up there
as well as mugen
and bzflag

(seriously they all have great potential)
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Post by ShellShocker »

kettlechip wrote: *but n is freaking hard*

I agree with you there.
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Post by Cimeries »

- Linley's Dungeon Crawl
- Soulfu
:wink:
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Post by PurpleSquerkle »

I actually looked into all these games (the ones I didn't already know about, at least). :)

Sauerbraten- This one looks moderately interesting, but I'm not really into FPSs, and I don't think it would run on my computer.

Widelands- I'm not much of an RTS person either, usually. And yet I do really like Savage...

AlephOne- Again, an FPS, so it doesn't really interest me.

Eternal Daughter- I've seen this around a few times lately; I may check it out at some point.

Super Mario War- I've heard of this as well. I'm not huge on fangames as a general rule; usually the only ones that interest me are the ones that take something's setting and put it into an entirely different kind of game. And I'm also always a bit afraid that I'll get it and enjoy it, but suddenly they'll get a cease and desist order and I won't be able to play anymore. ^_^

Little Fighter 2- I've heard of this many times before and have never played it. Maybe I will...

Ore Ryomi 2- Normally this sort of thing would interest me a bit, but for some reason this one does not.

Mugen- I had this once, but I don't think I ever really got around to playing it. I seem to recall (this was a while ago, though, so I could be wrong) that it was fairly large, though, and as many of you may have heard already, I'm having trouble with space on my computer. :(

Bzflag- Doesn't look all that interesting to me....

Linley's Dungeon Crawl- I played it a little bit, but I didn't like it all that much. It didn't have that many new things to offer (paperdolling was interesting, but Elona has that too, in addition to many other cool things), and it seems to start out with too many strong monsters; I found myself dying very quickly most of the time.

Soulfu- Oh, yes, of course. Not sure why we haven't brought it up before. :?
Great game.


Anyway, now you guys have to look into the three I posted. :P
Although it seems many of you have already played N... It's sad because my progress somehow got deleted, so I haven't played in a while. :(
I never did manage to beat a full column, now it will probably never happen...
Anyway. You should get Savage, too (and if you do, we should play some time). And also Iji. I forgot to mention that that one was made with Game Maker (the same program I use to make my games), which, to me, makes it even cooler.
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Post by Cimeries »

PurpleSquerkle wrote:I found myself dying very quickly most of the time.

That seems to be essential for a good roguelike. :P
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Post by PurpleSquerkle »

Not really, because I was just getting killed by monsters.

It would have been fine if I had been crushed by falling boulders or something, but being killed by the first monster I fought?!
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Post by Cimeries »

I guess you must have picked a hard class/race combo.
Try playing something like a Minotaur/Troll Berserker, or a Vampire Assasin.
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I actually like Nethack better than Crawl, but I'm enjoying Crawl more right now because it's a very welcome change of pace.
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Post by Maxaxle »

bzflag-A fun little 3D tank game with lazers and guns and shields and other stuff.
Racer-A racing sim, seriously in development, and is mostly on-road.
GeneRally-A fun semi-realistic semi-arcade racing sim with an R/C car perspective. On and off-road.
Torcs-A fun racing sim, tons of vehicles, lots of options and such, no real specific category of racing.
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Bug me if you want to play a game.
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Post by Ben Urban »

Bzflag is nice because you can hit the screenshot key to go through walls (seriously!).

It's not very nice because other players can do the same.
Thanks to penguinflyer2222 for the avatar, and to penguinflyer5234 for hosting it.
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Post by Cimeries »

Iji is pretty cool. :D
I'm at the third stage right now.
:wink:
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Post by PurpleSquerkle »

What difficulty are you playing?
I beat it once on Hard, and now I'm doing a pacifist run on Extreme.
I have one kill so far (a boss; I don't think you can avoid killing him), and I'm on... sector seven, I believe.

The dialog etc. changes a bit when you kill as few as possible; it's interesting.
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Post by Cimeries »

Iji also starts yelling battle shouts as you accumulate kills.
I'm currently killing everything on sight. :D
Right now I'm on sec 7, Normal difficulty.
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