Every week, the Epic Games Store allows players to download a selection of titles at absolutely no cost. At this very moment, the Epic Games Store’s March 5 free games are available, and they are the roguelike GoNNER and the real-time strategy game Offworld Trading Company. These two titles will be available until the morning of March 12, at which point they will be replaced by a new batch of free games, and indeed the Epic Games Store has now revealed exactly what this next set of games will be.

From March 12 to 19, fans will be able to download Anodyne 2: Return To Dust, A Short Hike, and Mutazione from the Epic Games Store without paying a dime. All three of these games were released just last year, making this a particularly strong week for the Epic Games Store’s free game promotion, and A Short Hike is perhaps the headliner of the bunch.

Primarily a game focused around exploration and relaxation, A Short Hike casts players in the role of Claire, an adorable bird, as she attempts to reach the top of a mountain. The path that fans take to reach the summit in A Short Hike is largely up to them, and the cute critters that can be encountered along the way are sure to delight anyone that is currently waiting for Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ release date to arrive.

Anodyne 2: Return to Dust, on the other hand, will have players trying to save the world from the danger that is Nano Dust. Mixing 3D overworld exploration with 2D dungeon crawling, Anodyne 2: Return to Dust is a good fit for fans of 2D The Legend of Zelda games, and its art style may indeed do the trick for players that remember the era of the PS1 and N64 fondly.

Finally there is Mutazione, an adventure game that developer Die Gute Fabrik describes as a “mutant soap opera.” In this title, players will get familiar with the community of Mutazione through the eyes of 15-year-old-Kai, interacting with the locals, attending cookouts, and more. Fans of games like Night in the Woods may find a lot to love in Mutazione, where “the juicy personal drama is just as important as the high-stakes adventure.”

Already in 2020, the Epic Games Store has given away some big-budget games, including Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and Kingdom Come: Deliverance. While this week’s offerings are smaller, indie games, it is still a very strong showing, and it will be exciting to see what the Epic Games Store follows up with in the weeks to come.

Source: Epic Games Store