Top 10 Free PC Games (The 10 Best Free PC Games)

Our favorite freeware delights.

COMMAND & CONQUER: RED ALERT

Red Alert 1

Westwood’s alternate history spin-off is still a great RTS, and one of a number of classics in the genre available for free. Visit CNCNet and you’ll find downloads of Command & Conquer, Red Alert and Tiberian Sun, all updated to work nicely on modern systems and integrated with the CnCNet multiplayer platform for easy online play. If that isn’t enough to sate your RTS desires, the brilliant Twisted Insurrection — available from the same site — is a total conversion of Tiberian Sun, available standalone. And, for fans of Westwood’s main competitor, Battle.net lets you download StarCraft for free.
Download: cncnet.org/red-alert

Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall

THE ELDER SCROLLS II: DAGGERFALL
The second Elder Scrolls game is a glimpseof Tamriel before its modern incarnationsin Oblivion and Skyrim. This absolutelyenormous RPG is literally the size of GreatBritain, although the primitive 3D visualshaven’t aged terribly well. Still, this is a bigold adventure, with a lot of features thatwould go  
on to define the series.
Download: bit.ly/daggerfall-free

THE DARK MOD

Dark Mod

The Dark Mod is a standaloneplatform for user-made Thiefmissions. It’s easy to install newmaps, meaning the hardestpart is deciding what to play.Highlights include The Tears ofSt Lucia, Briarwood Manor, FullMoon Fever, and the multipartWilliam Steele series.
Download: thedarkmod.com 


SPELUNKY CLASSIC
Derek Yu’s relentless, fiendishly addictiveroguelike platformer is still enormouslyplayable, whether it’s the 2013 enhancedversion or this, the free original. Youplay as a spelunker exploring a series

Spelunky

ofprocedurally generated caverns, and thedeeper you delve the more dangerousthings get. These caves are filled withthings that want you dead including spiketraps, skeletons, snakes, and other nasties.To survive, and make it to the darkestdepths of the cave, you need a lot of skilland a lot of patience. You’ll die, a lot, inyour first few runs. But with every attemptyou get a little deeper, making it endlesslyreplayable.
Download: bit.ly/spelunkpc

Hets

HETS
Spelunky meets Contra in this murderousplatformgame where you explore onerandomly generated level after another. Rightaway you’ll be grabbed by the impressivelighting effects. But you’ll stickaround for theguns, which push you back with their heftyrecoil, shake the screen and turn enemies intopixel confetti.
Download: ditto.itch.io/hets

XONOTIC

Xonotic

If, like me, you long for a break from the battle passes and seasonladders that make up today’s online shooters, Xonotic offers a welcomerespite. Its server browser promises a wealth of ways to engage infrenetic battle thanks to a vast mix of modes, maps, and mutators.Whichever server you pick, Xonotic offers rock solid gunplay and aquick pace that harks back to the speed and style of Quake III Arena. It’sfast, fun, and incredibly easy to pick up and play. If you’re looking for apurer, more competitive arena shooter, check out Warsow, which is alsoavailable for free.
Download: xonotic.org 

CUBE ESCAPE SERIES

Cube Escape

For the past few years, developer Rusty Lake has been rapidlyexpanding the surreal universe that shares its name. There are the RustyLake games — bigger puzzle titles that come with a price tag — and theshorter Cube Escape series, which hurtle the player from one strangelocked room to another.  They’re basically room escapes, but with amacabre sense of humor, a touch of Lynchian weirdness, and crypticstories that have inspired much fan debate. It’s an inspired concoction,with challenging puzzles and an absorbing atmosphere. Lynchian stuff isalready puzzling, so why not throw some actual puzzles in there too?
Download: cubeescape.com

Corrypt

CORRYPT
Michael Brough’s Corrypt isn’t quite what it appears, your firstclue being the name ‘Michael Brough’. His games always surprise. Corrypt is a block-pushing game where you end up changingthe  nature of its world. The best puzzle games leave you openmouthedat their ingenuity. Corrypt will leave your chin restingon your keyboard.
Download : smestorp.itch.io/corrypt

Cry of Fear

CRY OF FEAR
Built on the shambling bonesof the Half-Life 1 engine, Cry of Fear is at times an FPS, atother times a survival horror andpuzzle game, and at all times acinematically minded experienceclearly inspired by the game it’sbuilt upon.
Download: bit.ly/cryfear

THESE MONSTERS
This feels like a good introduction to thedeveloper’s refreshingly colorful, abstractenvironments. Previous games took youto alien art exhibits, and procedurallygenerated galleries, while These Monsters’artistically minded world takes the formofan

These Monsters

imposing museum. In each room thereis a TV, or several of them, showing vaguelysinister warning messages on a loop. It’sonly when you leave the rooms that yourealize you’ve been taken somewhere new,as its dizzyingly recursive world displacesthe player every time they pass through adoor. Good luck finding your way aroundthis brilliantly disjointed museum.
Download: bit.ly/thesemonsters