Steam Makes 8/10 2019 Hit Game Free To Keep Forever If You Download Before September 22

Published Sep 14, 2026, 8:48 AM EDT

Bruno Yonezawa is a Gaming Senior Writer for Screen Rant. He's been practicing professional journalism for over 10 years, and is also a communications specialist. He's played games all his life and turned that passionate hobby into a passionate career, in an industry where he's worked as a writer, editor, analyst, and more.

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An 8/10 game that was originally released in 2019 is now completely free on Steam, but you’ll need to move fast as the limited-time offer ends on September 22. Every so often, paid titles are made free on the popular gaming platform. Just recently, for example, Steam made five games entirely free to grab, though players only had until September 14 to obtain them. These offers come on top of the games that are released as free-to-play experiences on the platform. If you want to expand your library with options, you need to pay attention.

Now, the platform has made another title entirely free, but only until September 22. Available on Steam, the new free game is a casual puzzle game with a multiplayer mode that has you battle against others in tile-matching gameplay. The title is normally paid, but until September 22, you can grab it for free. Once you do so via the product page, the game will permanently join your library, and from there, you can download and play it at any given moment, provided it remains listed on Steam.

The new free game on Steam is called Crystal Crisis. Developed and published by Nicalis, Crystal Crisis is a tile-matching puzzle game, but instead of solving the challenges on your own, you’ll be battling against other characters and players, who are also solving their own puzzles. The idea is to get a better score than your opponent. You’ll control different characters, each of which has different abilities – the developers inform that there are 40 unique Burst skills to use. Some of them save you from defeat, while others mess with the opponent’s progress.

A pretty cool thing about Crystal Crisis is that its ensemble of characters includes crossover heroes. For example, you’ll be able to play with Quote and Curly Brace from Cave Story, Astro Boy and Black Jack from Tezuka Productions, and even Isaac from The Binding of Isaac, considered one of the best roguelikes of modern times. The game features a Story mode, an Arcade mode, a Survival mode, a Tag-team mode, and a Training mode, allowing you to tackle the puzzles the way you prefer.

Crystal Crisis has an 8/10 positive review score on Steam, meaning that the majority of its players have enjoyed their time with it. User Gnome says that it is “the ultimate puzzle fighter” game, mentioning that it “feels really smooth to play” and praising the indie crossover characters you can control.

Even if Crystal Crisis isn’t what you usually prefer, it is a great casual game option for those days you may not have the bandwidth to pay attention to a huge campaign’s story. Be sure to at least grab it for free on Steam before the offer ends and have it available in your library for whenever you feel like playing it.