The Epic Games Store's free game policy is continuing through to August, alongside its Summer Sale. When the sale ends on August 5, the free games currently offered will switch as well. These upcoming titles follow the store's recent trend of offering high-value games for free alongside some indie games that really stand out. Despite the store's policy costing it huge amounts of money, it fulfils the strategy of onboarding as many customers as possible.
After the current games leave the store on August 5, both A Plague Tale: Innocence and Speed Brawl will release for free on the Epic Games Store. These games are two radically different experiences, but both make for very compelling free offerings for the store. While A Plague Tale: Innocence released to widespread critical success in 2019, Speed Brawl is a more recent 2D combat-racer that launched in April 2021. Both games are making their Epic Games Store debut in August, following the trend of titles launching for the first time for free on the storefront.
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Until August 5, Train Sim World 2 and Mothergunship are free on the Epic Games Store. Train Sim World 2 allows players to get a handle on the chaos of the British railway system. Its organizational focus can be chaotic or frustrating, all dependent on what difficulty and location the player chooses. Whatever the case, it stands as a polar opposite to Mothergunship, where players embark on a first-person shoot-em-up to stop an alien invasion. It's not all action, however, as the game has a crafting system allowing for weapon customization and creation. Both titles offer a lot of player agency, with unique options available for traversing the often-chaotic plots.
A Plague Tale: Innocence has been free a lot recently. Asobo Studio's 2019 cinematic action-adventure game delves deep into a fraught but touching tale of two siblings hunted by a ruthless inquisition. Not only that, but the brother and sister have to contend with swarms of rats that devour and infect all in their paths. While the game is gorgeous and mechanically satisfying, what really sets it apart is its story.
The game showcases some incredible performances from voice actors Charlotte McBurney and Logan Hannon as Amicia and Hugo, respectively. Especially in a high- profile game (A Plague Tale: Innocence passed one million sales in 2020), it is good to see two younger, lesser-known voice actors get a chance to shine. The believability of Amicia and Hugo's portrayals, coupled with some great character writing, make A Plague Tale: Innocence one of the best single-player games of recent years.
While the game's single-player story was solid, it is also not finished. The sequel, A Plague Tale: Requiem, is coming in 2022, and will pick up where the first game left off. As such, now is a great time to pick up the original 2019 title. Getting A Plague Tale: Innocence while it is free on the Epic Games Store would give players ample time to catch up before its sequel launches, especially considering A Plague Tale: Innocence takes just 15 hours to beat.
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On a completely different note to the tense and foreboding atmosphere of A Plague Tale: Innocence is Speed Brawl. It is also set in a version of Europe from yesteryear, as Speed Brawl inhabits 1888 London among an industrializing Victorian England. This setting is realized with pristine 2D graphics and animation, and employs a crisp, colorful, and cartoony art style to brilliant effect. It eschews the pixel art approach of other 2D shooters like Blaster Master Zero 3, and Speed Brawl's aesthetics lend themselves well to its fast pace, keeping everything distinct and clear on screen while the high-speed mayhem goes past.
Players can choose from six different Victorian brawlers in the game. Alongside that, they can engage in the game's online multiplayer – which allows players to play through the campaign with others, much like the campaign co-op in Hidden Deep. Unlike Hidden Deep, Speed Brawl offers over 50 unique events that transpire over the various Speed Brawl leagues, and players can customize abilities throughout the game to fit those particular challenges.
Much like Bloodborne areas inspired by real places, Speed Brawler remixes Victorian London in an interesting way. It takes the pre-industrialization era of British history and breaks it up with a dynamic comic lens. In Speed Brawl, the citizens of London defeated a force of invading aliens called the Selenites ten years prior to the game's events. This is not just window dressing, the presence of these aliens completely alters the setting of Speed Brawl. The central political and economic pressures in Victorian London were largely driven by labor concerns. In a rapidly-shifting and industrializing society, the type of work that drove an economy, and who did that work, was front and center.
The citizens in Speed Brawl have a solution to the labor problem: put the enslaved Selenites to work. Having an enslaved group doing all of the labor has some problematic connotations, but in the world of Speed Brawl it has led to a restless middle and working class with no hard labor. This builds into the main conceit of Speed Brawl, where these discontented classes compete in an annual brawl-race against each other and the captured Selenites. Overall, it serves as an interesting satire on the nature of work and industry that might not be expected from such a cartoony game.
A Plague Tale: Innocence and Speed Brawl will be free on the Epic Games Store on August 5.
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