MUO Games : Top 5 Free Cross-Platform FPS Games

free fps games I’ll admit it, I don’t have the patience to figure out complicated RPG (Role Playing Games) games. Give me a brain-dead “click and kill” game, and I’m all over it. So it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that I’m a big fan of the ‘First Person Shooter’ (FPS) genre. Even though I’m regularly fragged by 6 year olds across the world, it just goes to show you don’t have to be good at something to enjoy it.

So here are my top 5 free FPS games that work on multiple operating systems. From the top…

OpenArena

OpenArena is “an open-source content package for Quake III Arena licensed under the GPL, effectively creating a free stand-alone game”. What does that mean to you? It’s free, and you don’t need Quake III Arena to play it. OpenArena supports a slew of different game types, including: Deathmatch, Tournament, Single Player Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture The Flag, Elimination, CTF Elimination, Last Man Standing and Double Domination. The hardware requirements are pretty minimal – with a PII 233MHz processor and at least 96MB of RAM being the suggested minimum system requirements.

Supported Platforms: Linux, OS X and Windows 9x/2000/XP/Vista

OpenArena in-game screenshot

Nexuiz

Though Nexuiz has slightly higher hardware requirements than most of the games in this list, once you start playing you’ll know why. The graphics really are better. From their information page:

“Nexuiz is a 3d deathmatch game that has been in development since the summer of 2002. The goal of the project is to create a high quality first person shooter that can be played freely across all platforms in one package: PC, Mac, and can be even included in Linux distributions. The game is entirely open source, with the sources of the engine, gamecode, map files, and compiling tools, all included with the download, all under the GPL license.

The gameplay is deathmatch with the most excessive possible speeds and weapons, giving incredibly intense fast paced action. Along with deathmatch, there are multiple gamemodes such as team deathmatch, capture the flag, domination, and many mutators and weapon options like rocket arena and instagib. The user can fight through the single player campaign, going through over 20 levels, or play online with our server browser.”

Nexuiz has a very active and helpful community, and has recently started tournaments in Europe and North America.

Supported Platforms: Linux, OS X and Windows

Nexuiza FPS

Urban Terror

Urban Terror describes itself as a “Hollywood tactical shooter” with an emphasis on “fun over realism”. I’d agree with them on the descriptions. It uses the same engine as OpenArena (ioquake3), but has more of a “counter-strike” feel than OpenArena. Urban Terror comes with a thoroughly detailed manual that explains every aspect of the game. Check out the video below for an idea of gameplay.

Supported Platforms: Linux, OS X and Windows

Cube 2: Sauerbraten

Sauerbraten is a single and multiplayer FPS freeware “game project”. Though the aim of Sauerbraten is “to allow map/geometry editing to be done dynamically in-game” – don’t let that fool you – it’s a heck of a lot of fun. There are monthly championship games on the first Sunday of the month (where I regularly get schooled) and a Cube Server Lister app that makes finding games (and your friends) a snap.

Supported Platforms: Linux, OS X and Windows

In-game screenshot of Cube 2: Sauerbratena

Alien Arena

Sci-Fi lovers will enjoy this one. From its initial release in October of 2004, Alien Arena has come a long, long way. Over a million downloads, and dozens (hundreds?) of community created maps, models, and various accessories add to the game experience. It also features a very fun “Team Core Assault” mode, in which players must work together to disable their enemy teams central metal spider. Though OS X isn’t officially supported, yet, you can download the Linux version and then apply this patch to get it working (runs perfectly on my MacBook Pro).

Supported Platforms: Linux and Windows (OS X support is unofficial, see above)

In-game Alien Arena screenshot

You might also want to check out Top 5 Free Online Shooter Games by Simon.

So what about you? What are YOUR favourite free ‘first person shooter’ games? Do you agree with my choices? Let it rip in the comments!

Ross McKillop

Former MakeUseOf author.

The comments were closed because the article is more than 180 days old.

If you have any questions related to stuff mentioned in the article or need help with any computer issue, just ask it on MakeUseOf Answers.

Hide 50 Comments

  • USBman September 10, 2008
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    While I’ve not any real experience with the others you mentioned, I can say that I am a big fan of Nexuiz!

    The gameplay is great, the community is helpful, and heck – you can even run it as a portablefreeware.com/?id=689 portable application on Windows, meaning you can take it with you wherever you go!

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    • Aibek September 12, 2008
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      “…ou can even run it as a portable application on Windows”

      Awesome, thanks for heads up.

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  • Ram September 10, 2008
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    What about Combat Arms? Surely deserves a mention….

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    • Ross McKillop September 10, 2008
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      Ram – So far as I can tell, Combat Arms is Windows only. I might have to boot into Windows though, cause it does look good :)

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      • dillon December 8, 2008
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        dude combat arms is awsome

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      • Teh0pwn3r February 17, 2009
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        dude im on Mac and i can run combat arms jus fine i dont lagg i dont find anything bad on it, 35 FPS FTW

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        • RicoSuaveMacDad October 24, 2009
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          Hey I have an IMac, and I wanted to know how to run combat arms. Can you help.

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    • FPS gamer September 16, 2008
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      Combat Arms is only available to North America, Korea region. What about the rest of t he world? huh. I uninstalled it in two minutes after getting error PI, 30022.

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      • Simon September 16, 2008
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        Yeah, it stinks. I had the same problem here (Europe). Should come to the rest of us in due time, though.

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    • bill October 30, 2008
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      combat arms has too many hackers to be any good…

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  • Doug Woodall September 10, 2008
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    Ive always been a Half Life fan myself.
    But I’ll check out Alien Arena, Im a sci fi geek.

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  • Wootpeanuts September 10, 2008
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    Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is my favourite free FPS. Just discovered that it is also cross-platform.

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    • Ross McKillop September 10, 2008
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      I was seriously tempted to include it in the list, but I’ve always had issues running it in OS X, and that it’s multiplayer only.. (sometimes I like to pretend I’m good at FPS games by playing against the computer, on “Easy” of course).

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  • Karl L. Gechlik September 10, 2008
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    Lots of new games! These will keep me busy! Thanks Ross!!

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  • Doug Woodall September 10, 2008
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    I tried dnloading and installing Alien Arena and could not get it to install. Corrupted file in there it said.
    Hey Wootpeanuts, where can I get Wolf? I didnt know it was free.

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  • centipeed September 11, 2008
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    Warsow is the best open source Quake 3 Arena style game available. The developers actually seem to know a little about how to create a good deathmatch game, unlike some other titles on this list.

    warsow.net

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  • _lx_ September 11, 2008
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    Also nice: Warsow

    warsow.net

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  • mattzw September 11, 2008
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    F.E.A.R is pretty good, not sure if it runs on anything other than windows though.

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  • TheGame September 11, 2008
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    Americas Army is better than most FPS shooters you pay for so Im a bit surprised its not listed.

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    • chris September 11, 2008
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      perhaps because it is a recruitment tool for for the united states of shame-i mean america.

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      • Aibek September 12, 2008
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        :-)

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  • gtnconcept September 11, 2008
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    Warsow isn’t on this list?
    It’s worth checking out.

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  • eddiep September 11, 2008
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    Also Tremulouse is missing. I would rate America’s Army as the No. 1 with Tremulouse 2nd, Nexuiz 3rd …

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  • neve September 11, 2008
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    Are all the games in the list based on some kind of Quake engine? It definitely looks like it after seeing some video’s. I’m sure I count at least 3. id Software ftw!

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  • erichansa September 11, 2008
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    Red Alert: A Path Beyond (Windows only) should be given a look by anyone wanting a free game

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    • Aibek September 12, 2008
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      Read Alert? Is it FPS :?

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      • Simon September 12, 2008
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        It’s a mod on the red alert strategy game, placing it in a FP setting (if I’m not mistaken ^^)

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  • teebird September 11, 2008
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    I’m with you. I love a good shooter I spend so much time recovering from being fragged my screen name should be “Target Practice,” but I just laugh it off and go huntin’ for dinner.

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  • bab@bagb.net September 11, 2008
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    URBAN TERROR ROCKS

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  • none September 11, 2008
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    Freespace Open blows all of those away.

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  • spanky September 11, 2008
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    Half-Life 2: Deathmatch – best fps ever created and it’s free to anyone with an ATI or NVidia graphics card. The learning curve can be a little steep, but well worth it.

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    • nexu September 11, 2008
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      Steep learning curve? First time i was playing it people were already calling me hacks, not that i was so great. But because everyone was so used to their CS camping style that requires no skill at all.

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  • Free Playstation 3 September 11, 2008
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    Great article. Thanks for the information.

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  • ZEROZG September 12, 2008
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    CUBE II = best game for old skooll mind bending fraggage and the FUCKING PWNING map makeer

    btw why the hell is OpenArena even list the game SUCKS ASS its 1:1 Q3A clone with gfx even worse the the real one ….

    it should go

    UrbanTerror
    Sauerbraten
    Nexuiz
    Alien Arena

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  • bebobebo September 12, 2008
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    Leileilol hasnt posted on this website yet. Hmm, is he sick? Or maybe he’s getting old.

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  • flip September 13, 2008
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    World of Padman is sick, slick and imho way up there on the fun stakes…Best cross-platform game I’ve come across and I’ve tried them all…

    worldofpadman.com/

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  • Bulgaria sea September 13, 2008
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    These games are a great introduction into FPS games – and they’re free!

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  • Max October 2, 2008
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    I’d put it in this order:
    Alien Arena – first place
    Urban Terror – second place
    Nexuiz – third place
    Open Arena – fourth place
    Saurbraten – fifth place

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  • gman November 22, 2008
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    Wicked article!!! I’ve only played a couple of these, but now going to get on board. Is BF Heroes going to blow these all away?? I have some fps games resources here:

    Thanks again for the great article. Gotta love digg.

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  • fffffffffffffffffff November 28, 2008
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    JUST PLAY AMERICA’S ARMY!
    ITS THE BEST FREE FPS EVER!

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  • mast3rpwns February 27, 2009
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    ok i dont see CROSSFIRE IN HERE! that game isnt that giid although its not a bad game

    soldier front SUCKS but good for beginners

    WARROCK to many hackers lol

    combat arms sucks ass theres way to many hackers NUBS!

    team fortress 2 and the original

    assault cube THE BEST FOR BEGINNERS

    quake online not that good

    battle field heroes good game i guess cartoon styled fps like teamfortress

    i love how i wrote these for no reason and i didnt use any grammer AT ALL i may have even spelled some stuff wrong lol

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  • ChaosLozenge May 6, 2009
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    Quake Live is great, its pretty much Quake 3 for free and in your web browser

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  • fpsaddict May 15, 2009
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    Too bad these games aren’t very popular anymore (except Urban Terror), most people play free MMOFPSes (Combat Arms, Crossfire, Soldier Front etc) that are mostly full of cheaters.
    btw there are more free FPS games at http://freeshooters.blogspot.com/

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  • ca rules July 5, 2009
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    yo c a is the best because it has weapon mods.Supressers magazines and scopes too. It is the Most advanced game in fps technology. It NEEDS a mention.

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  • marouan July 8, 2009
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    wolfenstein deserves a spot.

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  • justin2 August 11, 2009
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    what a bout combat arms its the best it has the best pitcher and detail not like cross fire and war rock

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  • RicoSuaveMacDad October 24, 2009
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    anybody know how to run combat arms on an IMac

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