What are the best free to play games that are not pay to win for a low spec PC?

The game has more mechanics than just clicking like crazy....

Top Pro

Free to play

Completely free

Top Pro

Grinding mechanic

Top Pro

Fun boss battles

Something unique to this title is that there are boss battles every 5 stages. This requires that the player is leveled up enough to defeat them thanks to the timer in the boss battle. If the player is not at a good level, they will not be able to beat the boss in the time limit, which means there...

Top Pro

Free to play

Completely free

Know any negative aspects of this option?

Specs

See 3 more Pros See 3 more Pros

score 2 · Answer 2

Dwarf Fortress

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.

Top Pro

"Starter Pack" offers a streamlined introduction

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...

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.

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, a...

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...

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, warri...

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...

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.

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...

Top Con

ASCII text-based display (alternatives available via mods)

See 8 more Pros & Cons See 8 more Pros & Cons

score 1 · Answer 3

StarCraft II

StarCraft II tells a very concise and cohesive story, exclusively featuring the Terran, with some exceptions during optional missions. During the campaign, the player is asked to make several choices which partially alter the storyline, as well as give access to some units, while making other compl...

Top Pro

Campaign features an engaging story and acts as a tutorial

Top Pro

Big player base

Has a very big player base and everyone will be able to find a suitable opponent whether you are a rookie or an experienced player.

Top Pro

Has an active eSports scene

With a 1.6 million dollar prize pool for the world championships in 2015, StarCraft II has a very large and supported eSports scene that is participated in throughout the world.

Top Pro

Free to play

Since 2017 starcraft II is now free with the first extension: WIngs of Liberty.

Top Pro

Gives in-game access to a wide variety of community created games/mods

Users can publish their mods to the game so that other players may then apply them in-game. This makes for easy access to a wide variety of mods and games.

Top Pro

Well balanced, asymmetrical gameplay

Opposing teams will have completely different skillsets allowing players to take wholly different approaches toward completing the same goal. This makes for asymmetrical gameplay that has been painstakingly balanced.

See 5 more Pros See 5 more Pros

Know any negative aspects of this option?

Specs

Genre:RTS

Co-Op:Yes

score 4 · Answer 4

Unturned

Top Pro

Fair F2P model where no single person has a false advantage over anyone else

The game’s free-to-play model allows anyone to play free of charge; those who are willing to spend $5 get access to a separate server that grants double experience. So while it is not pay-to-win, spending some money will increase how quickly you can advance in the game.

Top Pro

Selection of weapons allows anyone to find something they enjoy using

The game includes a number of guns and melee weapons, giving the player plenty of choice as to how they would like to attack.

Top Pro

Plenty of things to do in-game, including combat, crafting, and exploring

The game includes combat, a crafting system, a housing system, lots of items, and varied landscapes to explore. Taken together, there’s plenty to keep you busy.

Top Pro

Fun and intuitive crafting system allows the player to explore tons of combinations of items

The crafting system can be used to easily and intuitively make hundreds of items. Combine two sheets of metal to make a saw, combine two sticks and a nail to make an arrow. Basically you can play around and test what kind of combination make what items, which is fun in and of itself.

Top Pro

Works great on low-end hardware

The game runs well on older hardware because it does not have very advanced graphics. This makes it compatible with many low spec systems.

Top Pro

Active developer who listens to their community

Unturned is developed by Nelson Sexton. He is very active and always listens to feedback from the player community. He is constantly updating the beta; check the community hub for more info.

Top Pro

Easily mod or add custom maps through Steam Workshop

With Steam Workshop support players can create your own custom maps and mods as well as use others, thus giving the player never ending amounts of extras for the game.

Top Pro

PvP winds up being very tense as the resources in the game are very limited

Scarce resources lead players to compete ruthlessly. This creates a scenario where it is all of nothing, show no weakness, give no benefit.

Top Pro

Well made maps where each is designed with purpose

Unturned is slightly different from other open world survival games, because it doesn't use randomly generated worlds. This actually is a pro, because the existing maps are very well made, well thought out, and overall having better design choices for worlds than say, Minecraft, Terraria, or 7...

Top Con

Childish community

Many of the community-run servers are managed by immature administrators who can make the game unbearable.

Top Con

Players die, a lot, through no fault of their own.

Top Con

In early access

The game is not yet officially completed, which means that it may still contain bugs, and that features may change or be removed before final publishing.

Specs

See 11 more Pros & Cons See 11 more Pros & Cons

Genre:Survival

Co-Op:22 Player Online

Controller Support:No

score 2 · Answer 5

Team Fortress 2

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...

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-...

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.

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.

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 li...

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.

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.

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...

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 -...

Top Pro

Cross-platform

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

Top Con

Random critical hits add a significant luck element into 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 incre...

Top Con

Taunt spam

Servers can be filled with people not actually interested in playing the game standing around using taunts and will get mad when someone kills them

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...

Specs

Co-Op:6 Player Online / 6 Player LAN

Genre:Hero-based FPS

Controller Support:Partial

See 12 more Pros & Cons See 12 more Pros & Cons

score 6 · Answer 6

Dota 2

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 anyth...

Top Pro

Incredibly deep gameplay

Top Pro

Very active professional scene

Dota 2 has one of the most most active professional scenes in eSports today. If it's not the most active, it's certainly got the largest prize pools, coming in at over $20 million in 2016.

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.

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.

Top Pro

Can be played online and offline

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

Top Pro

A very diverse MOBA

This game has a steep learning curve, but it's well worth it. The games that came after Dota like League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm, Smite, and other lookalikes don't even compare to the complexity of Dota 2. Every hero is unique and valuable in one team composition or another. The am...

Top Pro

Deny creeps

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

Top Pro

Players can trade self-made cosmetic items

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

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'...

Top Pro

Moba-leading graphics

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

Top Pro

Fair free-to-play business model

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

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.

Top Pro

Start with all heroes

You don't need to unlock or purchase characters.

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Available on Windows, OS X, and Linux.

Top Con

It's got a huge learning curve

Dota 2 has 111 heroes, all of which are unique from each other. It will take time and effort to learn which heroes you like to play, and become skilled with them.

Top Con

Will consume a lot of time if you are not careful

Dota 2 has the potential to suck the player in.

Top Con

Rude, toxic community

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

Top Con

Broken Patches

You will experience patches that make certain heroes broken and others really nerfed.

Top Con

You love and hate the game

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

Top Con

Game has been broken down to make it noob friendly

Recently, valve has been making the game more and more "foolproof" and the existing members of the community dislikes this. This can be considered a con though it makes it easier for newer players to get into Dota with significantly less hurdles to jump over

Specs

Steam Rating:Mixed

Genre:MOBA

See 19 more Pros & Cons See 19 more Pros & Cons

score 1 · Answer 7

Warface

A Crytek created game with impressive graphics easily seen in the games explosions, terrains and lighting.

Top Pro

Great graphics

Genre:First Person Shooter

Know any negative aspects of this option?

Specs

Steam Rating:Mixed

score 2 · Answer 8

Brawlhalla

Add a Pro

Know any positive aspects of this option?

Top Con

Bad matchmaking

Newbies get matched up with experts.

Specs

Steam Rating:Mostly Positive

See 1 more Con See 1 more Con

score 3 · Answer 9

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Yes it's free to play, but it's designed to easily continue to play and have fun without having to feel like you HAVE to pay. At the same time, after playing a while you'll probably want to.

Top Pro

Free to play that doesn't exploit

Top Pro

Great even for casual players

Hearthstone has a friendly learning curve that makes picking it up and getting started easy for people who don't want to spend a lot of time learning rules and tricks.

Top Pro

Near-perfect balance between going first or second

There's no significant first-turn or second-turn advantage in Hearthstone. The player going second gets an extra card from his deck as well as "The Coin", a card that gives one extra mana crystal for one turn. This subverts the advantage that would be gained otherwise by the player go...

Top Pro

You won't be cursed at in the chat.

Interaction with opponent limited to simple pre-made phrases, so you don't have to see how many 1337 gamers had their way with you or your mother. Or deal with the spam about free decks, new hacks etc.

Top Pro

Multi-platform

Available on PC and on mobile. Makes a great commute companion (provided you have internet).

Top Pro

Active community

It has a lot of players due to Blizzard's fanbase which means finding multiplayer matches is not all that difficult.

Top Pro

Familiar characters from Warcraft 3 and World of warcraft

The characters used in Hearthstone are all from the lore of the Warcraft series, making for a familiar universe for fans of the series.

Top Pro

Brawl events, that don't require you to follow "the meta"

You can take advantage of weekly brawl events that give you a certain set of cards (so no need to pay to stay competitive). It keeps the game fresh, fun and fairly "casual".

Top Pro

Card Balances and Game Updates Often

The Hearthstone team is always looking at their data and community reaction towards cards and the state of the game, and they have made many card and game changes/updates to balance and improve the game for all players.

Top Con

Sometimes unfair matchmaking

Sometimes players will be matched up with people who clearly have been playing longer.

Top Con

Additional "Cards" must be paid for if not earned by continuously playing

There is a bit of a grind in earning new cards, so for those that do not want to spend the large amount of time needed to earn quality cards they will need to be purchased, which can get expensive.

Top Con

Dependent on Battle.net infrastructure, not playable offline

The game requires a connection with Battle.net servers from the developers, and thus can't be played offline.

Top Con

Poor port

Plays much better on PC. Sluggish and crashes often on mobile, sometimes connections can be difficult to make as well.

Top Con

Ridiculously bloated

Over 4 GB data installed on ones device. Which is quite a lot of room, something many might not have to spare.

Top Con

The reward system is not significant enough

Hearthstone's reward system is very lackluster, providing little to nothing of significance to the casual or excessive player. There will be times when you feel heavily rewarded by the game, but these times are few and far between and if you are driven by rewards you will likely lose attraction...

Top Con

Some mechanics based on random numbers

Random effects in the game use a random number generator, which causes an uncertainty of all outcomes.

See 14 more Pros & Cons See 14 more Pros & Cons

score 3 · Answer 10

osu!

Top Pro

A light game

Osu! needs less than 200 mb to run. Thanks to this, it can be launched from an USB key for example.

Top Pro

A challenge game

In osu! the difficulty is based on stars from 1 to 9. It's very hard to play on map above 6 stars.

See 1 more Pro See 1 more Pro

Know any negative aspects of this option?

score 2 · Answer 11

Dirty Bomb

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

Top Pro

Objective focused FPS

Top Pro

Free to play

The game is free to play

Top Pro

Amazing team-based gameplay

This game is based off of team play, having to communicate with your team to have a higher chance of winning. The graphics are also amazing and realistic, and it is insanely fun to play.

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.

Specs

See 3 more Pros & Cons See 3 more Pros & Cons

Genre:Hero-based FPS

Answer 12

Robocraft