Wrapping Up 2024: The best of free-to-play games
This list highlights the best free-to-play (F2P) games of 2024, a year packed with visually stunning releases but few true standouts. While noteworthy titles like 'AFK Journey', 'XDefiant', and 'Infinity Nikki' impressed, others like 'Age of Empires Mobile' and 'Indus Battle Royale' fell short. Narrowing it down to the top four was no easy task, as most new games struggled to compete with established favorites or leave a lasting impression
Lots of polish and shine but very little originality
2024 has been a master of illusions and deceit – at most times, especially in its early days, it promised us time and potential to undertake new endeavours. However, after the halfway mark, that’s all what remained, promises at best, as months passed by at the rate of weeks, and the end of the year is suddenly in sight. As we all find our ways to say goodbye to the year, I begin my yearly ritual of compiling the first of two lists for the end of the year.
This list is for the best free-to-play (f2p) games for 2024. Arriving at a final four was incredibly difficult owing to the high number of games that were available as free-to-play experiences this year. From noteworthy mentions like ‘AFK Journey’, ‘XDefiant’, and ‘Infinity Nikki’ to heavy disappointments like ‘Age of Empires Mobile’, or ‘Indus Battle Royale’, this was a year where most new games were visually appealing, but few had what it took to compete against the established names and fewer that will remain memorable.
Best Multiplayer Experience: Squad Busters
2024 had everything, even a new Supercell game. Launched in June, with an interesting mix of characters with unique abilities, and a variety of terrains, the game offered players multiplayer combat and the opportunity to star up characters for more powerful variants. A bit lacklustre at first, ‘Squad Busters’ has continued to grow by adding new maps and characters while also offering variety to game modes and challenges. Their ongoing event for Christmas is wonderfully organised and their latest update has ironed out a lot of the issues from the game’s launch. Now is a great time to get into ‘Squad Busters’ if you haven’t already.
Best World Builder and Resource Gathering: Heroes of History
One of the most competitive genres in this year’s free-to-play space, ‘Heroes of History’ is up against the disappointing ‘Age of Empires: Mobile’, and the mundane ‘Elder Scrolls: Castles’. With a very clear hero system and some wonderful blending of history and fantasy in the world of Panganea, the game offers a variety of options for players to begin their world-building journeys.
Best Open World: Zenless Zone Zero
Set in the world of New Eridu, and part of MiHoYo’s HoYoverse, ‘ZZZ’ is a complete all-rounder: a game with a great story, an open world with interesting activities, a lot of mini-games, gacha mechanics, and more craziness than you can keep track of.
Best Overall: Monument Valley 3
Dropped right at the end of the year, ‘Monument Valley 3’ is offered by Netflix and continues with the same mind-bending in perspective and space as the first two games did. With 10 levels at launch, and additional seasonal level drops through 2025, this could be a game we could all keep coming back to at various points in the new year.
The four games on this list are some of the best experiences I enjoyed this year. However, there are a few noteworthy mentions: ‘UFL’, the free-to-play football game, seems to have gained both popularity and polish since its launch in early December. However, it’s still too unfinished in terms of gameplay and consistency for recommendation. Secondly, ‘AFK Journey’, one of the heavily awarded games from this year, including Google’s Play Awards, has not been considered due to its “idle” gameplay format.
— Aditya Deshbandhu
