The Freeware Games thread

Indie developer Amon26 is mostly known for a trilogy of games full of High Octane Nightmare Fuel: All Of Our Friends Are Dead, Au Sable and The Hunt. There should be some mysterious storyline beneath the creepy visuals. The first two games are platformers/shooters, while the third is a low-tech FPS. The latter is very short and limited, but the other two are fun to play, so even if you don't really understand what's going on, they are very good to sit through, and they have both checkpoints and the ability to save whenever you want. Also of note is their excellent sound design, which further strenghtens their atmosphere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpoajECZtFM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqyDMHfb4M4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnevMrZjrPA

edited 2nd Jan '12 7:57:39 AM by GendoIkari

Re-posting about a game that was revealed to have all download links dead.

Project Aurora is a third-person action game made with the basic 3D capabilities of Game Maker, without other extensions. There are no textures and the models are made with few polygons but that doesn't make the graphics ugly, quite the opposite - the main character is cool, there's an atmosphere of sterility and solitude, and it's a fantastic throwback to the early days of flat-shaded 3D. Only a melee weapons and two firearms; left mouse button is for attacking/shooting and right button for parrying/aiming (in first person). Combat is fun but made tedious by overlong waves of enemies in some sections. Death forces to restart a level from the beginning but there are only five. A good game which could have been even exceptional if longer and more balanced.

Here are several mirrors to download it: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

edited 26th Dec '11 3:37:21 AM by GendoIkari

Dynamite is an isometric stealth game. The player must avoid guard patrols, place explosives on the main pillars of the buildings and detonate them; he has to be near a window when detonating the last one, so that he can escape. Often the first explosions must be used to distract guards. Good even if it has few levels (3 training and 8 regular ones) and the perspective makes sometimes difficult to judge if you are in the line of sight of a guard or not. The author is remaking the game in 3D on the iPhone, with the title of Stealth Target.

An earlier stealth game from him is Escape From Anathema Mines, simplistic but with a good lighting system that's also the core of the gameplay: the torch runs out very quickly, even with the many reserve batteries scattered around, so it must be turned on and off carefully to avoid guards and chasms.

edited 27th Dec '11 1:15:28 AM by GendoIkari

Cat Astro Phi is a Flash game built on the visual and sound specs of the monochromatic Game Boy. Every level is introduced by a spaceship section where Failure Is the Only Option, ending with the astronaut's cat falling on a hostile planet. It then switches to a top view where the player roams the surface to find weapons, keys, energy cells and finally the cat before going back to the ship and leave. There are small Zelda-like physical puzzles involving crates and bombs. It's so fun you'll be sorry there are only three levels, a boss, and a fun ending - with more levels, it could have been a legitimate GB game 20 years ago. Such authentic-looking experience has only a thing out of place: when disabling energy barriers, you have to rapidly input a series of numbers, a real immersion-breaker.

The following video is the only decent one I found and it's an entire playthrough, so watch only the first minutes if you don't want to spoil your fun completely!

edited 2nd Jan '12 7:47:18 AM by GendoIkari

Lovin' Project Aurora. First boss is a toughie—-dude just reflects my bullets after me and forces me to deal with him on melee terms, and he's no slouch.

Hanano Puzzle is very light on disk space: it's less than a meg, with essential but colorful graphics and music done with Pxtone. The colored blocks can be swapped or moved laterally, and must be brought to touch the flowers of the same colors to bloom (but they won't if there is no space above them). Already bloomed blocks can still be moved - a level is over when the last one blooms - and used as platforms, and make other blocks bloom on contact with them. The game can be configured to show help messages in a serviceable English. It's difficult, even the first level (out of 50) isn't immediately clear and won't probably be solved at the first try. Recommended to puzzle enthusiasts.

edited 31st Dec '11 2:09:31 AM by GendoIkari

Typomagia mixes typing games and fantasy ingeniously. Creatures come from the right side of the screen and must be dispatched before they reach the left side. For every successfully entered word, energy is stored (it's more if the word is longer) and when enough, the words of spells can be entered to summon creatures and aid them in combat. More spells are added as the story goes on. A great idea, but unfortunately it has hardware requirements higher than it looks, so I couldn't really enjoy it on my old PC, due to the slow response of the inputs. If you have a newer system and are good at typing, however, there's no reason to miss this one.

edited 2nd Jan '12 7:37:32 AM by GendoIkari

Really appreciate your efforts, Gendo. It's quite nice to see so many free games in one place.

Thanks. Right now I'm proceeding with posts I've already written for long, and I have a bunch of notes for several more, I just need the time to turn them into proper posts. I'm also considering editing older posts to add more Youtube videos for the games, if I manage to find some.

Amphibix (mirror) is a strange mouse-controlled game starring a frog with an incredibly long tongue, which he uses to jump around platforms. The objective of every level is to clear the platforms from the numbers written on them, starting from the lowest and proceeding in increasing order. Obviously, there are obstacles making direct jumps from one point to another impossible; players must often study the path to take, while other times they must be constantly on the move. 5 correct numbers in a row activate Hyper Mode: the frog is invincible for a while and numbers are highlighted, so you can hop from one to another until the effect lasts. Good score bonuses are awarded if a level is completed without errors and lost lives.

The simple gameplay is spread over 100 levels which, considering the low variety, could have been less. Furthermore, the Hyper Mode mechanic is a double-edged sword: it's gratifying but can make several levels even easier. The game, however, is fun and I found it nice to play and complete in sessions of a few levels each. Once completed, a new game mode is unlocked but I couldn't test - it sistematically crashed every time I selected it.

edited 2nd Jan '12 7:33:01 AM by GendoIkari

Finally got around to playing Au Sable (mentioned at the top of the page.) As it turns out, at least some versions of the game (possibly including the current one) are glitched so as to make the good ending inaccessible. This video contains the good ending at 5:41, if anyone's curious. (The difference is that you spare the final boss's life, and carry her out of the ruins. I think she's supposed to be your mother—it's a bit confusing.)

edited 2nd Jan '12 2:36:45 AM by feotakahari

Any good horror freeware games? Visual novels count, as long as it's...you know, free.

The White Chamber, Yume Nikki, Chzo Mythos.

edited 2nd Jan '12 9:22:48 AM by Brickman

Ugh, I'm sure I know of more than are on the Freeware Games page...

Some of the levels for Knytt Stories are very good. It Waits comes to mind, especially.

Sinewave is quite unique. The mouse-controlled ship generates a wave, creating a pattern for a ball to move onto. Only the ball can get bonuses; points are also awarded when you manage to make it float in the air. Enemies can disrupt the wave. There are some bonuses for the ship (like one which makes the wave temporarily indestructible) and obstacles must be dealt with too. The only irritating detail is that the ball can fall in case the wave has a sudden "peak", which may happen in some tight situations.

http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/games/145263 (scroll further down to find the download link)

More horror games please! :3

Well there is Eyes Without a Face and Demonophobia.

edited 7th Jan '12 6:44:14 PM by Oreochan

Eyes Without A Face? I loved that movie...

Hmm, might gotta check that one out!

Oh, and this forum might be of use in finding more horror freeware games.

^^^For the love of all that is holy, unholy, mundane or anywhere inbetween, skip Demonophobia. Really. You don't want to play that. If you do you will then want to retroactively have not played it. Promise.

I just add those two because I saw them on Freeware Games Now, looking at the description for it a second time... I'll guess I should stay far away from it.

edited 7th Jan '12 11:07:37 PM by Oreochan

Closure, which someone already mentioned, is excellent.

Others I can personally recommend include The Breach, Gretel And Hansel (especially the sequel), The Bright In The Screen, and The Majesty Of Colors.

TV Tropes also mentions Alice Is Dead, Exmortis, and Story Of The Blanks.

edited 9th Jan '12 9:26:52 AM by Noaqiyeum

Endless Alice Crysis is a now-freeware Touhou doujin game, a simplistic arena platformer based on dispatching as many enemies as possible without getting overwhelmed by their constant spawning. That's practically all it has; there are better games with Touhou characters but it's fun for quick sessions.

''Munky's Block is a wacky puzzle-platformer whose protagonist is a monkey capable of swallowing blocks whole and spitting them back (!) to move them around and hold buttons, although it obviously hampers his ability to jump on higher platforms. Nice despite the drab graphics but with just 10 levels, it's over too soon.

Space Pool Alpha is an oddity even among non-adventure games made with Adventure Game Studio. It's a mix of Asteroids and Pool, with two small ships competing to push the cue ball. The winner is the one who manages to bring more balls in the holes. Quirky concept, the inertia may make things more aggravating than they should for some, but it has to be played at least once.

The author has created a few other games, among them two for the VIC 20!

Soviet Unterzoegersdorf are two adventure games, part of a multimedia project involving the concept of an Austrian village being the last satellite state of the USSR even after the latter is long gone. They use digitized graphics (animation is, unfortunately, very jerky this way) and voiced dialogue in Russian. The setting makes for a lot of satyre and surreal humour, yet you'll also feel some sadness and pity for the characters, so stubborn in their dreams and convictions that Unterzoegersdorf doesn't have diplomatic relations even Austria itself.

NOTE: the first game's default language is German, so you'll have to change to English in the configuration. The sequel has a language selection screen at startup.

GoMommy: Invaders Must Die! is an action game with the eponymous mom repelling space invaders (some are literal ones). With a shotgun, and then alien guns. While constantly holding her infant with one arm. It's just that (it's over in a few minutes), but crazy fun!

Danmaku Retro is Exactly What It Says on the Tin: a Bullet Hell game made as if running on a Colecovision (it seems a bit better than those specs, however). It's mostly a Boss Game - enemies are there only to be destroyed, while the bosses vomit increasingly big and complex formations of bullets.

http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/games/123461 (scroll down for the download link)