Free PC Game Available Now To Celebrate Arkane Studios' 20th Anniversary (2025)

By Jenae Sitzes on May 29, 2020 at 10:14AM PDT

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Known for first-person shooters and action-adventure games like Prey and the Dishonored series, Arkane Studios is celebrating 20 years in the business by offering up some free digital goodies for fans, including a free PC copy of Arkane's first game, Arx Fatalis. To get the free game, all you have to do is sign up for the studio's "Arkane Outsiders" email list, which notifies subscribers about beta access and sneak peeks at upcoming games. You'll also get a free digital copy of "The Art of Arkane." Without signing up for anything, you can also nab some pretty cool digital wallpapers for free on the Arkane 20-year anniversary hub page.

There's not much time to take advantage of the offer, however. You have from now until May 31 at 7 AM PT / 10 AM ET to sign up and get Arx Fatalis for free. Please note this is a Bethesda.net PC copy of Arx Fatalis, so you'll need the free Bethesda launcher to install and play the game.

Released in 2002, Arx Fatalis is a first-person action-RPG set in a fantasy world called Arx where the sun has failed, forcing anyone who lived on the surface to retreat to underground caves, where it's still warm enough to live. Your character wakes up in a prison cell and, after making his escape, soon learns his mission is to take down the secret cult of Akbaa, a god of destruction threatening the underground world. GameSpot's Arx Fatalis review scored the game an 8.4/10 (back when we used an incremental point system instead of whole numbers), and the game still maintains a "Very Positive" rating on Steam.

"French developer Arkane Studios intended to pay homage to the classic early-'90s first-person role-playing game Ultima Underworld, but it has done much more than just imitate that game," wrote critic Greg Kasavin. "Arx Fatalis is entertaining and great looking, and it should especially appeal to fans of other atmospheric first-person games, including Thief: The Dark Project, System Shock 2, and Deus Ex, let alone this year's Morrowind. Though marred by some technical issues (many of which have already been addressed by patches) and at times confusing to navigate in, Arx Fatalis nevertheless delivers a memorable, original role-playing experience."

Arx Fatalis is only the latest free game in a long list of giveaways happening right now. Most recently, the Epic Games Store announced it's giving away Borderlands: The Handsome Collection for free for the next week, and a new Devolver Digital game just launched for free on Epic as well. Meanwhile, one of June's free PS Plus games, Call of Duty: WWII, is available to claim earlier than usual. See our full list of free games available now for all the latest giveaways.

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