Most pre-order incentives are, let’s face it, a bit rubbish. A skin here, a weapon there. GOG’s attempting to separate people from their cash with a slightly more seductive prospect, however. If you pre-order Absolver, Hello Neighbor, The Pillars of the Earth, or Sudden Strike 4, you’ll also get an extra game for free.
Speaking of free stuff, here are the best free PC games.
Grab multiplayer brawler Absolver and you’ll get Furi, an exception duelling game made up entirely of tricky boss battles; buy stealthy horror game Hello Neighbor and you’ll also receive Jazzpunk, an excellent comedy/adventure romp; and, finally, pick up The Pillars of the Earth, the interactive novel based on the best-selling book of the same name, and you can get fantastical adventure game The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav.
RTS Sudden Strike 4 has a similar deal, where you can get all of the previous games for free, though this is also available on Steam.
With the caveat that you shouldn’t really pre-order games, this is actually a pretty great promotion. Furi and Jazzpunk in particular are wonderful games that I wholeheartedly recommend even with their price tags still attached, while The Dark Eye is a serviceable adventure game with some clever puzzles. The Sudden Strike games, on the other hand, are pretty dated, though it’s not like we’re drowning in great RTS titles these days.
Each free game will be available to play straight away.