After spending a good amount of time in the last game I completed (FF VII Rebirth) I decided to take a little bit of a break from playing my preferred 20 - 30 hour games.
Epic games offers (usually 2) free games each week that can be claimed to keep permanently. I have claimed a number of games for free each week whilst I have been playing my backlog of games that I have bought, but these free games have remained untouched.
So I decided before I started a new game that I would try for at least 30 minutes every game I have claimed for free, because I may never play them all from start to finish so I thought at least I would an a least a little experience of all the games.
And when I say these games are free, I mean free - none of these games are part of a paid subscription service where I can apparently have free games by paying a monthly subscription - no, I have not paid any money for any of these games. Yes, a few of these games have been claimed through Amazon Prime, but they have all been claimed when I have accepted an Amazon Prime Free Trial offer.
I do not claim every game that is offered for free, but if it looks interesting enough I will claim it and that has resulted in a good number of games added to my account, maybe too many hence my decision to give them each a sample of 30 minutes to an hour (depending on the game).
My thought behind this is to try each game and if I enjoy them enough I will add them to me backlog. Most of the games I claimed for free are on the Epic platform, but there are also other games I claimed for free from other platforms such as GOG.
I also decided to sample the free games because some of them have been in my accounts for years - an example of this is Saint's Row 2 which is a game that was free for a while on GOG which I claimed at the time and until recently had never played before, likely because it was free and as the years went on I just forgot I had it sitting in my digital GOG library. Thanks to the free offers I now have also claimed Saint's Row 3, 4 in Epic and the standalone DLC for 4 in GOG. Previously, I had played Saint's Row 4 on the PlayStation 3.
In the last while I have been able to playthrough my physical game backlog and I only have two games that I have not played, but as they are longer games I thought not play them until a later time. The two physical games that are still in my physical backlog are both Final Fantasy titles: Final Fantasy IX on the PlayStation 1 and Final Fantasy Pixel collection, which is basically a remastered collection of the first 6 Final Fantasy Nintendo games.
Also by sampling all the games I claimed for free I can at least say that I have experienced them and when claiming new titles they will not be added to a huge list of untouched games. Even though I do not claim every game that is offered for there are still probably too many games for me to realistically play from start to finish, but I can at least say I have some experience. If I sample any games that really impress me I will add them to my backlog and prioritise high with any game that I have paid to have in my collection.
There are probably too many games to mention that I have sampled, but some games that made a good impression on me are mentioned briefly below and have been added onto my backlog of two physical games.
So most of these games were claimed for free on Epic, some on GOG and a few were claimed on various occasions where I was offered a free trial of Amazon Prime.
(Click on each game to see a trailer)
- SIFU - an interesting looking Kung Fu game where the character ages each time you fail.
- Evil Within 1 and 2 - from the legendary creator Shinji Mikami.
- Ghostrunner I and II - first person parkour and swords.
- Evoland 2 - sequel to a short game where game evolves through different retro graphics.
- Vampyr - from DotNod the makers of Remember Me.
- Lisa The Painful and DLC - an intriguing feeling game.
- Planet of Lana - feels like a brighter Limbo.
- Eastern Exorcist - an intriguing art style 2D samurai adventure.
- Ghost Song - a metroidvania with an interesting feel of exploration.
- Industria - admittedly a dull sounding title, but a promising looking first person game.
- The Vanishing of Ethan Carter - a first person narrative adventure.
- Monument Valley - reminds me a little of the Escher style puzzle game Echochrome.
- Amnesia Rebirth - a big fan of the original and from the little I played it seemed promising.
- Tales of the Neon Sea - not my usual sort of game but seems like an interesting point and click.
- Obduction - from the makers of Myst. I am not good at these sort of games, but I am intrigued.
- Kao The Kangaroo - I claimed this not expecting much, but it feels surprisingly fluid.
- Yooka Laylee - Not much of a fan of 3D mascot platformers, but there is something I like here.
- Yooka laylee and the Impossible Lair - The sequel is different, this time it is 2.5D.
- Dying Light - Thought nothing of it on first release, but my mind has changed after sampling.
- Saints Row 2 - Played the 4th one and would like to play the earlier games.
- Saint's Row 3 - I think this is the one where it becomes more absurd, and it seems that way.
- Metro 2033 Redux - a first person shooter/survival type of game remastered.
- Metro Last Light Redux - The remastered sequel to Metro 2033.
- Death Stranding - First game from Hideo Kojima's studio. Definitely want to continue game.
- Heaven's Dust II - an isometric looking Resident Evil.
- The Talos Principle - Myst style puzzle adventure. Mixture of tech and ancient locations.
- Tin Hearts - Similar to Lemmings, but in 3D with an emotional feeling. It looks promising.
- Deus Ex - Curious to play more of the very first Deus Ex game and with the GMDX mod.
- Deliver At All Costs - An isometric bonkers delivery game. Excited to play more.
- Boxes: Lost Fragments - Plays a lot like the puzzle Room titles.