Prison Architect and Godfall: Challenger Edition are free to keep from Epic
Until December 16th
The two latest games to be offered free to keep from the Epic Games Store couldn't be more different. In one corner, the grim management sim Prison Architect, in which you carefully house and profit from criminals. In the other corner, Godfall, an ARPG looter-shooter about looking fabulous and smashing monsters to bits.
Prison Architect was, the last time I played it, a fantastic game. It contains the satisfying construction and management of Theme Park and the dynamic, emergent behaviours of Dwarf Fortress. It also dealt with its heavy subject matter with appropriate but not suffocating seriousness. Is this praise still true after recent updates and DLCs? I'm not so sure, but I bet there remains a strong core. You can grab it for free from its Epic Games Store page.
Godfall is a stranger beast. From the creators of the excellent discontinued card game Duelyst, it's a co-op third-person action game with an aggressively gaudy aesthetic. Or as Alice B put it:
Godfall is epic, overwrought, sci-fi fantasy, so it's a lame nerd's idea of what is cool, and I love it. It's like the video this guy would make for a DragonForce video if he had unlimited budget. It is Lord Of The Rings via a Monster Hunter fashion Tumblr. It is the "tears in rain" speech from Blade Runner, but as if that was performed by Jareth the Goblin King in his castle of M.C. Escher stairs, twirling a handful of magic crystal balls. Oh my god, oh my god, it is Jupiter Ascending. Did you see that? The movie where Channing Tatum is a literal dog soldier but with wings, and Douglas Booth tries to marry Mila Kunis who is the reincarnation of his dead mum? It's that, it's that it's that.
Which sounds, honestly, pretty great. Alice liked the combat, too.
What's being offered for free is slightly complicated, however. Rather than Godfall as was released last year, this is Godfall Challenger Edition. It's a cut-down version of the game which offers three endgame modes and a taste of high-level loot, but not the full game. This same edition caused a fuss last week when it was offered for free to PlayStation Plus subscribers, who normally receive free versions of whole games. Godfall's developers denied that the Challenger Edition was a trial, saying that it a new limited-feature version that would normally cost £12/$15.
In any case, if you grab it for free and like it, you can currently grab the full edition for a discounted price, also via Epic.
Both Godfall Challenger Edition and Prison Architect are free to keep as long as you grab them anytime from now until December 16th.
Looking for more free games? Read our round-up of the latest free games on the Epic Games Store, as well as our list of the best free PC games you can play today. Want to take your free Epic games on the go? Then here's how to install the Epic Games launcher on your Steam Deck.