The Top 50 Free Games
FEaturE
SpElunky
claSSIc
D
erek Yu’s relentless,
fiendishly addictive
roguelike platformer is still
enormously playable,
whether it’s the 2013
enhanced version or this, the free original.
You play as a spelunker exploring a series
of procedurally generated caverns, and
the deeper you delve the more dangerous
things get. These caves are filled with
things that want you dead including spike
traps, skeletons, snakes, and other
nasties. To survive, and make it to the
darkest depths of the cave, you need a lot
of skill and a lot of patience. You’ll die, a lot,
in your first few runs. But with every
attempt you get a little deeper, making it
endlessly replayable. AK
bit.ly/spelunkpchEtS
S
pelunky meets Contra in this
murderous platform game where
you explore one randomly
generated level after another. Right away
you’ll be grabbed by the impressive
lighting effects. But you’ll stick around for
the guns, which push you back with their
hefty recoil, shake the screen and turn
enemies into pixel confetti. TS
ditto.itch.io/hetsBrOguE
I
n many ways Brogue is an
uncompromising, traditional
roguelike, right down to the ASCII
graphics. But its clever use of shading also
makes it one of the most readable, turning
a screen of text into an atmospheric map.
It’s easy to pick up and play, letting you get
straight down to enjoying its surprising,
procedurally generated adventures. PS
bit.ly/broguepcDwarFFOrtrESS
One of the most ambitious
and generous free games
around. Dwarf Fortress is a
society simulator,
generating a world, history
and nuanced characters.
You build a home for your
dwarfs, and try to secure
their survival. It rarely goes
smoothly, but remember:
losing is fun. PS
bit.ly/dwarfpcnV2.0
You’re a ninja, navigating
through featureless grey
rooms full of gold and
traps. Collect the gold,
avoid the traps, and slowly
become a master of
momentum. The floaty
jumping is perfectly tuned
for keyboard precision,
and ensures that N v2.0
feels like no other
platformer. PS
bit.ly/n2freehypErrOguE
While the concept is mildly
terrifying, in practice this is
one of the more
approachable roguelikes,
as it streamlines the genre
to focus on movement and
combat. You’re hopping
around a mathematically
tricksy sphere here, far
bigger than its surface
area and encompassing
wildly differing
geographical regions. TS
bit.ly/hrogueIwAnt
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