Looking for your next FPS? There might be a few in here that tickle your fancy. Here’s a look at a few good FPS options on Linux & SteamOS.
When it comes to FPS games, Linux now actually has quite a number of high quality titles. We don’t get the latest Call of Duty, sure, but maybe there’s something here you might enjoy.
It’s been about three years since I listed some decent FPS titles, so here goes!
Immortal Redneck [GOG, Steam]
Single-player only.
Do you like weird enemies? How about randomly generated dungeons? If that sort of thing ticks your box then Immortal Redneck might be a good one for you. It has an Egyptian theme which makes it quite unique.
Each time you die, you progress a little further as you're able to spend money on your character's progression. This makes death quite rewarding, enabling you to get further through each run.
Ziggurat [GOG, Steam]
Single-player only.
Naturally, Ziggurat needs to be featured. Much like Immortal Redneck above, this room-based shooter features smaller environments in which to battle in. However, unlike the above, Ziggurat is more about magic with the weapons you can pick up, rather than guns.
The creature designs in Ziggurat are fantastically creepy, who wouldn’t be slightly afraid of a maniacal carrot coming to eat them?
Black Ice [itch.io, Steam]
Single-player and online play available.
It's hard to give a proper description of Black Ice. It's an FPSRPG, so you progress like in Borderlands with various abilities and you also get random loot. Unlike most shooters, there's very few roaming enemies, instead you "hack" into servers, which then begins a battle as you fight off waves of enemies until the hack is finished.
The developers say it's like if Borderlands merged with Tron and that's not a half bad way of describing it.
Note: It currently has a Unity bug where it has no input in full-screen. You can use this as a Steam launch option (or adjust the config file):
-screen-fullscreen 0
If you like the sound of having a 'Disco Deathball' as a weapon, do check it out.
Day of Infamy
Online play only
We don't have many realistic shooters on Linux and Day of Infamy comes pretty close to it. This WWII shooter is pretty brutal, especially the flamethrower.
The gameplay has quite a lot of variety to it, thanks to 10 different game modes. Not all of them are against other players, some of them see you all team up to take on the AI.
You can even call down aircraft strafing and bombing runs if you're a Radioman and it sure does look awesome. Taking cover from aircraft, while the enemy is bearing down on you sure does get intense.
Insurgency
Online play only
WWII shooters not your thing? Insurgency also sits on the more realistic side, but it features more modern weapons. It has multiple game modes, over 40 weapons, 16 maps each of which can be played in night or day versions and a lot more.
It's actually developed by the same team that made Day of Infamy and they're working on an updated and much bigger Insurgency game at the moment called Insurgency: Sandstorm, which will support Linux.
Ballistic Overkill
Online play only, no bots.
If you're looking for an online class-based shooter, that isn't realistic and is really easy to get into, this could easily be the one for you. It has a progression and customization system, where you're able to adjust your weapon loadout and change your abilities. It has a lockbox system, which grants you interesting weapon skins and accessories and the boxes are free to open too!
If you want to know how good you are against everyone else, it even has a leaderboard system.
We even run three servers for it! See our Game Servers page for details.
Devil Daggers
Single-player only.
While this may be one of the most simplistic FPS games around, it’s incredibly addictive. Your only mission: survive. It’s an FPS where you’re battling more and more difficult circumstances to survive just a few seconds longer and attempt to beat the times of your friends and the rest of the world.
The entire game takes place inside the same small, dark arena. Even though the game is small, the atmosphere is absolutely incredible for such a game. It will make your heart race, it will make you sweat and you will love it.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Single-player only.
Out of this list, this might actually be my favourite. A great immersive story, crazy action sequences with a character upgrade system. It’s easily the best looking too by far!
You are Adam Jensen, a mechanically augmented human with metal arms and other various implants. Thanks to these implants, you can play the game in many ways. Will you be an overhwelming force rushing in and smashing everyone up, or a take a more sneaky ninja approach? It also mixes in some third-person for when you're taking cover, allowing you to sneak from box to box and get in close.
You don't even need to have played the previous game, since it has a handy video to sum up what happened, which can be skipped.
I'm quite sad that it's possibly the last Deus Ex game, due to apparent underwhelming sales of this game.
SUPERHOT [GOG, Steam]
Single-player only.
Stop — Don’t move. Move and you might die! I was so extremely impressed by SUPERHOT that I wished it was longer. When I originally wrote about it, I called it “the most innovative shooter I've played in years.”. I still think that was true at the time.
It won’t be to everyone’s tastes, since it’s not fast-paced action, but more about careful movements. Nothing moves until you move, letting you carefully study your surroundings and plan your next movement.
Serious Sam Fusion 2017 (beta)
Single-player and online play available.
Well, this one is technically a game engine. It powers the newer versions of various Serious Sam games. Croteam have supported Linux exceptionally well in recent years and they deserve full credit. It currently works with Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter, Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter, Serious Sam 3: BFE and VR versions of some games too.
If you like seriously over the top shooters, with lots of weapons and completely crazy action this is a must have on Linux.
This newer game engine can use both OpenGL and Vulkan giving us the best of both worlds.
Metro 2033 Redux
Single-player only.
The world has been devastated by an apocalyptic event, leaving most of mankind dead. You play the role of a Russian survivor living in the tunnels of the Metro. The world has been transformed, with all sorts of horrors awaiting you both above and below the surface.
There's lots of action, horror elements, plenty of guns to choose from and the Redux version improves the game in many ways. There's also two different styles of play available, with "Spartan" giving more resources and health and "Survival" being more difficult.
Can you survive the horrors that await? When it was originally released, the game was absolutely ground breaking and is still utterly fantastic today.
Metro Last Light Redux
Single-player only
The direct follow-on from Metro 2033, just as epic as and scary the first game. If you enjoyed the first, but you haven't picked up Last Light yet you're absolutely missing out on another incredible experience.
Few games get a sequel that's better than the first game, but Metro Last Light Redux might actually be one of those times. Not a lot else to say about it, since it's similar in a lot of ways to the previous game in terms of the setting, the action and everything. Still, it's an easy choice.
Screencheat [Steam, GOG]
Local co-op and online play only.
If you have memories of playing split screen games with your friends when you were younger, you will probably also remember how you often stared at their screen to find them. Screencheat literally requires you to do just that!
This crazy FPS has everyone invisible, so you need to study their screen while being mindful of everyone watching yours. It's absolutely nuts!
PAYDAY 2: Ultimate Edition
Single-player with bots and online play available.
Ever dreampt of robbing banks? Don't worry, we won't tell anyone, but that's the aim of the game in PAYDAY 2. An absolutely action-packed crime-filled fun fest! You're the bad guy, you're facing off against police and it's good fun.
It might not have a SteamOS icon to indicate Linux support on the Steam store directly, but PAYDAY 2 does support Linux. It seems a bunch of DLC hasn't been tagged as supporting Linux (even though they do work as well), so the icon no longer shows on the homepage of this new edition. However, if you click to see the bundle details it then clearly show PAYDAY 2 itself with a SteamOS icon. Steam is just — weird.
Shotgun Farmers
Single-player practice mode against AI, as well as online play.
Possibly one of the most unique FPS games around. You don’t get your weapons the in the traditional ways, instead your weapons grow from the ground for you to cut down. Weapons are based on vegetables and fruits, to hilarious effect. If you fire at someone and miss, your bullets that impact the ground then grow a new weapon.
It has various game modes, but their version of capture the flag is quite amusing. You have to catch and hold onto a chicken to score points, the only problem is you can't shoot while holding it.
Such a very clever idea and it's great for a younger audience as well as adults.
Borderlands 2
Single-player and online co-op!
An obvious choice for such a list. Borderlands 2 has so many qualities that give it a firm place here. It has plenty of characters to pick from, each with unique abilities. The game is rammed full of content, so if you're after something that will give you a long list of things to do and people to kill then it's a solid pick.
It's another FPS/RPG hybrid with full character progression. It has plenty of side-quests in addition to the main storyline, some of which are really damn good.
By far my favourite feature of Borderlands 2 is the random weaponry. I’ve come across so truly crazy weapons. A machine gun grenade launcher? Check.
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
Single-player and online co-op
Borderlands, only a bit different. It might not be as epic as Borderlands 2, but it's still a pretty decent first-person shooter overall.
Much like Borderlands 2, it has tons of loot, character progression and a lot of the same traits. However, you're on the moon so gravity is lower, oxygen is required and it plays rather differently.
Playing as a Claptrap certainly made the game interesting. Even more interesting is the Claptastic Voyage DLC, where you enter the mind of Claptrap CL4P-TP, what could possibly go wrong?
Heavy Bullets
Single-player only.
Another FPS dungeon crawler here, this one is vastly different to Ziggurat and Immortal Redneck. You're making your way through a colourful maze full of weird creatures and security systems. This is an easy game to get into since the mechanics and gameplay is really simple, but it's quite difficult to actually finish.
You're given limited ammunition, which you can pick back up and manually reload one by one. That might sound difficult, but there's not usually many enemies since th game is set in a maze, a lot of it is played out in small rooms and corridors.
It's game over on death, but you can buy certain upgrades during a run using a vending machine to carry certain things over to the next run, like money and keycards.
Can you reach level 8 and reset the reset the security mainframe?
Fistful of Frags
Multiplayer only.
The game I hilariously titled “Fistful of Fags” by accident once — woops. This western-themed FPS is simple and fun.
It has multiple game modes, like the traditional free for all, zone capture, push the cart, team elimination and more. There's a surprising amount on offer, when you consider this is a completely free to play game.
It's powered by Valve's Source Engine, so it should run pretty nicely on computers even with not so great specifications.
Shadow Warrior [Steam, GOG]
Single-player only.
It's beautiful, it's bloody as hell and it runs really smoothly. It's a re-imagining of the classic 3D Realms’ shooter with fast paced action, witty remarks and swords. The game as a whole is really quite impressive, visually it's incredible with some really detailed environments, enemies are varied and you have an upgrade system that allows you to unleash some devastating attacks.
The loading time is impressive too, switching between parts of a level takes so little time it's great. You see a momentary blip as it loads in and then it's really smooth.
Hopefully at some point we will see Shadow Warrior 2. It was supposed to release for Linux at some point.
BioShock Infinite
Single-player only.
Possibly my second favourite on this list after Deus Ex. The single-player is fast, engrossing and the Linux port is pretty damn good. The story really captured me, from the moment I picked it up I didn't want to put it down.
The really unique feature of BioShock Infinite is how you travel, you will be flying through the air attached to high-speed Sky-Lines and you're free to drop down at any moment to unleash hell. You can get your companion to release tears in time to gain an advantage or unleash your own powers like throwing an explosive ball, summon a bunch of murderous crows and more.
If you need more, there's also two additional DLC episodes, one of which sees you play as Elizabeth, but I won't spoil why you play as her. If you're after an FPS with a good story, this is a very safe bet.
Blockstorm
Multi-player only
For those of you really fond of Minecraft’s blocky world, Blockstorm might satisfy you. It’s an FPS where practically the entire environment is destructible.
It's a bit of a weird one though, as it's not particularly fast paced, it's completely unrealistic and it's just so very werid to play. I must admit, there's something incredibly satisfying about absolutely obliterating a wall with an enemy behind it.
Codename CURE
Mainly multi-player, bots available if you create your own game
In the mood to take down endless amounts of Zombies? Codename CURE is a completely free to play Source Engine survival shooter. The game has two modes: an endless wave-based survival mode where you simply cannot win, designed as a test of your skill. There's also an objective-based mode, where you plant explosive charges to purge areas of infected.
In the objective mode, each member of the team can have a specific class. One class has a shotgun with grenades, one can deploy an ammo crate and so on. As simple as it is, there's a lot to appreciate.
Since it runs on the Source Engine from Valve, it runs extremely well. Since it's completely free, it's certainly worth a try and you might find your next game to sink some time into.
There's also various open source shooters, but honestly a lot of them that I've looked into have a non-existent player-base. Not only that, but a lot of them are heavily outdated both in terms of graphics, features and ease of use. There are some like Xonotic, a fast-paced arena-style shooter that requires quick reflexes that still has a few players. There's also ET: Legacy, which is the improved open source build of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, but it never seems to work when I try to connect to a server.
Honourable mention goes to Verdun, the WWI shooter from M2H and Blackmill Games. While it’s not a favourite of mine, it’s still worth looking into if you like a slower-paced, more realistic WWI multi-player experience.
We also have the newest Unreal Tournament, but it's still rather early in development and the Linux version does have a number of issues, so it's not a great fit just yet for such a list.
There’s also the obvious Valve games too like Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike: Source, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Half-Life, Half-Life 2 (and the Episodes), Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead 2. All still going great years after release and work well on Linux.
There's also third-person shooters to take into account, some of which are really good, but they're not the aim of this list. I might take a look at some of those soon.
Phew! That’s a lot of games. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but even with the titles I’ve picked it’s not a bad list at all! If you’re an FPS fan then gaming on Linux should be a pretty good choice, as long as you’re willing to keep your options open on games that aren’t yet another Call of Duty-like.
The one thing I would like to see, is more single-player FPS games. We have a lot of multi-player focused titles and not many story-based FPS games on Linux.
What’s your current favourite Linux-native FPS game and why? Share that infinite wisdom in the comments section.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
A lot of what I do is to help Linux grow. I promote Linux on GOG with things like my beginner's guides and my Wine wrappers plus many Linux-focused giveaways.
Thank you for doing so. Really very cool that you choose to actively help.
I prefer to buy rather than rent...
Yeah, this is what this all is about. I used to think the same way. I pay, thus something is mine. But nowadays I prefer to compare the consumption of movies, music or games with going to the cinema. I pay some money not to own something, but to have a good time. When paying e.g. 50 Euros for a game, I actually pay for 60 hours of entertainment. I'm not saying that this is the perfect deal, but I can arrange myself pretty good with this thinking. It's take and give in. I give in on the right to own and in return I get entertaining hours and convenience. Steam, Netflix or Spotify reduce the time between the wish for entertainment and the actual consumption to a minimum. The number of entertainment hours are theoretically limited, but until now I never reached that limit. When I finish a game I move on and usually don't look back. There is so much more to do ;) As stated: for me time is way more precious than to "own" digital content.
On top of all that, even if it's successful at stopping piracy for a substantial period of time DRM doesn't actually help sales.
No, its certainly not an argument to increase sales. But it works the other way around, DRM gives the big publishers the feeling to stay in control. Even if it's just a feeling, this can be a tipping point for a decision in a big company to whether or not to publish to Linux. The long term goal is to get more users to Linux, you need the big boys for that.
Last edited by jens on 13 October 2017 at 8:36 am UTC
It's take and give in. I give in on the right to own and in return I get entertaining hours and convenience.
It was the same before, except that now the publisher retains such "ownership" and control. I guess it's not so much a concern if you only play them once & don't care about ever playing them again, but I personally like to replay some of my older games every so often.
Steam, Netflix or Spotify reduce the time between the wish for entertainment and the actual consumption to a minimum. The number of entertainment hours are theoretically limited, but until now I never reached that limit. When I finish a game I move on and usually don't look back. There is so much more to do ;) As stated: for me time is way more precious than to "own" digital content.
The matter of convenience is exactly the same with GOG or any other DRM-free distributor. You pay the money, download the product and play... the difference is that with DRM the publisher retains control over it when DRM is involved, unless you acquire a crack to remove or bypass the DRM. In this sense DRM-free is more convenient since you don't need to get permission from some third party each time you want to install & play (or don't have to acquire a crack), and there's at least one less possible point of failure.
As it is I have a vast backlog already, even if I only count games with official Linux support; so while there are certain games I'd really like to play (such as DX:MD) I don't feel any pressure to buy them as long as they're encumbered with DRM. As an added bonus, being forced to wait like this means I am much less likely to get burned by the other bad industry practices & eventually get a more complete and more stable experience, and at a much lower cost :) And the money I save by doing this can be put towards supporting the publishers & developers that *do* provide DRM-free releases, as well as funding system upgrades, supporting & promoting Linux in general etc.
No, its certainly not an argument to increase sales. But it works the other way around, DRM gives the big publishers the feeling to stay in control. Even if it's just a feeling, this can be a tipping point for a decision in a big company to whether or not to publish to Linux. The long term goal is to get more users to Linux, you need the big boys for that.
I agree that we need more big name titles but as I said before, DRM-free and Linux support are two separate issues and publisher attitudes towards both of them are (slowly) changing for the better. And both need people to show publishers that there is a market for them :)
Last edited by adamhm on 13 October 2017 at 12:49 pm UTC
It was the same before, except that now the publisher retains such "ownership" and control.
Yes, but i would say that the whole gaming industry has changed, not just the way how studio/publishers want to make the most out of it. I grew up with Lucasfilm titles ala Monkey Island 1 and Indy 4. While not discrediting the games of this ages (these are still very cool titles), I think you can't compare that with a production like DeuxEx:MD, GTA5 or similar. There is way more money involved and the Inernet changed all classical distribution channels. I can certainly understand that some shareholders want some kind of control before starting such investments. Note that I'm not saying that DRM is a must, I just want to empathize that more has changed than just the introduction of DRM.
I agree that we need more big name titles but as I said before, DRM-free and Linux support are two separate issues and publisher attitudes towards both of them are (slowly) changing for the better. And both need people to show publishers that there is a market for them :)
Yes, separate, but not completely separate. If the whole Linux community would reject all DRM solutions you will/would never see Linux ports of AAA games and thus Linux for the Desktop will never reach the mass of people. My strategy would be to not fight all battles at the same time. I would fight first for Linux adoption, that includes the acceptance of some necessary evil like DRM. When that battle is won and Linux is a serious player with a no longer negligible market share you have some tools in your hand to fight DRM ;)
Last edited by jens on 13 October 2017 at 6:03 pm UTC
Yes, but i would say that the whole gaming industry has changed, not just the way how studio/publishers want to make the most out of it. I grew up with Lucasfilm titles ala Monkey Island 1 and Indy 4. While not discrediting the games of this ages (these are still very cool titles), I think you can't compare that with a production like DeuxEx:MD, GTA5 or similar. There is way more money involved and the Inernet changed all classical distribution channels.
Yes, it has changed... not just with DRM in its various incarnations but the other dubious industry practices that have become the norm too.
I can certainly understand that some shareholders want some kind of control before starting such investments. Note that I'm not saying that DRM is a must, I just want to empathize that more has changed than just the introduction of DRM.
I can understand this as well, but the fact remains that DRM does nothing to help sales (and probably causes a reduction of sales instead, in addition to wasting money on licensing and implementing said DRM and support costs resulting from it). Publishers are slowly learning this, and we're gradually seeing more of the big publishers open up to bringing their newer releases to GOG. As I noted before though, the big problem for Linux games on GOG seems to be the absence of a Linux version of their Galaxy client.
Yes, separate, but not completely separate. If the whole Linux community would reject all DRM solutions you will/would never see Linux ports of AAA games and thus Linux for the Desktop will never reach the mass of people. My strategy would be to not fight all battles at the same time. I would fight first for Linux adoption, that includes the acceptance of some necessary evil like DRM. When that battle is won and Linux is a serious player with a no longer negligible market share you have some tools in your hand to fight DRM ;)
Sure, if the majority of the Linux community rejected DRM it would pose a problem for getting AAA titles but I don't think that's anything to be worried about since the majority will tolerate Steam (it's the only DRM I'll consider tolerating, but it will require a very low price/deep discount though and depend on the game & publisher).
Anyway I've been resisting DRM ever since it became a thing & it's one of the factors behind my decision to move to Linux, so I'm not about to change my position on that... I'll just continue to do what I can to support both Linux and DRM-free releases :)
Sure, if the majority of the Linux community rejected DRM it would pose a problem for getting AAA titles but I don't think that's anything to be worried about since the majority will tolerate Steam (it's the only DRM I'll consider tolerating, but it will require a very low price/deep discount though and depend on the game & publisher).
Anyway I've been resisting DRM ever since it became a thing & it's one of the factors behind my decision to move to Linux, so I'm not about to change my position on that... I'll just continue to do what I can to support both Linux and DRM-free releases :)
I'll just continue to support Linux, still consider Steam for Linux a blessing, happily pay for and enjoy Feral/Aspyrer ports and other AAA publications. I hope many more Linux users will do too ;)
Thank you for this discussion. It was a pleasure talking with you!
PS: And yes, I would also refuse a DRM solution that would force me to install something as root or similar. But that is not the case right now, so no need to think about this.
I'd love to see more articles like this, highlighting different types of games. They're just the ticket for helping convince people who are on the fence about switching to Linux due to the old "there aren't any games" myth.
While on that subject it wouldn't be a bad thing to have a searchable area, maybe part of GOL, or maybe a separate website, where lists of Linux games per genre, maybe with rankings information. So you could list the games in order of popularity.
Also, I would like access to a list of games on Steam, where it appears they don't have a Linux release (e.g. Hurtworld) but in fact they do have one (just not "supported" by the publisher).
Maybe a further searchable database of games which are expected to come to Linux, owing to publisher statements. On which note, I was just hunting around on the GOL site and can't find the GOL calendar of imminent game releases to Linux.
My top 2 is the same than yours with Metro Last Light and Metro 2033 close behind. This said, no Spec Ops: The Line? Great game too, imo. May be short but I really enjoyed the 3rd person combat mechanics.
Specs ops is a cover based shooter making it a third person shooter where you can aim in first person.
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