Though its several years old now, this great bossa nova noir game, Gravity Bones, still remains our number one pick for among the best games ford PC in the free category. It is a short standalone game in which the first person player seems to be some kind of secret agent.
This two level game is short and sweet; you can play right through it in 20 minutes. Organized about missions, the first level in particular has a learning process built into the environment in a nice and efficient way. The game is downloaded as a zip file, requiring no installation. It uses about 20MB of disk space.
Fine and good, but why do I rave about it so, you might ask. The great fun in this game comes from both its experience-based playing method as well as its strikingly realized aesthetic world. Calling this a first-person game, while accurate, doesn't do justice to its originality. This one is kind of a new genre all of it own: bossa nova noir!
Ascribing a story to it is a bit tricky. There are certainly tasks and as you uncover and accomplish them, a unity emerges, but for all that, this game functions more as a work of slightly avant garde art: it's open to a lot of interpretation.
Just a few brief moments after starting, the player is injected right into the action. You discover yourself stepping off an elevator amid some sort of Euro-spy scene. Even as the elevator descends (which is kind of funny, down from where exactly are you coming?), you're aware of coming into dressed guests of some black tie cocktail party. The fete is spread out over a series of terraces overlooking breathtaking vistas of a mountain enveloped lake. A cool bossa nova sound track accompanies your meandering through the crowd of squares (inside joke). You're initial mission has already begun.
This first level is a quicker and simpler mission that really serves as a tutorial for the player to learn the game's world and rules. It is quickly completed. The second level is more testing and in some ways interesting -- but no less atmospheric. The mission here is more elaborate and complicated. Now, far from the sunny and broad vistas of the mountainside terrace, we find ourselves travelling through deserted corridors and across exterior catwalks on a stormy night.
Incidentally, one of my few complaints about this game is that I could have done without the clue cards. They at least should have been optional. On the first level I ignored the protruding card corner and simply wandered around the party. Eventually I stumbled upon the briefcase necessary to complete the mission. That was way more fun.
A special word has to be said about the aesthetics of the game. They're almost worth the price of admission alone (even if the admission wasn't free!) I love that the creator passed over the standard polygon "realism" so run of the mill in today's games and chose instead a bold creative vision. It's both beautiful and fun. There's an element of self-mockery in the whole spy thing, but it never falls into cloying irony, which would have ruined the fun of it for me.
This short and sweet game is still a total winner. If you haven't yet checked it out, you definitely should. For both play and aesthetics alike it remains our number one choice among the best games for PC in the free category.
This two level game is short and sweet; you can play right through it in 20 minutes. Organized about missions, the first level in particular has a learning process built into the environment in a nice and efficient way. The game is downloaded as a zip file, requiring no installation. It uses about 20MB of disk space.
Fine and good, but why do I rave about it so, you might ask. The great fun in this game comes from both its experience-based playing method as well as its strikingly realized aesthetic world. Calling this a first-person game, while accurate, doesn't do justice to its originality. This one is kind of a new genre all of it own: bossa nova noir!
Ascribing a story to it is a bit tricky. There are certainly tasks and as you uncover and accomplish them, a unity emerges, but for all that, this game functions more as a work of slightly avant garde art: it's open to a lot of interpretation.
Just a few brief moments after starting, the player is injected right into the action. You discover yourself stepping off an elevator amid some sort of Euro-spy scene. Even as the elevator descends (which is kind of funny, down from where exactly are you coming?), you're aware of coming into dressed guests of some black tie cocktail party. The fete is spread out over a series of terraces overlooking breathtaking vistas of a mountain enveloped lake. A cool bossa nova sound track accompanies your meandering through the crowd of squares (inside joke). You're initial mission has already begun.
This first level is a quicker and simpler mission that really serves as a tutorial for the player to learn the game's world and rules. It is quickly completed. The second level is more testing and in some ways interesting -- but no less atmospheric. The mission here is more elaborate and complicated. Now, far from the sunny and broad vistas of the mountainside terrace, we find ourselves travelling through deserted corridors and across exterior catwalks on a stormy night.
Incidentally, one of my few complaints about this game is that I could have done without the clue cards. They at least should have been optional. On the first level I ignored the protruding card corner and simply wandered around the party. Eventually I stumbled upon the briefcase necessary to complete the mission. That was way more fun.
A special word has to be said about the aesthetics of the game. They're almost worth the price of admission alone (even if the admission wasn't free!) I love that the creator passed over the standard polygon "realism" so run of the mill in today's games and chose instead a bold creative vision. It's both beautiful and fun. There's an element of self-mockery in the whole spy thing, but it never falls into cloying irony, which would have ruined the fun of it for me.
This short and sweet game is still a total winner. If you haven't yet checked it out, you definitely should. For both play and aesthetics alike it remains our number one choice among the best games for PC in the free category.
About the Author:
If you have the scoop on the top pay games for PC, you have to check out Mickey Jhonny's picks of the best games for PC. Those keen on the joys of emersive, parallel worlds will love his piece over at Pretty Much Dead Already on the phenomenon of the Walking Dead Fanfiction .
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