first person shooters

The Ball is a total conversion of Unreal Tournament 3 into a clever physics puzzle game controlling a massive Aztec metal sphere. Released back in 2009 and eventually a full game release, this mod is a free-to-play version if you own Unreal Tournament 3. Push, pull and use physics to guide the ball through intricate puzzles with moving elevators, triggers, water and much more!


I was able to install Unreal Tournament 3 in Heroic Launcher and then install The Ball files into its own prefix.

Look through the prefix and find The Ball folder in "My Documents".

Move the folder to your Linux Documents folder in "My Games/Unreal Tournament 3"

In Heroic Launcher add the following Game Arguments (In Settings then Advanced):

-mod=../TheBall

Click to expand...

This will allow it to launch Unreal Tournament 3 and then find The Ball game files instead of UTGame files.
The game ran almost perfectly...

The Metro to rule them all!


Metro Exodus boasts many features not seen in the previous games but also keeps the "spirit" of post apocalyptic shooters like STALKER, Fallout, Mad Max & Rage 2. Huge detailed open areas and extremely smart enemies will put you in the middle of a simulation where each move makes a difference between life and death. Enemies are stimulated by sight & sound and will act accordingly.

Explore large maps of Mother Russia's wasteland with all kinds of mutated animals, warring factions, hidden areas, safe houses and biomes. There isn't a single building or area that feels the same. You are truly exploring a detailed world with all kinds of loot, crafting, weapon mods and clever enemies. The amount of objects and locations littered around each map is staggering!

Stealth is definitely your friend, but when the push-comes-to-shove you can try an gun down your foes, but its not as easy as you would think. Enemies are...

Continue the story as Artyom during post apocalyptic Moscow in the underground Metro. Travel through miles of track visiting small communities of survivors and garrisons. The story unveils some twists impacting who is actually winning but I won't unveil that here... but the "dark one" plays a main part in Artyoms survival.



Game-play is almost identical to Metro 2033 with ride-a-longs and cutscenes. Most of the game is linear with some arena-ish areas that allow exploration. You are given the option to sneak or run-n-gun but stealth is much easier for survival since there are only save checkpoints. Specific bullets are uses as currency, but not ammo meant for your weapons. There are also numerous modifications you can use to make your weapons more efficient or quieter.

Sadly I bought Metro Last Light on GOG with did not provide a Linux version. However proton handles the game perfectly! I was able to play though without any major game-breaking...

Östertörn, Sweden is over run with robots! Not your run-of-the-mill Lost in Space robot, but dangerous animal-like killer mechanical robots with you as their prey! Explore an enormous island with towns, forests, tourist traps and of course... a lot of robots to slay!


Generation Zero is a co-op and/or singleplayer campaign with a lot of focus on stealth. You can run out into the open and start laying them down with bullets, but it isn't gonna last long. Too many minions and not enough bullets. Proton handles the open-world games perfectly without any glitches or crashes yet. No launch options needed so far and I was able to run it mostly on Ultra with my hardware.

Mint 21.1 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1650
Nvidia 535
Proton Experimental 8

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Survive a zombie apocalypse on the island of Banoi! This band of friends hack and loot their way across a massive resort island crafting weapons, tossing molotov's and slaying varying types of minions. Dead Island was released in 2011 and still looks as beautiful and detailed as many AAA games released today! I still can't believe the amount of detail in every object, plant, weapon and animation!


Dead Island in 2024 still has a native Linux port available in Steam and runs beautifully even in co-op!
One simple Launch Option:
This allows the game to use Vulkan instead of OpenGL and it shows! There are a few minior bugs but nothing game breaking! Its crazy to think developers were considering Linux back in 2011 when so many just rely on Proton these days.

Mint 21.1 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1650
Nvidia 535

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Synergy is a community made mod for Half-Life 2 that allows you to play through the campaigns with your friends:

• Half-Life 2
• Half-Life 2: Episode 1
• Half-Life 2: Episode 2

Re-live the epic adventure/nightmare as Gordon Freeman against the Combine republic! Experience silly gravity bugs and interesting effects while solving puzzles and goofing off with the gravity gun! Its endless fun!


There are a few progress-breaking bugs in Synergy and the only solution is to skip the rest of "said map" but over all the experience is really fun and long! So many enemies to kill and fun ways to crash into each other in the buggy or hovercraft. Proton handles Synergy nicely! Its hard to tell if Half-Life is running natively or as Winodws executables?

I played through with both of my daughters offline with a single Steam account and it was a lot of fun! Thank you Synergy!

Mint 20.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1650
Nvidia 515
Proton...

Unreal Tournament 4 has been on hold for a long time as Epic develops other games. Thanks to the Linux community there are some dedicated developers who have made Unreal 4 available for us to play again!

Source:
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/1111t8g/unreal_tournament_4_saved_by_ut4uu_community/


Following the instructions in the reddit post, I was able to download, install, launch and sign in. Then I could play my own singleplayer training maps or local LAN maps. Thank you for including LAN!!!

I noticed some serous stutter or lag when initially playing. This must be some caching issue with Linux, Vulkan or OpenGL. Not really sure, but it sure is annoying during the first match. Once the issues are loaded up, then it plays just fine afterwards!

Specs:
Mint 20.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1650
Nvidia 515

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Rage 2 is a second installment of the Rage franchise boasting epic firefights, car battles, bosses, and apacalyptic views!


There is no shortage of loot and action here... everything a FPS action gamer wants! If you have played the first Rage, then Rage 2 is an absolute upgrade! The open world is HUGE... many roads, biomes, elevations and loctions to slay bandits, mutants and soldiers.

In many ways I think Rage 2 is what ID Software wanted for the first game. Not sure if budgets were tight or the fact Bethesda was purchasing the developer, but Rage 2 is by all means EPIC!

Luckily I was able to pick it up for free on Epic store. I waited a few months as I was testing other games and had no idea how amazing this game was. Finally gave it a chance and found that it was buggy with a lot of crashing in Proton. I'm using Heroic Launcher which handles the download and Proton/Wine version perfectly. There are even other settings like...

Island Saver is a free-to-play first person clean-up game where you are saving the island from litter bugs who want to pollute it. Wield your Trash Blaster and suck washed up plastic and recycle it. Then suck up water can and clean the black goo from trees, water and recycling objects which help you clean up the island.

This is an absolutely kid safe game! And its educational by teaching kids how plastic and pollution can damage the environment and an animal ecosystems. Once you complete the free-to-play island, you can pay for more islands and continue the adventure!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1210250/Island_Saver/


I was unable to play Island Saver with standard issue proton or experimental, because it requires Media Foundation to play the videos. So I tried ProtonGE and it played beautifully!

Specs:
Mint 20.2 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Proton 6.21 GE 2

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Left4Dead 2 is a zombie apocalypse co-op shooter made by Valve with the Source engine in 2008. The story follows 4 people who are trying to survive zombie hordes with a movie-esque cinematic feel like the classic horror movies. Enjoy slaying all kinds of zombified humans and special mutated monsters with classic weapons like machetes, pistols, shotguns, UZIs and much more!

Play co-op with friends or solo with 3 bots and hack your way through running hordes of zombies to the safe house. Left4Dead 2 even includes all the maps from Left4Dead 1. Now you can play the entire story!


Valve was nice enough to port Left4Dead 2 to Linux so we can host games and join games without any need for Proton or Wine. You may notice a bit of stutter in the beginning of the video, but other than that it runs beautifully! I have hosted this game in LAN parties for years and it has always run great! There was only one instance where my game kept crashing...

PREY is an absolute "Must Play" if you are a first person shooter gamer! Imagine System Shock 2 on steroids with amazing graphics, clever morphing aliens, psionic abilities, loot, crafting, survival, sneaking and more. Of course all happening on a space station! Doesn't get any better than this!


https://store.steampowered.com/app/480490/Prey/

I remember testing PREY crashing a few years ago: reddit
But now it runs beautifully! I was even able to get a decent frame rate while recording and playing! I'm even using the same hardware, but newer Nvidia drivers, Proton, Vulkan and Mint version.

Specs:
Mint 20.2 64-bit
Nvidia 470
Proton 6.3-8

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Who doesn't like the Borderlands series?
Procedurally generated weapons/loot/vending machines, hilarious enemies, hideous creatures and minions that level up. Play as one of 4 classes and continue the story of Handsome Jack and his plan to rule Pandora. This should be easy right? Level up our skills, equip your gear and tear through deserts, icy mountains and mechanical cities.


Borderlands 2 provides us Linux gamers with a native port that runs beautifully! I am playing co-op with my two daughters and only one computer had a problems with shadows. I edited a configuration file and enabled shadows, then we were on our way!

Specs:
Mint 20.2 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060, GTX 950, 750 Ti
Nvidia 470

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Eternal Evil is a first person survival shooter made by one person. This is no run-n-gun shooter but instead more of a survival horror with story, weapons and puzzles. Each level is very small but packed with zombies and detail. Finding weapons, ammo and health is no easy task when zombies are clawing at your back. Each zombie walks, moves and attacks with physics instead of animation. They crawl on the ground, bump into objects and smack other zombies. Be careful, if they feed on you they become powerful and almost impossible to kill. Even objects in buildings are completely interactive with physics. Use books or chairs to slow down zombies.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1604260/Eternal_Evil_Prologue/


I'm absolutely amazing how detailed and intense this game is! I had to play through the Prologue several times to make it a bit further. Ammo is very limited and you have to be careful how you use it. Run out of ammo and...

Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 is another epic first person shooter where you play as a mercenary near Russian borders in an open world. Complete missions and return to your hideout to upgrade your weapons add accessories and replenish your health. Awake the next day for another bloodbath as a Sniper, Ghost or Warrior. You can also explore by driving vehicles or using your trusted drone and find secret stashes and secret sniping locations.

https://www.gog.com/game/sniper_ghost_warrior_3


As you can see in the above video, Sniper GW 3 plays pretty well in PlayOnLinux with Wine.

Sadly there is a problem... When I start a new game it runs great with high frame rates like a native game, but when I quit and reload the game the frame rates drop to the point of unplayable.

I've tried different versions of Wine, Wine staging and even Proton... nothing seems to fix this problem. I've researched online and even posted on reddit about it...

Borderlands franchise are epic vault hunter games with procedurally generated weapons, RPG elements, crazy minions, vehicular combat and awesome skills. On top of all that, fully co-op campaigns.

Linux gamers are happy to have native ports for both Borderlands 2 and Pre-Sequel. Pre-Sequel specifically has an awesome space-oriented campaign on the moon of Pandora and broken/destroyed ships. Gravity effects, slams and oxygen will keep you on your toes and plenty of badass minions and bosses to slay!

Learn how Jack the hero became Handsome Jack!


The native port runs amazing on my GeForce GTX 1060, GTX 950 & 750 Ti. No performance issues at all! I'm playing co-op with both of my daughters and it is lot of fun!

Specs:
Mint 20.2 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 470

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Necrovision is a WWII Military shooter franchise with a zombie-Wolfenstein feel. Lost Company is a prequel throwing you back into battle with a small platoon of soldiers who sometimes help you take out zombies and possessed Nazi. Except you are now a German soldier uniting Axis and Allied troops again the forces of evil.
New weapons, new levels, plane fights, weapon upgrades and much more.

https://www.gog.com/game/necrovision_lost_company


Lost Company was made in 2010 and runs perfectly in Wine on PlayOnLinux. I didn't have any issues installing, configuring or playing as you can see in the video. It is a bit dated when compared to more recent FPS, but still fun and intense!

Unfortunately the DirectX 10 features do not run in Wine, but there is a workaround to force DirectX 9

After installing the game, navigate to this folder
/home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/necrovision/drive_c/GOG Games/NecroVision Lost...

The Creation is an indie FPS with horror, fantasy and sci-fi elements. Begin exploring a forest after your car has broken down on the highway when you arrive at a mysterious church. After eating a few mushrooms everything starts to get very weird... next thing you know you are talking to fairies and shooting zombies in a mountain facility in another world.

What do you expect after eating mushrooms?

https://jivapeira.itch.io/the-creation


I was able to play The Creation in PlayOnLinux with stable Wine and never had any serious issues. In fact this indie game is surprisingly polished and optimized. Normally I have some stutters and frame rate issues, but not this time. Ran GREAT!

Specs:
Mint 20.1 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 470
PlayOnLinux 4.3.4
DXVK 1.9.1

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Return to Castle Wolfenstein as Blazkowicz again, but this time with stunning visuals, new electrifying weapons and enemies... Defeat the Nazi order and walk into the sunset... Wait no! That not what happens... after storming the castle you wake up in an asylum in 1960. Nazi Germany has won!


I tested the GOG version of Wolfenstein New Order in PlayOnLinux and surprisingly runs perfect with stable Wine 6.0 64-bit. I added the standard overrides and vcrun2019. It started up perfectly, cutscenes work and the frame rate is beautiful! I cranked almost everything up to high and my GeForce GTX 1060 handles it nicely.
Reports on protondb.com are equally the same!

Specs:
Mint 20.1 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 460
PlayOnLinux 4.3.4
Wine 6.0 64-bit
DXVK 1.9.1

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Stellar Overload is a crafting, harvesting, story-based action game in the same vein of Minecraft. Each planet is a massive cube and gravity falls according to each side of the cube. Find your brother in the resistance, mine for resources to craft your weapons, protect the colonies from the evil robots and build your own structures.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/397150/Stellar_Overload/


Sadly Cubical Drift left this game in eternal beta. It is a crowdfunded game with some epic goals, one of which is a Linux version. I was able to play natively in Linux without any issues. I could crank up the graphics and view distance to almost high and play with a decent frame rate. Too bad its no longer for sale on Steam.

Specs:
Mint 20.1 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 460

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Ever wanted to play Heretic in widescreen, HD textures and fully 3D modeled monsters?
Now You can!

Someone actually developed 3D models and assets to run in GZDoom with all the HD settings for your modern FPS needs!

Brutal Heretic RPG HD 3D
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12EwLZQuHyBHJcJJkQX_DGow98ZApgB62
Download at your own risk!


I tried running the mod in Linux GZDoom but couldn't get it to run, but running it in PlayOnLinux with Wine works perfectly on my GeForce GTX 1060! I didn't have any performance issues or anything... just ran great!

Specs:
Mint 20.1 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 460
PlayOnLinux 4.3.4
Wine 6.0 64-bit

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