With the era of $80 games upon us, free games seem more appealing than ever. But can a free game really give you as much value as something you paid for? Well, in the case of these titles, not only do they give you a ton of content, but they even outstrip many paid games in sheer value.
6
Warframe
Warframe might give you the most bang for zero bucks of any game you can install. There is almost nothing truly locked behind a paywall despite being a live service game. There are dozens of unique characters, hundreds of weapons and modifications, plenty of ground and space vehicles, dozens of hours of narrative content and plenty of huge, sweeping battlefields to fight on.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that there are thousands of hours of content available on Warframe that you never have to pay a cent for.
Major game mechanics and narrative events are always free and accessible to everyone. While there are many characters, weapons, and aesthetic options that you can buy with real money, you can still get those things for free just by playing the game. Don’t get me wrong, it can be a lot of grinding to do that: I probably spent two weeks grinding for Gauss Prime when he came out. But I never spent a cent.
The overall grind is pretty forgiving anyway. There are tons of characters and weapons that are fairly easy to get in a reasonable window of time. It’s not unreasonable at all to have a big arsenal of dozens of warframes, weapons, and mods without spending any money. The only caveats for this game are color palettes (which you can still sometimes get for free) and inventory space, which you’ll want to expand when your arsenal of stuff starts growing absurdly large.
To top it all off, Warframe has a player-driven economy in which you can sell almost anything you own for premium in-game currency to buy whatever you want. This further drives home that you can get almost anything without opening your wallet. This is another way to make any piece of game content available to you for free since you can sell things you don’t want to go buy things you do want.
All of this is a part of a very well-polished, fun game more than worth playing just for its mechanics. It has excellent movement, combat, character building and customization, narratives, and interesting places to fight. It’s like a big PvE hero shooter that can keep you entertained for hundreds if not thousands of hours, especially since Warframe is updated very frequently.
Warframe
- Released
-
March 25, 2013
- ESRB
-
M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Violence
- Developer(s)
-
Digital Extremes
- Publisher(s)
-
Digital Extremes
5
War Thunder
I can personally attest to how much game time you can get from this game for free, as I have well over 2,000 hours in War Thunder. This vehicular combat game has literally hundreds of vehicles you can use in multiplayer combat, including tanks, helicopters, planes, battleships, AA guns, artillery, and much more. The vast majority of these vehicles are accessible for free, though you have to earn them with in-game experience and currency.
I have spent money on War Thunder, but it’s never required. There are some things you can buy with real money, including accelerated grinding and certain vehicles, but you never need these things to progress and unlock new stuff. Moreover, while some premium vehicles are unique, they’re rarely ever pay-to-win, usually just being sidegrades to something you can already get for free.
All of this said, be warned: the grind can get pretty bad. Early on in any nation’s tech tree, unlocking new vehicles to play with is quick and easy. But it can slow down a ton later on. The most modern vehicles can require dozens of high-performance matches to unlock. If you’re playing completely for free, with no means of grind acceleration, it can be a real slog.
That said, this is only an issue if you feel the constant need to unlock new things. If you just want engaging and somewhat realistic vehicular military combat, War Thunder can provide that for hundreds of hours. Just don’t come blaming me if you lose a thousand hours of your life to it somewhere down the road.
War Thunder
- Released
-
November 1, 2012
- ESRB
-
t
- Developer(s)
-
Gaijin Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
-
Gaijin Entertainment
4
Enlisted
Published by the same studio as War Thunder, Enlisted has a similar F2P model. Enlisted is sort of like a weird cross between a milsim like Hell Let Loose and a more arcade-style shooter like Battlefield. It’s an entirely multiplayer-focused World War II experience that, similar to War Thunder, has you starting out with less advanced early-war equipment and unlocking more advanced late-war stuff as you keep playing.
Generally, you’ll start with a basic squad of riflemen with bolt-action rifles (yes, you get a full squad of AI teammates that back you up in this multiplayer game). As you play, you’ll unlock more specialized squads, like mortar teams, anti-tank squads, machine gun teams, tank crews, and aircraft pilots. The game is divided into tiers, so people playing with early-war bolt action rifles and paper-thin tanks don’t come up against players with assault rifles and Tiger tanks.
What sets this game apart from Battlefield is the squad mechanics and deep customization. If the soldier you’re playing as dies, you immediately take control of someone else in your squad. You can pick and choose what soldier roles are present in a squad, specialize your squads toward certain goals, and get so specific with the loadout of each soldier in your squad, choosing their weapons, equipment, utility items, supplies, and more.
There are things you can buy with money in this game which, like War Thunder, ease the burden of the grind. But you’ll never need to buy these things to progress, and any premium squad you can buy has a free equivalent that’s just as good in action. So if you’re looking for a unique experience in the same vein as Battlefield but don’t want to pay money to do it, give Enlisted a shot.
Enlisted
- Released
-
April 8, 2021
- ESRB
-
m
- Publisher(s)
-
Gaijin Entertainment
- Engine
-
Dagor Engine
3
Mobile Suit Gundam Battle Operation 2
I was devastated when Gundam Evolution ended its service, forcing me to look to other games for my mecha combat fix. Gundam Battle Operation 2 (GBO2) filled the void, though it’s a much slower-paced game focused more on customization and tactical combat. This game has hundreds of Mobile Suits available for intense multiplayer shootouts on the ground and in space.
However, the game does have a gacha mechanic where you “pull” from a pool of possible options to unlock most of the game’s Mobile Suits, weapons, equipment, etc. There are specific missions you can do that unlock specific attached rewards, but most stuff comes from the gacha. Naturally, you can spend money to gain access to the gacha pools more frequently, but you also get “tickets” as you play GBO2 allowing you to pull as well. It doesn’t take long to build up a pretty sizable arsenal of Suits and weapons even as a free player.
Admittedly, the game isn’t the most F2P friendly option on this list since you technically don’t get guaranteed access to everything in the game. With the gacha system, you could technically never get certain Mobile Suits to play with even if you did spend money. That said, the game still gives you a ton of things to play with, and if you’re itching for a “grounded” mecha combat game, GBO2 is a great choice.
2
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Well, there had to be an MMO somewhere, right? Star Wars: The Old Republic has been going strong since 2011, meaning there is an enormous amount of content in this game. Granted, not all of it is accessible for free, but whole lot of it is. You can play the entire original storyline of the game, including the character plotlines for all eight game classes. You get access to two pretty large chunks of DLC for free as well.
Those character story lines are already pretty lengthy, fleshed-out single-player RPG experiences, and there are eight of them. If you wanted to do absolutely everything available in each storyline, including optional content, each one alone could take you upwards of 25 hours, so that’s a lot of game time you don’t have to pay for. Those hours are filled with meaningful narratives and unique quests, making SWTOR a game that respects your time, too.
SWTOR does have a few F2P drawbacks, namely a bunch of minor inconveniences like inventory space limits, credit caps, and other QOL things reserved for paying players. You can also only reach level 60 without paying a dime. However, there is something special worth mentioning for SWTOR: if you ever pay the $15 monthly subscription that gives you 100% access to the game, you get to keep access to all current game expansions even if you unsubscribe later.
Of course, that’s obviously not free, but it’s a pretty sweet deal, and if you enjoyed the game enough to reach the end of the several dozens of hours of free content, spending $15 to unlock several hundred more forever is well worth it. Regardless, SWTOR is definitely worth a look if you love Star Wars but can’t afford to buy a new game right now.
Star Wars: The Old Republic
- Released
-
December 20, 2011
- ESRB
-
T for Teen: Blood and Gore, Mild Language, Sexual Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
-
BioWare
- Publisher(s)
-
Electronic Arts
- Engine
-
HeroEngine
1
Final Fantasy XIV
Like SWTOR, Final Fantasy XIV is an MMO that has a lot of content you can access for free, but there is eventually a paywall stopping you from going any further. FFXIV is pretty generous though, allowing you to play the game up until level 70 before having to pay for all the stuff beyond that. Even if you’re playing the game seriously and regularly, it would probably take you several dozen hours to reach level 70, and that’s not including all of the optional side content.
Admittedly, there are certain things you won’t be able to do with this free experience, like most of the online multiplayer stuff. That may seem like a weak point for an MMO experience, and it might be if you were really looking for something like that. But as it stands, you can effectively go through a pretty solid single-player RPG experience for free. Even if you only derived a hundred hours of enjoyment out of it, getting that for free is pretty good.
Unfortunately, FFXIV doesn’t have that nifty “buy it once, unlock forever” thing SWTOR offers, so if you did want to start paying for the game, you’d have to keep your subscription running to maintain access to the things it unlocked. Either way, it’s worth checking out if you love Final Fantasy or RPGs but just don’t have the money to burn on a new title.
There are lots of other games I could mention, but I believe this list covers some of the top free games offering the most bang for zero bucks. There are some other titles worth checking out, such as Guild Wars 2, Runescape, or Once Human, and if you’re looking for more handheld-centric free games to play, we’ve also got a list of free games for the Nintendo Switch.
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