PC gaming can be a hugely rewarding experience as well as a hugely expensive one, but you don't have to pay top dollar with our roundup of the best free-to-play Steam games of the moment.And while free-to-play always has the shadow of the sneaky microtransaction looming over it, you don't have to play any of these games in exchange for a soul-selling agreement to spend money further down the line.
Every free game weve gathered together here can be enjoyed for hours on end, all without spending a dime.So fire up your Steam account, put your wallet away (for now), and check out the best free-to-play Steam games of 2018 (so far).1.
Fractured SpaceWhen it comes to MOBAs (multiplayer online battle arenas), not every game has to be a fantasy-based romp with daggers, spells and cutesy champions.Take the science fiction ship battles of Fractured Space.
Sure, its a MOBA-style 5v5 affair, but now youre in control of a powerful frigate as your hurtle across the stars and attempt to destroy your opponents base before your own suffers the same fate.Skewing the classic MOBA concept as a space-based naval affair gives the setup you know and love a much-needed breath of fresh air, while blowing away all the cobwebs.
You can customize your ship and crew, as well as hotkeying weapons and abilities so you can combine the best ships for the task ahead.Its one of the most exciting MOBAs on PC, and it's free to play on Steam.Download here: Fractured Space2.
GiganticMuch like Paladins, Gigantic offers a team-based shooter thats part-Overwatch, part MOBA and part something brand new.
Instead of having you defend a slow-moving carriage through a map (because that never gets old) or destroy an enemy base (in classic MOBA style), Gigantic tasks you with killing an enemy giant while attempting to protect your own.
Sounds mad, right It is, but a brilliant kind of mad all the same.With an art style that mashes up Studio Ghibli flourishes and classic Disney cuteness, Gigantics 20-strong character roster offers enough skills, weapons and attributes to appease even the pickiest of players.Each match is a 5v5 event, with players working together to power up their own Guardian (thats your giant weapon/walking base) while risking it all to lay siege to the enemy.
The roving nature of your Guardian makes every match an intense affair, and best of all, its 100% free on Steam.Download here: Gigantic3.
Star Trek OnlineMMOs and film licenses dont often mix well from The Matrix Online to Star Wars Galaxies, recognizable universes have rarely lasted in the realm of persistent online worlds.
Except for the enduring Star Trek Online, that is.
Retroactively made free-to-play following its launch back in 2010, STO gifts you with a crew and a Federation starship and sets you free to sail the stars in true Trekkie fashion.There are microtransactions available should you want to speed up the levelling/resource gathering process, but STO is consistently generous with its free content, especially to new players looking to see their very own final frontier.
Its also set within ongoing Star Trek canon, taking place roughly three decades after the events of Star Trek Nemesis (you know, that terrible TNG film with Tom Hardy).With an economy, ever-shifting alliances and a still impressively vast community, STO manages to bottle that magic that makes Star Trek so timeless.Download here: Star Trek Online4.
Paladins: Champions of the RealmPaladins launched just after a certain team-based shooter from Blizzard, and it's hard not see the similarities.
Still, that doesnt mean Hi-Rez Studios free-to-play FPS isnt worth your time it just means you get play something thats often just as fun and rewarding without forcing you to break the bank with a full-game price.With a menagerie of characters to choose from (known as Champions), each match offers an objective-based experience that feels more like triple-A fare than other free-to-play shooters.Paladins includes everything from Overwatch-style payload defence/offence to a Survival mode akin to the popular battle royale sub-genre made popular by PlayerUnknowns Battlegrounds and Fortnite.
It offers a consistently enjoyable and rewarding place to spend your time, even if its a tad derivative.It's free to play on Steam, and there's no need to sink any money into it as long as youre willing to grind for the first few hours.Download here: Paladins: Champions of the Realm5.
ArcheAgeMMOs set within the confines of a fantasy setting are hardly new in fact, almost all of them fit that description to a tee but very few of them manage to offer just as much diverse content as the Korean-made ArcheAge.You can do all your usual MMO minutia questing, gathering resources, looting new weapons and gear, and so on but grind through its early levels and youll discover an online world full of surprises.Want to conquer lands and lay claim to them Check.
Fancy building your very own castle Double check.
How about forming an alliance and besieging another for control of their land Triple check.
Oh, and how about a naval combat setting that practically adds an entire open-ocean to explore and plunder All the checks.
ArcheAge offers all this and more.
Its naval combat mechanics are particularly impressive, enabling you to dispense maritime justice or hunt for loot as a virtual pirate.Download here: ArcheAge6.
Warface: BlackoutFree-to-play shooters in their more traditional, deathmatch-esque form are often a hit and miss affair, but despite all those polished triple-A offerings from the likes of Activision and EA, Crytek Kiev has managed to put together a robust little FPS that can be just as exciting and enjoyable as many other entries in the bullet-ridden genre.Warface: Blackout offers four classes to choose from, with weapons, gear, attachments and specific skills tied to each one.
Having the right balance of classes in your squad adds a more Battlefield-style teamwork ethic, especially when engineers can repair armour and snipers can pull off game-changing one-shot kills.After four years of rotation on the field, Warface has also honed its online economy, neatly offering you the ability to spend in-game currency on a rental system that lets you test out guns and gear before investing time and cash into your own version.Download here: Warface: Blackout7.
Art of War: Red TidesAre you looking for a MOBA spin-off thats light on the RTS elements but deep enough to keep you engaged through every match Well, weve got just the free-to-play beauty for you.
Art of War: Red Tides takes that classic MOBA structure funnelling you down a channel with loads of units as you attempt to destroy a base at the other end but strips out all the busywork in between.
It might not appeal to the hardcore among us, but for those looking to replicate the relaxed involvement of a mobile title at your PC, this is right up your alley.Thats not to say its a spectator title.
Youll still need to survey the battlefield and use your energy reserves to build units to counter those already on the field.
There are a trio of modes available, but its in the 3v3 mode the setup works best, with matches often coming down to which team pulls off the best combo.Download here: Art of War: Red Tides8.
WarframeOkay, so the word war features quite a lot in some of the best and most popular free-to-play titles, but thats because few things are as fun to wage when youre spending no money.
Another such example is Warframe an online melee brawler/shooter thats evolved into one of the most enjoyable games on PC.In the form of a sword-wielding space ninja (yes, its as cool as it sounds), the game feels like a cross between For Honor and Destiny 2, with modes offering PvE and PvP matches to keep you engaged.
Theres even a story mode, and its actually pretty fun, if a little repetitive in places.Developer Digital Extremes has also been incredibly faithful to its creation, rolling out regular updates and events that offer new upgrades and expansion on its burgeoning sci-fi lore.
It may have floundered on consoles, but Warframe is very much alive on PC.Download here: Warframe9.
Star ConflictTheres been a resurgence for the sci-fi dogfighting subgenre in the last few years thanks in part to the rise of VR but there arent many titles that let you take to the stars and shoot space ships for nada.
In fact, theres just the one, and its one of the most enjoyable games weve played on this list.The game is split into four main modes PvP, Open Space, Sector Conquest and Missions offering plenty of content for absolutely no pounds/euros/dollars.
You can atomize other players in classic deathmatches, explore an impressively vast universe in Open Space, or head into co-op for a bit of PvE action in Missions.
You can set up custom battles with friends if youre in mood for a private dust up.
Ship designs offer different attributes depending on your play style, and earning new ones can be pulled off without spending a penny if youre willing to grind.Download here: Star Conflict10.
Atlas ReactorPart MOBA, part RTS, Atlas Reactor borrows those now ubiquitous decision queues and adds a neat twist: instead of each player acting out their turn one after the other, everyone gets to play at the same time.
The result A strategy game in actual real-time as players move units around the map, exchanging actions in a chaotic flurry.
It can be a little more luck based than we would like (since you dont know what youre opponents are going to do next, its often guess work alone), but the pace soon hooks you in.Decision, one of two main modes in the game, forces you to make these decisions in 20 seconds or under for each turn (making every match hella fun and hyper intense), while Resolution slows things down into four phases as you plan out your moves and set traps as you attempt to win each 4v4 showdown.Download here: Atlas ReactorNo price informationziiZ6mZWxeK3P7AoeRSGjE.jpg#