Free RPG/Strategy pc games? Online or otherwise...

Cafe Society
1

Are there any free RPGs or strategy PC games that can be downloaded or played online that are any good? It doesn’t need to have fancy graphics and sound, I am just looking for something entertaining to pass the time while things are slow at work.

Any suggestions?

2

There’s always Progress Quest, which doesn’t have anything in the way of graphics and sound* but will certainly pass the time.

  • or roleplaying or strategy or, in fact, actual playing.
3

Since fancy graphics aren’t a requirement: Nethack!

4

I prefer the Slash’Em variant though.

5

Runescape is an online RPG that is free, except you need a membership for some advanced functions, spells, levels, etc.

6

Only follow the first link if you believe in the concept of "abandonware."

If you’ve got the time to find and set up some BIOs files, Dark Wizard for the Sega CD is one of my long-time favorites.

If you want something where all you need to run it is DOS, thenthe Starfleet series is a fun little ASCII-classic.

7

Rich “Zdim” Carlson maintains a good listing of various free games on his site.

Here’s his listing of freeward dungeon crawl games: http://www.digital-eel.com/deep.htm

Another one from Zdim: Lost Labyrinth is a “roguelike” – aka Nethack variant.

http://laby.toybox.de/index.php3?sprache=1

  • relatively short gameplay (about 10-20 minutes)
  • very high replayability; nearly everything in the game is randomly
    generated
  • a lot of options during the character generation; each character type
    requires another strategy to survive
  • game focus on exploration; killing monsters does not give an experience
    bonus (but makes fun nonetheless)
  • Multiplayer games on the same machine (up to 3 players with keyboard,
    mouse and joystick)
  • “Zelda”-like graphics, sound and animation; smooth scrolling of game
    screen
  • FreeWare

I’ve only played it a bit, but it’s fun.

8

And how could I forget Strange Adventures in Infinite Space!

http://www.digital-eel.com/sais/files.htm

The demo is free and fully playable. It doesn’t have as much cool stuff as the full game, but that’s why it’s a demo. :slight_smile:

The Digital Eel team is working on a sequel to Strange Adventures. It looks freaking awesome.

9

The Kingdom of Loathing is great if you have a sense of humor. An Adventurer is You!