On the subject of mobile entertainment, there has been a very significant shift to online gaming. Some of these games are quite entertaining and fun to play, however the caveat is that we must be connected in order to play them. Online gaming offers an advantage to the company in the shape of piracy protection, however to the gamer it reduces mobility. Despite expanding connectivity around the world, there is a lot to be said about offline games. You install them once and play them to your heart’s content, regardless of connection status. Following is a list of the best offline games for android.
Note: Each listed game has a trailer on its respective play store download link. Do check those out before making any purchases.
1. Framed
Framed is multi award-winning game, and for good reason. The puzzle game is set in a noir environment with a comic book art style. You are supposed to help the protagonist escape from the police for a crime he was wrongly accused of. The concept is pretty old, but the execution is unique. Each event relies on a number of comic like panels, each with its own sequence of actions. The event plays out on each panel from left to right. Your job is to arrange those panels in an order that lets your character escape unharmed.
Framed is visually stunning and fantastic to play and we cannot recommend it enough.
Buy Framed ($2.99)
2. Leo’s Fortune
Leo’s fortune is a side-scrolling platform game. You are Leo, a green ball of fuzz with a glorious mustache trying to get from one end of the level to another as quickly as possible. The game mechanics are simple; tap and hold on the screen to go faster and release to launch. As the levels proceed, the puzzles get more complex and you have to make split second decisions at high speeds to avoid falling.
The gameplay is similar to the classic Sonic on SEGA, however the art style is so beautifully done that you’d be excused for thinking you’re watching an animated movie. This game is both entertaining to play and gorgeous to look at.
Buy Leo’s Fortune ($4.99)
3. The Room trilogy
The Room is the truest application of the puzzle genre, to date. The game is you looking for someone by solving the mystery of their disappearance. You come across various objects lying around a room. Every object has a series of puzzles you must solve.
You have to look around the room to find items to unlock objects, align surfaces, create shadows, crack safes, et al. to unlock every little mystery that brings you closer to your answer. Each game is more complex than the last, and each gets increasingly more gorgeous.
Buy The Room ($0.99)
Buy The Room Two ($1.99)
Buy The Room Three ($3.99)
4. Grand Theft Auto (GTA) Series
We have talked about this series once before. This is a legendary game series with hundreds of awards and billions in sales. GTA has always set the benchmark for open world (free to roam) sandbox (make your own adventure/world) games. Grand Theft Auto originated as a top down shooter, which later found life as a third person shooter/driving simulator. Since then, each iteration of the game has increased in innovation over a layer of a carefully crafted storyline, amazing dialogue, hilarious character and detailed settings.
There is no finer incarnation of the genre than GTA San Andreas. You have four gigantic locations that you can traverse via highways, rivers, or air using every vehicle you can imagine. As far as offline games are concerned, if you are a completionist, expect to spend hundreds of hours trying to span this game.
Buy GTA Vice City ($4.99)
Buy GTA San Andreas ($6.99)
5. Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic
This is a classic RPG in every sense. The game’s storyline is iconic, the mechanics and visuals, though dated still enjoy legendary status in the gaming community. Knights of The Old Republic is set thousands of years before the events of the Star Wars movies. The story begins in a ship under attack, your job is to escape from it with a fellow passenger. The Star Wars universe truly comes to life in this game as you meet various life forms with their own agendas and stories, and meet new characters who either become enemies or teammates. You visit fabled planets, solve mysteries crafting your own story, which is made all the more epic when the light sabers come out and force powers make an appearance.
This is not going to feature groundbreaking graphics or life altering gameplay, but it’s still very playable, especially for a 14 year old game.
If you have not yet played this game, you owe it to yourself to do so right now, don’t even finish reading this article, just go do that. Thank us later.
Buy Star Wars Knights of The Old Republic ($4.99)
6. Hitman, Lara Craft, Deus Ex – Go Series by Square Enix
Even though the three mentioned games are standalone titles, they share the same mechanics and similar aesthetics to qualify in the same entry. The Go series puts the iconic characters from their franchises into a turn based environment. Hitman features agent 47 carrying out assassinations over a board-game style set (complete with set pieces and supporting artwork).
It is both challenging and gorgeous. Looking at the runaway success of Hitman Go, Square Enix released Lara Craft Go, where we play as the titular tomb raider out on one of her raids where she must find a treasure while outsmarting various creatures big and small. Then, they came out with Deus Ex Go, where our main character Adam Jensen must hack his way through an interesting storyline.
All these games are gorgeous to look at, the action is intriguing and the puzzles are fun to solve. Everything a good game needs and all three are worth every penny.
80% Discount offer out for the Go collection as of the publication of this article.
Buy Hitman Go ($0.99)
Buy Lara Craft Go ($0.99)
Buy Deus Ex Go ($0.99)
7. The Cave
The Cave, produced by Double Fine and distributed by SEGA, is the brainchild of Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer. Ron’s was the mind behind era defining video games like Grim Fandango and Monkey Island (1 and 2). Tim Shafer, his Monkey Island cohort is the creator of games like Grim Fandango, Broken Age (both mentioned later in this article), and the critical classic Psychonauts.
They join hands after having worked on Monkey Island nigh 2 decades ago. The cave has humorous narrative, intriguing story and unique game mechanics that make it stand its ground when it comes to innovative gameplay.. The Cave is a sidescroller platformer, that takes you into the titular cave to discover the story of 7 unique characters. Each with their own story, environment, puzzles and secrets. Your mission is to visit the cave while unearthing stories of how these characters come to be here. It might just be the most entertaining game on progression and humor alone.
Buy The Cave ($2.99)
8. Telltale Series 
Before we delve into the series, a quick history. Telltale games began life as with Telltale Texas Hold ’em Poker, a poker game that pit popular game characters against each other (it is a tradition that get new incarnations with new characters every now and then). They then started with the fifth installment of Monkey Island (not available on Android), which was a 5 episode game.
The idea gave birth to an episodic release of Back to the Future (a real sequel to the movie also not available on Android). Until they finally made Th Walking Dead – A Telltale series. It set a completely new story in the Walking Dead universe and made something truly deep and heart wrenching. They did the same with Wolf Among Us, and then they had achieved so much success that they branched out into other properties. They made Game of Thrones, Batman, Guardians of the Galaxy and counting. Each and every on of these titles is a new experience worth having. They are all offline games for Android.
All these games are worth between $20 (for older) and $25 (for newer). The price is set at $5.00/episode. Some titles charge for the full five, while others charge for four only. Check each of the listed games’ play store pages for pricing details)
Buy Guardians of the Galaxy ($4.99 for the first episode)
Buy Game of Thrones (free first episode)
Buy Batman (free first episode)
The Walking Dead (3 seasons out free first episode)
9. Limbo
Limbo is a dark game. It is the story of a boy searching for his sister in Limbo; A place between life and death. By the strictest of definitions, the game is a sidescrolling platform puzzle solver. What makes this game unique is the haunting black and white environments with very intelligent level design.
This is a good example of how a game can be good based solely on the mechanics. The story is an afterthought in this game, but you won’t notice that until the very end.
Buy Limbo ($4.99)
10. Grim Fandango
Grim Fandango, much like Knights of The Old Republic and GTA San Andreas, is both critically acclaimed and a cult classic. It has been around for 15 years now, but has not skipped a beat since its inception. We have briefly touched on its creator Tim Schafer, games like Grim Fandango are the reason why he’s gained such a status. The game is about the afterlife and how one, down-on-his luck skeleton is trying to get by and make do.
The characters are intriguing, the story is hilarious and the game play is point and click. It is a game worth playing every few years just to keep the nostalgia train running.
Buy Grim Fandango ($4.99)
11. Broken Age
Broken Age is another beautiful work of art in the shape of a game at the worthy hands of Tim Schafer. The game is about 2 characters that start off in disjointed stories in a point-and-click adventure. This game isn’t as simple as just solving a puzzle. You have to explore your environments to discover what works and what doesn’t and make your way through a series of dilemmas facing our characters.
This is a game worth playing because of the mystery, story and concept of the game. One half of the game is about a sheltered boy being raised by a ship’s AI. The other half is about a girl who refuses to become sacrifice to terrifying monster. Both their lives converge as you piece each character’s story together.
Buy Broken Age ($4.99)
12. Monument Valley
This game is equal parts brain and beauty. It has earned every single one of its hundred awards and then some. The mechanics remind you of classic perspective based puzzle games from the early 90’s out of an M.C. Escher painting. The design reminds you of other thought provoking minimalist works of art. The purpose of the game is to get from point A to point B by manipulating the environment such that your path is open.
Some puzzles might not come off as very challenging, but the entire concept is so well done, some ease of play is easily overlooked.
Buy Monument Valley ($3.99)
Honorable Mentions
PewDiePie Legend of Brofist, Blek, Monopoly, Sword and Sworcery.
