As the world fights back against the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, we’re all spending extended periods of time indoors, and several videogames retailers are offering some great freebies to help fight cabin fever. This month, you’ll be able to add Tomb Raider, Child of Light, Drawful 2, and more to your games library without spending a cent.
On Steam, the giveaways have begun already, although you have to do some searching to find them. Drawful 2, the hilarious Jackbox party game about competitive doodling, is free until April 11. You can also pick up 2013’s Tomb Raider reboot and its Diablo-style spinoff Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris for free this weekend – those games are available gratis until March 24.
Also free to keep on Steam right now are Headsnatchers, which is about snatching heads, and Deiland, a lovely Little Prince-inspired adventure that has you running your own tiny planetoid. If you’re more into shooting stuff (or goats and violence), Goat of Duty is currently 100% off as well.
Ubisoft is going to be offering a few free games over the next few weeks, as well as trial periods for some of its tentpole titles. Child of Light, a beautiful and charming fantasy RPG done in a painterly style, will be free to keep on Uplay March 24-28.
This weekend, you can play Assassin’s Creed Odyssey for free on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, and next weekend you can try out Ghost Recon Breakpoint, which is due for a major patch March 24 that introduces the new ‘immersive mode’ to the game. You can download the games through Uplay, and your progress during the free weekends will carry over if you decide to purchase either game.
Forgot to include Goat of Duty as a free Steam game https://t.co/XeFBXPJshx
and uh, Pleasure Puzzle:Portrait https://t.co/lssIKB73eR pic.twitter.com/QVI0OpxLuY— Wario64 (@Wario64) March 20, 2020
The Epic Games store has its regularly-scheduled free games, and right now those are the original Watch Dogs and The Stanley Parable. Those will be available until March 26, at which time you’ll be able to pick up Figment (a charming little action-adventure game that looks like a cross between Bastion and Samorost) and the upcoming one-hit bullet-hell Tormentor x Punisher for free.
Finally, on GOG you can grab a free copy of Mable & The Wood – if you hurry. The metroidvania adventure is available free of charge until March 22 at 14:00 UTC. To find it, log in to GOG and navigate to the store’s homepage. Scroll down to the ‘Recommended for you’ section, where you’ll find a full-width banner for Mable & The Wood. Clicking the green button will add the game to your account, and you’ll be able to download and install it through GOG’s client.
Having to stay inside is a bummer, but having some free new games to pass the time with can only help make self-quarantine and social distancing easier to cope with – and thanks to the wonders of digital distribution, grabbing these free PC games doesn’t mean anyone else has to go without.