As a gamer, you might love your hobby but not the fact that modern games can be so expensive! With many AAA titles costing as much as $60, with even more for expansions, DLC, and microtransactions, gaming’s not a cheap hobby anymore. The big publishers and development studios are glad to take your cash but what if you had some great free options? We’ve compiled this list of free, open-source games for Windows that you can try out without spending a single penny. From RTSs to shooters, we’ve got all the key genres covered. Read on to find out more.
Read: Free Open Source Alternatives for Expensive Software
Open Source Games for Windows
1. 0 A.D.
Who it’s for: RTS fans who want an Age of Empires alternative
If you’re a big fan of Age of Empires, Civilization, or Starcraft, 0 A.D. is a fantastic open source alternative to sate your strategy craving. 0 A.D. started out as a total conversion project for Age of Empires II, to bring in older civilizations. However, over time, it evolved into its own full-fledged open source project. The engine is now fully 3D, featuring excellent detailing on structures and character models. A key difference between 0 A.D. and Age of Empires is that 0 A.D. keeps track of territory you own. You can only build structures on your own territory. This makes some Age of Empires strategies, like tower rushing, infeasible. There are also a huge number of unique civilizations in 0 A.D., such as the Kushites and the Indian Mauryan Empire that aren’t seen in the Age of Empires games.
Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Download it here
2. OpenMW
Who it’s for: Fans of Morrowind and Skyrim who want a robust RPG platform
OpenMW isn’t a game, strictly speaking. Rather, it’s a complete, ground-up remake of the game engine used in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Morrowind, since its release in 2002, has played host to an incredibly active modding community. Community-based modding projects like Tamriel Rebuilt have been underway for decades. OpenMW was initially created with the objective of overcoming some of the Morrowind Engine’s limitations–for example its poor physics implementation. More ambitious modders often wanted to do things that just weren’t possible in the old 2002-era engine. With OpenMW, if a feature doesn’t exist, modders with coding expertise can just add it. This has allowed for a lot of new possibilities. While Morrowind originally released for Windows and Xbox, OpenMW is available on many different platforms. There’s even an unofficial Android port. You can find a 4PDA discussion thread on the same here. You’ll need an official, licensed copy of Morrowind and its data files to actually play the game in OpenMW. However, since this is an open engine, anyone could hypothetically make games using it which don’t require Morrowind at all.
Available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android.
Download it here: Windows
3. SuperTuxKart
Who it’s for: Kart racing fans who want a great alternative to Mario Kart
Tux the Penguin is Linux’s ultra-cute mascot. What’s even better is that he’s got his own racing game! SuperTuxKart, as the name suggests, is kart racing game in the vein of the popular Mario Kart games on Nintendo platforms. SuperTuxKart plays much the same. You get to ride as Tux or one of his friends in go karts, across a range of exotic locales. You can pick up powerups to boost your speed or disrupt opponents. SuperTuxKart is light-hearted and child-friendly alternative to many of the premium paid racing games available on Windows. And, unlike what you might expect from an open-source game, the visuals are spectacular. The latest Antarctica update to SuperTuxKart uses an all-new engine that allows for dynamic lighting, depth of field blur, ambient occlusion and a whole host of high-end graphical features. The best part is that, since SuperTuxKart is open source, the community’s free to port it to whatever platforms it desires. Apart from a Windows port, there’s also a feature-complete Android version you can play on the go.
Available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android.
Download: Windows
Also read: Best Local Co-Op PS4 Games to Play With Your Mates
4. Xash3D
Who it’s for: Fans of Half-life who want an enhanced PC experience
Similar to OpenMW, Xash3D isn’t a game per se, but an open source recreation of a game engine. In this case, that game engine is GoldSrc, the engine powering Half Life, 1998’s seminar first-person shooter. Half Life was a tremendously influential game, with its focus on narrative having a huge impact on how first-person shooters were made ever since. The GoldSrc engine was quite limited though. It was a derivative of the original Quake engine, one of the first 3D game engines on PC. Lighting and the polygon counts for character models were all limited by the engine itself.
Moreover, because of the game’s considerable age, it was often difficult to run the original on modern hardware. Valve themselves released a half-hearted remake of Half Life on their Source engine, called Half Life: Source. This version, however, was widely panned by the community by breaking many features and introducing new bugs. Xash3D, as an open source remake of the original engine aims to be the best possible way to play the original on modern hardware. It will readily run on new Windows machines. Because of Half Life’s simple graphics, Xash3D will run the game great on even the most entry-level hardware. Much like OpenMW, there’s an unofficial Xash3D port for Android. Apart from the Nvidia Shield-exclusive Half Life 2 port, this is currently the only way to enjoy a Half Life game on Android. If you have a licensed copy of the original lying around (or you could pick one up online for pennies), we strongly recommend checking out Xash3D on Windows and Android. We’re linking you to the FWGS fork of Xash3D which has even more great features, such as VR support.
Available for Windows
Download it here
5. Xonotic
Who it’s for: Multiplayer FPS fans who’re looking for a great alternative to Overwatch
This one’s for the first-person shooter fans out there. Call of Duty and Overwatch have huge fanbases who are primarily interested in these games’ fast-paced multiplayer shooting action. But generations before these even came out, Quake was the big daddy of first-person shooters. ID’s original 3D multiplayer FPS completely overturned what people thought was possible in a game in 1995. But Quake’s always been skill-based and extremely fast-paced. Newer shooters–including PUBG–have opted for slower, more considered approaches. Not Xonotic. This open source shooter is a direct spiritual successor to Quake’s fast-paced arena-style multiplayer gameplay. It’s even built on the DarkPlaces engine, an open source remake of the Quake engine with support for modern graphical effects. Many unique Quake strategies, like rocket jumping, also make their way into Xonotic. If you’re into multiplayer shooters but want an open source alternative, Xonotic is where the action’s at.
Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Download it here
Wrapping up
There’s no single “best” game on this list. Each open source game or game engine is great for different kinds of gamers. If you want a chilled out racing experience, SuperTuxKart is a great alternative to the likes of Mario Kart. If you’re a hardcore realtime strategy fan, consider 0 A.D. instead of Age of Empires–it’s got better visuals and civilizations you won’t see in the game that inspired it. And if you like shooters, Xonotic offers Quake-like gameplay that’s sadly absent in today’s slower paced, social shooters like PUBG and Call of Duty. Go ahead, download one of them or even all. They’re free and open source so there’s nothing stopping you.
Also read: Top 8 Free City Building Games for Windows PC
