Freeware games thread

[Gendo Ikari]

I know there was once a thread called "Penniless Games" or something similar, but I'd like to create a more extensive one, where games are not just a link and some words, sometimes just blurbs from their original webpages, but actual review-like recommendations, with at least some description, possibly from people who, if not thoroughly, has played the games in object at least a bit. And it has not to be necessarily just single games: is there some interesting free game in development? Some game-making contest (like the just-begun one at Retro Remakes)? Some website has put a list of recommendations, where some hidden gem could be found between more known entries. Discuss it!

Since I've started taking interest in freeware gaming in 2001, thanks to the expansion of the Internet, and the rise and evolution of gamemaking utilities (AGS, TGF, MMF, Game Maker...) and simpler programming languages, the number and average quality has risen impressively. While there will be always some really poor games around (Mario and Sonic fangames, anyone?), there are many good ones, or even masterpieces, which could go unfairly overlooked. Using my experience, I hope to shed some more light on free games, and that more forumgoers will follow with their recommendations

Starting with the next post: a formerly commercial game turned freeware...

[Gendo Ikari]

Beneath A Steel Sky

Originally released in 1994, it's the second game from Revolution, after Lure of the Temptress [also freeware now, by the way], and followed by the Broken Sword series. It was made freeware in late 2003, and Revolution also donated the source code to the developers of ScummVM, a program originally created to run the old Lucas adventures without problems under Windows XP - making the compatibility with BASS an easy task; you can also download appositely recompiled versions of the game from ScummVM's website.

The main character of this cyberpunk adventure is Robert Foster, who as a child survives an helicopter crash, while his mother dies; stranded outside the "civilized" areas, he's raised by a tribe of outcast. Years later, however, security agents from Union City take him and exterminate the tribe. Later, the helicopter with Foster aboard has an engine failure and crashes; he escapes, and is now determined to find who is so interested in him. This introduction was narrated, in the original manual, through a comic drawn by famed artist Dave Gibbons; in the CD version, it's made into a slideshow with voices and sounds.

The backgrounds were really impressive at the time and, despite the low resolution, are still good today, thanks to the high number of details. Animation is very fluid, while the sound is not equally excellent: some themes are good, are much less, and the dubbing is often quite campy.

Revolution's previous game had an interesting, albeit a bit cumbersome, system which made possible to give complex orders to a companion character; unfortunately, it's all gone in BASS, the most you can do, is asking Foster's robotic partner Joey to do something in the current location. You walk and look at objects with a left click, and interact with them (or people) with a right click; the inventory appears by dragging the cursor on top of the screen.

Despite the overall dark main plot, BASS is less serious than expected: humour is behind every corner, and some characters are little more than comic reliefs, and the dubbing doesn't help, to the point I think it was completely intentional. The writing is still excellent - I love Joey and his cynicism - but sometimes such alternance between drama and farce feels off. The game is also shorter than I remembered, although the puzzles are very balanced, with the exception of some pixel hunting. You can die sometimes, but usually there's some foreshadowing of the risk you are taking.

So, about 12 years after my first play, I found out that BASS is not the absolute masterpiece of my memories; still, it's an excellent game, so if you like adventures, don't miss the chance to rediscover this one.

Be Vigilant…


www.revolution.co.uk/_display.php?id=16
www.scummvm.org/downloads.php#extras

[Feynman]

Ah yes, one of the better adventure games I've ever played.

Incidentally, are you perchance the same Gendo Ikari from HotU? I used to lurk on the forums there, and frequently checked in on a freeware recommendations thread there, spearheaded by a Gendo Ikari.

I'll have a recommendation of my own up later today.

[Gendo Ikari]

Chalk

It's really hard to find a genre to ascribe Chalk to: it has some characteristics of shmups, but it's more of something completely original. Like the title suggests, the game takes place on a chalkboard, and the player character must be protected, drawing lines with chalk to shield her and attack enemies: for example, you'll damage an enemy if you draw a line connecting him with his projectile. A useful tutorial explains all the principles, and throughout the game, they are used very creatively, especially when it comes to bosses. One starts protected by a barrier, and must be shocked by connecting a series of batteries to their sockets, and at the same time, you must draw lines to shield the character from bullet streams. One is two enemies, and you must hit them with a ball tied to an elastic rope.

Chalk is short, to the point of resorting to a parade of previous bosses before the final one, and gets frustrating sometimes, due to the character being relatively big, and the screen feeling cramped at times. But the delicious graphics and sound, intuitive keyboard+mouse controls, great game mechanics, the pure genius of some situations, and last but not least the extremely compact download (around 5 megabytes), make Chalk a real must-have. I wonder how would it be on a DS or Wii?


www.konjak.org/chalk.htm



Feynman: yes, I am the same Gendo! Lately I hanged more around an Italian forum I contributed to rise, but it's now decayed and, even if I have less free time nowadays, I'd like to "expand" once more.

[MRSKELETON]

I was actually considering doing something like this but in main-article form for the actual site.

[YourAverageJoe]

Sept 5, 2008 13:35:33 GMT -5 MRSKELETON said:

I was actually considering doing something like this but in main-article form for the actual site.

This post alone is nerdgasm-worthy.

Seriously, go for it.

[zogbog]

Iji, go play plz k thx

[r0ck3rz]

helps to give em a link

www.remar.se/daniel/iji.php

i'd do a write-up, but i'm no good with it. basically it's an action game that has a ton of secrets. well, action if you choose to go balls to the walls, you can also be completely pacifistic. you'll see differences in the story depending on which way you go there.

also, they're also having a demakes (newer game ideas done in a retro style) competition at tigsource, that ends sunday: www.tigsource.com/ figure the results of this should be damned interesting.

[MRSKELETON]

Well, the main problem i'm facing is i've never written an article for the site before, except a bunch of half-finished rough drafts.

[justjustin]

SEIKLUS (cly5sm, 2003) a.k.a. seiklus autofish.net/clysm/art/video_games/seiklus/

Rewind your brains back before the dawn of time, alternatively, the year 2003 (such a long time ago!!). Sitting in a basement on a '98 Dell, I was eating cheese puffs trying to fark around with Game Maker. I created the ultimate game; using a lawn mower, on one screen, within a time limit, ride over EVERYTHING in your path: GRASS.... DOGS.... MARIO... everything was mashed up into bloody chunks that faded after a while. After hitting what would forever remain my most creative peak and accomplishing my life's goal of creating a computer game I thought to myself "what ELSE are people making with Game Maker?" I played a game about a dog with a water gun jumping on platforms, I played a game about Sonic entering a haunted mansion and fighting the level one midboss from castlevania: bloodlines and then I found a game called Seiklus.

Within 10 seconds of starting Seiklus my mind immediately collapsed into a void of self-defeat and I knew there was truly not one ounce of creativity within me. For the next 35 years I would suffer as a manic depressive, because Seiklus was so perfect yet i could not (cannot) grasp why; simultaneously fun, engaging and was everything I envied in the world combined into one. The graphics are honest. here we have a game made by a person who cannot draw but loves to do so regardless. the story is heartfelt and simple; a couple sitting together is separated when a meteor collides just a few inches from where they sit. the featureless character you command must scamper its way back to the long-haired character it was separated from. that is it. the enemies don't exist, there is no threat, and you walk around collecting things and traveling to different places while hearing "chip music." This is not really a game so much as an interactive walk in the most interesting park you'll come across. It's more akin to ico than say gears of war. it's more like a lazy sunday afternoon than it is a busy monday morning, etc. etc.

Play it through and you'll realize its influence is undeniable in future freeware games to come, and it's inspiring qualities will surely stand the test of time. it cannot be critiqued, it cannot be improved, it is what it is. it's SEIKLUS (which means "adventure" in Estonian?).

[Gendo Ikari]

Previous TIGSOurce competitions have included one based on a Video Game Name Generator, with games based exactly on such titles. Things like "Emo Harvest on the Oregon Trail", "Tiny Platypus Pimps", "Enraged Rocket House", "My Fist Skydiving Academy" (very good) and ROM CHECK FAIL (the winner).

The most recent before the current one was the Procedural Generation. I wasn't able to try all the titles, but the results disappointed me: not only many were far from a finished status (it's easy to boast a lot of entries when a good portion are demos), but in trying to implement the procedurally generated part, many forgot to make the games fun.

The Demakes compo looks very promising and I hope some games not complete at the deadline, will be updated later. From a quick look, the screen that captured my attention was this.

Enter Rupture, aka Bioshock on the NES.

[Gilder]

Sept 5, 2008 15:34:35 GMT -5 Gendo Ikari said:

The most recent before the current one was the Procedural Generation. I wasn't able to try all the titles, but the results disappointed me: not only many were far from a finished status (it's easy to boast a lot of entries when a good portion are demos), but in trying to implement the procedurally generated part, many forgot to make the games fun.

While I'll agree with what you said about them not being fun, two of the games from that competition are FANTASTIC.

Self Destruct


Rescue: The Beagles. I think this game actually won the competition and rightfully so.

[Strider]

I tried Self Destruct, and wasn't a big fan of it.

On another board I post on, I used to play a lot of wierd little freeware indy games and write single-paragraph reviews of them; the following are some of my favorites from the last year or so, C&Pd from there. Some of my favorites:

Cave Story: I'm going to assume that you've all heard of Cave Story, so I'm not even going to include a link. If you haven't heard of this, you should be plugging it into Google right now. It's a really great freeware Metroidvania with a SNES-ish look, excellent gameplay, and a plot which is both well-told and strangely touching for its' simplicity.

Warning Forever: This is a couple years old, but it's still a blast. It's a shooter that generates an infinite series of bosses, each of which in turn is specifically designed to be better at killing you. It's quite addictive and a lot of fun.

Battleships Forever: Battleships Forever is a pretty cool RTS game roughly based on ("inspired by" would be a better term) Warning Forever in which you command a fleet of ships built from individually-destructible segments in battle. There's a "campaign" (with a practically-nonexistent storyline) and a sandboxy Skirmish mode which allows you to battle for high scores in a number of scenarios. You can also build custom ships. All in all, it's a pretty slick game, and it's certainly fun to play. This game would rock if it had a multiplayer mode, and it's one of the most entertaining single-player RTSes I've played in quite a while.

Counterclockwise: A 3D version of the Tron Bikes game. Yeah, you read that right- and it works better than you'd expect. You've been given a gun and EMPs (bombs) with which to attack other bikes; your ultimate goal, however, is to score points by doing tricks as you weave and dodge your way through a wrapping 3D arena increasingly crowded with walls. This is another game that would absolutely rock if it had multiplayer. (Note: There's since been a multiplayer clone released, but I haven't had one of them; www.indiegames.com/blog/2008/06/cubes.html)

Noitu Love: Pretty cool NES-esque platformer/action game. Stars Noitu Love, a superhero of sorts battling the evil Darnacus Damnation and his army of Heaven Smiles Grinning Darns. On his way, he will encounter "Evotrons", which change him between his human form, a monkey form, and a superhuman form with psycihic powers. Very slick indie game, and definitely worth a try. Also including: disco vampires.

Yume Nikki ("Nikki's Dream", by my weeaboo-level translation): I'm not entirely sure what to make of this strange adventure/exploration game. It consists mostly of exploring a vast, surreal dream world in search of 25 doodads. This game doesn't appear to have a real storyline to it, or at least I didn't see any, but it's kind of interesting to explore the various wierd worlds that the Japanese authors have concocted (worth noting: the giant Earthbound-esque section). Getting it to run under Windows requires some fiddling with AppLocale. Link goes to the IndieGames blog post about it, which has some more information.

Cho Ren Sha: Fun doujin shooter which really captures the NES look and feel. It's small, it's freeware, and it's decent for a couple hours, although it will neither convert non-shmuppers nor hold your attention for too long.

Mighty Jill Off: Everybody knows that people play NES and NES-style games because they're masochistic; this game is just more upfront about it than most. It actually is pretty good, though; the mechanics are simple, the difficulty progression is good, the controls are solid, and is beatable in 15-20 minutes. Worth a try, and it's cool to see what the author has managed to accomplish with only a handful of level elements. (NSFW? Also, I reccommend a gamepad.)

Voxelstein 3D: A short but fun and quirky adventure/FPS game very loosely based on Wolfenstein 3D. You're captured in a mansion and your goal is to escape through any means neccecary. Everything is built out of voxels which gives it an appropriately chunky Wolfensteiny look, and nearly everything is deformable- you can chip away at walls, use time bombs to blow holes in pesky walls, and pick locks the un-subtle way. It's only got one pretty small level, but it's fun.

Torque: A clean, polished arena shooter where you play as rotating ship that can freeze to fire in a given direction. It's pretty satisfying in a Geometry Wars-y sort of way. There are some 20 missions to clear, plus perhaps 10 bonus modes, and took me 2 or 3 hours to clear everything.


I find that the Indie Games Blog is a pretty good source for this stuff: www.indiegames.com/blog/

- HC

[TheGunheart]

Actually, "Yume Nikki" translates to "Dream Diary".

Also, while I can't think of anything to recommend off the top of my head, I can recommend www.jayisgames.com.

Don't let the "Casual Gameplay" slogan fool you: if it's released on the internet and is of reasonable or higher quality, they'll showcase it. It's a great place to look for freeware.

[Gendo Ikari]

Sept 5, 2008 17:04:21 GMT -5 Gilder said:

While I'll agree with what you said about them not being fun, two of the games from that competition are FANTASTIC.

Self Destruct

Rescue: The Beagles. I think this game actually won the competition and rightfully so.

Here in Switzerland - I'm going back to Italy this wednesday - I was stuck with a very old laptop, and these two games didn't run on it (havent’ played Iji yet for the same reason). Now that I get my desktop PC back, I'll try them ASAP. Thanks for pointing them out.

Sept 5, 2008 19:07:16 GMT -5 Strider said:

Warning Forever: This is a couple years old, but it's still a blast. It's a shooter that generates an infinite series of bosses, each of which in turn is specifically designed to be better at killing you. It's quite addictive and a lot of fun.

I still have older versions of the game somewhere, it evolved a lot from the first one, both in graphics and gameplay. The ability to use a classic fixed shot, or one with free direction and width adds a strategic layer to the action. Originally, it seemed the “growth” of the bosses was randomly generated, but in reality, it happens depending on how you destroy the previous ones: go directly to the core, more protection for the core; destroy the cannons first, more cannons, and so on.

www18.big.or.jp/~hikoza/Prod/ref/ss_wf06.png[/img]

Sept 5, 2008 19:07:16 GMT -5 Strider said:

Cho Ren Sha: Fun doujin shooter which really captures the NES look and feel. It's small, it's freeware, and it's decent for a couple hours, although it will neither convert non-shmuppers nor hold your attention for too long.

One of the first freeware shmups I played, still one of the best in my opinion. The background is always the same, but I’m still amazed at how it’s packed in just a megabyte (compressed, obviously). I love the design of some enemies. After you kill the seventh boss, it restarts from the first level with more difficulty, just like the early ‘80s games. Two tips: I found out only recently that, if you manage to stay between the three powerups released by some enemies (normally, you must choose to take one and the other two will disappear) for a while, they’ll start spinning faster, and finally you’ll get all three of them. And, did you know you can lure the two bosses of the first level into destroying each other?

Sept 5, 2008 19:07:16 GMT -5 Strider said:

Noitu Love: Pretty cool NES-esque platformer/action game. Stars Noitu Love, a superhero of sorts battling the evil Darnacus Damnation and his army of Heaven Smiles Grinning Darns. On his way, he will encounter "Evotrons", which change him between his human form, a monkey form, and a superhuman form with psycihic powers. Very slick indie game, and definitely worth a try. Also including: disco vampires.

It’s an old version of the official game page, though under the same domain, but the download should be always the same (there were some versions previous to the final one).

About style, it’s really superb, but I have some gripes are with gameplay and level design. At first, I really hated it: the very fist section of the game is long and boring, the player character’s moves are limited (and I find him quite unsympathetic), often the scrolling stops to force you battle mini-waves of enemies that, as the difficulty progresses, require more and more hits to be destroyed, making those passages really tiresome. Then, I met the first boss and it was awesome; all the bosses of the game are awesome, in fact. Following levels are much better, transformations are fun, and there’s also a great overhead section with on a jetbike. Still, the levels drag too long, but it doesn’t stop the game from being lots of fun despite its limitations.

www.konjak.org/images/noitu_scr03.gif[/img]


A sequel was released some months ago, no more a freeware game, and very different: an art style closer to the 16 bit era (still cool nonetheless), shorter and more intense levels, and a much expanded gameplay: it employs mouse and keyboard to pull out a variety of attacks with great speed and little effort. And the bosses are always awesome. You can also unlock two more characters, each with different gameplay mechanics. A bit too short - just seven levels for the main character, six for the first unlockable (but she gets her own final boss), and five for the second unlockable – but still worth $20, it’s a blast to play, and sometimes feels like some Treasure’s lost game.


Thanks for the contributions so far! I’m busy packing but I should still find some time these days