Purge

While Electronic Arts still teases us about a sequel to Mirror’s Edge, a team of Spanish students from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra developed Purge, a free game with a successful cel-shaded steampunk atmosphere, not unlike the one seen in Borderlands.

The player’s goal is solely to survive, escaping guards that are hunting him based on the assumption that he’s a terrorist. That isn’t true, naturally, since the city is completely corrupt and Jack, the main protagonist, has to climb all the way up to the towering industrial complex that can be seen in the distance.

The complex world can be navigated pretty much in the same way as the stunning Faith did in Mirror’s Edge, climbing, studying the guards’ routines using glass shards, escaping through air ducts, wall-running and jumping long distances.

Technically Purge is a real delight, with an alluring aesthetic and some great controls. Besides using the keyboard and mouse, players may also opt for a Xbox 360 controller. Purge won’t take long to finish but that can also be considered as a high point, since players will leave it with a smile and memories of a good time jumping and running.

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Hyper Princess Pitch

Hyper Princess Pitch is a freeware game based on the 1996 DOS game Operation: Carnage (which was inspired on Smash TV, a game from 1990) and keeps the fast-paced shooting action while bringing the Garden Gnome Carnage sidekick Princess Pitch to the spotlight.

The outlandish plot says that Mecha Santa plans to spread happiness and cheer all over the world and Princess Pitch wants to end those silly plans, since she didn’t get any presents when she was young. So, in danger of becoming a happier place, the world is now at the hands of Princess Pitch, who invades Santa’s base. But the game is a treat with its retro style and great gameplay, an arena shooter comprised of 90 rooms to clean of robot elves and other Christmas related enemies.

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Return of the Triad

Rise of the Triad was a classic first-person shooter from Apogee Software, released in 1995, a time when the genre was getting more and more attention by the day. Sadly, this game never got the sequel it deserved, although in 2009 there was some talk of a contemporary reboot.

Return of the Triad is a total conversion that runs in the freeware ZDoom engine (download mandatory to run this game) and that acts as a sequel, being set 5 years after the events in the original game that led to the destruction of the monastery.

The game is light in story and this is basically a reason to place us in fights against triad members using all the original weapons from Rise of the Triad. The enemies are also the same from the original game, as well as some of the traps. Half sequel, half homage, Return of the Triad is a welcome revisit to a classic of the ‘90s.

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Nadirim

THIS GAME IS SHUT DOWN

Nadirim is an original free-to-play browser-based game set in an Arabian fantasy background. The creators drew inspiration from the classic Arabian Nights tales, a source that is still barely exploited in the MMO world.

Nadirim features all the mythology one could expect from such a theme, including baffling princesses, djinns, potions, mischief and a massive open world. The amazing graphics are some of the best ever seen in a browser MMORPG and there’s a lot to do gameplay-wise, from exploring and uncovering the storyline to fighting other players in an exciting turn-based combat system.

Thirst of Night

In Thirst of Night, a new world of endless night and a vampire civilization is about to replace humanity as we know it. Freedom came with the massive blast of a magnetic pulse. It triggered volcanic eruptions around the globe, choking the sun with ash and purging the human cities with fire. Now, in a world of perpetual twilight, vampires drink the blood of their enemies to satisfy the Thirst of Night.

The player has to build a new vampire civilization from the ashes of human cities, raise a mighty gargoyle to defend the bloodline and defeat the remaining humans and rival vampire clans. Forge alliances with other players to crush your enemies.

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Dark Ocean

Dark Ocean is a freeware PC game from a team of independent Spanish developers of the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. The game is a survival horror set in a luxury cruise where things have gone terribly wrong. Dark Ocean seems to get inspiration from games such as Hydrophobia, Amnesia and even Resident Evil.

The player steps in the shoes of Liz, a young engineer who helped design the ship herself, where an infection turned everyone into zombies. Now Liz has to fight for her life, using weapons such as a flare gun to prevent the undead from attacking. Cleverly using the resources at our disposal in the ship will help us defeat the zombies. A camera will help blind the enemies for a short while and earn precious time to act. Dark Ocean is not only about action, it’s also about solving puzzles to access previously locked areas, such as a casino.

Technically Dark Ocean stands out as a good 3D indie game, with polished visuals and animation and a convincing atmosphere.

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Dragons of Atlantis

Welcome to the lost world of Atlantis. Dark fate looms on the horizon as the four tribes are at war to save themselves. Harness the wisdom and mysterious powers of the Ancient Ones to build an expansive empire and conquer your enemies. It will take the utmost courage and intellect to prevail. Join the battle in Dragons of Atlantis and unleash the dragons today!

Build a powerful empire in an ancient and mystical land, raise a great and powerful dragon to defend your city, conquer adversity with an army of dragons, minotaurs, giants, and more. Harness the wisdom of a lost civilization to boost your abilities and participate in a vibrant community of dedicated alliances, fierce conflicts, and epic battles.

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Stronghold Kingdoms

Stronghold Kingdoms is a free-to-play episode of the acclaimed Stronghold series from developer Firefly Studios. The esteemed castle building gameplay is here, in a persistent medieval world where thousands of lords and ladies will fight for the crown. Expand the research tree with the best options to suit your approach, conquer villages and prove your worth.

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Monkey Quest

Monkey Quest is a free-to-play virtual world game for kids from Nickelodeon, where players customize their own monkeys and join thousands of friends on an action-packed adventure. Explore amazing 3D lands alone or with others, defeat evil creatures and discover many secrets in the world of Ook.

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My Lands

My Lands is a browser-based strategy game where players may earn real money if they fulfill all the necessary conditions. Thousands of players cooperate to develop their cities, trade, create alliances and battle, searching for the precious black gems that may be turned into real world money (please read the details on the official game site for more info).

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Sword Girls

Sword Girls is a free-to-play online collectible card game with some amazing anime artwork and compelling gameplay. It’s a great game both for veterans of the TCG genre and new players alike, with hundreds of different and beautiful cards to collect and use, over 500 at the commercial launch, work of 30 experienced anime artists.

Create a powerful deck and challenge other players, fight your way through dungeons and face impressive bosses. Regular updates add new cards and dungeons to the game and monthly tournaments will prove who the most talented player in Sword Girls is.

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Steel Legions

The makers of Pirate Galaxy and Dino Storm are back with a new browser-based strategy MMO game, this time set in an alternative past where steel, steam and oil are the mandatory resources for the military units. In Steel Legions battles are fought between the four empires with giant steel machines driven by half a dozen of men and women.

Choose your faction and enter this war for the precious resources, experiencing exciting battles against other players and upgrading your massive steel units.

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Top 10 Free to Play MMO Blunders 2011-2012

With great power comes great responsibility and that is also true to the studios behind some ambitious free-to-play games. However, sometimes the ambition is just too much and some promising games fail before the dust even settles down. Or there was some miscalculation along the way and players didn’t correspond as expected. Whatever the reason, some games didn’t stay long with us.

Here is our Top 10 Free to Play MMO Blunders:

10-FIFA Online

While the FIFA franchise remains active in Asian territories, the Western version of FIFA Online only began Open Beta testing on May 2010. This famous sport named football that US citizens call soccer has a large fan base in Europe and it should be more than enough to support the game. But it wasn’t. On March 2011 FIFA Online was shut down.

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9-Legend of Edda

Dubbed as a temporary closure with a relaunch scheduled for Q1 2012, Legend of Edda was a solid MMORPG with cute chibi graphics that could clearly appeal to some players. While the developer is supposedly working on an improved version of the game, Soul Master was also expected to return during the summer of 2011 and yet there is no news about it…

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8-Kitsu Saga

Kitsu Saga launched late 2010 and Aeria Games had high hopes for this fox spirit-driven MMORPG in the same vein as Grand Fantasia or Eden Eternal. It was considered a good free-to-play game and sadly shut down on July 2011. No reasons were appointed and it was all the more odd since Kitsu Saga also apparently enjoyed a good deal of advertising budget. To no avail, it seems.

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7-Fists of Fu

Fists of Fu was a fun side-scroller beat’em up that many players immediately compared to Dragonica Online and Elsword Online, with its colorful graphics and compelling PvP. However, on July 2011, the game was shut down without any real explanation, not even a year after the commercial launch. Some players cherished the decision, others cried.

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6-Solstice Reborn

Outspark tried to update the Secret of the Solstice MMORPG with Solstice Reborn, with the commercial launch on February 2011. The game was closed on November 16th. The official press release pointed to many reasons for the decision to cancel the game, but they highlight the lack of resources to further develop Solstice Reborn as the main reason. And so, as quickly as Solstice was Reborn, it was shut down.

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5-Ruined Online

Ruined Online was a promising third-person action game from Bigpoint and would use the Unity Engine to offer some compelling browser-based 3D visuals. But suddenly, it disappeared. No particular reasons were mentioned, although it’s rumored that the studio wasn’t able to deliver a dynamic and flexible shooter in the Unity Engine and so the results were looking underwhelming. A damn shame, since the cel-shaded visuals were actually looking cool.

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4-Faxion Online

Another hyped F2P MMORPG, Faxion Online used the somewhat original theme of the deadly sins and the heaven versus hell conflict to create what was gameplay-wise… apparently a pretty standard MMO game. Faxion shut down only four months after the official launch in May 2011. A case of a good idea let down by resources and time constraints, it seems.

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3-Divine Souls

Divine Souls was released during April 2011 and then, on August 30th, 2011, it was “temporarily shut down”. Outspark decided to shut down this third-person brawler, a game that was getting good reviews, to remove some bugs and add some content. Players are still waiting for the return of Divine Souls, which seems more and more unlikely as time goes by. If it does return it will probably be renamed something like Divine Souls X or Mega Divine Souls, offer a new lick of paint and that’s it. It’s a new free-to-play trend, as games such as Archlord X may testify.

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2-Poisonville

Bigpoint, the famous German publisher and developer, reportedly spent more than 2 million euros (over 2,600 million dollars) and a workforce of thirty during two years on the development of Poisonville, a free-to-play browser-based 3D action game with clear similarities to Grand Theft Auto and APB: Reloaded. They even hired Bernadette Kaspar, September 2010 playmate, to appear in the game. A series of bugs and age restriction issues culminating in the collapse of Poisonville. However, Bigpoint remains strong with millions of players on Drakensang Online, DarkOrbit or Battlestar Galactica Online.

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1-Company of Heroes Online

The story of Company of Heroes Online could well be described as ‘I’m in Open Beta, now I’m shutting down’. This disappointed many players who consider Company of Heroes to be one of the best strategy games ever and were expecting a great free-to-play spin-off. It seems that Relic and THQ never found a middle ground between gameplay balance and revenue, since the more someone played, the more in-game currency he earned and the less he had to purchase with real money. And so a promising game ended before it was officially released.

Learn more about Company of Heroes Online

Remember to express your opinion in the comments, if there are other games that deserve to feature here. This top will be regularly updated with the top free to play MMO Blunders, so check back often!

Tribes: Ascend

Tribes Ascend is the exciting free-to-play follow-up to the classic first-person shooter franchise. It’s developed by the same team behind the well received Global Agenda: Free Agent game and already has the attention of many players who are looking for a great looking and fast-paced sci-fi shooter.

Some classic maps from Tribes 2 will make a revamped appearance and Tribes Ascend will launch with the game modes Capture the Flag and Rabbit, although others such as Team Deathmatch will soon be added.

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Marathon Trilogy

Before Halo, Bungie developed the Marathon Trilogy, with the first game launching in 1994. Composed by the games Marathon, Marathon 2: Durandal and Marathon: Infinity, the series received worldwide acclaim and was the inspiration for the classic we now know as Halo.

The Marathon Trilogy is now available for free in an open source version for Linux, Mac and PC. The bundle contains an updated version of the engine, a fan remake of the first Marathon, and lovingly HD remastered versions of Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity. The updated versions offer novel features such as online multiplayer and co-op mode, support for control pad and OpenGL shader.

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Forgotten Kodama

Forgotten Kodama is a great looking free PC game where players control Uzume in an amazing action-adventure filled with magic, nature and horrible enemies, all while trying to restore the nature’s balance.

This is a creation of a spanish team, known for talented indie developers that gave us freeware games such as Burning Thirst and A Fistful of Cows.

The third person visuals in Forgotten Kodama are beautiful and Uzume is an athletic heroine, defeating enemies, jumping from platform to platform, solving several puzzles and all of this with the nature in mind. Although the camera is not always correct – something that affects even the triple AAA games –, there’s a lot to be enjoyed in Forgotten Kodama.

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Archlord X: The Chronicles

Archlord X: The Chronicles is a free-to-play MMORPG set 100 years after Archlord, offering a compelling middle-age fantasy universe. The most relevant feature is the Realm versus Realm, depicting a massive battle where one player may prove the deciding factor and become Archlord or Hero.

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War of the Immortals

The developers of the acclaimed MMO games Forsaken World and Perfect World International are back with a new free-to-play action MMORPG. War of the Immortals is set within a fantasy environment and a battle of good against evil, offering large scale battles in destructible environments and also some compelling PvP.

Players may choose from 8 different classes, a nice selection that provides some distinctive gameplay. Each class also has a soul gear system with equipment that evolves as players progress in the game. War of the Immortals includes some essencial features such as guild housing, territory wars and a pet soul system.

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Super Street Fighter II NES

Super Street Fighter II NES is a great adaptation of the famous game to NES quality, using the popular MUGEN engine.

All the notorious fighters imagined by Capcom are at our disposal, to enter exciting combats in retro style, proving that despite the technical evolution seen with Street Fighter IV, the series earned the right to be one of the most appreciated in the world many years ago thanks to the amazing gameplay.

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