I’m sure that most of you are familiar with Steam. On the off chance that you aren’t, it’s a digital distribution platform. You create an account and can use that account to buy games, which afterward are yours forever, to download and play whenever you’d like. It’s an essential for anyone interested in PC gaming. What you might not know, is that there are actually a good many games available for free on Steam. Now, you might be thinking to yourself that any video game being given away for free can’t be very good, and for the most part you’d be right. There are a few diamonds in the rough, though. So join me in the first part of this series where I wade through the dreck so that you don’t have to do it yourself. Today we’ll be looking at three different short, free horror games.

the static speaks my name

The first free game we’ll be looking at this week is “the static speaks my name” (stylized in all lowercase letters just like that). This is a charmingly simple sort of game about the last few minutes in a deeply disturbed man’s life before he commits suicide. The gameplay is simple, mostly consisting of walking around and interacting with objects which you are told to by the game. The game features droning audio and simplistic, blocky graphics. It uses the basic quality of its visuals to create a very nice contrast between the cheerful look of things (especially a certain painting) and the dark undertone of the whole scenario. This game has far more going for it than its appearance and ten-minute length would suggest. It’s definitely worth checking out. It is, however, explicitly about suicide, so it may not be for everyone.

Fingerbones

I could not pass up talking about “Fingerbones” in this article as it is both a free game and created by one of my favorite indie game designers, David Szymanski. “Fingerbones” is the story of a man in a bunker. It’s hard to discuss the narrative past that basic premise, since the game’s fifteen-minute run is full of twists. The graphics are primitive and blocky, but as with all of Szymanski’s work there is a heavy emphasis placed on lighting which really pays off and gives the game a good visual pop. There’s not a ton of variety in the sound effects, but they work very well. Much like “static,” “Fingerbones” has very bare-bones gameplay, though this one does offer a few basic puzzles. While it’s definitely not up to the quality of Szymanski’s later works, “Fingerbones” is still a great game.

All Is Dust

“All Is Dust” is slightly longer than the other two games in this column. It took me about twenty minutes. This game takes place on a deserted farm during the 1930s, as the player tries to figure out what happened here and why the farm is abandoned. Like the other games in this article, this game uses simple graphics. However, it lacks the visual style and charm of the other two. Apparently it includes Oculus Rift, but this game seems like it would be a waste of the technology. The sound is nothing special to put it lightly and the voice acting is dreadful. The gameplay is clearly inspired by “Slender,” with the player being followed by invisible monsters with no way to fight back. “All Is Dust” takes more risks than the other games on this list, with a setting generally not explored much in video games and an interestingly designed monster. Sadly, the risks just do not pay off. You’re better off not wasting your time on this game.

We have barely scratched the surface of free Steam games in this article, but I think it’s a pretty good sampling. There are hits and misses and if you just randomly picked free games, you’d probably end up with more of the latter. However, just because it’s free doesn’t mean it’s bad and there are yet more diamonds to be found in this rough.