Are you searching for an expedition through the world of Hidden Object Games (HOG)? This dynamic and fascinating puzzle genre is synonymous with Windows games, and it's part of the library of free download games on our site.
Sometimes called seek-and-find or hidden picture games, Hidden Object Games provide challenging gameplay in secret places, allowing interaction in diverse settings like rooms and landscapes. The objective is to correctly identify hidden things from a predetermined list meticulously camouflaged inside the game's stunning visuals.
In this PC game, you have total control over the landscapes to create the botanical masterpiece of your dreams, reflecting your style. It's your creative haven for PC entertainment without spending a cent; we'll offer you this and other free PC games!
Gardenscapes is a fascinating adventure with tricky riddles that will test your brainpower. In this game, you play as a master designer who transforms abandoned locations into stunning landscapes. It's a lovely combination of hidden object problems and landscape design, with each level offering twists, turns, and tricky obstacles to keep you guessing.
Enter the exciting world of "Mysteries of the Undead," where you assume the role of a virologist and famous scientist conducting a paranormal investigation. You're invited to a strangely infectious island where you learn about the horrifying history of a people who believed that a demonic force was the source of the human-zombie transformation.
Dive into the enchanting realm of The Witch's Green Amulet, one of our top Windows games for those searching for free PC games in the HOG genre. Players must travel to a mystical environment to retrieve a powerful amulet while solving puzzles and discovering hidden artifacts.
Embark on an intriguing adventure with Magic Academy, a hidden treasure in our selection of free PC games. Here, you'll go on a magical journey to the academy, where expert teachers lead you to study spells to remove barriers, reveal hidden stuff, and see into the future.
The intriguing journey starts when you learn that your sister has vanished out of the blue. This event triggers an investigation, leading you through a mystical and magical world. As you navigate the academy, your main goal is to discover the mysteries, solve the puzzles, and eventually locate your sister. Prepare yourself for an enigmatic encounter that blends the fascination of mystical spells with the excitement of discovery.
Are you ready for an adventure? Download these captivating Hidden Object Games for free on your Windows computer! Enjoy the pleasure of the games, test your ability to soak up information, and lose yourself in fascinating stories.
Strategy games is an enormous genre in PC gaming, with real-time, turn-based, 4X and tactics games all flying the same flag to stake their claim as the one true best strategy game. Our list of the best strategy games on PC covers the lot of them. We like to take a broad view here at RPS, and every game listed below is something we firmly believe that you could love and play today. You'll find 30-year-old classics nestled right up against recent favourites here, so whether you're to the genre or want to dig deep for some hidden gems, we've got you covered. Here are our 50 best strategy games for 2023.
In our list, we've mainly focused on strategy games about commanding troops of some kind, so if it's settlement or colony sim games you're after, then have a read of our best management games list. A handful of strategy games here do involve a bit of building, but there's no football management or spaghetti junctions. And if your favourite doesn't make the cut, please know it was number 51. If nothing else, it gives you a good excuse to tell us all about it in the comments below. You can also check out our readers' favourite strategy games of all time as well.
Finally, we've selected some of our top strategy highlights in the video above, too, if you prefer lists with a bit more audio visual flair. Our video ranking doesn't match this written list exactly, all told, but they're all games we'd recommend playing in a heartbeat.
As soon as Amplitude announced their big historical 4X game, it was inevitable that comparisons would be drawn to the Civilization series. But Humankind is so much more than just a riff on Sid Meier's classic strategy franchise. Yes, there are several different technological ages to play through, but the most tantalising aspect of Humankind is how you can graft different cultures together to accumulate all manner of different perks and effects. Onscreen, that can mean having Japanese pagodas nestling right up to Mayan pyramids and Italian opera houses. In all, there are one million potential civilisation builds in Humankind, and it is absolutely thrilling.
At times, it's almost more puzzle game than 4X, giving it a distinctly different flavour to Civilization. With so many different combinations to sift through and take into account, it can be a little overwhelming in early playthroughs, but the way you can redefine your entire game plan on the fly, pivoting money-making dynamos into diplomatic powerhouses and research giants is also Humankind's greatest masterstroke. If you're tired of Civ, this is a very worthy heavyweight alternative.
Company Of Heroes made World War II seem like new territory. It manages to marry the humanity of Band of Brothers with the ingredients of an RTS. Even as you send fresh troops into battle, replacing a squad who just died on a fool's errand of your own making, Company Of Heroes makes you believe that every soldier counts for something. That's partly due to the detailed depictions that the Essence Engine make possible, but it's also down to the careful pacing of the missions.
Has any RTS game handled both the calm and the storm as well as Company Of Heroes? Even when combat begins, there's usually a peppering of shots toward cover before casualties occur, and Relic ensure that you have time to react as a situation develops. Even though those soldiers are just pixels on a screen, don't be surprised if you find yourself making tactical choices that ensure their survival rather than the quickest possible route to success. The newest entry in the series, Company Of Heroes 3 is also well worth a look, too, but for us, the original still just about pips it to the post. Just.
1992's Frank Herbert-adapting Dune 2 is the great grandparent of the real-time strategy game as we know it now, but a pleasant play experience today it most certainly is not. That's where Dune 2 Legacy comes in, an open source project that reworks Westwood Studio's Dune 2 into a new framework, giving it a more modern interface and graphical sensibilities.
The world has, of course, moved on since Houses Atreides, Harkonen and Ordos first went to war for control of the Spice of Arrakis, but a combination of straightforwardness, excellent vehicle, creature designs and devious treats such as the now-rare likes of stealing enemy buildings lends it a timelessly lurid charm. For a more modern Dune experience, Dune: Spice Wars is currently shaping up very nicely indeed in early access.
DEFCON is the strategy game most likely to make you wake up in a cold sweat. It's an abstract simulation of thermo-nuclear war, in which the tension rises along with the DEFCON level, and frantic deals lead to bitter betrayal. It's a game in which people are reduced to numbers (and ashes). Scores are measured in megadeaths inflicted and, in the default setting, causing a megadeath on an opponent's territory is worth two points while losing a million citizens in your own territory only loses one point. The value of life.
The first of many Warhammer games on our best strategy games list, 40K: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters takes that classic XCOM formula, pumps it full of Gears Tactics protein shakes and chucks it into deep space for some dark fantasy plague-stomping. You play as a team of beefy Grey Knights in this chaotic tactics game, working to rid the galaxy of the terrible Bloom, which is slowly being spread across the stars by the agents of everyone's favourite god pal Nurgle. While cover still plays an important role here, these Knights play best when you're slicing off appendages up close and personal thanks to its Precision Targeting system, making them about as far as you can get from XCOM's squishy humans. The Bloom is constantly throwing new battle conditions into the mix, too, with enemies mutating and developing extra traits and buffs every couple of turns. If variety is the spice of life, this will definitely make your eyes water.
It doesn't let up between missions, either. Away from combat, there's also a compelling strategy layer of fixing up your damaged ship and researching further boons and bonuses, giving you plenty to think about on and off the battlefield. It's also just received the brilliant Duty Eternal expansion, which adds a giant mech lad to your party and lots more besides. Altogether, Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters is a thrilling mix, and most importantly, pokes enough fun at its own lore to make it approachable to non-Warhammer heads as well.
One of the best superhero games you'll likely ever play, Marvel's Midnight Suns is frothy, fast-paced fun. Made by the same minds behind XCOM and XCOM 2, Midnight Suns brings its hero characters out from cover and puts them front and centre, its card-based battle system and interactive combat arenas offering up loads of tactical opportunities for proper comic book power moments. It also has a substantial RPG element to dig into between missions, giving you a window into what drives these superheroes, and what other issues they're dealing with, as the story progresses. Even if the MCU at large has ground you down over the years, Midnight Suns' playful writing makes these characters feel fun and fresh again, too.
But it's the card battles that really make Midnight Suns sing, and gradually honing your individual hero decks into the ultimate goon crushing machine satisfies all the same synapses in your brain as giving your XCOM squad the perfect loadout. Crucially, every hero has been designed to make you feel cool and powerful, with brilliantly choreographed moves and specials that amp up the smug factor to no end. It feels good biffing Hydra drones into cranes and seething hellpits, as it should do when you're playing as a bunch of powerful superheroes. That doesn't mean Midnight Suns is a pushover, though. Far from it, as its waves of swelling enemy ranks can attest. But that feeling of finally clearing them all out, while also dropping a crane on their head and shoving the rest into exploding barrels and live electrical boxes? It'll make you want to pump your own fists straight into the air.
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