List of free first-person shooters
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Free first-person shooters are games of the first person shooter genre available with no cost. Not many first-person shooter games offer a free version of their game, but there are a few.
[edit] Alien Arena 2007
CodeRED: Alien Arena (Alien Arena 2007) is a fully functioned free deathmatch shooter based on Qfusion that runs on Windows and Linux, and features standard deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, Deathball, and all out assault, in a 50's era sci-fi atmosphere.
As of this release (v 6.0), there are 37 maps, 10 player models, and 8 weapons (each with alternate firing modes). Gameplay is similar to Quake III and UT2004, and the engine has an in-game browser to find other servers and players online. The game features visual effects such as shaders, stencil shadows, light bloom and reflective water, and highly detailed models and textures.
The game also has 2 standalone Single Player prequels (Battle for Earth and Martian Chronicles) that can also be found on the site, alough they use an older engine and are no longer supported.
File Size: 200 MB
[edit] America's Army
America's Army (AA) is a tactical multiplayer first-person shooter owned by the U.S. government, financed through U.S. tax dollars and distributed free by the U.S. Army as a global public relations initiative to present a positive image of the current U.S. Army and help with U.S. Army recruitment. It claims to be extremely realistic and pose a better challenge, as players have to think harder and work better as a team with strangers.
It uses an 'honor' system to rank all players. A player's honor level is saved and updated every time he/she plays, creating an MMORPG style system, similar to the experience system in Battlefield 2.
Released on July 4, 2002, America's Army was developed by the MOVES Institute at the Naval Postgraduate School, in Monterey, California, and is based on the Unreal engine.
File Size: 2.49GB
[edit] BZFlag
BZFlag is a free multiplayer multiplatform 3D tank battle game played from a first-person viewpoint. The name stands for Battle Zone capture Flag. BZFlag runs on Irix, Linux, *BSD, Windows, Mac OS X and other platforms.
File Size: 15 MB
[edit] Cube
Cube is a free, open source Quake-like first-person shooter computer game that runs on Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and Mac OS X and even Pocket PC devices with 3D acceleration such as Dell Axim x50. It uses OpenGL and SDL. Cube features both single-player and multiplayer gameplay.
Sauerbraten, the successor to Cube was released in 2006.
File Size: 28 MB
[edit] D-Day: Normandy
D-Day: Normandy, formerly a Quake II total conversion but since released as a standalone game, features realistic World War II combat.
(inactive)
DDay Normandy. This WWII, class based first person shooter puts axis against allies in the epic battle between good and evil. This World War II, FPS is also totally free and free to download. With 100's of maps and the choice of several teams, including British, Soviet, Japanese and Polish,
(inactive)
[edit] Duck Hunt 3D
Duck Hunt 3D is a first person shooter where the player shoots ducks scoring points before they fly away. The game has an infinite number of levels, but a limited amount of ammo per level.
Filesize 2 MB
[edit] F.E.A.R Combat
F.E.A.R Combat is the multiplayer component of the video game F.E.A.R, a Horror based First Person Shooter. The game was developed by Monolith Productions and published by Vivendi Universal. To play the user must download the program and then register for a unique CD-Key. The game is already patched and is compatible with the retail version of F.E.A.R. F.E.A.R combat is simply F.E.A.R without the Singleplayer.
File Size: 1.76 GB
[edit] FreeDoom
FreeDoom a Doom WAD file intended to be used instead of the copyrighted file from the original Doom and Doom II.
[edit] Hidden & Dangerous
Hidden & Dangerous is a 1999 computer and video game developed by Illusion Softworks and published by Take-Two Interactive.
The player takes the role of a four man British Special Air Service (or SAS) team executing a number of important sabotage and/or rescue campaigns during World War II. The game takes a realistic approach, where the player must use stealth for the most part to complete the objectives.
It was released free to promote its sequel.
File Size: 264 MB
[edit] Kuma\War
Kuma\War is a free first-person shooter updated with new game episodes multiple times each month. Taking a page from the “episodic” nature of television, Kuma\War’s primary focus is to expose current, real-world conflicts taking place in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other global hotspots (Iran, North Korea).
Kuma\War is developed by Kuma Reality Games, who also produce the online FPS, SHOOTOUT! (to correspond with The History Channel television show), and video games for use in training and simulation by the United States Army.
Kuma\War has been the center of controversy for its timeliness of new mission releases, recreations brought to life just days or weeks of the actual conflict taking place. The timeliness of these releases along with the fact that "Kuma Reality Games provides military training to the United States Army (contract number 1435-04-05-CT-42872)" sparked unsubstantiated rumors of other possible Government affiliations. There has also been a firestorm of debate earlier this year with the release of what Kuma\War’s Military Advisory Board deemed to be the recreation of a plausible military strike against Iran.
Kuma\War can be downloaded and played for free on PCs with a broadband Internet connection and currently boasts 75+ missions. Kuma\War also hosts multiplayer servers in which players from all over the world play together.
[edit] Marathon Series
Marathon was developed by Bungie for the Apple Macintosh. The game is known for having many properties of modern FPS, such as dual-wielding, friendly NPCs, and intricate plot development. The game is playable on other platforms through the use of Aleph One.
The original Marathon is set in 2794, where the player is dispatched to Tau Ceti IV, to answer a distress call. The player's job is to defend the crew from invading aliens. During that time, the player witnesses the interaction of three AIs, Leela, Durandal, and Tycho.
File Size: 4.7 MB (Note: Size is for the Mac Classic download)
Marathon 2 takes place seventeen years after the original Marathon. At this point, Durandal has sent humans to search for the S'pht homeworld, in the hopes of stalling the Pfhor attack on Earth.
File Size: 25.8 MB (Note: Size is for the Mac Classic download)
Marathon Infinity features multiple plot branches. After having activated Thoth and after having aided the S'pht'Kr in destroying the Pfhor armada, Durandal is apparently destroyed (though he may actually have hidden from Tycho by transferring himself to the electronic implants of the human leader Robert Blake). At the end of the game your objective is to activate an ancient Jjaro machine that keeps the W'rkncacnter locked in the Lh'owon sun.
File size: 35.5 MB (Note: Size is for the Mac Classic download)
Official Bungie Marathon Trilogy Website
[edit] Nexuiz
Nexuiz is a GNU GPLed FPSs game that focuses on quick, lethal battles with balanced weaponry. As of this release there are 9 weapons and 17 official maps, as well as 15 player models, with an average of 2 skins each.
While Nexuiz is not intended to be an eye-candy game, it features many visual effects such as Coronas, Bloom (reflected glow), Realtime World and Dynamic Lights (and shaders, with OpenGL 2.0), and blood (although this can be disabled by turning off particles and decals).
Nexuiz is a free software game based on the Darkplaces engine, a significantly modified Quake engine.
File Size: 179 MB
[edit] Penumbra
Penumbra is a horror adventure game, developed by a small team of students as a technology demonstration for their HLP Engine. The game makes heavy use of advanced graphics and physics, allowing for a great deal of interaction between the player and the environment. Penumbra is available as a free download, however, it should be noted that it is not a full-version game, but only a tech demo for the HLP engine.
Penumbra is a first-person game with two different viewport modes. In movement mode the mouse cursor remains in the middle of the viewport (and, in fact, remains hidden unless it's over an object that can be examined), making moving around with the mouse easy. In interaction mode the cursor is visible at all times and can move freely within the viewport. Only when it nears the edges does the viewport move in that direction. This makes walking around cumbersome, as a lot of mouse movement is needed for turns, but interacting with objects is easier.
The physics engine in Penumbra is very flexible and realistic. Like many current computer games, objects aren't fixed in place. For instance, you can pick up boxes and pile them on top of each other, move shelves, open doors, throw things around or drop them down stairs, and more. This allows for a very immersive game world, as well as challenging puzzles.
File Size: 156MB
The full-version game, Penumbra: Overture, is set to be commercially released in Spring 2007.
[edit] Sauerbraten (Cube 2)
Sauerbraten is a partially (not all data is) open source Quake-like first-person shooter computer game that runs on Windows, GNU/Linux, FreeBSD and Mac OS X. The game uses OpenGL and SDL, features single-player and multiplayer gameplay and contains a built in level editor.
Sauerbraten is a branch of the computer game Cube and expands its original concept. It shares most of design goals and philosophy with Cube, but uses a new 6-directional heightfield world model. This allows much more complex level geometry and easier editing. Much like the original Cube, the aim of this game is not necessarily to produce the most features & eyecandy possible, but rather to allow map/geometry editing to be done dynamically in-game, to create fun gameplay and an elegant engine. The engine supporting the game is entirely original in code & design, and its code is Open Source (ZLIB license)
File Size: 88MB(Win32), 89MB(Linux), 95MB(Mac)
[edit] Starsiege: Tribes
Starsiege: Tribes (usually called Tribes or Tribes 1) is a sci-fi first-person shooter (FPS) computer game, the first of the Tribes video game series. It was developed by Dynamix and published by the company now known as Sierra Entertainment in 1998.
Tribes was one of the first online-only games of its kind and sported several multiplayer features that other games have only recently included (32+ player support, 128 players max, troop transport vehicles, several different player classes). Most of the standard maps were outdoors in a variety of climates, from sunshine to snow and hail. In general, bases were scattered throughout the map depending on the gametype. The outdoor environments were and still are relatively huge, many extending for several "in-game" kilometers in any direction, but "jetting" and "skiing" gave Tribes a fast-paced feel.
Tribes 2 was also released for free to the public; however, each user account requires a unique CD key for it to be used in online play. Free distribution of CD keys is currently discontinued, though this does not prevent the game from being installed and played on a LAN.
File Size: 135 MB (plus patch)
- Get the game here:Fileplanet
- Get the patch here: FilePlanet
[edit] Tremulous
Tremulous is a stand-alone game based on the ioquake3 source which draws inspiration from the popular Quake2 mod Gloom. The game is team based, with players taking on the role of a human mercenary or a vicious alien. Their objective is to destroy the opposing team's base while simultaneously defending and maintaining their own. Both sides of the conflict earn points for making kills. Humans earn credits, which are used to buy superior equipment and weapons. Aliens earn evolution points which are used to become larger and more powerful. The source code is licensed under the GPL while the content uses the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 license. A port of the game also exists for Mac OS based computers, with both PowerPC and Intel architectures supported (Universal).
File Size: 95.6 MB
- Get the game here: Official Tremulous Website
- MacOS X download (PowerPC and Intel)
[edit] War§ow
War§ow is a Standalone FPS game for Windows and Linux.
Some Features Include:
- 3D Engine based on Qfusion (a modification of Quake 2 GPL engine)
- eSport oriented FPS
- Fast-paced gameplay focused on trix (trick jumps) and art of move
- Complete Power-up System including Weak and Strong fire mode for each weapon
- Cartoonish cel-shaded graphics
While still technically in its beta stage (with periodical stable releases), War§ow is already gaining immense popularity by being featured in international video game tournaments such as the Cyberathlete Amateur League.
File Size: 73 MB
[edit] Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory was originally planned to be released as a commercial expansion pack to the popular FPS Return to Castle Wolfenstein. However, due to problems with the single-player aspect, the multiplayer portion was released on May 29, 2003 as a free standalone game. In early 2004 the source code for the game logic (not the game engine) was released to the benefit of its modding community.
As of release 2.60 the game is available on Linux x86, Mac OS X (PowerPC), and Windows platforms.
There are two sides, Allies and Axis. There are six officially released maps, and many community-created maps. On each map, the offense needs to complete a certain set of objectives (e.g. escorting a tank, stealing radar parts) within a limited amount of time. The defense needs to keep the offense from completing objectives until time runs out. Some objectives may be optional, and some objectives can be carried out by either team. These minor objectives assist the team completing them. During the game, players are rewarded with experience points and various skills. Depending on Game Mode experience points are gathered during several maps (Campaign Mode), reset after one round (Objective Mode, Stopwatch Mode) or not gathered at all (Last Man Standing).
File Size: 258 MB (plus patch)
[edit] War Rock
War Rock is a freeware first-person shooter developed by K2 Network, based in Irvine.
'File Size: 331 MB
[edit] Wulfram II
Wulfram 2 is a hybrid genre massively multiplayer online first-person shooter, massively multiplayer online real-time strategy, and simulation game currently being developed by Bernt Habermeier and published under the name SlurpySoft (Slurpy is the pen-name/callsign of Bernt Habermeier) using an original source code developed by Bolt-Action Software, of which Bernt Habermeier was a co-founder. Wulfram 2 is one of four known games to be developed by Bolt-Action Software, and is the only one still playable. Notable is the fact that Wulfram 2 is free to play, though the administration is accepting donations from the player-base and offering certain non-gameplay related benefits for it.
[edit] X Operations
X Operations (X Ops) is a freeware first-person shooter video game developed by Team MITEI, a Japanese developer, in 2003. The game is partially in the Japanese language but is, for the most part, in English. It includes GoldenEye 007 style graphics is known to be one of the more simple and basic free games out there. However, it has arguably addictive gameplay and has a certain comedic element (whether intentional or not) to it as killing an enemy will result in them throwing their arms up and falling forward or backward in a stiff fashion. There is also a multiplayer version of X Operations (X Operations Online) in which you can play versus anyone in the world.
File Size:
- Single Player 4.78 MB
- Multiplayer 3.81 MB
- Unofficial X Operations Homepage (English)
- Official X Operations Website (Japanese)
- X Operations Russian Home (Russian)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links (complete list)
- Official Alien Arena 2007 Website
- Official Americas Army Website
- Official BZFlag Website
- Official Cube Website
- Official D-Day: Normandy Website
- Official Fear Combat Website
- Official Kuma War Website
- Official Bungie Marathon Trilogy Website
- Official Nexuiz Website
- Official Penumbra Website
- Official Sauerbraten Website
- Official Starsiege: Tribes Website
- Official Transfusion Website
- Official Tremulous Website
- Official Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory Website
- Official Warsow Website
- Official Wulfram 2 Website
- Official War Rock Website
- Unofficial X Operations Site[1]
- Official Warrock Website
[edit] References
- ^ Official X Operations page is Japanese
