Steam Free Game Is a Retro-Fuelled Slice of Nostalgia

This new Steam game seems to be ticking all the boxes. It’s free, it looks decent, and I can’t see a single microtransaction in sight– so what’s the catch?

Uh, honestly? Unless I’m being stupid, I can’t see one. I think this might just be a good old fashioned free game that slaps. Bit of a rarity in the year of our lord 2025.

I write these free game articles a lot, and sadly there always is some kind of downside to them.

Steam is a bit of a cesspit when it comes to free stuff. Sure, you don’t have to pay anything to download said free games, but that’s usually because they’re either terrible or they have some kind of pay to win mechanic.

Every now and again though, we get a gem like Unchained; a boomer-shooter throwback by developer and publisher Double Time Studios.

I’ve looked up and down this Steam page, checked for any kind of developer update or a little asterix stating that the game is only going free-to-play for a short period of time and I can’t find anything.

Actually, now that I think about it, that’s kind of weird. Usually the developers at least brag about making it free somewhere.

Oh, and also, it’s apparently quite good. There aren’t many reviews on Steam for it at the moment, but I did a little digging and everyone seems to be having a fun time with it.

Either way, I’m not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth. I’m down for some simple, Quake-style PvP.

Here’s hoping that this little dev team charges for their next game, because if this is the type of effort they’re going to put into a game they’re not charging people for… imagine how good their next game could be if they plan to make some money off of it.