What are actually good, free games?

So, i see a lot of adds for stuff like world of tanks or world of warships, etc.
Since i’m a few years older, i often just assume that all of those are crap moneygrabs (because they generally where that in the early 2000s).

With that said, i personally think there are some actually great free games out there, and i’d be happy to learn of more from you that actually tried them. So, to kick this off, let’s start with some obvious titles:


As a Team Based Shooter, TF2 is still a classic and still great. It’s graphics might be a bit dated by now, but that doesn’t hold it back too much. As a Free Overwatch alternative, it’s still tons of fun. Especially if you get some friends into a game.

Stating the obvious:


Both regular League and TFT are great fun. Since most people will know it already, i’ll not go more in depth here. It’s just one of those games where i feel that the dev striked a great balance when it comes to monetizing the game.

PoE is an Action RPG very much in the vain of Diablo 2. Though it’s a lot more complex when it comes to classes and skills. I played it to lategame with two characters. The story is great, progression is nice and there is TONS of content. You also rarely feel the need to pour any money into that game at all.
It’s an impressive free to play title both, in terms of the game and how subtle it is in terms of monetization.

And finally A CCG:

MTGA is a relaitvely recent release and probably the best way to play magice on the PC to date. I’ll not go too much into the game itself, but as most CCG’s monetization can be a mixed bag.
You can totally play the game for free. It’s relatively easy on new players and gives out a lot of cards. With quests and such you can earn a decent amount more. In the end i don’t want to make this “all is nice” though. The Studio is known to try to up the monetization and only heavy pushback from the community stopped this in some cases. It’s still the case that building Meta Decks is harder than in, say, Hearthstone. Duplicate Card value is relatively low and the amount of cards from the paper game coming over is huge.
So, if you plan on actually being competitive here and want to climb the ranks, you’ll probably need to invest some money. If you want to play great games of magic and enjoy building decks out of the restraints of your collection, this can be an awesome free game for sure.

So, that are some of the games that i actually play(ed) extensively that i genuinly enjoyed despite or even because they are free.
What are free to play games with fair monetization that you personally can recommend?

Edit: List of what others Recommended:

Game Description Post Link
Team Fortress 2 FPS OP Link
League of Legends MOBA OP Link
Path of Exile ARPG OP Link
Magic the Gathering Arena Card Game OP Link
Warframe 3rd Person Shooter Post Link
Destiny 2 FPS Post Link
PUBG Light Battle Royal Post Link
DOTA MOBA Post Link
GTA London Top-Down-Shooter Post Link
Dirty Bomb FPS Post Link
Agar.io ?? Post Link
Seiklus Adventure Game Post Link
Knyt (Stories) Post Link
Transmissions: Element 120 FPS Post Link
Planet Side 2 FPS Post Link
Open TTD City Sim Post Link
OpenRA RTS Post Link
Privateer Gemini Gold Post Link
0 A.D. RTS Post Link
Tyrian 2000 Post Link
Battle for Wesnoth RTS Post
Dwarf Fortress Post Link
Deemo Rythm Game Post Link
Endless Sky Space Sim Post Link
Unturned Survival Post Link
Starcraft RTS Post Link
Starcraft 2 RTS Post Link
Metroid Confrontation Platformer Post Link
Super Smash Land Brawler Post Link
Tower of Heaven Adventure Post Link
Star Wars the old Republic RPG Post Link
Runescape RPG Post Link, Runelite
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I would definitely add Warframe, yes there is content that can be unlocked with money. But it’s not pay to win. You don’t gain an advantage by trowing money at the game - like it should be!

https://www.warframe.com

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Destiny 2 just became free to play recently.

I have only played it a few hours. Kind of confusing to start out but you can pick it up fairly quickly.
What can you say, its an FPS with some abilities and plenty of PVE and PVP content from what I heard from my buddy.

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Oh wow, didn’t know that. Is it actually Free to play, or more of a “Free Demo” and you need to buy DLC’s or Story Packs to get any milage out of it? I Played Destiny one when it was free, but they had a Level Cap in Place that you could only go around by paying, which was a big bummer as it meant there was no use putting time into it.
I don’t mind grinding in such games, but hard capping the possible progress is a downer.
I might actually give Destiny 2 a go then. Thanks for bringing it up!

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So it seems that there is a big portion of the game that is F2P, but its latest DLC’s Shadowkeep and Forsaken are optional to purchase.

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The is a free version of PUBG if you think that counts as a “good” game.

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Thanks, I’ll check it out.

The title says GOOD…
I’ll stand behind Path of exile though… They constantly update it and there is so much content now it’s amazing…

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Just a suggestion, everything is open to interpretation and subjective.

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A matter of taste. Let’s not argue about subjective matters. :slight_smile:

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I was JOKING you sillies… God damn it, almost like Todd Philips was right about comedy being dead… God damn it…

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What about old titles that were paid, but now free/ bundled?

Or should it just be “free” to play titles?

I’m fine with either. Just games that require no monetary investment upfront. But now that you say it:

GTA London is actually available from Rockstart for free. I spend far too much time in it when i was younger.

https://www.rockstargames.com/gtalondon/public/intro/index.html

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I was going to mention that, they used to have 1 and 2 free as well.

I have been really enjoying Quake Champions. It is on Steam but for weeks it was broken and could not log in with no of fort to fix it so I had to go get it again from the Bethesda Launcher.

image
I installed a Space Invaders clone from the Microsoft Windows Store, still addictive and fun time waster. Back in the day a loot box was where the quarters went when you put them in the slot.
Just reading the Steam reviews is quality entertainment

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Dirty bomb is a fast pace shooter game. Devs removed the monitization system and is grind for credits only. Only major down side to game is mid december there shutting down the official servers and its going to be 100% on the comunity to rent servers and keep it going. A number of us including some of the devs(upper managment killed development not the devs workong on it) already rent servers and were devoted to keep game running as long as we can.

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Should i add all the suggestions to OP, or is it fine as a “running list” of posts?

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Maybe to stop the OP getting cluttered with boxes and images you could list and link to posts in the thread?

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also this is fun with friends. ever wanted to give your buddy a std then go fight a mummy with a sonic screw driver and a wand?
https://www.boardgame-online.com/

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