Free is always good. but in the gaming world it is hard to find a truly good game that is free with no catches. After all we are all capitalists, everyone wants paid ;-p But despite that Battle For Wesnoth is a true diamond in the rough! Wesnoth is a turn based strategy game with above par graphics for a free game. It comes with a range of campaigns to play through with varied game play and story lines along with the ability to download user generated campaigns, or even make your own with the intuitive map editor that comes with the game.
On top of that there is multiplayer with there own hosted servers and lobby (a rarity for multiplayer in free pc games) again with varied game play with downloadable user created multiplayer maps.
The game has a built in tutorial though rather short it teaches you the basics pretty well. The Game is pretty much focused around combat, there is only a very simple form of resource management that in tales capturing and controlling villages which is done by simply moving one of your units on top of the village. Though the resource management is very simplistic it is still very important, If you ignore this function you will quickly find yourself vastly out numbered.
There are several different races to play with there own selection of units, as well as strengths and weaknesses. The race you play is pre determined by the champaign in single player Though of course its open to choice in multiplayer.
As fun of a game as this is its not without its downfalls. One of the biggest problems I had with Wesnoth is its a little to random. Yes combat should have a random factor but its seems to be to prevalent in battle for Wesnoth, I could play a combat turn that would result very poorly for me then reload to the start of that turn, do everything exactly the same and have it turn out much differently.
Also some of the champagnes can be VERY difficult part of which I credit to the for mentioned randomness. You will likely find yourself reloading and replaying turns several times. Personally I enjoy a challenging game so this was a plus for me.
All in all a great free pc game with loads of things to do. plenty of fun to go around! so check it out.
