Every week the Epic Games Store gives away a game or two for free. This week, they’re giving us a remaster of one of thee classic gaming experiences and a critically-acclaimed visual novel for free.
- System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster
- Release Date: June 26, 2025
- Game Type: FPS, boomer shooter, horror
- POV: 1st person
- Party: Single Player, co-op
- DLC: None.
System Shock 2 is one of those older games which is so absolutely iconic it basically serves as a lesson in the history of gaming. It established everything from narrative tropes to design language to mechanics that still serve as a backbone to modern horror and FPS and sci-fi games. The remaster was also quite well-received, smoothing out some of the pixels, but maintaining a retro feel in HD rather than making the derelicit ship and zombie corpses photorealistic. After all, what could possibly be scarier than the information from the software that lives between your ears?
- Buried Stars
- Release Date: November 29, 2021
- Game Type: Visual Novel
- POV: 3rd person
- Party: Single Player
- DLC: None
Buried Stars starts with a murder, and because you and all the suspects are trapped together, you have to solve the mystery before someone else gets murdered, too. Your choices make a difference as the visual novel unfolds. Not everyone will be getting out of this alive — obviously, since it stars off with a murder. Decide what to investigate in the collapsed building and which of the characters to trust, and what to post to social media. This is a very modern take on a classic closed room mystery, and it should be very fun if you’re into the visual novel format. And if not, hey, it’s free!