Story games you can play free online

A good story game does something a book cannot: it asks you what happens next, and then it listens. The good news is that some of the best ones are free and run in a browser, with nothing to install. The less good news is that searching for them turns up a lot of copies and clones. So here is a short list of story games that you can play free, online, from their makers’ own sites.

These are our picks, in no particular order. We checked the facts about each one; the sources are at the bottom.

The list

AJ Cities

Ours, so read this entry with that in mind. AJ Cities is a free open-world game in your browser, on a phone or a computer, for adults (18+). It is a story you walk around in.

The story belongs to AJ. He grew up in south London, never got his papers straight, and was deported to Lagos, a city he left at seven. Within days of landing he was swept up by police and held in a cell. Now he is two weeks back, broke, with Room 3 in a rooming house on June 12 Street, on the edge of Ajegunle.

Chapter 1 is played as missions, and your first steps go like this:

• A walk around the estate with Chuks, the old friend who cooks for the whole street. Every step can be skipped.
• Saying hello, properly, to Funke, the medical student at No. 5.
• Working as a ball boy at the street football in the bush, ₦1,000 a break, and betting that story money on the match.
• Borrowing the bush police’s shotgun for bottle practice, and giving it back.
• Paying Officer Sola and Officer Tunde at the north gate, a little at a time, until they have the ₦2,500,000 they want.

And at the end of the street, a purple sign over a club called Prizm, and its owner, the Warden, who has an errand for a man with a London accent. AJ’s back story comes out in conversation, not cutscenes: you talk to people and pick your answers.

There is a second way in, too. The website has the story written out: AJ’s Story in six chapters, from the raid in London to the night at Prizm, plus stories for the people around him, like the officers and the Warden. Read a chapter, then play it.

The Choice of Games catalogue

Choice of Games publishes interactive novels written in ChoiceScript, a simple language for choose-your-path stories that play in a web browser. The company says it has published more than 150 games across the web, Steam and its own apps, and that it makes its older back catalogue free to all readers. It also hosts games by other writers. If you like reading and choosing, start here.

A Dark Room

Michael Townsend made A Dark Room under the name Doublespeak Games, and released it for web browsers in 2013. It begins with a cold room and a fire, and almost nothing else. Then it grows. Saying more would spoil it. It is free in a browser; the phone versions are paid.

Kingdom of Loathing

Asymmetric Publications launched Kingdom of Loathing in browsers in 2003, and it is still free. It is a turn-based multiplayer RPG with stick-figure drawings and writing full of wordplay and parody. The story is mostly an excuse for jokes, and the jokes are good.

Torn

Torn is a text-based online RPG set in Torn City, a grim crime world where you build a life from scratch alongside other players. Its own site says it has no advertising and will always be free. The story here is the one you and the other players write.

How to pick

• Want to read? The Choice of Games catalogue.
• Want to be surprised? A Dark Room. Go in knowing nothing.
• Want to laugh? Kingdom of Loathing.
• Want other people in your story? Torn.
• Want a story you can walk around in, with characters who talk back, in a real city’s neighbourhood? AJ Cities.

Text or 3D?

Most free story games in a browser are text, and that is no bad thing: text loads fast, runs on any device and leaves room for your imagination. Choice of Games, A Dark Room, Kingdom of Loathing and Torn are all built that way. AJ Cities is the odd one out on this list, a 3D world of realistic people and a sky that follows the real Lagos sun, so it asks a little more of your phone. It was built phone first and with slow, low-data connections in mind, but if your device struggles, the text games above are a lovely place to start, and AJ’s story is there to read on the site.

A word on free

All of these are free to play, but free does not always mean nothing is for sale. Some sell extras or newer games. In AJ Cities the story costs nothing, and real money only ever buys optional tickets and shop items in the live multiplayer side; it cannot be withdrawn, and there is no real-money gambling. The betting in AJ’s story uses story money.

More to try: choose-your-story games for adults and story games with short chapters you can finish on a phone.

What story games can I play free in a browser?

Our picks include AJ Cities, the free back catalogue of Choice of Games, A Dark Room, Kingdom of Loathing and Torn. All run in a web browser.

Do I need to sign in to play AJ’s story?

No. AJ’s single-player story needs no sign-in. You sign in only for the live multiplayer side, which is 18+.

Can I read AJ’s story before playing?

Yes. The website has AJ’s Story in six chapters, plus stories for other characters such as the officers and the Warden.