Top 10 free indie games
Posted on November 25, 2011 by Jingles | No Comments
Indie games have a habit of being wonderfully great, probably because indie developers are so passionate about what they do. They do it for the love of games and gaming, they do it for the love of designing, coding, creating, not for sales and money. Although I’m sure they like the money too.
Apparently some indie developers have no need, want nor use for money and release their games for free. In fact hundreds, maybe even thousands, of indie game developers are generous enough to release their game(s) for free. If you go looking for free games you will most likely find that a lot of those free games are indie games.
With so many great free games about how are you supposed to sort the gems from the chaf? You don’t unless you download and play it. Reviews, screenshots and videos are only so tempting. These five tried and tested free (free as in they cost $0 so put your wallet away) indie games have been played by yours truly and I have certified them to be awesome.
Spelunky
Available for:
Explore caves, avoid/kill enemies, collect loot and try and make it to the end. It looks and sounds simple enough but Spelunky is deceptively deep and difficult. There are plenty of surprises to discover. Each level is procedurally-generated, so each time you play the level will be different which makes Spelunky immensely re-playable. There is even a built in level editor so you can create your own levels or you can play other peoples levels. Spelunky even keeps a text file of all your statistics like how many of each type of enemy you have killed, how many damsels you have save, crates opened, items brought and items stolen. If I could only play one game in this list for a whole month then it would be Spelunky. Also checkout my more thorough write up on Spelunky
Stealth Bastard – Tactical Espionage Arsehole
Available for:
Stealth Bastard is a stealth game that has you sneaking about in the shadows while avoiding cameras, lasers, robots that don’t follow Asimov’s 3 laws of robotics and other traps that will kill you in a glorious explosion of blood and giblets. Stealth Bastard will have you sneaking stealthily in shadows, hacking your way to the exit, making daring escapes. Be prepared to die a lot. When you make it out alive Stealth Bastard has a built in level editor so you can create your own death traps to share with the world.
N
Available for:
N is a 2D action/puzzle platformer reminiscent of Lode Runner except it’s harder… a lot harder. It’s insanely hard. What makes N even sweeter is that physics are included as well as a level editor which adds to the appeal and re-playability of N. Metanet Software’s N was so popular that they developed N+ for the Xbox, DS and PSP.
Drone
Available for:
There are plenty of tower defence style games out there, some have a nice twist to them like Drone a arena shooter with tower defence mechanics and RTS elements. The graphics are minimalistic but the rewarding game play is what really makes this game great. You get money from killing your enemies that you can spend on machines, weapons and vehicles. Drone is engaging and proves that the KISS can really work well.
Scorched3D
Available for:
Do I even need to elaborate? For the uninitiated Scorched Earth is a classic turn based strategy tank game from 1991 that has it’s fair share of remakes. No prizes for guessing that Scorched3D is a modernised version of Scorched Earth.
One of the wonderful things about Scorched Earth was because it was a turn based game a bunch of different people could play the game on 1 PC. Scorched3D offers the same and adds network support so that you can battle people from around the world. Scorched3D would be a great candidate for a LAN party game.
Attack of the Paper Zombies
Available for:
Zombies they have been done to their reanimated death. Normally I’d thumb my nose at zombie games, I’m sick of zombies, ninjas are better but Attack of the Paper Zombies is a paper cut (sorry) above the rest. Attack of the Paper Zombies is a different take on the age old RTS genre and it does it rather well, it throws in some tower defence style mechanics and economics so that you can upgrade your soldiers and build defensive towers and other goodies. Although there The game has plenty of replayability thanks to the random map option.
Hydorah
Available for:
Remember those side scrolling shooters from the 80s? If you loved them like I did then your going to love Hydorah a tribute to and bastard child of the 80s side scrolling shooters. Shoot your enemies, get powerups, better weapons and defeat the bosses. There’s lots of short and intense levels with fantasy landscapes. Hydorah doesn’t have any difficulty level settings which is the way it should be, you are either good enough or your not.
Ninja Senki
Available for:
A cute little ninja game inspired by classic NES games. Despite it’s looks it’s a little challenging, you will have to have impeccable timing.
BrainSplode!
Available for:
Is a cute little physics puzzle game where you have to try and explode brains with different types of bombs and yellow bouncy pads. It’s only a fairly short game but it’s fun, once you work out the controls which is my only gripe about the game the controls could be communicated better with a tutorial or a help system.
Das Uberleben
Das Uberleben (The Survival) is a great little cave diving game for 1-7 players. There are a few different options you can choose to make it harder or easier. It’s on the list not because of it’s graphics which are average but because it’s a bit unique and a fun time killer.
What’s your favorite free game? Leave a comment.
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I'm Jingles, I'm like the Keith Miller of geeks, i.e. an all rounder, I'm a web scientist, an A+ certified (it means I'm not a “noob”) computer technician, and this is my blog. I'm your curator of all things awesome, cool and geeky on and off the net. More...
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