ok so im gonna disregard all the previous posts not because im ignorant its just easier for me to give u my view of some f2p games out on the market currently without taking others oppinions into account.

Lets start with the "real" f2p games:

Marvel Heroes: Its a diablo type mmo, aka kinda hack'n slash but set in the Marvel comics Universe. U get to pick 1 out of i think currently 8 Heroes at the start and play through a very nice story told in motion comics after each chapter u can buy new heroes, costumes, pets, boosts and so on int he item shop but ultimately u dont have to. Heroes can drop or be purchased with items that drop aswell as comstumes, but it takes some time to farm them so even tho u have a very good feeling that its really free ure limited to your choice of character from the start for quiet a while. The item shop itself i feel is a little overpriced especially if some heroes and costumes are on there for 20 bucks each.

Aion: Well theres not much to be said about Aion, i myself only tried it one day and only coz that day felt way too much like a lot of other boring mmo's. Its got a great deal of character customization but in my opinion thats about it. The quests were the regular go there, kill, that, come back, rinse and repeat.

Tera: This Game lately went from pay to play to free to play and i didnt get to play it yet, but my girlfriend actually played it a lot the last couple of days so im gonna write what she told me bout it. The characters seem to be nicely animated and the surrounding world u play in is actually very beautiful with lots of places to just stand there and look at the scenery or take screen shots but on the other hand ure limited to only 2 character slots per server with what eems to be only 2 servers up at the moment which gives u only the chance to try out half the available classes. Cant say anything about the item shop in there as my girlfriend tends to look at those things as last while im more the one to check them out instantly.

Scarlet Blade: Now dont take this game too seriously when u take a look at it. Most Characters are female with big boobs and backsides. Lately they added a Male Character to prolly widen the audience playing it from almost only male pervs to also female pervs :P The Character Creation is kinda limited as each Class comes with a certain bodytype as default u cant change, what u can change is the hair color, style, make up and clothing from what i remember also u dont need the ingame shop as its again a very expensive one but basically everything u need to play u get ingame including dirty jokes from npcs. The pvp was pretty fun even tho totally unbalanced as u had to not only fight the other faction but also npcs of them in order to get control of certain map points and that on both maps battlegrounds ive played. Last but not least is a skill for any character i havent sen in any other game yet which lets u transform into a battlemech for a short amount of time to dish out even more damage than before.

Hearthstone: A very well done f2p card game from blizzard entertainment (wow/starcraft). U have 9 classes which u can unlock by winning against an npc of each class which is pretty easy even with the starter deck of each class. U then can level up each class on its own by just playing it no matter if u win or lose. Theres a lot of slots for each class type to build new decks so u can play around with almost all card combinations uve got at your disposal. New booster packs with more cards can be purchased either with real money or with enough ingame currency, but i wouldnt advise the latter as for the price of one of those packs u can easily join a pvp tournament, yes u have to pay your entry with ingame currency, but u atleast get more currency and a booster pack out of it even if u lose all 3 of your battles against others.

Dragon's Prophet: So a mmorpg with dragons. The gameplay is a little confusing at first but becomes pretty intuitive after a short while. From the start u can capture most dragons in the game aslong as ure able to capture them. Thats where it gets a little tricky coz u need to be careful with your character points on each level up in case ure after a certain kind of dragon. U start out with 6 character slots and 4 playable classes with loads of customization options (yes inclusing big boobs for all the pervs out there). In fact just the character customization has so many options i wont name them here any further. The item shop itself is pretty expensive especially with the amount of diamonds u get for your money but theres another currency used in the item shop which u can get by just doing enough daily quests and finishing your daily chores in the game. The player housing is pretty interesting as u can either buy an appartment from an npc or buy a lot on one of the player housing islands to build your house there. On an island however anyone can enter your house and even engage in pvp battle against u while there are also ressources to gather on those islands an npcs to fight u also have to pay rent in either appartment or lot. But from my experience atleast appartments dont seem to be applying to the tax rules of the guild that currently "rules" the island your house is on. So each guild can have pvp battles over the control of housing islands and apply the % of tax they want. So yeah the only big alternative in this game from other mmorpgs out there is most likely the housing and the tameable and rideable dragons right from the start. Another thing to mention is that ure not forced into the tank, dps, heal mechanic as usually your dragons tend to do either or all of those depending on how u leveled and trained them.

RaiderZ: Another fantasy themed mmorpg from the makers of Runes of Magic who also made the game above. Very intuitive gameplay, lots of character customization from what i recall from the beta. Sadly i didnt get a look at the item shop back then but it felt well playable even without paying to win.

Might & Magic Duel of Champions: Another f2p Card Game which unfortunately isnt as funas it sounds at first. Till lately one of the patches enabed u to use any card in however many decks u wished u were limited to each card for one deck which kinda screwed the customization of multiple decks if u lacked enough cards. U ca buy new cards in boosters or boxes from the inagme shop which i think was pretty expensive aswell if i remember right but with enough days of login u were getting a few bucks for new cards just by login in once a day not even pay a game. Also the difficult was kinda spicking after the first easy practice battles.

DC Universe Online: OK its practically a usual mmorpg just in the dc comics world where u create a hero or villain of your chosing no playing of the real dudes. Ure limited in character creation already if u play it for free but unlike other games u still got enough choices to make a pretty or disturbing or even both character if u chose to. Extra Expansions can be bought to give u access to new weapon styles or powers u cant use without those xpacs. But it features a pretty common model lately: A limited but not too limited f2p mode for casual players, a not so limited version for people who bought something from the shop or had an abo running for a while and all access to everything for the people who pay a monthly fee each month. In the item shop u can from what i recall mostly purchase cosmetic items such as weapon skins, armor skins and so on.

Star Wars The Old Republic: So now this one cracks me up all the time. Its got a similar model as the game above but the limitations for f2p players are so immense that its fine and fun to play aslong as u never plan to subscribe to a monthly fee once uve done that u just dont wanna keep playing with the restrictions EA applied to the f2p and "preferred" players. Besides that the story telling is just awesome if u like star wars, the character customization is still very good even if ure f2p, however u can not only purchase cosmetic items and boosts in the ingame shop but also weapons (which actually dont give u an edge even with their stats), unlocks for companions, customizatn options, more quests and so on its all very nice if ure just free to play but if u ever had or have a subscription it feels like a bloody rip off and im not sure if SOE could have done worse to star wars galaxies before shutting it down than what EA is doing with Star Wars The Old Republic.

League of Legends: So this is the most played MOBA in the world currently. MOBA means massively online battle arena. So u get a certain setup of people usually 5 on each side to fight against each other on a pre-defined map. But u can also test your skills and level up in games against not so badass bots which are pretty good for the first couple levels. Starters get a certain setup of champions they are free to use untill a certain level when they get the weekly free choices + whatever they already bought. Theres countless of different champions and each weeks the developers choose 10 different ones u can play without paying for them and if u like them u can chose to buy them with ingame currency or with real cash apart from that theres nothing in the item shop that gives u an edge over anyone else. u can buy all the champions in the game with the ingame currency aswell as the runes u need to enhance your loadout to play with, the only things u can buy for real money in the shop are skins for champions or wards that reveal a part or the map for a given time, boosters and icons. Riot games always offers certain bundles to be purchased with real money but they usually include some champions + extra skins and are all together cheaper than buying all the champions in a bundle + their skins at the normal rates. The boosts u can buy are still not giving u any kind of edge its ony xp boosts so u can level up faster and boosts for the amount of ingame currency u get after each game has finished.

Airmech: Kinda all of the above but with a little twist. Here its transformers like mechs which switch between air mode and ground mode and unfortunately not so great artwork as the above but then its an indie game so for that its very well done and a great casual game.

Smite: Again a MOBA like the 2 above but this time with playable characters as gods from all kind of mythologies. Similar game modes as in LoL, 5v5, 3v3, 1v1 and so on against bots an normal players however this one doesnt have an isometric perspective as the 2 games above this one is actually 3rd person and if u scroll close enough in even 1st person which adds a whole new level of difficulty to the gameplay which is actually pretty cool as it is and apart from buying new gods and skins theres actually nothing else in the item shop i could see and most gods and skins dont even have to be bought with real money.


Lets take a look at a few Buy 2 Play titles not to confuse them with Pay 2 Play. Those games u only buy the initial game everything else is either free or doesnt really have an impact if u dont get it.

Guild Wars 1 + 2: Ok ill put these 2 pearls into one mention coz i think ive crippled whoever reads this enough with the wall of text so far :P So both just expect u to buy them once and have loads of fun with them which is actually correct in both cases even tho the guild wars 1 community went a little dry at times since guild wars 2. But they both have a very nice story line, even tho the Guild Wars 2 story line is a little more sophisticated as it takes into account which race u play and how u want it to play. The character customization isnt all that deep in the first one but even deeper in the 2nd. The first guild wars doesnt actually have a real ingame shop as u can acces the shop via a click ingame it still opens an external browser and only offers u some unlocks u can easily get while playing pve which also only apply to your pvp characters, addons like any other game that releases expansion packs and cotumes for even more customization. Guild Wars 2 however wants a bit more of your money for example u can buy cosmetic stuff in the item shop aswell as items to help u on your daily questing but its also to mention that unlocking more bag space or bank slots costs diamonds (the item shop currency here) but the most interesting thing to mention about the shop is that u can exchange your ingame currency into item shop currency not for a set rate but depending on how many people overall exchange how much money the payout varies.

Defiance: Here comes a shooter with a storyline. Defiance the game is roguhly based on the syfy tv show which in itself is a pretty interesting concept as events int he show have an impact on the game and the other way around. U can but dont have to buy expansions for new armor types, weapon types and even new encounters in the last dlc. But even if u dont buy them u got access to said encounters aslong as someone who bought the dlc starts it u cant use any of the new weapons dropped in there tho. Aside of that its a pretty straight forward shooter with a nice story line, side quests, achievements, weekly contracts and a whole bunch of dynamic world events and u can ride cars, buggies, quads and so on :)

The Secret World: This game is by far my favourite when it comes to Buy 2 Play games. The restrictions enforced on free players are so minimal u dont really notice them. In fact u only dont have access to certain quests in case u dont buy any of the games newer expansions, the first 3 are included by now. The item shop itself gives u no real edge over others as u can only buy extra skill points or xp boosts apart from customization items like a whole bunch of clothing, titles, pets, weapon skins and the expansions. That being said a little more about the game itself, it plays in a modern world setting where u play human characters only. The initial customization of your character isnt too deep but u can buy new haircuts, make-up and clothing for ingame currency at the designated vendors. Theres no classes or levels. All xp u gain lets u buy all abilities ingame aswell as all weapon skils, so ure totally free to customize your gameplay as u chose fit. The weapons range from magic over melee to ranged, so its your choise if u run around with a blade, hammer, magic focus for one of the 3 types of magic or pistols, shotguns and assault rifles. Lots of quests and events keep the game interesting and the pvp is cirled around the 3 secret societies (factions) that battle for world domination, the illuminati, the templar and the dragon all come with their own starting place, different twists in the storyline and homebase. for the illuminati its new york, the templars reside in london (main city hub) and the dragon are coming from seoul. The games setting is overall very dark and feels like a good horror movie at times with all kinds of horror movie and mythological creatures to fight, for example werewolves, vampires, zombies, ghouls and demons are just a few of them. It also comes with a very intuitive but extensive crafting system, at times funny quest (mission) descriptions and a lot of dungeons and gear anyone can get it just depends on how persistant they are in getting there.


So to everyone who manged to still read here congratulations, uve survived my crippling wall of text critical to everyone who just scrolled down to the end i cant blame u, if i wouldnt have written this i wouldnt have read every word of it either rofl.

I hope this "little" essay helps your quest to find a new game a little and ive only taken into account a few of the games out there that ive actually played or still currently play, so if u have any questions to any of the titles hit me up with a reply or a pm and ill see if i can answer it :)

That was awesome.

You are lacking Path of Exile there tho - so it that's a mistake on your part as opposed to the fact that it's mentioned in the OP, give it a shot :-P

its actually not a mistake, i just havent played it (yet) so as stated in the last post at the bottom ive only taken games into account ive actually played or am still playing :D

Yes, that's the mistake :-P

Free to play != freeware

Lord of the Rings Online

Star Wars: The Old Republic

You can unlock almost every feature with points you get for "achievements" (Lotro) or with in-game Credits (SWTOR).

Prism: Guard Shield is a awesome shooter (but it's not sci-fi, sorry).
The only problem, I've heard, the last mission has bugs, you can't finish.

The classic Battlefield 1942 can be downloaded for free by creating an Origin account. Free of money, but not entirely free of DRM therefore (though I would not now if starting the Origin client is needed to run the game, it is for downloading it anyways).