THE TOP 50 FREE GAMES
OFF-PEAK
S
tranding you at an otherworldly
train station, Off-Peak
encourages you to explore, talk to
the locals, and luxuriate in its strange
atmosphere. It’s got an incredible sense of
place, despite feeling like nowhere on
Earth, and as you poke around its nooks
and crannies, the true nature of its world is
revealed piece by piece. RV
cosmoddd.itch.io/off-peakTINY ISLANDS
R
oll & Write is a popular board
game genre at the moment, and
the brilliant Tiny Islands
translates the concept to the digital realm.
You’re drawing maps of little islands in the
sea here, by placing beaches, houses,
even waves as random cards are dealt out
to you. But placement is everything, as
every icon has its own set of rules. TS
dr-d-king.itch.io/tiny-islandsHAUNTED CITIES
There are three volumes
worth of Haunted Cities to
savor. Despite the name,
these aren’t really horror
games—they’ve just
inherited much of the
atmosphere of games
such as Silent Hill. The
boxy, PS1-style worlds hold
fragmented stories to
piece together, and overall
a foggy, inviting sense of
place. TS
EVERYTHING IS GOING
TO BE OK
Vividly animated creatures
deal with existential horror
and pain—and are
alarmingly sanguine about
it—in this cathartic
collection of minigames,
videos, and quizzes. It’s
overwhelming, just as life
can be overwhelming. But
it’s refreshing for a game
to deal with that fact. TS
bit.ly/2yFSy8R
THE HERBALIST
A wordless adventure
about a traveler searching
for a mysterious herb. You
wander around its strange
world trying to interpret
symbols, in the hope of
discovering the plant you
need. Its detailed
illustrations and ethereal
music draw you
completely into the
mysterious setting. RW
bit.ly/2WnWRyh
FOREST ARE FOR TREES
W
alking through the forest is
something that takes on
new meaning in this
mind-expanding
exploration game, which is
small and possibly infinite all at once. It’s a
walking sim, sort of, where you traipse
around an eerie woodland. But something
funny happens when you make contactwith a tree. Inside every tree there’s
another forest full of ghostly trees. You
saunter through these arboreal portals in
slick real-time. You could go back, but
what if you kept going, into one of these
trees? And so on, and so on, and argh.
This is less a game, and more a beautiful
creation myth. TS
bit.ly/3bo5kWJTR
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