Your favorite free-to-play game

Darknacht

New member
May 13, 2009
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Salem the Permadeath Survival Sandbox Crafting MMO. Its an open world game where you're drop off in a small colonial town and told to go out into the wilderness and make your fortune. You can build bases, found towns, create alliances, and even take over and enforce your law on entire servers, it also has a system for raiding, mugging, and murdering other players and also tracking down people who committed crimes.
 

secretkeeper12

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Jun 14, 2012
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BrotherRool said:
Realm of the Mad God, it's just so nice to play an MMO thing so well designed. It's like a MMO RPG shmup and every now and then you have moments where a special event is triggered 80 ish PCs are all standing on the same couple of squares all firing bullets so quickly that there's just a wall of death in front of them. And these boss mooks dive at the crowd and you see the whole swarm of people flinch back and then form back into the place when the man goes down. And since healing and buff spells effect everyone in range, you can tap heal and see 50 people get their health restored. Or you can activate the fire faster buff and suddenly watch the swarm of projectiles in front of you double. And you get XP for every monster that dies on the screen so you can level up like 5 levels in the one event. (And reach the lvl 20 cap). It's got some important F2P purchases, but if you just want to play casually there's nothing really pressing you to get them at all. It has permadeath but it only takes you an hour or two to hit the level cap and you have an instant in-combat teleport to a safe zone button so it always feels like deaths are preventable. And if it happens you've only lost like an hours worth of stuff. It's fun to just play the game and try to get all the classes to the level cap.
I used to love this game until they started selling gear for realm gold. Before that, it was an entirely skill based game. Now it's been corrupted by the influence of pay-2-win. How I long for the days of yore, when money was only good for cosmetic dyes and vault chests, when you could only get good gear by legitimately earning it. Oh how the mighty have fallen :(

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Anyways, my favorite game is (or rather was) Kingdom of Loathing [http://www.kingdomofloathing.com/login.php?loginid=b93012c1c36e4759bd022c99b0bf1ea6]. A somewhat minimalistic game with a lot more depth than meets the eye. It's also one of the funniest I've played. Also be sure to find a good clan, as the community is one of the best parts of it.

Runner-up would be Anti-Idle [http://www.kongregate.com/games/Tukkun/anti-idle-the-game], a VERY unique flash game that is...well.....you can't really explain it. Play it for a bit and you'll see why its fun. The beginning is defintely a chore, but once you've bought the battle arena things start to pick up. I'd also recommend browsing its forums to get a feel for it. Also, NO MICROTRANSACTIONS YAY!

Other flash games I enjoy include the puzzle game Shift [http://www.kongregate.com/games/ArmorGames/shift], Infectonator: World Dominator [http://www.kongregate.com/games/TogeProductions/infectonator-world-dominator] and anything by this awesome sonofagun [http://www.kongregate.com/accounts/nerdook].
 

Chefsbrian

Senior Member
Jun 25, 2012
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Planetside 2 is one of my favorite F2P shooters right now (Years of TF2 have sapped the challenge, all die before my sniper rifle XD) And today's a good day to get into it, some bonus Cert thing afoot right now, judging from last night. Just drop in, find a platoon to link up with, and fight with your team.

MWO is pretty good at well, the forums are usually seething balls of rage arguing the merits of the MWO ruleset over the tabletop ruleset XD
 

Mullac

New member
Oct 6, 2012
199
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Loop Stricken said:
WHat. nobody's mentioned Warframe [https://warframe.com/] yet? I'm disappointed.

A third-person co-operative objective-based shooter, with space ninjas!
I was interested in that. Could you tell me how much of it is pay-to-win?

OT, my favourite is TF2, so many hours have been spent on it.
 

RUINER ACTUAL

New member
Oct 29, 2009
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Hawken, without a doubt. I fell in love with the art style the first time I saw it over a year ago, and I will FINALLY be able to play it on my own machine when I complete my custom PC later this month!
 

bliebblob

Plushy wrangler, die-curious
Sep 9, 2009
719
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0
Mullac said:
Loop Stricken said:
WHat. nobody's mentioned Warframe [https://warframe.com/] yet? I'm disappointed.

A third-person co-operative objective-based shooter, with space ninjas!
I was interested in that. Could you tell me how much of it is pay-to-win?
Though I haven't played since the pvp "dojo" was added, I'd argue that the main focus of the game is and was pve. Meaning buying power isn't nearly as much of an issue. The worst that can (and will) happen is that you get grouped up with someone who can easily solo whatever mission you're doing, meaning easy loot and xp for you.

Moving on to actual analysis of the payment model: getting new weapons and frames (classes) is reasonably do-able though grinding is definantly going to be involved at some point. I got some new weapons and a second frame within 1 week. There's some that supposedly can only be bought with cash but will occasionaly show up in alert missions anyway (more on those later). There's even a selection of weapons that can't be bought with in-game money nor through the cash shop and instead can only be found after alert missions. What you do have to look out for is the limited slots: you can have only 2 frames and 8 weapons unless you buy more. Personally I had no problem with that but my friend, who was collecting frames, obviously did.

Besides weapons and frames there's the usual suspects: cash-only colors for your frame, instantly finishing construction of new frames, xp boosts... None of which I cared about all that much but your mileage may vary.

Howeveeeeeeer if anything's gonna be a dealbreaker it's the orokin cores. Warframe's upgrade system is kind of obtuse but all you need to know is both weapons and frames level up as you use them. This level determines how many upgrades you can apply to them. Orokin cores, or "potatoes" as the warframe community lovingly likes to call them, are a cash-only item that can be used on a single frame or weapon and double the number of upgrades that can be attached to that frame/weapon. Given that the amount of room for upgrades on any weapon or frame is rather limited, even at their max. level, this is a godsend and allows you to obtain power far beyond that of regular frames/weapons. The good news is they occasionally can be obtained from alert missions. The bad news is that only very rarely happens, as the devs are not idiots.
Alert missions are special missions that pop up at random moments on random planets. They'll stick around for 2 or 3 hours and if you haven't completed them by then, tough luck. Besides a sizeable wad of in-game cash they often also offer a "?" reward which is occasionaly something worthwile like a cash-only weapon. The important thing is that this "?" reward isn't a random loot roll but instead the same for everyone who completes the mission. So people made forum threads, twitter feeds, and all sorts of nonsense dedicated to keeping others informed on good alert rewards. Needless to say the white whale of these rewards is the fabled orokin core. I found the whole thing pretty fun the first few times something good popped up but it quickly felt like a cheap trick to artificially keep the game on people's mind 24/7.
 

Mullac

New member
Oct 6, 2012
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bliebblob said:
Mullac said:
Loop Stricken said:
WHat. nobody's mentioned Warframe [https://warframe.com/] yet? I'm disappointed.

A third-person co-operative objective-based shooter, with space ninjas!
I was interested in that. Could you tell me how much of it is pay-to-win?
Though I haven't played since the pvp "dojo" was added, I'd argue that the main focus of the game is and was pve. Meaning buying power isn't nearly as much of an issue. The worst that can (and will) happen is that you get grouped up with someone who can easily solo whatever mission you're doing, meaning easy loot and xp for you.

Moving on to actual analysis of the payment model: getting new weapons and frames (classes) is reasonably do-able though grinding is definantly going to be involved at some point. I got some new weapons and a second frame within 1 week. There's some that supposedly can only be bought with cash but will occasionaly show up in alert missions anyway (more on those later). There's even a selection of weapons that can't be bought with in-game money nor through the cash shop and instead can only be found after alert missions. What you do have to look out for is the limited slots: you can have only 2 frames and 8 weapons unless you buy more. Personally I had no problem with that but my friend, who was collecting frames, obviously did.

Besides weapons and frames there's the usual suspects: cash-only colors for your frame, instantly finishing construction of new frames, xp boosts... None of which I cared about all that much but your mileage may vary.

Howeveeeeeeer if anything's gonna be a dealbreaker it's the orokin cores. Warframe's upgrade system is kind of obtuse but all you need to know is both weapons and frames level up as you use them. This level determines how many upgrades you can apply to them. Orokin cores, or "potatoes" as the warframe community lovingly likes to call them, are a cash-only item that can be used on a single frame or weapon and double the number of upgrades that can be attached to that frame/weapon. Given that the amount of room for upgrades on any weapon or frame is rather limited, even at their max. level, this is a godsend and allows you to obtain power far beyond that of regular frames/weapons. The good news is they occasionally can be obtained from alert missions. The bad news is that only very rarely happens, as the devs are not idiots.
Alert missions are special missions that pop up at random moments on random planets. They'll stick around for 2 or 3 hours and if you haven't completed them by then, tough luck. Besides a sizeable wad of in-game cash they often also offer a "?" reward which is occasionaly something worthwile like a cash-only weapon. The important thing is that this "?" reward isn't a random loot roll but instead the same for everyone who completes the mission. So people made forum threads, twitter feeds, and all sorts of nonsense dedicated to keeping others informed on good alert rewards. Needless to say the white whale of these rewards is the fabled orokin core. I found the whole thing pretty fun the first few times something good popped up but it quickly felt like a cheap trick to artificially keep the game on people's mind 24/7.
Hmmmm, interesting. I guess I'll give it a go, but I can't say it will tickle my fancy for too long.

Thanks for the reply mate.
 

zerragonoss

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Oct 15, 2009
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Mullac said:
Hmmmm, interesting. I guess I'll give it a go, but I can't say it will tickle my fancy for too long.

Thanks for the reply mate.
He pretty much covered it just wanted to add that 20 bucks gets you all the slots and cores you could pretty much want they are very cheep so if you like the game its easily worth that much.

As for my favorite free to play game I would go with Tribes Ascend, Warfarme, Dragons Nest, and Vindictus.

Dragons nest has very good combat and some of the best leveling I have found in a mmo. Actual number of skill and how they level not better than most, but the action combat allows them to be more than just a set of numbers. Which is how most skill feel like in other mmos to me. down side is its very repatative

vindictus great base combat but unexciting leveling and also quite repatative.

Tribes ascend very fun difficult to play pvp shooter with great sense of speed.

Warfarme fun mostly pve shooter where you are a space ninja quite fun but I would recommend waiting because its improving at a rapid pace right now and you could have a better experience if you give some more time to mature

All of these I felt very little draw to pay any money after putting 20-30$ in them when I deiced they would be worth it. that got rid of some small annoyances like the aforementioned cells or small inventories.
 

IndianaJonny

Mysteron Display Team
Jan 6, 2011
813
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Signa said:
So, what free games have you gotten in on that was free and fun? I'm not talking about those MMOs like Rift or Star Trek Online that are now free to play, but the titles that were designed from the ground up to be without a base charge before the players get involved. Games like TF2 where you can play the game without spending a dime, but mechanics are in place to encourage you to spend for a new or better experience.
I think you've been misinformed bro, TF2 didn't start as F2P, it came as either part of The Orange Box or you could buy it individually - it's only (fairly) recently become F2P.

As for good ones out there now, World of Tanks has a phenomenal level of detail for an F2P game.
 

Signa

Noisy Lurker
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Jul 16, 2008
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IndianaJonny said:
Signa said:
So, what free games have you gotten in on that was free and fun? I'm not talking about those MMOs like Rift or Star Trek Online that are now free to play, but the titles that were designed from the ground up to be without a base charge before the players get involved. Games like TF2 where you can play the game without spending a dime, but mechanics are in place to encourage you to spend for a new or better experience.
I think you've been misinformed bro, TF2 didn't start as F2P, it came as either part of The Orange Box or you could buy it individually - it's only (fairly) recently become F2P.

As for good ones out there now, World of Tanks has a phenomenal level of detail for an F2P game.
I was wondering how long it would take for someone to call me out on that example.

I owned the Orange box day 1 dude. TF2 was just the first example that came to mind that wasn't designed with pay walls, or some other mechanic that tries to emulate a coin-op arcade game while still being a solid game itself. In other words, a full game that was free. TF2 now is a full game that is free.
 

likalaruku

New member
Nov 29, 2008
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LotRO.
Neverwinter.
Runes of Magic.
Maplestory. (Great for soloing, just avoid the forums).
Trickster Online. (It's gone now) :(
KitsuSaga. (Also gone).
Farmville (Only FB game with no energy restrictions & constant new content. Make cash by watching commercials is fine with me).
Furcadia (Ancient 90s sandbox game).


Conan & DDO stopped being fun around 15-18 due top lack of solo support or restrictions of free content. BUT DDO was new when I played it & those restrictions might be gone now due to more content, & after reading, I totally picked the wrong class for soloing in Conan, so I'm going to retry both.

Ecol Tactics has a great story, characters, & sense of humor, but the game needs some tweaking. It's really new though, so I'll try again in a year.
 

renegade7

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Feb 9, 2011
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The Madman said:
Easy; Dwarf Fortress. One of the best games I've ever played and beyond doubt the most comprehensive and in-dept 'builder' game out there. Also completely free to play although if you like the game I'd say donate to the games developers, working on DF is their full time jobs and they get by from donations alone.
This. Just this. And I'd second that you should donate to the devs.

I also very much like Planetside 2. I may also try Mech Warrior online.

EVE Online also sort of counts (It can be played for free but is not by default), so it's my other favorite F2P game.
 

Keymik

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Oct 18, 2008
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Vindictus! Super fun fast time action combat, which in my opinion beats Tera's anyday of the week.

It even has a overarching story you actually feel you're a part of instead of just being that guy that's just always there.

It uses source engine aswell so that's cool and all!

The only complaint I have is how when you dungeon with around 4-5 people the connection gets a little bunky and the framerate drops whenever someone does a combo(Yes, you can do combos! I KNOW!) but I suspect that has more to do with my old computer and bad internet than the game itself.

And this might just be my luck but the community in this game is pretty friendly.
However you can actually also solo the entire game if the whole multiplayer thing isn't you dig.
So you can actually just go to a low population channel and pretend you're playing the best half life 2 mod ever xD

Not much more to say.. Really wish more people would play this game ^^
 

OpticalJunction

Senior Member
Jul 1, 2011
599
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dink smallwood -> http://www.dinksmallwood.net

It's a free funny little RPG. One of the first games I ever played, and it still occupies a special place in my heart.
 

KoudelkaMorgan

New member
Jul 31, 2009
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I used to play Dink too. I discovered it along with ZC back when I was searching for free stuff to play many years ago. That PC died horribly about that time so maybe I searched too hard ._.
 

SweetShark

Shark Girls are my Waifus
Jan 9, 2012
5,147
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Clive Howlitzer said:
SweetShark said:
Clive Howlitzer said:
Here you go. The only one true answer. Path of Exile.
http://www.pathofexile.com/
This also for me.
For those they seaking a good "answer" to Diablo 2 but to be also with it own way unique, this is the perfect game.
Very Ironic by saying this, but I hoped Diablo 3 to be like this. Diablo 3 if a fun game, but it is not like Path of Exile.....

Saddly [or gladly] this is the only F2P MMO I ever played. So the other suggestion are just free games:

My first selection is...................Corruption of Champions [NSFW].
I don't know why, but I really like the way "gameplay" work.
If there was a game like this without the "adult" elements, I would buy it full price!!!!

The other games I really like and you can also play for free, check my lists I created in Listal.
Most of the games are free to play. And they are AWESOME!!!!

http://www.listal.com/list/awesome-unknown-videogames-you-must
http://www.listal.com/list/awesome-unknown-videogames-you-must-sweetshark

Enjoy ^^
It's probably a bad sign I've played Corruption of Champions.
If you like this kind of things, why you have regrets?
Plus you can actually play "normal" if you like.
Be a real hero and never get corrupted even once!!!
It is a very difficult task and very cruel [you will make many other characters you care about sad...], but it is not impossible. This is how awesome this game is.
 

6_Qubed

New member
Mar 19, 2009
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Spelunky, PC version. Armor Games website has some fun stuff, too.

Honorable mention for Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. A good roguelike is a treasure.
 

BLAHwhatever

New member
Aug 30, 2011
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I got into the
"The mighty Qest for epic loot"-Beta
It's fun. Watching other heroes get crushed by you castles defenses is satisfying as hell,
There's some cheesy tactics and the balance is kinda terrible right now. There's cheesy tactics all over the game. But it's entertaining nonetheless.
I can recommend this to everyone that kinda got a thing for Dungeon Keeper and or Torchlight to give it a shot once it's out or to sign up for the beta