Escape from work with free, chilled-out adventure game Respite

(Image credit: klaiis, Luxiere)

Respite is a game about not doing very much. Really, it's a game about quietly meditating after something mildly dramatic has happened, first by dragging yourself out of bed, and then by watering the plants. The exact nature of the incident is something you'll piece together as you explore your home, but the gist is that you're overworked and overstressed, and that you snapped.

As you click your way around a nicely illustrated and pleasantly interactive flat, snippets of story will come to you, in the form of reminiscences from the main character, and also pointed notes left by your roommates before they left. It's a not a big game, but it is a refreshingly laid-back one that does a pretty good job of capturing a certain melancholy early-morning mood.

Will you take the day off, or throw yourself back into work? That's the decision you're presented with at the end of this small and sweet adventure game. (Thanks, Warp Door.)

For more great free experiences, check out our roundup of the best free PC games.

Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.