Free Video Games

Want some free video games? While “your mileage may vary”, “to each their own”, “you get what you pay for”, et cetera, you will hopefully find these recommended downloads are a cut above many other free games.

Note that while some of these games support networked multiplayer configurations, the goal here was to find “offline” games: Software that can be downloaded, installed and played locally on a single PC, with or without a network. This is not a list of MMORPGs or similar online games. Finally, these games are truly free. No try-before-you-buy, no forced registration, no cost: Download and they’re yours to play.

Action

Fast paced games involving more reflexes than strategy. These are games with easy to learn rules and are suited to people with limited time or attention spans. (Helpful movie concept: Rambo.)

The rating scale ranges from one to five, with three being “average” and five being “excellent” or “high”.

Asteroids 3D
Graphics / Sound: 5
Difficulty: 3
Replayability: 2
Summary: If you’ve got a high-quality graphics card, load this game and prepare to be impressed. This is a fun game to watch and play, but due to the overall “shoot the asteroids” theme, it could get boring after while. But for a graphically impressive shooter and reflex-tester, this fits the bill.

Armagetron Advanced
Graphics / Sound: 4
Difficulty: 4
Replayability: 5
Summary: Remember the lightcycle scene in Tron? This puts you in the driver’s seat. Good graphics, computer AI, and the ability to network this game with others makes this one extremely fun, particularly for geeky types.

DUO and MONO
Graphics / Sound: 2
Difficulty: 3
Replayability: 4
Summary: For those who like reflex-oriented action shooters, you can’t get more basic than these. DUO and MONO are surprisingly addicting games. The premise: You shoot things and collect powerups. Great for those who need a fun timekiller game, or for those who want to train in fast thinking and super reflex tests. Both games are listed here because I couldn’t decide which I like better. DUO has more of an arcade feel while MONO is more abstract and more fun to watch, but they’re both lots of fun to play.

Recommended Game: Wing Commander Privateer Gemini Gold
Game Download: http://priv.solsector.net/files.htm
Graphics / Sound: 4
Difficulty: 4
Replayability: 4
Summary: A remake of Wing Comannder Privateer, this version isn’t 100% complete, so some features are missing. But it’s still in constant development and seems well supported.

Strategy

This game is deeper, more complex and requires thinking. Here brainpower is more productive than fast fingers. (Helpful movie concept: The Fugitive.)

The rating scale ranges from one to five, with three being “average” and five being “excellent” or “high”.

Recommended Game: Battle for Wesnoth
Game download: The Battle for Wesnoth website (http://www.wesnoth.org) recently had some problems. If you have trouble getting to the download section, you can still download an older version of the game. It’s a Spanish-language website, but the link will take you straight to the download page, and the download (called win-0.8.2.exe) will give you the English-language version of the game.
Graphics / Sound: 3
Difficulty: 4
Replayability: 4
Summary: This is a quality turn-based overhead strategy game taking place in a fantasy setting. Extremely well done. Extremely well-supported, and the continuing development means features (including multi-language translations of the game) are being added all the time.

Puzzle

From a get-through-the-maze game to the abstraction of Tetris, puzzle solving comes in great variety. (Helpful movie concept: Labyrinth.)

The rating scale ranges from one to five, with three being “average” and five being “excellent” or “high”.

Recommended Game: Frozen Bubble
Game download: http://sourceforge.net/projects/fbe-win32/
Graphics / Sound: 3
Difficulty: 2
Replayability: 5
Summary: This is one of the most addicting games I’ve ever played. Based on the arcade classic “Bubble Bobble”, you must shoot balls at a constantly descending mass of more balls. Match similar color balls in groups of three to make those balls disappear. Make all balls disappear to clear the board. You can play the predesigned levels or create your own with the included level editor. Note that this installation doesn’t work perfectly – the icon’s “working directory” value isn’t set correctly. To run the game after installing, you must:

1) Go to the Start Menu and choose Run.
2) Type “C:\Program Files\Frozen-Bubble” and click OK.
3) In the window that pops up, right-click on the frozen-bubble.exe application and choose “Send To” then “Desktop”.
4) An icon for the game will appear on your desktop called “shortcut to frozen-bubble.exe“. Use this shortcut to run the program.

Recommended Game: Deadly Rooms of Death – Architect’s Edition
Game download: http://drod.net
Graphics / Sound: 2
Difficulty: 4
Replayability: 3
Summary: You control a guy with a sword who must find his way through increasingly complex mazes without getting killed by roaches. Customizable levels add to the fun – create your own boards and share them with others, or download more boards for more variety. The built-in levels start out easy but quickly get pretty tough.

Recommended Game: Pathological
Game download: http://pathological.sourceforge.net/
Graphics / Sound: 1
Difficulty: 3
Replayability: 3
Summary: An abstract puzzle game where you control the flow of colored balls and must collect those balls in certain ways. The graphics and sound aren’t impressive, but that’s okay because the game focus is elsewhere. This is a great game for puzzle lovers. You can play the predesigned levels or create your own.

Role Playing

Long-playtime games, these are more involved experiences mixing some strategy elements with a fun storyline, as well as character interaction and development. (Helpful movie concept: The Lord of the Rings trilogy.)

The rating scale ranges from one to five, with three being “average” and five being “excellent” or “high”.

Recommended Game: Legends of Mystifa
Game download: http://www.jjcwhodat.com/projects/lom/index.asp
Graphics / Sound: 3
Difficulty: 3
Replayability: 3
Summary: Good RPG with a fully-realized world. The unique interface takes some getting used to. The only problem I had with this game is that the random monster attacks were much too frequent.

Recommended Game: Ahriman’s Prophecy
Game download:http://www.amaranthia.com/modules/tinycontent/index.php?id=8
Graphics / Sound: 2
Difficulty: 3
Replayability: 2
Summary: This is a good RPG for those enjoying overhead scroller games with puzzle solving. Good storytelling elements.

Recommended Game: ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery)
Game download: http://www.adom.de
Graphics / Sound: 1
Difficulty: 5
Replayability: 5
One of the best of the “rogue-like” RPGs, this is a text only adventure of stunning detail and scale. Excellent way to pass the time. Death comes easy, however, so read the unofficial guide (which includes spoilers) for help in creating characters and keeping them alive.

Sports

From Autocross to Ultimate Frisbee, if it involves sweating and Gatorade it belongs here. (Helpful movie concept: Hoosiers.)

The rating scale ranges from one to five, with three being “average” and five being “excellent” or “high”.

Recommended Game: Stepmania
Game download: http://www.stepmania.com/stepmania/
Graphics / Sound: 5
Difficulty: 3
Replayability: 5
Summary: This is an excellent port of “Dance Dance Revolution”. Play with the keyboard, joystick or hook up your own dance pad! Stepmania requires two install steps (the game itself and getting the songs to which you’ll “dance”). Instructions for installing songs are provided with the game software.

Recommended Game: Cannon Smash
Game download: http://cannonsmash.sourceforge.net
Graphics / Sound: 1
Difficulty: 5
Replayability: 3
Summary: Ping pong. That’s right. Also known as “table tennis”, Cannon Smash is ping pong video game. Very strange concept, I know, but the developer pulls it off well. This is a very difficult game, but is fun for those with good reflexes. Graphics are kept simple, especially since they would interfere with game concentration.

More free video game resources

Many resources on the internet advertise “free” games. More often than not, the magic word “free” has those quotes around it. Often, you’re being asked to play a demo of a commercial game – a crippled version of what you’d purchase in the store. Or the game will expire and become non-functional after 30 days. The games and resources listed here are truly free (note the lack of quotes around the magic word. I’m sure most of the authors would accept donations, but we the consumers are under no legal obligation to pay for anything. Whether from the goodness of their hearts, or other reasons stated above, the authors have released these games for free copy and use. Take advantage of this.

http://sourceforge.net

From their own website: “SourceForge.net is the world’s largest Open Source software development web site, providing free hosting to tens of thousands of projects.” And no, they’re not exaggerating. This is a gigantic resource for things including and beyond the games we’re reviewing here. Communications, database, education, entertainment, security and business applications are just a sampling of their many categories. Log on, type a few keywords of what you’re looking for in the search tool on the left. Or use the “Software Map” link near the top to browse by category. Keep in mind that most of what you see are works in progress. Check the “Development Status” to make sure that what you’re getting is usable software. (The sourceforge-located games reviewed for this article all have a Development Status of “Production/Stable” or “Mature”. That way we get software that’s bug free and ready for us to use it.)