Free games like The Thing That Happened
Below are 8 free-to-play Steam games similar to The Thing That Happened, ranked by player overlap and content similarity. No purchase or Steam login required to view the list. Every pick is a full free-to-play title — not a demo, trial, or time-limited giveaway. imho.run's catalogue refreshes daily, so newly free or newly popular titles surface here without manual editing.
Want the full alternatives list (paid + free + Steam Deck + cheaper picks)? See the parent games like The Thing That Happened page.
Ranked picks
- 1
Life is Strange - Episode 1
Free-to-play alternative to The Thing That Happened — no purchase or trial window. Shares Action and Adventure with The Thing That Happened.
Episode 1 now FREE! Life is Strange is an award-winning and critically acclaimed episodic adventure game that allows the player to rewind time and affect the past, present and future.
- 2
ENA: Dream BBQ
Free-to-play alternative to The Thing That Happened — no purchase or trial window. Shares Indie and Adventure with The Thing That Happened.
Experience surreal environments and inexplicable characters as ENA in a new wild world.
- 3
Indigo Park: Chapter 1
Free-to-play alternative to The Thing That Happened — no purchase or trial window. Shares Action and Indie with The Thing That Happened.
Explore the abandoned childhood wonder of Indigo Park! Guided by Rambley the Raccoon, help restore power to the destroyed amusement park while you run from the reason it shut down.
- 4
STRAFTAT
Free-to-play alternative to The Thing That Happened — no purchase or trial window. Shares Action with The Thing That Happened.
STRAFTAT is a 1v1/2v2 ONLINE first person SHOOTER with quick rounds in over 350 MAPS ; Including all WEAPONS, proximity chat and 4 players FFA.
- 5
Sheepy: A Short Adventure
Free-to-play alternative to The Thing That Happened — no purchase or trial window. Shares Indie and Adventure with The Thing That Happened.
A Short Handcrafted Pixel Art Platformer that follows Sheepy, an abandoned plushy brought to life. Sheepy: A Short Adventure is the first short game from MrSuicideSheep.
- 6
![UNBEATABLE [white label] — Steam game cover](https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/1290490/header.jpg?t=1736770503)
UNBEATABLE [white label]
Free-to-play alternative to The Thing That Happened — no purchase or trial window. Shares Action and Indie with The Thing That Happened.
A young girl learns a song. An exclusive side-story set in the world of D-CELL GAMES' upcoming rhythm-adventure.
- 7
The Lab
Free-to-play alternative to The Thing That Happened — no purchase or trial window.
Welcome to The Lab, a compilation of Valve’s room-scale VR experiments set in a pocket universe within Aperture Science. Fix a robot, defend a castle, adopt a mechanical dog, and more. Still not sold? It’s free!
- 8
Control, I'm Not Coming Back
Free-to-play alternative to The Thing That Happened — no purchase or trial window. Shares Indie and Adventure with The Thing That Happened.
Control, I'm Not Coming Back is a short and emotional narrative game about a lost astronaut searching for a reason to keep going forward while facing the emptiness of space. Inspired by the Hopecore aesthetic, it’s a story about positivism, friendship and our human connection with Voyager 1.