What are the best free PC games?

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Sep 10, 2023

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The 6 must play gamesWhy?

Best free PC games	Price	Graphic design	PvP
94 Battle for Wesnoth	Free	2D	Yes
93 Team Fortress 2	Free	-	-
92 0 A.D.	Free	3D	Yes
90 Heroes of the Storm	Free	-	-
90 SuperTuxKart	Free	-	-

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Team Fortress 2

Top Pro

Fun, humorous gameplay, graphics and sound

This game has a history of over-the-top characters, visuals, voice-overs, and various other items, which altogether create an amusing world both within the game and outside of it as well. See More

Top Con

Free accounts are slightly limited

Free accounts do not get rare and cosmetic items nor as many storage slots for items. Items are relevant as free accounts can only hold 50, while the game has much more than 50 pieces of equipment (that affect gameplay), let alone 50 weapons. While a premium account player can react to almost all situations with a counter item, with only 50 slots a newbie probably won't have or even be able to access it. A full inventory also means a free player will have to miss out or delete exclusive event items and cosmetics just to play the game as full as they can. A free account is upgraded when any item is purchased with real money from the store. See More

ImaginativeZaqar's Experience

Really fun, but not light at all, above 1 gb of space See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Hero-based FPS

Co-Op:6 Player Online / 6 Player LAN

Controller Support:Partial

See All Specs

Top Pro

Multiple game modes allowing for great variation

TF2 has more than 10 game modes, plus variations on those, as well as community mods that offer a wide range of objective-based play. Classic game modes include Capture the Flag, Control Point, King of the Hill and Payload. There's also Mann vs. Machine, a co-operative game mode where you play against waves of AI controlled enemies. See More

Top Con

Random critical hits add a significant luck element to the game and push certain types of players out

In most 'public' servers, an option called 'random crits' (short for 'random critical hits') exists by default. This allows a random percentage of your shots to multiply damage by 3 for a shot, and also remove the damage drop-off over range. This 'feature' gets increasingly more annoying as you get more experienced, as you will die more often than your opponent having x3 or more damage over you, actively making their experiences and wins less meaningful. Some classes are especially burnt by this. Medics don't use weapons often, Snipers only have secondary weapons and melees, and Spies only have their revolver (and most sidegrades of that revolver remove this ability entirely). Quickplay (a feature most newbies use to get a match) also disables these servers from appearing in the list, so there are very few 'nocrit' servers because many don't know they exist. See More

KindPingerton's Experience

Lots of cheaters and nobody plays matchmaking especially in Australia See More

Top Pro

Fair free to play model

This game is mostly pay-to-gain, as in to get more weapons. You can randomly get things, though. You can use the things you randomly get to be also used in crafting recipes to make other things. See More

Top Con

Lots of cheaters and nobody plays matchmaking

This is especially true in Australia. See More

SophisticatedNabia's Experience

Was fun until it was basically abandoned by Valve. Don't even try to think about competitive play, it's dead. So is matchmaking. Only community servers are worth it. See More

Top Pro

Free to play

Team Fortress 2 has been free to play since 2011. See More

Top Con

Well established community that is sometimes unwelcome of newcomers

Especially recent converts from other FPSes, where the expected mechanic is different than the actual gameplay mechanic. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

The game runs on Windows, OS X and Linux machines. See More

Top Con

Pay to win

You have to pay for weapons besides the ones you start with and the few you get from drops. See More

Top Pro

Hectic FPS gameplay created by 9 distinct classes with lots of varied items

TF2 has 9 playable classes - Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demoman, Heavy, Engineer, Medic, Sniper and Spy. This allows for a range of playstyles. For example, the Heavy, starting with 300 health (going up to 450), wielding a machine gun and usually assisted by a Medic, will be commonly found on the front-lines soaking up lots of damage and pulling the enemy team's focus; at the same time the Engineer will try and avoid direct battle as much as possible, providing infrastructure (teleports, sentry, dispensers). Add to this hundreds of weapons for each class providing different stats and you have an impressive amount of variety in gameplay. See More

Top Pro

Active, fun, creative community

The TF2 community is know for actively engaging in different TF2 related activities. They create shorts using the source filmmaker, sell items via the steam workshop, build real-life sculptures, etc. See More

Top Pro

Offline LAN support

As long as users last logged in to offline mode on Steam before trying a LAN connection, LAN will work. See More

Top Pro

Includes Mann vs. Machine, a ridiculously fun co-op mode

Mann vs. Machine is a co-op mode in Team Fortress 2 that is comprised of gameplay in which 6 players team up to stop AI robots from deploying a bomb. Though not the central gameplay of Team Fortress 2, it is a mode that allows for co-op play to be enjoyed with the characters of the game. Mann vs. Machine works quite well over LAN and is very fun to boot. See More

Top Pro

Good VR support

To enable VR support, type -vr in console. TF2 has 8 modes in which to control the game. They can be changed with the command vr_moveaim_mode in console. They offer choice in what combination of aiming and steering should be coupled to the rift and mouse and introduce the concept of dead zones - an area of the screen that controls differently when aiming or steering within its bounds than outside them. Typing vr_calibration in console gives access to adjusting interpupillary distance (distance between eyes). You can get that information from an optician or use the calibration tool to help figure it out and set it there. Calibration will help set accurate render point (camera position) and reduce nausea. See More

Top Pro

Pretty good VR support and options

To enable VR support, type -vr in console. TF2 has 8 modes in which to control the game. They can be changed with the command vr_moveaim_mode in console. They offer choice in what combination of aiming and steering should be coupled to the rift and mouse and introduce the concept of dead zones - an area of the screen that controls differently when aiming or steering within its bounds than outside them. Typing vr_calibration in console gives access to adjusting interpupillary distance (distance between eyes). You can get that information from an optician or use the calibration tool to help figure it out and set it there. Calibration will help set accurate render point (camera position) and reduce nausea. See More

Top Pro

Engaged, active, fun, and creative community give the game a welcoming feel, even for outsiders

The TF2 community is know for actively engaging in different TF2 related activities. They create shorts using the source filmmaker, sell items via the steam workshop, build real-life sculptures, etc. See More

Top Pro

Fun and humorous gameplay with graphics and sound that fit with this theme

This game has a history of over-the-top characters, visuals, voice-overs, and various other items, which altogether create an amusing world both within the game and outside of it as well. You get a feeling a lot of thought has gone into the development of the characters as well as the world they live in. For a genre that is often filled with drab characters in a drab world, it is refreshing to see something so well fleshed out. See More

Top Pro

Tons to do in the game with plenty of game modes and plenty of community mods

TF2 has more than 10 game modes, plus variations on those, as well as community mods that offer a wide range of objective-based play. Classic game modes include Capture the Flag, Control Point, King of the Hill and Payload. There's also Mann vs. Machine, a co-operative game mode where you play against waves of AI controlled enemies. See More

Top Pro

Hectic FPS gameplay that utilizes 9 distinct classes, each with lots of varied items

TF2 has 9 playable classes - Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demoman, Heavy, Engineer, Medic, Sniper and Spy. This allows for a range of playstyles. For example, the Heavy, starting with 300 health (going up to 450), wielding a machine gun and usually assisted by a Medic, will be commonly found on the front-lines soaking up lots of damage and pulling the enemy team's focus; at the same time the Engineer will try and avoid direct battle as much as possible, providing infrastructure (teleports, sentry, dispensers). Add to this hundreds of weapons for each class providing different stats and you have an impressive amount of variety in gameplay. See More

Top Pro

Offline LAN support is pretty easy to implement

As long as users have logged in to offline mode on Steam before trying a LAN connection, LAN will work. Which could be an area of confusion, but luckily is easy enough to do if you know you need to do it. See More

Top Pro

Completely free to download and play any existing section of the game

The game can be downloaded and played for free, allowing anyone to try it out. There are some items that can be purchased with money, but those are optional and only decorative. See More

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0 A.D.

Top Pro

Free and open-source

Even if the current developer team chooses to no longer work on the game, others can keep contributing to the source code and modify it. See More

Top Con

Currently in alpha

0 A.D. is an ongoing open source project that is as of yet feature complete. See More

Nash Lab's Experience

I think 0 A.D. is like Ages of Empires III if you know what that is. I think it is allot more complete, since anyone can build buildings, harvest, ext... You can also put people in buildings and walls. It is a very fun game for strategy and building an empire from scratch. However this is baced for 0 AD time, I do wish there were also 17 Century for muskets and stuff. See More

Specs

Genre:real-time Strategy

Co-Op:Yes (teams)

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Top Pro

Multi-platform support

The game will run on Linux, OSX and Windows, which is great for people who dual boot or just use multiple OS's across their devices. No matter the OS used, one can install and play this game. See More

Miroslav's Experience

The best graphics for an open source-game along with Xonotic!Amazing community and many little things that are making the game more historically accurate and at the same time with better controls. For me this is AoE done the right way :) See More

Top Pro

Straightforward RTS gameplay

0 A.D. brings familiar straightforward real time strategy gameplay for free using open source code. With a mini-map in the bottom corner, resources shown in a bar at the bottom and of course unit selection through double clicking, all of the major elements found in most RTS games is here, making for a very familiar game for those that are used to the genre. See More

Top Pro

One of the only free RTSes available being actively developed

When it comes to a completely free RTS that is being actively developed there are few options, or really only one, this game. So for that part, the best option available as it is really the only one. While there may be some free to play RTS options available they do rely on in game transactions where this title will have none. See More

Top Pro

Addictive Aoe style game that works on nearly any OS

This game is very similar to Age of Empires, so it should be right up the alley for fans of AoE as they will be familiar with the style of gameplay. See More

Top Pro

Active development

By being in active development the game allows for frequent bug fixes as well as frequent new content. While it is still in alpha, the state of the game playability is pretty good with new features being added all the time. See More

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Heroes of the Storm

Top Pro

Teamwork is encouraged

More teamfighting, less laning. Games are largely decided by how well each team can work as a unit instead of one player carrying. See More

Top Con

Reconnect system

It's extraordinarily difficult and frustrating to reconnect to a game in Heroes if you disconnect for any reason. Reconnecting players can't simply "pick up where they left off", they have to simulate everything that has happened in the game between the moment they disconnected and the present time, which causes the reconnecting process to be extra slow and occasionally impossible. See More

ReverentTyche's Experience

Doesn't feel repetitive like other top MOBAs due to map variety and large hero pool See More

Specs

See All Specs

Top Pro

Community

Blizzard has a history of fostering great community. Blizzard allows players to flag themselves as looking for group, and will suggest to other players. Heroes also has WoW-like chat channels that make it easy to find people to play with. See More

Top Con

Terrible matchmaking

In any of the matchmaking queues, the chance of being put against someone with much higher skill than yourself is very high. The ranking system goes in this order: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Master, Grandmaster. On multiple occasions, silver players have been placed against an entire team of Grandmasters with bronze allies, leading to very poor experience. See More

DecisiveNemesis's Experience

6k games, grandmaster See More

Top Pro

Now there are 13 available maps

Different maps with different mechanics and appearance. And they keep adding more. See More

Top Con

Individual skin quality has dipped in exchange for numerous mediocre skins.

Gone are the days of high quality skins with cool spell effects and amazing visuals. What was once a dime-a-dozen, skins of actual "worth buying" quality now come once every 6 months or so, as the game's conversion to "2.0" switched their skin philosophy from QUALITY, to QUANTITY. See More

Yanis's Experience

Man, I forgot about this one... It rocks !! See More

Top Pro

Marked difficulty ratings for heroes

Each hero has a marked difficulty rating to make it easier for users to pick the player that best suits them. See More

Top Con

Lower playerbase game knowledge

The average Heroes of the Storm player is less informed about the mechanics and basic strategies of the game compared to the average player of other MOBA games. This is due to a variety of reasons, like the popularity of Quick Match and the relative lack of learning resources both in-game and out because the game isn't like other mobas so people bring the wrong knowledge and expectations to this game. See More

Top Pro

It's always possible to make a comeback

Even if you are in trouble because you lost almost all the game, you can still win by killing the enemy team on a stupid move they made at the end of the game. And it's never unfair: it's always because the losing team was overconfident and the winning one was focus. See More

Top Con

Slow fights

Heroes inflict little damage to each other, which has the potential to make fights seem long. On top of this when one falls behind many of their skill will become useless making for a fight that one is delegated to a support role, which will also add to the slow feeling of a fight. See More

Top Pro

No last hitting, no gold, no items

The game does away with the shop mechanic entirely. No last hitting means players don't have to focus on a minigame for the first 20 minutes so they can jump into the action much faster. No shop means that supports aren't starved for cash and can remain strong and relevant throughout the game. No items allows for the hero-specific talent system to shine, which provides a much more unique and easily balanced way to enhance your character. See More

Top Con

Designed around team play (per the MOBA genre)

Heroes of the Storm has been designed around team play, as the company calls it a Hero Brawler, that focuses more on team fights and working toward objectives as a team. As with most team based games, this means that if a player chooses to solo queue, that it may be difficult to play and coordinate with the rest of your team. The game does provide chat and a ping system similar to other MOBAs. See More

Top Pro

Hero and playstyle diversity

Blizzard has gone above and beyond to introduce Heroes that break the standard molds for Tanks/Support/Damage characters. The talent system allows for diversity in how a character plays, even if they are considered Support, they can go for damage or utility. Each Hero has 2 Heroic Abilities(Ultimates) providing even more diversity in how each character can be played. Also, Blizzard has introduced several unique heroes, like Lost Vikings: which are 3 heroes in one, and can be controlled separately; Also, newly added Cho'Gall, which required 2 people to control 1 hero. See More

Top Pro

Easy to learn

Heroes of the Storm was created to be a streamlined, modern take on a MOBA, something that many others have aimed for but HotS succeeds in. Shared XP keeps teams leveling together; No Last Hits means that everyone gets XP from minions and puts less importance on who gets the kill, since there is no Carry-player. Choosing talents instead of having to buy items gives the game complexity without forcing players to wade through menus and travel back to base. The game still offers a challenge to master at higher levels, but is more accessible to new players. See More

Top Pro

Shorter game times

Decreasing the importance of "laning" and increasing team fights and map objectives. Also, many map objectives keep the games to time limits between 15 - 30 minutes. Much more manageable for people not able to commit an hour to one match. AI games are even shorter. See More

Top Pro

Intelligent AI

The AI is responsive, challenging and fun. See More

Top Pro

Fun emotes from Hero's upon team work and team kills

If you play Nova and Kill Vala, Nova will say "HUNTER!?!? more like Hunted!!" Or if you play support and heal Raynor he will say "This medic is my new best friend". These emotes make it very clear what happened, and add a dimension of fun that you don't see in other MOBAs. See More

Top Pro

Great developer support

Blizzard has a great track record of supporting their game. Starcraft 1 latest patch 1.21.1 is released on December 2017, a game released 20 years ago. See More

Top Pro

Characters from all Blizzard games

Heroes of the storm has a mish-mash of characters from many of Blizzards popular titles. See More

Top Pro

A new hero every month

The game had only 12 heroes when the beta opened, now it's 77. Blizzard has hundreds and hundreds of characters across all their other games, and they add one hero per month, so even if you learn every hero, there will be just another one in weeks. See More

Top Pro

You don't have to learn what items do

In other MOBAs you have to learn which items are good for which situations as well as learn the actual classes themselves. Since HOTS does not have items, you don't have to learn what they do. See More

Top Pro

Great developer support.

Blizzard has a great track record of supporting their game. Starcraft 1 latest patch 1.21.1 is released on December 2017, a game released 20 years ago. See More

Top Pro

Can get skins for free

And many more cosmetics with the 2.0 version. See More

Top Pro

1st Esport broadcast on live network television

While other esports have aired on ESPN 3, Heroes of the Storm was the first video game broadcast live on Network TV on ESPN 2. Blizzard hosted the Heroes of the Dorm tournament, also one of the first college esports events, in which college teams played for the prize of full college tuition. See More

Top Pro

Deep but not complex

The game removes a lot of pointless features of other games like last hitting and out-of-game rune/card buffs. It's also much clearer, with natural percentage based increases for characters rather than "armor/intelligence" stat increases. It also has a large map pool with greatly differing objectives in each one forcing you to consider how your playstyle will adapt to the opponent and the map itself. It may appear to be simple, but there is a lot of hidden depth. See More

Top Pro

RNG is almost non existent

Except for some objectives in specific maps, RNG doesn't exist in this game. No luck, pure skills. See More

Top Pro

Pioneers the MOBA genre

The talent system, innovative mechanics, creative new maps and extremely unique Hero design make this game a real stand out. See More

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Dwarf Fortress

Top Pro

Lots of ways to die, no ways to win

Starvation, riots, goblins raiders stealing your babies, goblin war parties stealing your lives, elephants, vampires, werewolves, werebears, werebadgers, carp, digging into an aquifer, digging into lava, digging into the nesting area of a Forgotten Beast, selling wood to hippies, insanity, drowning in knee-deep water, and being attacked by your own dismembered finger. There are a lot of ways for dwarves to die. Age really isn't one ever heard of. After playing this game long enough, you'll realize why dwarves don't like going outside. Everything from harpies to dangerous man-eating carp is everywhere. Some of them are humorous, but most are a lesson. The entire game acts as a massive learning experience. Don't tell your dwarves to fish; they don't know how to swim. Wall off your fortress or a necromancer will make your lunch attack you. Don't dig too far down, or something scary will follow you back up. There is no victory, only glorious deaths. What goals you set in the game are up to you. Make small, simple goals that you know you can complete. "Surviving for 100 years" is like "curing cancer". Not technically 'impossible', but it might just be easier to settle on building a bridge for now. See More

Top Con

Controls are complex and often counterintuitive

New players are advised to read the Quickstart Guide. Dwarf Fortress takes a lot of patience to learn. Even something as basic and early as world creation might take a guide to understand the first time around. It doesn't really matter how experienced of a gamer you are; if you try to play this game without a guide, you're going to have a hard time. See More

Joel Munar's Experience

https://webprominds.com/free-paypal-money-adder-earn-paypal-money-online/ See More

Specs

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Top Pro

Massive randomly-generated worlds persist across multiple games

Estimating one meter per tile, the smallest possible Dwarf Fortress world is roughly 13 kilometers on each side, and about 400 layers deep. The largest world is about 197 kilometers (123 miles) on each side. Each world has its own randomly-generated history with thousands of notable figures, warring factions, and numerous settlements of various races. Any number of fortresses and/or adventurers can be played in a particular world, though only one at a time. See More

Top Con

ASCII text-based display (alternatives available via mods)

Top Pro

Continuous active development is planned for decades to come

Dwarf Fortress was started in 2002 and first released in 2006. Tarn and Zach Adams, its creators, have estimated that version 1.0 will be done in "about twenty years" and development will continue beyond that point. See More

Top Con

No inherent goals or objectives

Simulation, and the resulting emergent stories, are (by design) all there is to the game. Adventurers can die and fortresses can fall, but there is no such thing as winning. See More

Top Pro

Renowned for depth of simulation and emergent gameplay

The ultimate goal of Dwarf Fortress is no less than a total fantasy world simulator. Its simulated systems include geology, metallurgy, fluid pressure, temperature, combustion and phase transitions (melting, evaporation, etc.), shear and tensile strength, ballistics and gravity, anatomy and tissue damage, growth and maturation of animals and plants, emotional states, life goals, and alcohol dependence. See More

Top Con

Text-based graphics

The entire game has graphics that are text-based by default. Some players appreciate it but new users will find it hard to get into. Additional graphics packs improve experience and there are some experimental fortress viewer. See More

Top Pro

The exact opposite of Candy Crush Saga in every possible way

This game is going to evolve into something like the actual Matrix at some point. See More

Top Pro

Sim-like "Fortress" and roguelike "Adventurer" modes

Dwarf Fortress offers two primary ways to play. In Fortress Mode, the player oversees a small group of dwarves who embark to build a new settlement. Individual dwarves cannot be controlled directly; instead, the player supplies objectives and constraints and the A.I. decides exactly what is done by whom. Adventurer Mode presents a more classic roguelike experience, wherein the player controls a single character and can explore the entire world (including previous player-made fortresses). Two secondary modes are also provided: Legends Mode, which allows you to browse through all of the notable people, places, objects and events in a particular world's history; and the Object Testing Arena, where AI combat scenarios can be played out with any arbitrary combination of creatures and weaponry. See More

Top Pro

Lots of ways to die, no ways to win.

Starvation, riots, goblins raiders stealing your babies, goblin war parties stealing your lives, elephants, vampires, werewolves, werebears, werebadgers, carp, digging into an aquifer, digging into lava, digging into the nesting area of a Forgotten Beast, selling wood to hippies, insanity, drowning in knee-deep water, and being attacked by your own dismembered finger. There are a lot of ways for dwarves to die. Age really isn't one I've ever heard of. After playing this game long enough, you'll realize why dwarves don't like going outside. Everything from harpies to dangerous man-eating carp is everywhere. Some of them are humorous, but most are a lesson. The entire game acts as a massive learning experience. Don't tell your dwarves to fish; they don't know how to swim. Wall off your fortress, or a necromancer will your lunch against you. Don't dig too far down, or something scary will follow you back up. There is no victory, only glorious deaths. What goals you set in the game are up to you. Make small, simple goals that you know you can complete. "Surviving for 100 years" is like "curing cancer". Not technically 'impossible', but it might just be easier to settle on building a bridge for now. See More

Top Pro

Base game is free (supported by donations)

From the Bay 12 Games donations page: Bay 12 is dedicated to providing original games free of charge, but that doesn't mean it is free for us to make them. We've been online since December 2000, and you can help Bay 12 Games continue to thrive. If you've enjoyed any of our games, and you are able to give, we accept financial support. See More

Top Pro

"Starter Pack" offers a streamlined introduction

The DF Starter Pack, formerly Lazy Newb Pack, is a collection of community-created enhancements to the interface and visual presentation of Dwarf Fortress. Find it here. See More

See All

60 Other Games Considered

Path of Exile

Top Pro

Not pay to win

The developers have a strict "no pay to win" mindset in this game, which is great since everyone has a fair chance at winning. Microtransactions are almost exclusively cosmetic, but can also get additional stash tabs (NOT inventory space), non-combat pets and weapon graphics. Note that free accounts already start off with a lot of stash space. See More

Top Con

Very tough theorycrafting required

Creating a functional build is really difficult. Better to stick to good guides. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Dungeon Crawler RPG

See All Specs

Top Pro

Completely free to download and play

Just install steam and download the game. No purchase required and the only thing locked behind paywalls is cosmetic accessories and inventory slots of which you can waste money on cosmetics, but you won't fall behind if you don't want to spend money. See More

Top Con

Lots of farm/grind required

As any item-based online game, character development is extremely slow and requires time and effort. See More

Top Pro

Expansive skill tree

While it may be difficult to take in at first the skill tree in Path of Exile is quite expansive allowing for many areas of the characters skills to be customized. The tree is so large there are numerous guides online on how to build specific optimized characters as well as an unofficial companion app for Android. See More

Top Con

Bad trading system

No auction house or gold/item mail, requires direct trade in-game; orb and recipes are not intuitive. See More

Top Pro

Hundreds of possible character builds

There's a staggering amount of builds and skills you can try out in Path of Exile. There are 7 classes, 19 subclasses, 194 active skill gems, 107 support gems, and over 1000 skill nodes on the expansive skill tree. As a result, there are hundreds of possible combinations, allowing you to spend hours theory-crafting just to create the perfect build. Even if you don't feel like planning out a build from scratch, you can just look up one of the many guides online and get straight into the action. See More

Top Con

Rubberbanding disrupts play

Online play with melee classes may lead to some "rubberbanding" when latency causes the player's computer to desync from the server. See More

Top Pro

More customization than any action RPG ever made

The passive tree (more aptly named giant passive web of insanity) has more options with real depth and great customization than any other game. This allows for hundreds or even thousands of potential unique "character builds", especially when combined with the hundreds of unique items (to which they keep adding more regularly) See More

Top Con

As any ARPG worth mentioning, you'll eventually have to invest time into character builds

Top Pro

Frequent content updates and patches

Patches are quite regular, and new content (free expansions, unique "leagues" with special content, new unique items, new skills) are also very regularly released. See More

Top Con

Graphics are a bit stale

While not the worst, the graphics do not really stand out as polished and look somewhat dated. While it does fit within theme of being a grimy universe with many foul creatures, it does not compare to many AAA dungeon crawlers out there such as Diablo III. See More

Top Pro

Feels exhilarating to play

While the gameplay might feel a little slow and clunky in the beginning, it gradually picks up speed as you progress, allowing you to swiftly destroy large groups of monsters with any skills you choose. Whether you're shooting ice arrows with your bow, freezing and shattering every enemy on-screen, or if you're cleaving enemies with a massive axe, causing them to bleed and explode on death, it just feels incredibly satisfying. See More

Top Pro

Completely free without pay to win mechanics

You can just download and install the game without any purchases. On top of that, there are no pay-to-win mechanics and the only things locked behind paywalls are cosmetic effects, pets, and additional storage space. You can easily play the game for hundreds of hours without spending a dime. See More

Top Pro

Regularly updated

Every 4 months or so, Path of Exile has major updates, adding new interesting mechanics, skills, items, and various other content. As a result, every time you come back to Path of Exile after taking a break, it feels like a new game. See More

Top Pro

Great setting

Path of Exile is set in a dark fantasy world where everything is gradually becoming worse. At the foreground, you have the massive continent of Wraeclast that once was the home to a flourishing empire, but now is a place filled with the undead, evil spirits, ruins, and echoes of the past. To make matters worse, malicious entities from another dimension seek to corrupt the world and its inhabitants, giving birth to disfigured monstrosities that seek to end you. The end result is an immersive setting with dark motifs, body horror, loads of gore, and a very tense atmosphere, which is refreshing in an era dominated by family friendly content. See More

See All

Xonotic

Top Pro

Impressive graphics, especially for an open source game

Open Source games are not always known for their high-quality graphics. This can often be caused by the games being designed by committee in that many different people may work on the graphics, even in the same areas, which can cause plenty of inconsistencies. Luckily, Xonotic does not suffer from this problem as the whole of the game has consistent looks that are actually quite impressive. See More

Top Con

Campaign can be very hard and you can get stuck

Some levels are very strange and difficult like fighting with almost invisible enemies. Even at easy they are hard to beat and you must beat them in order to progress in camapign. See More

Miroslav's Experience

Easily the best graphics for an open-source game! Very easy to run on PC. Many different game modes and win conditions. It feels like a great commercial video game. I think the AI bots are pretty good later in the campaign and unfortunatelly even unbeatable at some fancy levels like the one with almost invisible enemies. See More

Specs

Genre:First Person shooter, Arena

Co-Op:Yes

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Top Pro

Not demanding on the system

On integrated HD4600 graphics ~120 FPS on normal settings. See More

Top Pro

Interesting weapon design (for an arena shooter)

All arena shooter basically use Quake or UT weapon system. However, Xonotic has an interesting variety of weapons (larger selection than most) with elements from both UT and Quake but added some of their innovative ideas. Some of the weapons have a bit of overlap and felt a bit forced, but other weapons really made the game stand out. See More

Top Pro

Cross platform

Mac/Linux/Windows support. See More

Top Pro

Many game modes

Includes all the expected options like Deathmatch and Capture the Flag, as well as more novel modes like Key Hunt. See More

See All

PlanetSide 2

Top Pro

Open world MMO-FPS with huge persistent battles between three factions

Three factions are in constant battle for points on a map, with the goal of getting the most pieces on the map or the whole thing. See More

Top Con

Pay to go faster

PlanetSide 2 has pay to win mechanics meant to coerce players into paying for equipment to avoid the extremely long grind it takes to earn anything in game. A brand new player with a deep wallet can customize their gear to their prefered playstyle giving them an advantage over those that opt not to pay. See More

Case Cowboy's Experience

It's a great game, with good graphics and replayability! See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mostly Positive

Genre:FPS

Co-Op:Online PvP

Top Pro

Vehicles add more strategy

The vehicle options in game add a lot more depth to the strategy of planning attacks on the enemy. See More

Top Con

Poor tutorial; hard to figure all mechanics out

PlanetSide 2 does a poor job at explaining how to play the game or what anything in the mues do. Equipment loadouts are confusing as well as a minefield of pay items. See More

Top Pro

User selectable respawn points

Users can select where they want to respawn after death, though it is limited to only certain points and may require the player to travel to get back to or where they are intending to go. There are even vehicles that provide new spawn points on the map that players can drive and leave. This creates a great element of strategy on where to place spawn points when attacking certain targets. See More

Top Con

Poor tutorial, hard to figure all mechanics out

PlanetSide 2 does a poor job at explaining how to play the game or what anything in the mues do. Equipment loadouts are confusing as well as a minefield of pay items. See More

Top Pro

Open world MMO-FPS with huge persistent battles between 3 factions

Three factions are in constant battle for points on a map, with the goal of getting the most pieces on the map or the whole thing. See More

Top Pro

Vehicles

The vehicle options in game add a lot more depth to the strategy of planning attacks on the enemy. See More

See All

Dota 2

Top Pro

Start with all heroes

You don't need to unlock or purchase characters. See More

Top Con

Requires Dedication

To be even "braggably" skilled at dota takes time, perhaps hundreds of hours. See More

ReceptiveTskarishdida's Experience

dhcgbg See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mostly Positive

Genre:MOBA

Top Pro

Regularly updated

Dota 2 is regularly patched and changed with new characters being introduced and balance changes made. This can prevent the game from becoming too stale as the tactics utilized by players changes often. See More

Top Con

Rude, toxic community

Many players feel free to flame and insult, especially in the lower ranks and from non-english speaking countries. See More

Top Pro

Very active professional scene

Dota 2 has one of the most if not the most active professional scenes in e-sports today. See More

Top Con

Rude, Toxic Community

Many players feel free to flame and insult, especially in the lower ranks and from non-english speaking countries. See More

Top Pro

Cross Platform

Available for Windows, OS X, and Linux. See More

Top Con

Will consume a lot of time if you are not careful

Dota 2 has the potential to suck the player in. See More

Top Pro

Incredibly deep gameplay

For players who put the time into Dota 2 to get past the early beginner phase, Dota 2 can become an extremely satisfying game. There's a reason it's one of the most popular eSports titles in the world. The amount of strategy, skill and variables involved make it a very deep game where anything could happen. See More

Top Con

Learning cliff

Very complex and can scare off new players. Can be considered the most complex MOBA currently out there. While other MOBAs have a steep learning curve, Dota 2 has a learning cliff! See More

Top Pro

Dota 2 has the world's biggest e-sports tournament

At The International 4 in summer 2014, players raised the prize pool to more than $10 million, one of the largest prize pools in E-Sports history. See More

Top Con

You love and hate the game

While infuriating at times the addictiveness of the game keeps the players coming back. See More

Top Pro

No game enhancing purchases

Microtransactions involve only cosmetic items such as custom weapon designs or clothing colors and tickets to view live events. See More

Top Pro

Deny creeps

You can kill your own low-health creeps to deny experience and gold to the other team. See More

Top Pro

Good for brain

trains brain definetly hard See More

Top Pro

Moba-leading graphics

When compared to other leading MOBAs, Dota2 has some of the best graphics to be found. See More

Top Pro

Can be played online and offline

However, you will need to be logged in to Steam either way. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Available on Windows, OS X, and Linux. See More

Top Pro

Has user-created custom games

Dota 2 includes Workshop Tools that allow users to create custom games as well as other play them. See More

Top Pro

Free to play

Access to the full game without any of those expensive DLCs and add-ons. You get the full experience from the get-go. See More

Top Pro

In-game mic

Has in-game mic so you can get toxic with voice chat. See More

Top Pro

It's very well-balanced

Gameplay is balanced in the sense that while other MOBAs would have only around 30-60 viable picks for the competitive scene, Dota 2 has heroes and strategies in the game that are more varied, which enables more heroes to be picked in the competitive scene. Number of Heroes Picked in Dota 2's Recent Major Tournament in the past 4 months (as of July 2016) is 86/111 heroes picked and 100 out of 111 heroes picked. To compare between Dota 2 and LoL pick diversity, LoL has 64 out of 131 champions picked for LCS. There are also factors such as the ban/pick phase difference and the more rigid positions in LoL that may limit the viability for different playstyles and hero picks (typically it is 2 (AD, Support Bot) -1 (AP mid) -1 (Tank Off) - 1 (Jungler), with a possibility of double junglers in LoL). On the other hand in Dota 2, there are a lot more different positions compared to Lol/Smite such as Duo Mid (1-2-2), Traditional (2-1-2), One Jungler (1-2-1-1, most similar to league), One Roamer (1-2-1-1 as well with the difference being the hero roams the map for kills to create space for the mid and safelane rather than farm the jungle which can weaken a lane), Duo Roamer (1-1-1-2, all lanes are weaker in lane presence with the tradeoff being they get solo experience with two aggressive supports roaming), Trilane (1-1-3, Aggresive or Passive Trilane) and Abandoned Offlane (0-1-3-1 where the offlane is completely left empty due to a strong duo or trilane on the opposing team). More heroes are viable and balanced in Dota 2 partly due to the greater flexibility in laning. This can be attributed the mechanics such as creep pulling and creep stacking which allows the team doing trilane to make up for the shared experience between three heroes. Besides that, the existence of teleport scrolls that allow you to defend your towers or punish a tower dive also allows you to react and assist other lanes. In pub games, any hero/lane/lineup can work, and it is more about your individual mechanical skills (understanding of hero, combo execution, map awareness, last hitting, timings, item builds, flow) over the lack of coordination and teamwork (on both teams). See More

Top Pro

Players can trade self-made cosmetic items

The game includes a system for players to create, buy, and sell cosmetic items. See More

See All

CS:GO

Top Con

Has a large skill gap

Since it's a pretty old game, most players are veterans at this point and have been playing for a long time. This may make it hard for newer players to jump in and play. See More

Top Pro

Carefully-executed changes to existing maps

The updates and improvements made to existing maps have been pretty clever and useful. For example, cracked glass is more opaque, making it harder to go on a sniping rampage. Or the stairway which was added to the bottom of de_dust made the route more viable for the Terrorists, while keeping the original purpose of that area serving as a bottleneck. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Con

Less time spent playing a game

This is a feature that makes kills and hits (no health regeneration) more impactful, but also a lot less time is spent playing the game, especially if you die early to a sniper peek. Newbies will be playing a lot less of the game than more experienced players. See More

Top Pro

Will be familiar to CS 1.6 and CS: Source players

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive builds on the strengths of its predecessors, even though those predecessors have been constantly improving for over a decade now. Nonetheless, Counter-Strike veterans will feel right at home in Global Offensive, albeit with some minor differences. The MP5 is now the MP7, The TMP has left its place to the MP9 and you can't attach a suppressor to the M4. See More

Top Con

Hard to see if you are hitting someone

One of the things that were changed in CS:GO is firing feedback. When someone is shot in GO, they don't wince, there's only a small amount of blood and audio that conveys the information that you are actually hitting someone. But omitting wince animation from character models makes it harder to see if you are actually hitting another player, especially at distance. See More

Top Pro

Runs well on most hardware and even on older hardware

It's a very optimized game and runs smoothly on even outdated hardware. See More

Top Con

New maps and modes feel pretty mediocre

Even though old maps have been revisited and improved by a wide margin, new maps and modes released with CS:GO are pretty mediocre. Half of the maps available are locked under Arms Race (which is a re-imagining of the original community-created GunGame) and Demolition (GunGame without insta-respawn and bomb defusal) modes. These game modes feel pretty safe and unimaginative, especially for veterans who have played their predecessor. Some of the new maps are pretty compact and designed to act as instant-action meat-grinders akin to modern FPS (like Call of Duty) instead of requiring any tactics to win. See More

Top Pro

Driven by tactics and cooperation

Each round of CS feels more like a game driven more by careful tactics than a frivolous fast-paced and lethal paintball arena of which too many modern First-Person Shooters are guilty of. Positioning, timing and thinking are key ingredients of a successful game and cooperation is crucial if you want to win. See More

See All

Warframe

Top Pro

Enjoyable without needing to spend any money

You can earn premium currency by selling extra items to other players. See More

Top Con

Crafting new equipment takes really long

The crafting system in Warframe involves relatively long wait times, varying from 12 to 72 hours. The wait times can be skipped by paying platinum (bought in the in-game store with real money or earned through trading), but most of the time it's not worth it. See More

Zygardias's Experience

With ~500 hours of gameplay under my belt, I can for sure say that Warframe is a solid game. There are frequent updates, bug fixes, and reworks to keep earlier released content relevant to the game. Purchases are placed on everything, but everything outside of cosmetics can be earned with some effort. Has a large selection of different missions, and while pvp is dead in this game, the pve experience makes up for it. Is this game for everyone? No. As a looter 3rd person shooter(a huge turnoff for some folks), the grind can really get to you if you're not the patient type. However, you can use the premium currency you buy or earn to speed that up a little, as goes for most games these days. The lack of a legitimate endgame is a bit of a letdown, but fashion frame is a great substitute for such a thing. If you hop in game, the new player experience goes, it's a bit lacking for those who would appreciate a legitimate guide into the game, which is why the game doesn't keep a lot of its beginners, but it's not too hard to get used to. Again, the grind never stops. upnyan See More

Specs

Genre:Action

Co-Op:Yes

Top Pro

Fun, fast paced combat

Stealthy or not, it is enjoyable to slaughter everyone in an area in fast paced combat. Warframes are essentially space ninjas that can move incredibly fast. Just running won't be enough, so you'll have to build momentum by sliding, jumping, and rolling. Each of these moves also help you dodge enemy attacks, while allowing you to attack. It takes a while to get used to the fast pace, but when you do, it feels incredibly satisfying. See More

Top Con

Can get repetitive easily

At the very core, Warframe is a game that needs a lot of grinding. You'll always be grinding for new blueprints, relics, materials, credits or just leveling your existing equipment. After a while some of the mission types such as defense (where you fend of waves of enemies), will get really boring. Then it turns out the blueprint or relic is really rare and you'll probably have to repeat that mission about a hundred more times. Coupled with the fact that there's no real progression outside the Mastery Rank, some players may quickly lose interest. See More

Top Pro

Good graphics

This games sports some of the best graphics in a free to play game. See More

Top Con

New player experience is poor

Top Pro

Weapon variety

From a basic assault rifle to a jet powered hammer this game has all the weapons you could ever want. See More

Top Con

New content is poorly optimized

Warframe was released in 2012 and has received a lot of improvements over the years. This includes updating the old tilesets with new textures, which has caused a lot of performance drops. The prime example would be the Earth tileset update, which caused performance drops and made it unplayable to a lot of people, even though they could play normally before it. See More

Top Pro

Good character variety

there are currently 32 playable characters in the game all with unique ability sets and play styles. See More

Top Pro

Great selection of classes

In Warframe, you're able to play as one of the many Warframes, which are essentially character classes. You start off by choosing one of the three basic frames. Excalibur who specializes in swords and has an ability to equip an energy sword and shoot beams of energy. Volt who uses electricity to boost his damage, movement speed and attack speed. Or Mag, a frame specializing in magnetism and controlling the enemy. After that you can run missions to find plans for new ones, or purchase them with platinum (the real-money currency). There are currently more than 30 basic Warframes and their "Prime" variants, which are superior versions of the basic frames. See More

Top Pro

Great contact physics

Many online titles and MMOs feature combat with poor contact physics, so it often feels like you're not actually hitting the enemies. In Warframe, hitting an enemy with a hammer will make them fly and sliding at their legs will make them trip. This makes it feel more like a single player game than an online co-op game. See More

Top Pro

You can choose your own play style

In Warframe, there are tons of weapons, both ranged and melee, that will let you fight however you like. Maybe you want to be a long-range sniper, or a massive melee beast with a huge hammer, or maybe you want to stick closer to the ninja tradition and use a sword and a bow. Whatever you prefer to play, Warframe has an option. See More

Top Pro

A huge array of weaponry

Warframe boasts over 300 weapons, split into 3 classes: Primary, Secondary, and Melee. Primary weapons are the big guns such as assault rifles, shotguns, bows, and grenade launchers. Secondary weapons are the sidearms, usually handguns, machine pistols, and thrown weapons. The melee weapons consist of swords (even katanas), hammers, fist weapons, scythes, and others. Most of the weapons have their own unique strengths and weaknesses. For example, the Simulor is a weapon which creates small balls similar to black holes, which pull in and kill enemies. Unfortunately, the range is very short, so you'll have to predict enemy movements and place the shots carefully. Another example is the Zarr, a massive canon, which has two firing modes, allowing you to use it as a canon or a shotgun. The downside is that you'll get damaged by your own explosions, so you have to always keep distance. The weapons can also be upgraded, adding various elemental damage types such as radiation or corrosion. You can also improve other stats such as rate of fire, crit or reload speed. See More

Top Pro

Great ragdoll physics

Unrealistic yet exaggerated ragdoll physics when you kill your enemies never goes out of style. See More

See All

Oolite

Top Pro

Tons of add-ons to make things more exciting

If the base game is too bland, you can find something to spice things up, for sure. See More

Top Con

Slow to start

Some things can take ages until you've upgraded your ship sufficiently. See More

crayg's Experience

While it's slow to start, Oolite really pays off if you put the time. With an active modding community, once you've got the basics down, you can customize the game to your liking. See More

Specs

Genre:Space trading and combat game

Co-Op:No

See All Specs

Top Pro

Improves on the Elite formula without straying too far

Top Con

Really needs add-ons

The base game basically is too bland. See More

Top Pro

New add-on package manager

It is so satisfying to download and use add-ons purely from within the game. See More

Top Pro

OSS and multiplatform

Runs natively on Mac and Linux. See More

Top Pro

Non player centric

Space battles happen without the player starting them, or even being involved. Criminals and fugitives shoot at police. Police shoot at criminals. See More

Top Pro

Pretend you're Han Solo

This Cobra MK III did the Kessel run in 12 parsecs. See More

See All

Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead

Top Pro

Mod depth

Mods add another layer of complexity that you can't even anticipate. See More

Top Con

Difficult for new players

New players will find it hard to survive, seeing as zombies are relentless and will break through walls to get to your character. See More

Specs

Genre:Survival / Roguelike / Open World

Co-Op:No

Controller Support:No

See All Specs

Top Pro

Story generator

"A man who collects the bones of the fallen and snorts cocaine in the bathroom whilst reading adventure novels as the riot control bot guns down zombies outside." See More

Top Con

Graphics are tiles

The complexity of this game is a tradeoff for graphics. See More

Top Pro

Arguably the most complex post-apocalyptic simulator in 2017

The depth of this game is immense. Imagine doing something in real life, then look at cataclysm, there is HIGH chance that you can draw parallels. See More

See All

Dirty Bomb

Top Pro

Free to play

The game is free to play See More

Top Con

Sometimes team play isn"t the best

Sometimes there are PRO players that help and everything but others just go with it and don"t care about a team. See More

Nash Lab's Experience

the game itself has some high graphics that can be reduced to a significant amount making it duable to play on a GTX 960 or more. The gameplay is pretty fun however it does demand some practice to know what to do, it is still fun. You have a nice choice of characters and each one has different abilities like a bomb strike or grenade, ext.... See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mostly Positive

Genre:Hero-based FPS

See All Specs

Top Pro

Objective focused FPS

Game is an objective focus FPS, much like Team Fortress 2. It requires team work to win the game. See More

Top Con

Pay to skip

Much like other free to play games, this game has problems in paying to skip ahead of other players. Such as character unlocks and buying load out chests. See More

Top Pro

Although it takes time, you are able to get anything

It takes time to get coins and all but it IS possible. See More

See All

I Recommend...

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Battle for Wesnoth

Top Con

Doesn't explain game mechanics well

Battle mechanics, job changes when leveling up, and traits/skills are not explained outright. However, there is in-game help which you can refer to. See More

Top Pro

Easy to run

It can run on nearly any hardware, old and new (e.g. Raspberry Pi, smartphones). See More

Specs

See All Specs

Top Con

No simultaneous multiplayer mode

This limits player counts, map sizes and a really simultaneous mode is the only truly acceptable mode for a modern turn-based multiplayer game. Should have been part of the game years ago. Maybe the engine is not suitable for it. See More

Top Pro

Appealing graphics

The art style is simple, yet elegant. See More

Top Con

Takes too much CPU/RAM resources

Too much does not mean you can't run it with a decent computer, but still, it's way too heavy for the result. Hint: using maps of vectors of strings is a bad idea. See More

Top Pro

Supports Linux, macOS, and Windows

Supports the major operating systems, but ports have also been made for other systems, like Android and iOS. See More

Top Con

Not well documented add-ons

For example, you can get stuck on 'The Chosen Glade' stage of the Rebirth in Nature add-on, with a lot of essence(s) and souls to convert to points for upgrades; should you find the way out of there for Aucrin, of course. See More

Top Pro

Many campaigns out of the box

Top Pro

Great experience/level up system for units

Top Pro

Open source

Top Pro

Single-player and multi-player

Battle it out against the game's advanced bots or go the online/hotseat route. See More

Top Pro

Multilingual

Dozens of languages available to choose from. See More

Top Pro

Tons of free downloadable content from the community

Quality varies though. See More

Top Pro

Active development

BfW gets updated frequently. See More

Top Pro

Easy to start playing

Top Pro

Unique play style

The unique combination of LoC, hex-based map, terrain defence and movement, and map type, with damage types and resistances varying between units, gives a refreshingly unique play style. See More

Top Pro

Endless replayability

A large assortment of maps, classes, units and campaigns. Community addons available ingame for download, as well as a random map generator. See More

See All

The 6 must play gamesWhy?

My Recommendation for Battle for Wesnoth

My Recommendation for Battle for Wesnoth

Doesn't explain game mechanics well

Easy to run

No simultaneous multiplayer mode

Appealing graphics

Takes too much CPU/RAM resources

Supports Linux, macOS, and Windows

Not well documented add-ons

Many campaigns out of the box

Great experience/level up system for units

Open source

Single-player and multi-player

Multilingual

Tons of free downloadable content from the community

Active development

Easy to start playing

Unique play style

Endless replayability

My Recommendation for Team Fortress 2

My Recommendation for Team Fortress 2

Fun, humorous gameplay, graphics and sound

Free accounts are slightly limited

Multiple game modes allowing for great variation

Random critical hits add a significant luck element to the game and push certain types of players out

Fair free to play model

Lots of cheaters and nobody plays matchmaking

Free to play

Well established community that is sometimes unwelcome of newcomers

Cross-platform

Pay to win

Hectic FPS gameplay created by 9 distinct classes with lots of varied items

Active, fun, creative community

Offline LAN support

Includes Mann vs. Machine, a ridiculously fun co-op mode

Good VR support

Pretty good VR support and options

Engaged, active, fun, and creative community give the game a welcoming feel, even for outsiders

Fun and humorous gameplay with graphics and sound that fit with this theme

Tons to do in the game with plenty of game modes and plenty of community mods

Hectic FPS gameplay that utilizes 9 distinct classes, each with lots of varied items

Offline LAN support is pretty easy to implement

Completely free to download and play any existing section of the game

My Recommendation for 0 A.D.

My Recommendation for 0 A.D.

Free and open-source

Currently in alpha

Multi-platform support

Straightforward RTS gameplay

One of the only free RTSes available being actively developed

Addictive Aoe style game that works on nearly any OS

Active development

My Recommendation for Heroes of the Storm

My Recommendation for Heroes of the Storm

Teamwork is encouraged

Reconnect system

Community

Terrible matchmaking

Now there are 13 available maps

Individual skin quality has dipped in exchange for numerous mediocre skins.

Marked difficulty ratings for heroes

Lower playerbase game knowledge

It's always possible to make a comeback

Slow fights

No last hitting, no gold, no items

Designed around team play (per the MOBA genre)

Hero and playstyle diversity

Easy to learn

Shorter game times

Intelligent AI

Fun emotes from Hero's upon team work and team kills

Great developer support

Characters from all Blizzard games

A new hero every month

You don't have to learn what items do

Great developer support.

Can get skins for free

1st Esport broadcast on live network television

Deep but not complex