Let’s leave Steam and other launchers and distribution platforms alone a bit. Also lets stop discussing game engines for moment …
- What are your favorite games that run natively on Linux and what genre are they?
Would be cool if you could write a few words about the game and why it’s your favorite game.
Does Minecraft (specifically the Java edition) count as a Linux native game? It’s written in Java, so thus it’s not really “native” to one specific platform.
It’s always worked perfectly for me on Linux, and have a lot of strong memories with the game. Pair it with something like Prism Launcher for easily installing mods / modpacks / resource packs / etc (which is available on Flathub) and you’ve got a pretty good setup! Though the “official” launcher is available through most package repositories these days as well.
I was an avid Minecraft player in my teens. It being cross-platform (basically 100 % compatibility) made my switch to Linux quite painless; if Minecraft did not work, I probably wouldn’t install Linux.
- Genre: survival sandbox
- Why I love it:
- it’s got a bit of progression to it
- great terraforming and building
- it’s gameplay loop of “buildup, explore, smelt” repeat is on point
factorio, the factory must grow.
Rimworld - colony sim, survival, strategy, crisis management game.
One of the few games where losing is actually fun. There’s a lot of mods available and it can (reasonably) run on a potato.
Factorio.
The factory must grow!
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Neverwinter Nights
- It was the first native Linux game I’ve ever played and I enjoyed every minute of it.
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Unreal Tournament 99/2004
- It was fun when my reflexes were better. I can’t stand no chance anymore since I got old 🤣
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RTCW, Wolf:ET
- Not as fast-paced as UT99 but still enjoyable.
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Metro Last Light/Redux/Exodus
- I’ve played Metro 2033 on Win7 and was really surprised about Metro Last Light being ported to Linux. It was a pretty good port IIRC. Metro Exodus was also really enjoyable but I’m a bit disappointed about the enhanced edition not being ported to Linux.
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BioShock: Infinite
- Just as I was ready to give up on trying to get B:I running on Wine, 2k dropped the bomb. VirtualProgramming’s Linux ports aren’t popular, but it wasn’t that bad TBH.
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Serious Sam 3: BFE / Fusion 2017
- SS3 was really showing me the limits of my old AMD GPU but with a more recent one and Fusion 2017’s Vulkan power everything went fine.
I’m 46 and it took weeks for me to become competitive in Battlebit. You can still do it, it just takes a much bigger investment in effort and time.
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Starbound. I’ve played the crap out of it. I still haven’t finished it tho…
- Terraria: sandbox game
- Project Zomboid: survival/sandbox game
- Almost any renpy VN game runs natively too.
It might be somewhat controversial of a take, but to me an awesome-performing Proton version of a game is far better than a Linux version that may be native, but has severe deficiencies and/or lags behind its Windows version.
To me, my favorite native Linux games would be ones that do things on Linux that are not possible on other platforms. Generally, this would be an “unfair” advantage, as games should strive for feature parity on all platforms within reason, but so often we end up being on the wrong side of that equation that seeing some of the perks of the platform is nice.
To my knowledge, the only major game I can think of that does this to a certain extent is Factorio, which enables non-blocking game saves on Linux and macOS and not Windows. It’s not a Linux-exclusive feature, but it’s nice that the developers went through the effort to implement the feature on Linux even though it’s not possible on Windows.
Agreed, Amnesia rebirth, civ5 and some warhammer game all ran better with proton
Unfortunately, I think many of the Asypr/Feral ports from the early 2010s, like Civ V, Borderlands 2, etc. fall victim to this. Those ports were amazing for Linux gaming at the time, but due to the fact that they were held back by their macOS counterparts and Apple’s limitations on that platform, as well as the fact that they were third-party ports with far less post-release engagement from the original dev than the Windows versions, have left those versions to languish. It’s a huge shame because those companies did, and to a certain extent still do support Linux-native gaming quite well, but their earlier ports have not aged well and there’s not much that can be done given the opportunity costs for the many involved parties on those older games.
Civ V is a game I still play regularly to this day, and I basically have to run the Windows version under Proton to avoid crashes on modern hardware, maintain compatibility with popular mods, and play multiplayer with Windows users without terrible game desyncs.
Mine would be Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri (with expansion). My favorite 4X game of all time.
Agreed! Does it still run? I have install media around here somewhere…
Teeworlds (Flathub) is the cutest game ever, with simple mechanics but insane depth. I love playing it solo or with friends!
From the Depths is AMAZING. I lose a couple months to it every year as it sucks me in again.
StarMade has so much potential. It’s been open sourced and the community is starting to take it over, watch this space.
I really love games where you build large vehicles you can walk around inside, and then you go blow them up.
Huh, didn’t expect to run across another FTD player in the wild. Hi!
I finally beat my first campaign this year. On Very Hard! It has displaced all my Toribash black belts as my rarest achievements. More people need to play!!
Hey, wanna exchange some blueprints and fight?
Oh damn, nice. I also finished the campaigns (Neter and AotE) this year, though I definitely couldn’t do it on Very Hard- I had some trouble even on medium.
Sure why not. I haven’t really built anything optimized recently though, so I might have to send an old design. Do you want to do a land, sea, or air battle? (or maybe space?)
Re-Volt. Modern rewrite of the classic RC car racing game. Two decades of community-created tracks and cars to choose from. Still has an active multiplayer community, too!
Currently A Dance Of Fire And Ice
I don’t play a lot of native games but I quite like 0ad. The only issue I’ve had is I couldn’t quite get into it. I like the idea of it, but it feels a bit too overwhelming, and isn’t exactly my type of game in practice. I quite enjoyed Sauerbraten, though I don’t play shooters that much anymore. The native game I’ve played the most has to be GNOME Mahjongg funnily enough. I also really like Minetest, but I haven’t been able to get into it.
