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 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
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
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
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
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)
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!
(By) Aibek, the guy behind MakeUseOf.com
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Filed Under: Games ¦ Lists of tools
Tags: fun, gamer, Games, shooter
It’s been a while, I am really...
What about Combat Arms? Surely deserves a mention….
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
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.
Yeah, it stinks. I had the same problem here (Europe). Should come to the rest of us in due time, though.
combat arms has too many hackers to be any good…
Ive always been a Half Life fan myself.
But I’ll check out Alien Arena, Im a sci fi geek.
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is my favourite free FPS. Just discovered that it is also cross-platform.
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).
Lots of new games! These will keep me busy! Thanks Ross!!
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 portable application on Windows, meaning you can take it with you wherever you go!
“…ou can even run it as a portable application on Windows”
Awesome, thanks for heads up.
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.
The Install and Patch files can be found at http://www.planetwolfenstein.com/files/files.shtml
Thanks Wootpeanuts.
I loved playin Wolf way back when.
F.E.A.R is pretty good, not sure if it runs on anything other than windows though.
Americas Army is better than most FPS shooters you pay for so Im a bit surprised its not listed.
perhaps because it is a recruitment tool for for the united states of shame-i mean america.
Warsow isn’t on this list?
It’s worth checking out.
In case anyone interested, here is the link to Warsow website
http://www.warsow.net/?page=home
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.
http://www.warsow.net
Also Tremulouse is missing. I would rate America’s Army as the No. 1 with Tremulouse 2nd, Nexuiz 3rd …
Also nice: Warsow
http://www.warsow.net
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!
Red Alert: A Path Beyond (Windows only) should be given a look by anyone wanting a free game
Read Alert? Is it FPS
It’s a mod on the red alert strategy game, placing it in a FP setting (if I’m not mistaken ^^)
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.
URBAN TERROR ROCKS
Freespace Open blows all of those away.
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.
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.
Great article. Thanks for the information.
CUBE II = best game for old skooll mind bending fraggage and the ****ING 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
Leileilol hasnt posted on this website yet. Hmm, is he sick? Or maybe he’s getting old.
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…
http://www.worldofpadman.com/
These games are a great introduction into FPS games - and they’re free!
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