October 22nd free games roundup

The late-October Halloween giveaways have kicked off with 23 free games to grab across the Epic Games Store, Steam, and itch.io. Whether you want four-player co-op horror, a rebuilt 2006 platformer, or a quick browser tactical RPG, all of these can be claimed or played right now at no cost.

Epic Games Store

1. Sker Ritual

Sker Ritual is Wales Interactive's round-based co-op survival shooter and a fast-paced spin-off to their 2020 stealth horror game Maid of Sker (it's also listed on Steam for $24.99 if you want to compare user reviews). Up to four players fight off waves of the supernatural Quiet Ones using steampunk weapons and Celtic deity boons called Miracles. It's free to claim and keep permanently on the Epic Games Store until October 29 at 11:00 AM ET, and I want to see how well its matchmaking holds up with the influx of new players this week.

2. Home - A Unique Horror Adventure

Home - A Unique Horror Adventure is Benjamin Rivers' 2012 pixel-art murder mystery where your investigation choices actively reshape what actually happened in the story. The timing is great because the game's Steam version just received a 14th-anniversary update adding 60fps support, an art gallery, and developer commentary. You can grab it for free on the Epic Games Store until October 29 at 11:00 AM ET.

Steam

3. Knytt Classic

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Nifflas' 2006 freeware game, Bit Kid rebuilt Knytt Classic for modern operating systems with gamepad support, achievements, and over 1,500 screens to explore across the base game and three bonus modes (including Hempuli's extra-hard mod). You play as a tiny creature abducted by aliens who has to comb a quiet, maze-like planet for missing spaceship parts without any combat getting in the way. It's permanently free to keep on Steam with no expiration date, and it's also up on GOG, which is back to normal after a brief maintenance outage yesterday.

4. Battle for Wesnoth

Battle for Wesnoth is an open-source, turn-based fantasy strategy game packed with 17 solo campaigns, dozens of multiplayer maps, and years of community-made mods. You recruit a roster of units that carry over across missions as you fight for control of the continent of Irdya. Because it's an open-source project, it's permanently free on Steam with no expiry date.

5. Break Even:The Grind

Released earlier this month by Testudo Forge, Break Even:The Grind is a bleak top-down noir simulation where you start with $500, a rented room, and a local pull-tab gambling hall down the block. You spend your days trying to make rent by the first of the month using simulated slots, roulette, and a pawn counter. It's permanently free on Steam with no expiration date.

6. Havfun

Havfun is a social casino hub from Nuriworks that bundles slots, blackjack, roulette, and casual mini-games using virtual chips with no real-money value. It includes avatar customization and public rankings if you just want to mess around with card games without risking actual cash. The game is permanently free to play on Steam with no end date.

7. BOX PUSH MASTER

Developed by Eito Hikasa, BOX PUSH MASTER takes traditional Sokoban block-pushing rules and moves them into three-dimensional dioramas. Because boxes can only be pushed forward, you have to rotate the camera and use depth perception to figure out the right path through each stage. It's permanently free to claim on Steam with no expiration date.

8. ChessXpanse

ChessXpanse reworks standard one-on-one chess by changing the starting board layouts and front lines before each match begins. That small tweak means you can't just rely on memorized opening book theory to survive the early turns. It's permanently free on Steam with no expiry window.

9. Mecharashi

From BlackJack Studio, Mecharashi is a turn-based tactical RPG built around customizable mechs and a part-destruction combat system that plays a lot like Front Mission. You can target specific limbs on enemy units to disable their weapons or movement while outfitting your own squad's chassis between fights. It's a permanent free-to-play release on Steam with no expiration date.

10. Neverwinter

Cryptic Studios' Neverwinter is a long-running action MMORPG set in the Forgotten Realms universe of Dungeons & Dragons. It's been around since 2013 and leans heavily into real-time hack-and-slash combat across classic tabletop locations. The base game is permanently free on Steam with no expiry date.

11. FragPunk

FragPunk is a 5v5 hero shooter where players use collectible Shard Cards between rounds to bend the rules of the match, like giving everyone giant heads or electrified bullets. The card system keeps standard tactical shooter rounds from feeling too repetitive. It's permanently free to play on Steam with no expiration date.

12. The Predecessor

Created by Thomas Ward, The Predecessor is a surreal, first-person walking simulator about wandering through abstract worlds and chatting with strange characters. You spend about an hour or two gathering scattered artifacts and memories left behind by the person who walked the path before you. It's permanently free on Steam with no end date.

13. The Spike Cross

The Spike Cross is a 2D arcade volleyball game from Suncyan Inc. That pairs fast court timing with an anime-style story mode and local split-screen multiplayer. The controls take a little practice to get the timing of your blocks and spikes down, which makes landing a clean point feel earned. It's permanently free on Steam with no expiration date.

14. Blood Strike

NetEase's Blood Strike is a fast-paced battle royale and squad shooter where you pick from a roster of Strikers with active abilities like deployable shield walls and drones. It just received a Halloween update this week adding a nighttime map mode called Nightmare Trial. You can grab it permanently for free on Steam with no expiry date.

15. Killer Instinct

Iron Galaxy's 2013 reboot of Killer Instinct remains one of the best fighting games of its generation, complete with Mick Gordon's reactive soundtrack and an announcer who loses his mind every time you land a combo breaker. The base version on Steam lets you play for free using a rotating weekly fighter across single-player, local, and online ranked modes. That base edition is permanently free on Steam with no expiration date.

16. Dark Deception

Dark Deception takes the pellet-collecting maze gameplay of Pac-Man and turns it into a first-person horror runner where hotel-bellhop monkeys chase you down narrow hallways. The first chapter is permanently free to claim and keep on Steam with no expiration date, though subsequent story chapters are sold as paid DLC.

17. Palia

Singularity 6 developed Palia as a cozy multiplayer life sim where you spend your time farming, fishing, decorating a house, and befriending the local villagers. There's no combat to worry about, making it an easy game to unwind with for an hour in the evening. It's permanently free to play on Steam with no expiry date.

itch.io

18. FUEGO: Ignition Edition

Author Marcos Domínguez has put up 9,000 free community copies of FUEGO: Ignition Edition, a minimalist one-page tabletop RPG system built for fast-paced action adventures in any setting. Normally priced at $3, the download includes printable character sheets and the full ruleset in English, Spanish, and French under a Creative Commons license. Over 8,700 copies are still left on itch.io, and the free claim window expires on October 31.

19. AsteroidsCommander

Developed in five days by glitcheragames, AsteroidsCommander takes the vector-style space shooting of 1979's Asteroids and drops it into a live multiplayer PvP arena. You have to manage fuel, ammo, and hull integrity while docking at space stations and hunting down other players for coins. It's free to play directly in your browser on itch.io with no expiration date.

20. Net Worth

Burtonsoft's business management sim just hit version 1.0, as detailed in its release post on itch.io, adding an animated city title screen, a four-track chiptune soundtrack, and full English and Spanish translations. Inspired by 1990s tycoon games, you start with a small farm and work your way up to controlling the metropolis stock market. It's free to play in your browser or download on itch.io with no expiry date.

21. Hexweave

Hexweave is a pixel-art survivor roguelite from Kendromaro where your spells fire automatically while you focus on positioning and fusing six different magic elements together. It packs in 81 spells, nine playable mages, and ten realms to clear in ten-minute runs. You can play it in your browser or download the Windows build for free on itch.io with no expiration date.

22. Silesia 2045

Set in the toxic ruins of post-apocalyptic Poland, Silesia 2045 is a browser-based tactical survival RPG from NakmanStudios. You manage a squad of operators in turn-based combat against invaders while climbing a PvP ladder. It's free to play in your browser on itch.io with no end date.

23. Just One More

Goktug Sugar's Just One More is a short, weird incremental game about standing on a balcony in a rainy noir city at 2:17 AM and timing your drags on a cigarette until the entire neighborhood starts smoking with you. Each cigarette adds eleven minutes to a permanent "Time Burned" clock that never resets, which is a grimly funny twist on standard idle game numbers going up. It's free to play in your browser on itch.io with no expiration date.

Make sure to claim the time-limited giveaways before their deadlines pass, especially the Epic Games Store horror pair before October 29 and the community copies of FUEGO before October 31.

Pick up Sker Ritual on Humble Bundle.

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