A few days ago, I created a list of five great free PC games to cure your boredom. There's numerous lists out there on the internet that talk about great free PC games, but I wanted to talk about some that aren't as well known about. With this in mind, I wanted to create a second list that explores some of the lesser known, but incredible, free PC games that are out there.
Let's get into it!
Cave Story
Long before games like Undertale and Minecraft came out, Cave Story debuted as a free-ware indie title all the way back in 2004. To this day, many people still love this game. It's honestly a cult classic. It even has an entire fan website dedicated to it. This game was so popular that not only did it release on PC, but it also officially released on PSP, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo DSi, and the Nintendo Switch along with other various unofficial ports.
This game is a side-scrolling platform shooter that was developed by a single Japanese developer known simply as Pixel. It has incredible character design, level design, and the music is catchy and memorable. It's just a really well made game.
Cave Story+ is a revamped version of Cave Story that does cost money, but the original Cave Story is still free-ware. The original version is in Japanese, but luckily the fan website has patches for many popular languages including English. You can find the game and it's various language patches here.
Anodyne
Yesterday, I wrote an entire article about Anodyne that was first published and promoted by the game's developers on The Pirate Bay. It's a great indie game that's still available by the game's developers on The Pirate Bay. The developers understood that maybe not everyone could afford to buy their game, but they just wanted people to play it and enjoy it. It turned out great for them because not only did their game go on to be published on Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch, but actually got a sequel last year in the form of Anodyne 2: Return to Dust.
It's still available for free on The Pirate Bay, but if you enjoyed it and can afford to, please buy the updated version on Steam to help support the incredible game developers who made it.
Mad Father
Out of all the games on the list, Mad Father is probably the least known about. I was looking up great free PC horror games a couple years ago and after a lot of digging, I discovered Mad Father. This is a free-ware horror puzzle game that was made by developer sen and initially released back in 2012. There has been a revamped version of this game that's currently on sale on Steam for $2.49, but the original version was released as free-ware.
It's hard to describe this game, but the best way that I can describe it is that it reminds me of Silent Hill if Silent Hill was a 2D indie game. Silent Hill games are some of my favorite games that I've ever played so if I'm comparing this game to those, you know it's a good game!
The story, atmosphere, and characters are all dark. The puzzles aren't super hard, but I definitely got stuck on a few of them throughout my playthrough. The puzzles are some of the best puzzles of any game that I've ever played before.
If you're looking for a great free horror game to play that has great puzzles and an interesting story then it doesn't get much better than Mad Father. You can look at the reviews on Steam if you don't believe me!
You can download the original free-ware version of the game here.