Free First Person Shooters for All!

March 22, 2009 6:53 PM

First Person Shooters don't always have to cost you money. Free Doom and Starsiege: Tribes are two of the most well known free FPS around, but inside this post is a list of 32 more for you to checkout, download legally for free and enjoy.

Some of these have been featured on Metafilter before, but I have included them again anyway (complete with 'previously' links to further inform your choice of download) in case anyone missed them the first time round.

Be aware that where a download link leads directly to a file download, I've endeavoured to mark them with an *.

Now, go an enjoy all these free games! Of course, not all of them will be great (like Kuma War and America's Army, for instance) but when you're getting them for free (and legally), you really can't complain too much.

.kkrieger (Download *)
AssaultCube (Download) (previously)
America's Army (Download) (previously)
Black Shot (Download)
Blood Frontier (Download)
BZFlag (Download)
CodeRED: Alien Arena (Download)
Combat Arms (Download *)
Cube (Download)
The Dinohunters (Download)
Gore: Special Edition (Download)
Hidden & Dangerous (Download)
The Kill Point (Download *)
Kuma\War (Download) (previously)
Legends (Download)
Marathon (Download) (previously)
Nexuiz (Download)
Open Arena (Download)
Postal² (Download)
Purge (Download)
Quake Live (Download) (previously)
Red Alert: A Path Beyond (Download)
Sauerbraten (Download)
Savage (Download)
Savage 2 (Download) (previously)
Shootout: The Game (Download)
Smokin' Guns (Download)
Tremulous (Download)
Urban Terror (Download)
War§ow (Download)
Wolfenstien: Enemy Territory (Download)
World of Padman (Download)

posted by Effigy2000 (51 comments total)

Wow! I am not a big FPS guy - no good at twitchy games, and WoW eats up my "free" time - but that looks like a helluva list!
posted by Xoebe at 7:04 PM on March 22, 2009

I highly recommend Wolf:ET in that list. Many hours wasted in that game as a rambo medic. How are you supposed to beat someone who
A)Regenerates Health
B)Can heal himself
C)Has the same guns everyone else does

Fun times.
posted by Chan at 7:09 PM on March 22, 2009 [2 favorites]

Tremulous can be very addictive. A great mixture of RTS and FPS. If you don't like one or the other, the game is still very well suited for you. Though there sometimes can be problems with cheaters.
posted by Galen Alexis at 7:16 PM on March 22, 2009 [1 favorite]

Quick note: .kkrieger isn't so much a game as a procedural-generation proof of concept spawned out of the demoscene. At under 100K it's technically astonishing, but not all that much fun. Nice list, though!

(Also, the original Tribes is coming to InstantAction.com soon, apparently.)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:28 PM on March 22, 2009

Cool list. General Q: How does one know that software like this doesnt contain malware?
posted by lalochezia at 7:31 PM on March 22, 2009

So, ummm, which ones of these will, like, workonamac?
posted by drhydro at 7:34 PM on March 22, 2009

So, ummm, which ones of these will, like, workonamac?

Marathon definitely. Not aure about the others.
posted by The Devil Tesla at 7:39 PM on March 22, 2009

drhydro,
so far i've seen savage 2, world of padman, wolfenstein: enemy territory. that's what i've seen so far.
posted by andywolf at 7:40 PM on March 22, 2009

Wolf:ET has a Mac client, and Linux. Downloading now.
posted by dammitjim at 7:42 PM on March 22, 2009

all of them will work on a mac...if you install windows on it.
posted by hugecranium at 7:43 PM on March 22, 2009 [7 favorites]

Thanks for the extensive list. This is awesome!

A couple of questions/comments:

Is Padman appropriate for kids? I mean it looks like it might be but anyone with experience with this game, feedback would be great.

Combat Arms doesn't appear to be available to USA users.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 7:57 PM on March 22, 2009

The original Tribes is awesome! I spent many years and long nights learning skills on that game.
posted by TreeHugger at 8:16 PM on March 22, 2009

Warsow also has a Mac client.
posted by dammitjim at 8:17 PM on March 22, 2009

You should come visit us, a bunch of metafilter gaming dorks like to talk about (and play) quite a few of these games.
posted by hugecranium at 8:25 PM on March 22, 2009

Is Padman appropriate for kids?

You mean, does it show blood or gore? I can't remember for absolute certain, but I'm fairly sure it didn't.

It's incredibly fun, regardless. Imagine playing paintball as a person 3 inches tall in your own kitchen, or garden, or attic.
posted by Ritchie at 8:29 PM on March 22, 2009

Bleeeuuurrrg, Hidden and Dangerous. A friend and I spent 6 hours playing that game one day and made it to mission three...or was it two? It may have been two. Every nazi soldier in that game is an Aryan superman who--alerted by your lightest footfall from across the entire map--rouses himself from sleep long enough to nonchalantly fire a single round from his Luger--which flies unerringly across said map to bury itself between your eyes--before rolling over and going back to bed. High point: we had just spent three or four hours (and who knows how many tries) getting past the first mission, wherein you are supposed to (I shit you not) cross a bridge and rendezvous with a group of Resistance fighters next to their truck, when my buddy decides to give the truck a victory spray from his Sten. Truck explodes, we die, back to square one.

That game was fucking brutal.
posted by adamdschneider at 8:29 PM on March 22, 2009 [8 favorites]

That pretty much agrees with my recollection of the game too, adamschneider. That first mission... gawd. I gave up on my fourth attempt, where I'd actually gotten the team safely over the bridge, just to have some unseen shooter start ripping us to pieces.
posted by Ritchie at 8:33 PM on March 22, 2009

Doom works on a Mac. I know because I just spent an hour playing it. Memories....
posted by chowflap at 8:39 PM on March 22, 2009

Marathon is one of the best computer games ever, hands down. It was one of those things that when I was in high school made me wish I had a mac so that I could play all the really cool games.

(That obviously didn't work out the way I thought.)
posted by klangklangston at 8:56 PM on March 22, 2009 [1 favorite]

I know it's not a FPS, but the game I keep on wishing to see released free (and, preferably, with the source) is the first couple of games in the Myth series. I loved that game. I never got good at it, but playing it was huge fun nevertheless.
posted by Ritchie at 9:11 PM on March 22, 2009

I'm looking for something Halo-esque but with little to no gore that my son (12) can play with his friends. Does anything in this list meet those criteria? (Thanks!)
posted by mecran01 at 9:19 PM on March 22, 2009

Chex Quest
posted by hellojed at 9:32 PM on March 22, 2009 [1 favorite]

I have not gotten any better at Assault Cube since last October.

But I did upgrade my RAM, so I got that going for me.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:37 PM on March 22, 2009

I know it's not a FPS, but the game I keep on wishing to see released free (and, preferably, with the source) is the first couple of games in the Myth series. I loved that game. I never got good at it, but playing it was huge fun nevertheless.

Mmmm. Nothing beats a ghol/wight rush with fetch and trow bringing up the rear.
posted by verb at 10:07 PM on March 22, 2009

Wow, Tribes is free now? Awesome! I loved that game (especially "skiing" and dropping grenades on CTF maps), but Tribes 2 wasn't so good. I shall now further avoid homework and waste several hours on some Tribes...
posted by fireoyster at 10:14 PM on March 22, 2009

Don't forget that if you have a Mac with an Intel-based CPU, you can play all of these via Boot Camp. :)
posted by Mikey-San at 10:43 PM on March 22, 2009

.kkreiger was so amazing looking when it first came out... i think it was meant primarily to be an impressive test for graphics cards -- the group that released it, farbrausch is (was?) very well known for rockin graphics demos... in europe, at least.
posted by phylum sinter at 11:38 PM on March 22, 2009

Are you nuts? Tribes 2 is probably the most fun I've had in multiplayer.
posted by autodidact at 12:06 AM on March 23, 2009

Wow! I am not a big FPS guy - no good at twitchy games, and WoW eats up my "free" time - but that looks like a helluva list!

I discovered runes of magic recently which, while no WoW is surprisingly competent for a free to play mmorpg. Probably not the best bet if you're into PvP though, as you'll be competing with all the people with paid uber trinkets, but still the PvE is solid.
posted by juv3nal at 12:33 AM on March 23, 2009

caveat: the client download is stupidly large.
posted by juv3nal at 12:34 AM on March 23, 2009

Tribes was great. Tribes 2 was also great, but it was different. It was a little less loose and more deliberate than Tribes I (if that makes any sense as a description), and I think that threw more than a few people when they tried out 2. Tribes: Vengeance was OK, but some of the things just didn't work very well, and the maps were on the whole not as good.

And to add some actual, relevant information to this post of mine, it would appear that InstantAction is making Tribes I into an updated browser-based game. Should be more news out about it this week at GDC.
posted by barc0001 at 1:59 AM on March 23, 2009

UrbanTerror works great on a Mac, too.
posted by dominik at 3:23 AM on March 23, 2009

I can recommend UrbanTerror, if you can get some people together to play it.
posted by AndrewStephens at 4:10 AM on March 23, 2009

Linux gamers: Hidden and Dangerous works really well in Wine. Also, a better download link (not requiring payment) is http://www.ausgamers.com/files/download/html/8741.
posted by jaduncan at 5:32 AM on March 23, 2009

Also re H&D: I can confirm it is possible to complete it. ;)
posted by jaduncan at 5:36 AM on March 23, 2009

I'll wager it would also be possible to pound a ten penny nail into my dick hole.
posted by adamdschneider at 5:46 AM on March 23, 2009 [6 favorites]

You know what used to be, and remains, the very best multiplayer FPS experience I have ever had? Blood by 3D Realms with 6 players on a coax network. Also, pizza and beer. So, so much beer.
posted by turgid dahlia at 6:25 AM on March 23, 2009

caveat: the client download is stupidly large.
posted by juv3nal at 3:34 AM on March 23 [+] [!]

I downloaded the 3.5 gig setup and installed it only to find out that it has to download updates. ugh.
posted by stavrogin at 8:30 AM on March 23, 2009

Another vote for Urban Terror. I have been playing it for years. Interspersed with other games here and there. Used to play it competitively too with the 30+ clan.
I still harbor ill feelings to the nerfing of the PSG1 though. If I recall it was 2.3 or 2.5 when they neutered it.
The graphics are a bit weary these days, but the game play it still a lot of fun.
posted by a3matrix at 8:42 AM on March 23, 2009

Awesome List! I didn't know Postal2 was free now. There look like quite a few good one's on there.

Anyone up for a Metafilter LAN party?
posted by DetonatedManiac at 8:53 AM on March 23, 2009

Postal² is free now? Damn, that game is such a guilty pleasure for me.
posted by lekvar at 12:01 PM on March 23, 2009

Combat Arms is available in the US, at least I and my sons play it. Although, it does suffer from hacks/cheats which get fixed for a few days following patches from Nexon, which occur maybe once a month.
posted by grefo at 12:04 PM on March 23, 2009

I am particularly thankful for the linux compatable ones. Thanks!
posted by tdreyer at 12:55 PM on March 23, 2009

Used to play it competitively too with the 30+ clan.

I used to do BF42 with the Old Warriors Society. Did some BF2 and COD4, for a bit, too.
posted by adamdschneider at 3:27 PM on March 23, 2009

Hello? Wulfram 2 anyone?!
posted by pravit at 4:01 PM on March 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

So who is setting up Metafilter League night and announcing which nights/game/server?
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 5:02 PM on March 23, 2009

To be released any day now, Battlefield Heroes is awesome. I'm in on the beta. It is free and kind of like a mix between team fortress and battlefield 1942. I dig it.

I have a feeling it's gonna be pretty popular, pretty soon.

Keep your feelers peeled.
posted by Espoo2 at 6:21 PM on March 23, 2009

And to add some actual, relevant information to this post of mine, it would appear that InstantAction is making Tribes I into an updated browser-based game.

Yup, I mentioned that upthread. Also, don't forget about TribesNext.

To be released any day now, Battlefield Heroes is awesome.

If you're really into the Village People, I guess.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:08 PM on March 23, 2009

So who is setting up Metafilter League night and announcing which nights/game/server?

Waaay ahead of you, mate. Mefightclub.com: pwning all comers for fun and profit since 2007.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:10 PM on March 23, 2009

which of these games have a fairly large online following and allow you to play against online opponents? (i prefer to play with people, not AI.)
posted by whatgorilla at 12:54 AM on March 24, 2009

Nexuiz and World of Padman are both great for Linux users.
posted by pahool at 3:45 PM on March 25, 2009