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Four games that need no installer
for the hours the press stays clamped

A book in the standing press cannot be hurried, which leaves a good while with nothing to do but wait. These four free-to-play games fill that gap neatly, because not one of them asks you to download, patch or install a thing: you open a tab, register, and you are playing inside a minute. Between them you get a dark-fantasy hero to level, an empire to command, a farm to tend and a city to raise on a shared map.

Drakensang Online key art
01 · Dark-fantasy action RPG

Drakensang Online

Pick a class, then fight your way through a gloomy fantasy kingdom in real time, clicking to move and to strike. Gear drops steadily, builds branch as your character levels, and the tougher dungeons are meant to be cleared with three or four other players alongside you.

Good for
Anyone who misses hacking through dungeons and watching a character sheet fill up.
Typical session
30 to 45 minutes
Where it runs
Desktop browser
Cost
Free to play, with optional purchases inside the game.
Your first session
  1. Try two classes in the opening hour; they play very differently and switching later means starting again.
  2. Pick up every piece of gear at first, because selling the spares pays for your early upgrades.
  3. Look for a guild as soon as one will take you, since the group dungeons are where the better gear lives.
Open Drakensang Online, free to playOpens drakensang.com in a new tab
Total Battle key art
02 · Empire tactics at the table

Total Battle

Grow a walled city, fill it with production and barracks, then march what you have built onto a map shared with everyone else playing. Battles are resolved on a tactical grid where unit matchups matter, and monsters on the map give you something to fight long before any neighbour does.

Good for
Strategists who want a map to argue over and sums worth doing.
Typical session
A few short visits each day
Where it runs
Desktop browser, with a mobile app as well
Cost
Free to play, with optional purchases inside the game.
Your first session
  1. Push your resource buildings up before your barracks; an army with nothing to eat goes nowhere.
  2. Clear the map monsters for rewards while your walls are still low and nobody has noticed you.
  3. Read what each unit beats before committing an army, as the matchups decide most fights.
Open Total Battle, free to playOpens totalbattle.com in a new tab
Farmerama key art
03 · Cheerful farming sim

Farmerama

A bright, silly little farm world where you sow fields, harvest them, keep animals and slowly decorate the place into something of your own. Orders and seasonal happenings give you small goals to aim at, and nothing in it ever raises its voice.

Good for
Anybody who wants ten quiet minutes and a tidy row of carrots.
Typical session
10 to 15 minutes
Where it runs
Desktop browser
Cost
Free to play, with optional purchases inside the game.
Your first session
  1. Sow crops whose timers finish around the hour you expect to be back at the desk.
  2. Clear the orders before expanding, because they fund the next field far faster than anything else.
  3. Keep a corner of the farm empty for the buildings that only unlock later on.
Open Farmerama, free to playOpens farmerama.com in a new tab
Tentlan key art
04 · City building in Mesoamerica

Tentlan

Raise a city in a lush Mesoamerican world, balancing stone, food and workers while temples and terraces go up around you. Expansion comes by degrees across a living map, and the game rewards a plan you return to rather than anything resembling a quick tap.

Good for
Patient planners who like a game that never nags.
Typical session
A few minutes at a time
Where it runs
Desktop browser, with a mobile app as well
Cost
Free to play, with optional purchases inside the game.
Your first session
  1. Get your food supply comfortably ahead of your population before anything else goes up.
  2. Queue the longest build you can afford just before you close the tab for the night.
  3. Introduce yourself to an alliance early; their advice is worth more than any single building.
Play Tentlan freeOpens int.tentlan.com in a new tab

Four tabs compared at a glance

Drakensang OnlineTotal BattleFarmeramaTentlan
GenreDark-fantasy action RPGEmpire tactics at the tableCheerful farming simCity building in Mesoamerica
PaceReal-time combat, click to moveRolling real timeGentle and timer-ledSlow and deliberate
Playing alongside othersGuilds and co-operative dungeonsClans sharing one living mapFriendly co-operativesAlliances drawn across one shared map
Typical session30 to 45 minutesA few short visits each day10 to 15 minutesA few minutes at a time
Where it runsDesktop browserDesktop browser, with a mobile app as wellDesktop browserDesktop browser, with a mobile app as well
CostFree to play, with optional purchases inside the game.Free to play, with optional purchases inside the game.Free to play, with optional purchases inside the game.Free to play, with optional purchases inside the game.

What no download actually means

You will not install anything. Each of these four runs inside the browser you already have, which is why a borrowed laptop or a locked-down work machine is usually no obstacle at all.

Each studio does keep a shop inside its game, selling premium currency, ornaments and timer skips. None of it is needed to play properly, and plenty of people never touch it. Where a computer is shared with children, set the spending controls on the studio account before handing it over.

The first quarter of an hour

Follow the link under any game and its official site opens in a fresh tab. Register there, which usually means an email address and a password, and the world loads in the same window moments later.

Give the opening tutorial your full attention on that first visit. All four introduce resources, timers and co-operation in a deliberate order, and skipping ahead only means relearning it awkwardly a week later.

Fitting one around a working day

These games keep their own time. Fields ripen, armies march and buildings finish whether or not the tab is open, which makes two brief visits a day a perfectly respectable way to play.

Short visits are for the housekeeping: gather what has finished, start the next job and reply to your alliance or co-operative. Save the decisions that actually matter, like a new district or a push across the map, for an evening when you are not watching the clock.

Looking after four separate logins

Every account sits with its own studio, never with us, so type the password only on that studio's own pages. Give each game a password of its own and switch on any extra sign-in step offered.

No genuine member of a support team will ever ask you for a password, whether in a game chat, a forum reply or an email. Anyone promising free premium currency for a login is only after the account.

Why these four stay in the bookmarks bar

  • Not one of them has an installer, a launcher or a patcher. A browser tab is the whole of what you need.
  • Registering is free and nothing has to be paid later; the in-game shops sell decoration and shortcuts, never access.
  • All four carry on quietly with the tab closed, so even a five-minute look moves something along.
  • Each has been running for years under a studio that still updates it, and the servers are busy at most hours.

None at all. The four of them open in an ordinary desktop browser and begin the moment you have registered, with no launcher and no patching to sit through.

No. Registering and playing are free in every case, and each shop holds optional extras rather than anything that gates the game.

They are not. Four separate studios build and run them, and our buttons simply open each official site so you can register there.

No. Each studio handles its own sign-up, so expect four registrations and four passwords.

Total Battle and Tentlan read perfectly well on a tablet, and each of the two publishes a phone app besides, which you are welcome to ignore. Farmerama and Drakensang Online have no app behind them and would much rather you brought a keyboard and a mouse.

Farmerama, for the gentlest start by a wide margin. Drakensang Online if you would rather be swinging something heavy within a minute.

Plenty. Timers run on and standing orders are carried out regardless, which is why looking in twice a day keeps you level in all four.