Games you can start in minutes
The games worth your evening, ranked and reviewed: what each one is really like to play, and what it asks for along the way.
This month’s top three
The full five, with the scoring, is on the browser games list.
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Our top pick
Browser game
A hero-collection role-playing game that runs in a browser tab. Free to play, with optional purchases.
- Levels heroes rather than buildings
- Hands you a full team before it asks anything
- Runs on a laptop that struggles with the rest
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Downloadable game
A turn-based collection role-playing game with several hundred champions. Free to play, with optional purchases.
- Free champions carry further than they should
- Turn based, so a slow connection costs nothing
- Auto-battle clears the farming you have beaten
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Windows only
A real-time strategy game: grow one city into an empire on a shared map. Free to play, with optional purchases.
- Lead a civilisation from a single city to an empire
- Real-time battles on one shared world map
- Needs a client on desktop, and says so
Latest reviews
What a game is actually like after fourteen hours, not after the trailer.
World of Tanks: HEAT
Fast 5v5 and 10v10 tank battles with hero commanders and special abilities. Free to play, with optional purchases.
Star Trek Fleet Command
Space strategy: build a fleet crewed by officers from every Star Trek series. Free to play, with optional purchases.
World of Sea Battle
An open-world naval game: sail, trade and fight with age-of-sail ships you crew. Free to play, with optional purchases.
Reading
Guides and explainers that are not a list.
The best games for a laptop that struggles with everything
What actually slows an older machine, and which browser games run well on one.
Free to play without the wall: what to look for
The four ways a free game asks for money, and how to tell in the first session which one you are in.
What makes a browser game worth returning to
What separates a browser game worth returning to from one that is a menu with a currency attached.
Before you start
The questions that arrive by email, answered in a line each.
Are these games really free?
Free to start and free to keep playing. All of them sell optional items; none ask for a card to open an account.
Do I need to download anything?
Mostly not. Most of what is listed here opens straight in a browser tab, and where an entry needs a client or an app, its page says so.
Which one should I start with?
A city builder if you want something to plan, a hero collector if you want ten-minute sessions, a puzzle game if you want five minutes that needs no plan. Each review says which is which.
Will they run on an old laptop?
Most will. A flat, turn-based game asks almost nothing of the hardware, and the guide on low-spec machines covers the three settings that make the difference.
Are any of them pay to win?
At the top of a ranked season, the collection games are. Below that, money buys speed rather than access, and each review names the point where that changes.
How is this site funded?
By affiliate commission from some of the games listed. Commission can influence which games are listed and in what order; it never buys a score. It is disclosed above every list.