Let’s be honest, sometimes you want to do some gaming but don’t have the budget to get some new stuff. Big live service games like Fortnite or Apex Legends can scratch that itch, but a lot of the time you’re looking for something that isn’t designed to eat away hours a day of your life. Thankfully, there’s a huge library of free games on Steam to snag, but with so many games that are wasteful, it’s hard to find the best. Here are the eight best free games you can snag on Steam.
8 Free Games on Steam That Are Well Worth Your Time
For this list, I won’t be focusing on the biggest free-to-play titles on Steam since you can check the most popular games yourself. There are a few from that list for sure, but I’ve tried to include some you may not know about here to spice up this list a bit. With that mentioned, let’s get started.
Enderal: Forgotten Stories
While this is cheating a bit since this is a mod and requires you to own Skyrim to play it, there are a lot of reasons I think Enderal deserves a spot. For one, it’s completely free for owners of that game, and it’s essentially its own game using Skyrim’s engine rather than a mod that leapfrogs off of it. I recently did a 50-hour playthrough of the game, and the writing of it is next level, to the point where I can easily see it as better than Skyrim. Die-hard fans may disagree with me on that, but it’s a wonderful RPG nonetheless.
Dagon: by H. P. Lovecraft
This game could be banged out pretty easily in the time it takes to watch an episode of TV, but that doesn’t stop Dagon from being a well-executed, free horror game. If you’re a huge fan of Lovecraft’s work and want to see a game faithfully execute it while not overstaying its welcome, then this is exactly what you’re looking for. All that, plus the graphics, looks great, given the scope of the project.
Warframe
I know I know, I said I wasn’t going to include many games ripped straight from the Popular list on Steam. Given that I have around 1,200 hours in Warframe, though, I’d feel horrible not including it. This is an action RPG that may lack in easy onboarding, but for those willing to learn it, it’s one of the deepest free-to-play experiences you’ll ever play. Plus, unlike every live service game on the market, it isn’t purely designed to be a money sink.
Omega Strikers
It may have recently ended the development of new content, but that doesn’t stop Omega Strikers from feeling particularly great on its own. Imagine a melding of Air Hockey with the character diversity of something like Overwatch, and you have a surprisingly great recipe for a fun game. Plus, there’s a giant, tofu-loving hamster named Dubu that you can play as…wait, you didn’t immediately start downloading off that? What kind of monster are you?
Halo Infinite
I admittedly dropped off this one for a good while due to the lack of new content being added, but Halo Infinite’s multiplayer feels excellent for a free-to-play title. I haven’t felt a game this good to play since Titanfall 2, which I suppose speaks a lot to the multiplayer FPS space but is a strength nonetheless. I’ve been playing a ton of Tactical Slayer recently, and popping heads is never not satisfying.
We Were Here
Are you and a buddy bored one night with just about nothing to do? Well, that’s where We Were Here comes in. This cooperative puzzle game sees the both of you trapped in a small castle completely separated, needing to relay information to each other in order to survive. Its puzzles can admittedly be a little tough at times, but it’s rewarding when you and your friend manage to put your heads together and hit that “aha!” moment.
Town of Salem 2
In case you didn’t hear about it, the classic murder mystery game got a free-to-play sequel on Steam. This game sees you and a bunch of other “townies” take on different roles as you try to deduce who the traitors are among the group. It might be almost entirely through text, but its depth makes up for it. Even writing about it is flooding back memories of playing the original game quite a bit.
Helltaker
While some parts of its Steam page may imply something else entirely, Helltaker is a surprisingly fun puzzle game with a cute art style and a fair bit of depth. It won’t hold your attention endlessly, but seeing that it’s free, it doesn’t need to. It’s also got a banging soundtrack, and who doesn’t love a great soundtrack?
If you’re looking into some of these free games, check out our guide on how to level your battle pass fast in Halo Infinite.
