Gamers love a lot of things in the world. They love good graphics, explosive gameplay and fascinating stories. But if there’s one thing a gamer loves more than anything, it’s a bargain. I’ve cobbled together some reviews for cheap-o games you can now grab either off Steam or your local game shop second-hand for less than £10! Open your wallets, ladies and gentlemen, we’re about to go Bargain Hunting!

Freedom Force: PC: Available on Steam for £2.99

A hidden gem, Freedom Force is a mix of RPG and strategy set in the hugely colourful realm of comic books. A complex and difficult game laced with a great sense of self-irony and parody of comic books we’ve grown to love, Freedom Force feels like Diablo meets Mystery Men in a game that was heavily praised in its time. Using spells and attacks in a real-time strategy perspective means devious tactics and frantic clicking are the order of the day here.

Justice! Freedom! Experience Points! All good reasons to fight with the force!

Modern Goggles

Sadly the game’s online doesn’t appear to work anymore, but a rather messy workaround fix does exists, though you’ll be hard pushed to find anyone using it. The graphics are noticeably blocky by today’s standards, but are also atheistical pleasing and the bright cartoon cut scenes run like a dream. The voice acting is sublime and the character creator, while rather limiting, is still a lot of fun. Currently there are plenty of decent mods out there, including skins of characters like Spider and Rorschach, as well as full-blown campaigns based on X-Men story lines.

Score: 8/10

Oddworld Pack: PC: Contains both Oddworld Abe’s Oddysee and Oddworld Abe’s Exoddus. Available on Steam for £7.99. Individual games also available on PSN for $9.99 each.

If anybody has seen my earlier reviews for this series they’ll know I am a huge fan of the, sadly now inactive, Oddworld Inhabitants studios. This pack takes two of their best games and rolls it into a cheap and delicious package ready to be devoured by the hungry gamer. In both 2d side-scrolling stealth titles, players take on the role of Abe, an alien known as a Muddoken with a fate beyond his comprehension. Interesting puzzles, fantastic black humour and a presentation value that would make Zelda blush, these games are stories worth playing, and the great art style and voice acting makes Oddworld come to life in visceral and very real way.

Perhaps a tad too odd for some peoples taste, but for someone like me, it's artistic heaven.

Modern Goggles

Oddworld doesn’t do too great on a big screen; its resolution is un-adjustable and will stretch rather unpleasantly over larger monitors. Regardless the cut scenes and overall art of the game manage to make up for this unfortunate aging issue. Other issues include a rather unfair save system in the first game (Oddysee) although this is fixed in the sequel (Exoddus). Cut scenes and sound outdo even games made today.

Score: 10/10 (as close to perfection as I’ve ever seen)

DEFCON: PC: Available on Steam for £5.99

An interesting game, the only way to win is to not play. Sound familiar? Inspired by the final scene in the film Wargames this strategy game throws you to the nuclear apocalypse and tells you to have fun. You are going to lose, but you’ve got to make sure you lose the least. Easy to understand but difficult to master, this game serves as a warning to us all about nuclear weapons. And is also quite fun. Sadly, the game isn’t exactly riveting and a slow start may put players off. Once the bombs are flying though, I learned to stop worrying and loved the bomb. A decent online mode pads out AI matches, although it’s disappointing to not see either a matchmaker or solid campaign mode.

Cold and chilling, DEFCON radiates atmosphere

Modern Goggles

Decisively simple graphics prevent aging and a slew of mods exist to take your war to new planets or keep it within a continent . Sound is also interesting, a slow ambient theme filled with crying. Creepy.

Score: 7/10

Crackdown: Xbox 360: Available at Gamestation for £7.99

Crackdown (soon to see a sequel this year) is an open world sandbox game that gives you superpowers and tells you to go have fun. After 3 hours, you’ll come back and ask how. Almost a beta of a game, Crackdown is a title with hundreds of features but nothing to do. You can climb buildings, drive cars, throw cars, destroy buildings, but you’ll never be required to do anything more than constantly hunt down gang leaders and kill them, something that involves nothing more than running somewhere and shooting.  Disappointing and bland, Crackdown is as hollow as an Easter egg, and like an Easter egg, left me feeling a little ill.

Explosions are always fun, right? Well...

Modern Goggles

A surprisingly pleasant art style is let down by a complete lack of story. Online co-op does exist, though to my knowledge you need a friend to also own it for it to work. Recent free downloadable packs have added a mode that allows you to unlock all powers from the get-go, making progressing through the non-existent story even more pointless.

Score: 4/10

So there’s your run-down of some of the real bargains and awful duds out there! Remember, watch your wallet and never turn a good game down!