Classic FOSS FPS 'Cube 2: Sauerbraten' sees the first release since 2013

Cube 2: Sauerbraten lives again it seems! The classic free and open source first-person shooter, which combines old school gameplay with in-game map editing returns. For newer players: this is not another game based on old open source id Software tech though, as the engine supporting it is original and open source under the ZLIB license.

Going by their release history the 2020_11_29 edition is the first since early 2013. That is a long time for fans to wait for a new release. Pretty amazing to see it come back in such a huge way too, as this is not a small release. Oh no, it's a big one. Bringing with it tons of new maps (nearly 200!), it also has plenty of technical changes too.

It now uses the modern SDL 2, masses of bug fixes due to the time since the last release, chat names are now team coloured, there's optional HUDs for score / game clock and an ammobar, there's health bars for teammates, support for JPEG screenshots, lots of new textures and skyboxes, a revamped and more intelligent spawn system, various new server and user options you can tweak, improved water quality and the list goes on.

Pictured - Cube 2 with the newly included Genesis map.

If you've been after a free and fast first-person shooter to play with friends, Cube 2: Sauerbraten looks to be a really good choice. It performs ridiculously well and can run on some really low-end devices, and most importantly it's quite fun to run around in even with bots. Looking over the server list earlier, there's plenty of people playing it and with so many maps to choose from and multiple modes you're not going to get bored in a hurry.

You can grab it from the official site or Flathub.