7 Free Steam Games Better Than Expensive Blockbusters

Play Instead Of: Overwatch

Team-based first-person shooter: check. A large selection of eccentric, colourful playable characters: check. Balanced abilities encouraging team work: check. No, it's not Overwatch.

This is Paladins.

With almost 5.5 million downloads in its first week on Steam, Paladins has a huge online community that sees goblins, dragons, elves and golems battling it out with guns, bow and arrow and enormous mechs.

Inspired by Team Fortress 2, the player takes on a character from one of four classes.

'Front Line' are there to complete the objective, be it attacking or defending, and often have useful abilities to help the team.

'Damage' are best suited when deployed against other champions, with high-powered attack and high defense.

'Support' carry weapons and abilities to improve stats of the team, as well as healing or offering power-ups to the team.

Finally there is 'Flank' that rely on stealth and speed to get behind the enemy, be it to attack from the back, or steal an objective without anyone noticing.

Paladins has received some criticism lately from old-time players as anti-cheating software is now required to play, but this just shows how quickly the game is developing and how large the community is growing. It's fast, frantic, and a lot of fun - definitely worth a try before you buy something else.