There are lots of free/nearly free/nagware online multiplayer games out there that don't require a software purchase and a monthly subscription fee.
But unfortunately, it's not yet possible to Google "Free online multiplayer games that don't suck and won't download trojan.ohboyyou'rescrewednow.exe on my computer" with any worthwhile results.
So I thought I'd start a thread where we could pool our collective cheapskate gamer knowledge of what's out there and what of what's out there is worth playing to the benefit of all.
I figure we can list the name of the game, maybe some brief details about it, a link to the site, and what cost or catch to it there is, if any.
I'll start.
Check out Soldat at www.soldat.pl
It's an awesome 2D side-scrolling action game. When you start, you choose from one of eight or so different weapons along with a secondary weapon, and you run/jump/jetpack around trying to exterminate as many people as possible. You aim your gun/grenade launcher/whatever with your mouse and do everything else with the keyboard.
If that doesn't sound fun to you, don't worry 'cause my description doesn't begin to do the game justice. It's a blast.
Once you play it a certain number of times, the game starts hitting you with a non-intrusive nag screen asking you to buy, and a few very unimportant features are disabled until you register (like the ability to change the color of your jet pack's flames), but outside of that it's totally free.
Was the last time I played, anyway.
Goozex Forum Moderator
wish i saw this earlier. I have played travian and urban dead. both browser games.
travian is a blast if you have the time. I had to quit that as it became a time sink after 3months of playing it needing constant attention to resources and attacking newbies.
urban dead is more my style as it's turn restricted yet you get enough turns to actually kill other players. fun stuff if you like slower games you can play on/off.
I got my new wheels ;)
I used to play travian, untill I was at the top of the list wtih my clan and got mad because the server restart, none of us have played since Now this site takes all my attention
Soldat is good overall. Playable in decent sized servers when you have 56k. Easily moddable, and FREE. A few advertisements but not horrible.
there are quite a few REALLY good korean mmo's that are free...but im at work and dont have the links and dont remember all the names but when i get home ill post the links to their respective home pages
P.S. the games are totally in english they are just developed in korea
check out warrock at warrock.net
reminds me a little of CoD4
This is my kind of thread = P
I'll start off with recommending www.mmorpg.com It list a lot of mmorpg's. From free to pay to play.
Also www.mpogd.com is another great site. List tons of multiplayer games, across many consoles and platforms. Also list prices and such. Has screen shots of a lot of games
www.gamershell.com also post multiplayer games on there.
As for games themselves. Battle of Wesnoth, is an interesting turn based rpg. Has online multiplayer over large maps and if you play with the right people *ie same skill level* then battles can last for hours. Has a few single player campaigns and you can even make your own... so essentially the possibilities for that game are endless As mentioned Warrock has that modern day feel to it. It also has vehicles and I can say I enjoyed it quite a bit. Used to game with some of my DoD clan. Was kinda fast and furious. Anoher game worth mentioning is Wolfenstein Enemy Territory. It was originally made as an add-on for the Last Wolfenstein, but it got cancelled. So instead of scrapping it like every other developer. They released it as a free multiplayer FPS and I myself love it. 64 person servers, multiple classes, variety of weapons, more of an assault based game. Not the standard ctf, control way point stuff. An mmorpg people seem to be playing now from what I've seen was 2Moons. It's not bad, but I'm really not the biggest mmo fan. Unless it says Phantasy Star anymore I avoid it like the plague. Another FPS would be Alien Arena 2007 or even Nexuiz.
Also if you own any fps games. Look into the modding community. www.moddb.com or even http://actofwar.filefront.com/
Just use the bar in the top right on filefront and work your way down *where it says filefront network*. I may hate some of the new games today, but the mods more then make up for bad games.
I hope these help = P
I just wanted to chime in and second Mezby on Battle of Wesnoth. I played through it a bit a few years ago, and it's totally worth checking out for fans of the genre.
And seeing that caused me to remember (for reasons I'm not sure of and won't attempt to go into) that an excellent game called Star Control 2/The Ur-Quan Masters was ported to the PC and released as freeware a few years ago.
For those who aren't familiar with it, it's...How to describe it...Sort of a space combat/space adventure game.
You're a member of one of many different races (human) that populate the galaxy, which has largely been dominated by a race known as the Ur-Quan. Your planet is encased in a glowing red slave shield, and one day, the scheduled supply runs from your evil overlords stop coming...And hilarity ensues!
Well ok, the last part isn't true, but there IS some very funny dialogue in the game.
You have to visit other planets both near and far, harvesting resources which you use to do things like buy fuel and upgrade your ship.
When you encounter hostile fleets out in deep space, the screen switches to a sort of top-down view where you fight the enemy ship(s) in an action/arcade manner.
There are lots of other races in the game, all with unique personalities and combat vessels.
The story is great (something missing in a lot of games), and the melee mode is a lot of fun. I highly recommend it. You can check it out here: http://sc2.sourceforge.net/
It's not quite a "free online" game, but it is free, and you can play it competitively over the 'net.
Now I'm gonna go take another look at Wesnoth ;-).