As the title says: What is the best native Linux games?
The games I keep coming back and playing since years are Factorio and Cities Skylines. And Minecraft if you call a Java program native. All because of the vast number of mods that exist. And Dota now and then for playing with friends.
There are a few that are really fun. My kids were getting interested in gaming, so I had to have a look into suitable games. So here is a kid-friendly list of great stuff that runs natively:
GCompris: A lot of nice learning mini games for the very young (also good to teach e.g. usage of mouse and keyboard)
Minetest: Very similar to Minecraft, but with its own twist. Highly customizable with mods and completely free and open. I am running my own minetest server with a customized non-survival world that is used by my family.
Widelands: A really great community adaption (and extension) of the Settlers II. My son totally loves it.
Unciv: Civilization game based on the Civ5 ruleset. I actually had to deinstall it again on my mobile phone (also available for Android) because it has the same addictive properties as the original…
And for non-free games: Lutris + GOG makes me happy. Currently playing some older Tomb Raider game. Although not really native, I think. Probably using Wine or so…
Minecraft was native Linux almost ever since it came out
Sounds like non-free data is allowed. Then surely ioQuake is the native game I spent the most time with.
ioQuake is just the engine, isn’t it? There also have been a few community projects that have been using it, but they seem to bee mostly dead. I remember giving Smoking Guns a try and actually had a little fun with it. Some nice maps. But it gets boring really fast when only playing against the limited AI opponents.
For a while, we had daily matches at work with the Quake 3 data. Terms like q3dm17 are still burned into my memory.
Playing with friends was certainly part of the magic. Playing against bots or random internet strangers is not the same.
Kerbal Space Program!
Right now I’m really getting into old school games or games that have the old school look. Here’s a few which have native Linux support:
- Stardew Valley
- Broforce
- Carrion
- Dusk
- FTL: Faster Than Light
- Huntdown
Mindustry, sort of like factorio but open source and free on itch. Although you can also buy it on steam
0ad, Wesnoth, Endless Sky, Mindustry
I know you are specifically asking for natives, but with the awesome work Valve has put into proton so many games play well with linux now!
Aside from some of the things mentioned here, Death Trash is a pretty neat indev rpg.
I really like Golf With Your Friends.
Mount & Blade Warband is fantastic and I highly recommend it if you haven’t played it.
Unrailed! is a neat little coop game to play with friends. If you buy this one on Steam you can use remote play together so only one person in your group needs to buy it.
Ultimate Chicken Horse is fun for a while with friends. Same deal with remote play together with this game.
Both Hotline Miami games are really fun.
Don’t know about them being the best, but I’ve been playing Valheim and Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun and having a good time with both.
The Talos Principle must be mentioned here. It was the first major game to provide Vulkan support, running just incredibly well.
And of course, Minecraft.
