0 A.D.
Ancient warfare, stunningly rendered, forever free.
The PlayBound Bar
0 A.D. clears all five. It is formally still in alpha, but it has been comfortably playable and content-complete for years, and its production values match commercial historical strategy games that charge full price.
Genuinely free
No trial, no paywalled campaign, no pay-to-win, no cosmetic treadmill. Free means free, forever.
Finished enough to enjoy
Playable and satisfying start to finish today — not a promising alpha you should check back on.
Actively maintained
A release or meaningful commit within the last twelve months. Someone is still looking after it.
Stands on its own merits
Good enough that we would recommend it even if it cost money. Free is not the reason it is here.
Won't disappear
Open-source or self-hostable, so no shutdown, delisting or licence expiry can take it away from you.
0 A.D. last verified against the bar on . Read the full standard →
About 0 A.D.
0 A.D. is the answer to a question people ask constantly and rarely get a good response to: is there a free Age of Empires?
Yes, and it looks better than you expect. 0 A.D. is a historical real-time strategy game set between 500 BC and 500 AD, with more than a dozen fully realised civilisations — Athenians, Spartans, Romans, Carthaginians, Persians, Mauryans, Han Chinese and others — each with distinct units, buildings and architectural styles researched from historical sources. The art direction is genuinely impressive: this does not look like a volunteer project, it looks like a game somebody shipped.
Mechanically it sits squarely in the Age of Empires tradition. You gather four resources, build an economy on villager labour, advance through three phases of technology, and eventually field an army large enough to break someone's walls. Matches are long. The build-up is the point, and if you found Age of Empires II too slow you will find this slower.
The multiplayer lobby is functional and populated, though there is no ranked matchmaking service in the way OpenRA has a ladder. Where 0 A.D. genuinely excels is skirmish play against its AI, which is competent enough to be interesting, and the random map generator, which produces varied and playable terrain.
The honest caveat is the alpha label. Development has been slow and occasionally interrupted, and the project has been in alpha for over a decade. In practice this affects almost nothing — the game is stable and complete enough that the version number is closer to a philosophical position than a warning.
Why we picked it
There is a specific kind of disappointment in wanting Age of Empires and finding only shallow clones. 0 A.D. is not that. The historical research is real, the art is beautiful, and the economy has the same satisfying rhythm as the game it descends from. It is the most visually accomplished free game we list, and it charges nothing.
Who it's for
Great if you want
- Anyone who wants Age of Empires without paying for it
- Long, methodical matches where the build-up matters most
- Skirmish play against competent AI
- Players who care about historical detail and architecture
- Anyone who wants a free game that does not look free
Look elsewhere if
- You want fast matches — games here regularly run past an hour
- You have limited disk space, since it is a 3 GB install
- You want ranked matchmaking, which has no official service
- You are troubled by a formal alpha label, even a long-stable one
Features
System Requirements
Minimum
2.5 GHz dual-core CPU · 4 GB RAM · 1 GB VRAM GPU · 5 GB storage
Recommended
3.5 GHz quad-core CPU · 8 GB RAM · 2 GB VRAM GPU · 6 GB storage
Frequently asked questions about 0 A.D.
Is 0 A.D. free?
Yes, entirely. 0 A.D. is open-source under GPL-2.0 with no purchase, subscription or in-game spending of any kind. It is funded by donations to Wildfire Games.
Is 0 A.D. finished?
It is formally in alpha and has been for over a decade, but it is stable, feature-rich and content-complete in practice. Most players will not encounter anything that feels unfinished. The label reflects the project's own standards rather than the actual play experience.
Is 0 A.D. better than Age of Empires II?
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition has more civilisations, a ranked matchmaking service and decades of balance refinement. 0 A.D. has better visuals in places, deeper historical detail, and costs nothing. If you already own AoE2 it remains the more polished competitive game; if you do not, 0 A.D. is a genuine alternative rather than a compromise.
How many civilisations does 0 A.D. have?
More than a dozen playable civilisations spanning 500 BC to 500 AD, including Athenians, Spartans, Macedonians, Romans, Carthaginians, Persians, Mauryans, Kushites, Gauls, Britons, Iberians, Seleucids, Ptolemies and Han Chinese.
Does 0 A.D. have multiplayer?
Yes, with an in-game lobby for finding and hosting matches. There is no official ranked ladder, but casual and organised multiplayer both happen regularly.
What are 0 A.D.'s system requirements?
A 2 GHz dual-core CPU, 4 GB of RAM and an OpenGL 2.1 GPU as a minimum, with roughly 3 GB of disk space. Large late-game battles benefit noticeably from a faster CPU.
