Despite the bad rap that free-to-play games have, there are still some great titles out there that offer a lot of content for little money. Some even have ethical microtransactions for players who want more.
Forge of Empires is one such game. It’s the PC’s best free online strategy game that blends elements from Civ and Age of Empires into one seamless experience.
Cookie Clicker
Cookie Clicker is an incremental web-browser game developed by French programmer Julien “Orteil” Thiennot in 2013. It requires the user to click on a big cookie and buy buildings that automatically produce cookies, such as cursors, grandmas, farms, mines, factories, banks, temples and more.
The player may also purchase upgrades that increase the rate of cookie production for these buildings. Buildings may also have Free Online Games that unlock when a building is levelled up.
Golden cookies (small cookies that appear in random locations and fade away after a few seconds) can be purchased, granting effects such as temporarily increasing the cookie production rate. Players can also earn achievements by completing a variety of goals, including owning a certain number of buildings of a particular type and clicking a specified number of golden cookies.
Thiennot says the idea behind Cookie Clicker was to “remind us all that we are wasting time in the digital world” and that it “shouldn’t be seen as a chore or a grind.” He said making Cookie Clicker has also changed his relationship with games, particularly when it comes to the way they implement grind.
Kingdom of Loathing
KoL, or Kingdom of Loathing, is a browser-based, turn-based multiplayer RPG that’s largely presented through text and monochrome stick figure drawings. It’s inspired by BBS door games like Legend of the Red Dragon, and it’s known for its humorous fantasy setting.
Its low-tech design makes it easy to play on older computers with Windows 98 or Mac OS 9 browsers, and it’s also compatible with mobile browsers without the need for a separate app. It’s also very accessible, especially for people who use screen reader software.
The game’s writing is also one of its best strengths. It’s very clever in its descriptions of monsters and quests, and it’s funny for a lot of reasons.
The game is still evolving – and adding new zones – despite its age, and there’s always something fresh to discover. There’s an endless variety of weird, silly and hilarious creatures to fight – and they don’t kill you!
Gwent
If you’re looking for a good game to play online, you should try out Gwent. It’s a free-to-play card game that can be played on the PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
It’s a turn-based battle game where each player chooses a card from a deck of cards, choosing either to use it tactically or pass it for future rounds. Each round lasts for two to three rounds, and a player wins if they have more points than their opponent.
The best thing about Gwent is that it’s free to play and doesn’t require any money or a subscription. You can even get a free Gwent starter pack with a few cards, which can help you start out with a winning strategy.
Gwent also features a competitive scene, with tournaments based on the Ranked ladder and invitational events for players who reach Pro Rank. These events draw participants from the top 64 of the ranked leaderboards, which reset every month.
World of Tanks
World of Tanks is an online massively multiplayer game that lets you take control of armored vehicles from the 20th century. Developed by Wargaming, it features over 600 armored machines from 11 nations and five unique vehicle classes, including light tanks, mediums and heavy self-propelled artillery.
In World of Tanks you can play solo or join team clashes, flank your enemy, and take diversionary attacks to obliterate them. Each vehicle has its own stats, armor and weapons.
You can also upgrade your tank with consumables, such as a camo net that makes it more difficult to spot and a fire extinguisher that puts out engine fires. These can be purchased with credits, which are earned by winning battles. You can unlock new tiers of tanks in a tank tree that’s fun to work through until you hit Tier V, where upgrading costs become more than the game’s credit cap. This is where it starts to grate.
