Where to find a free and easy multiplayer game in Linux?

Question

I am looking for a computer game that I can play in Linux (Ubuntu). This game must satisfy several conditions:

1. The game must be free
2. It must be a kind of multiplayer game. I would prefer a FPS with team-building capabilities, but a role-playing game or something similar will do...
3. I want to be able to chat with other players. Voice chat would be perfect, but using the keyboard for communication will do as well...
4. Most important: the game must be EASY to install and EASY to play! I prefer the game to be installed by the Ubuntu Software Center or via command line (apt-get install ...). I had cases in which the game had to be compiled, with the configure step or the make step failing. I also had cases in which the game 'worked', but there were no opponents, or a game with a very complicated game play. I just want to have a beginner multiplayer game with all the conditions from above!

So if people could give me advice on an EASY-to-install and EASY to play Ubuntu Multiplayer game, I would appreciate that!

Answer 1

A good place to start looking is Steam.

I would recommend Team Fortress 2. It's:

1. free
2. Multi-Player FPS
3. you can chat over Steam
4. Easy to install

Answer 2

If you want to try some retro games, just try Armaggedtron, which is a trim racing game with local and Internet multiplayer support.

Another good game is OpenLieroX which is like worms in real time with multiplayer support. You can use different themes like an Command and Conquer, Zelda or Mario theme which will provide different weapons. Or just a user defined game with user defined reload times etc. you can even create own maps with just three small bmp files.

Answer 3

The first game that comes to mind in relation to your question is Xonotic https://xonotic.org/

Pros

• Free
• First person shooter
• Has several modes including capture the flag and death match
• lots of servers to choose from with different maps and game modes
• Keyboard chat functionality built in
• No installation required
• Usually there are at least 2 or 3 players online

Cons

• It is run from the command line (but it has always just started right up for me no hastle)
• Sometimes there is a little lag.

There are 2 other games worth mentioning that aren't FPS or RPG but they do fit all the other criteria.

I recently tried out Minetest https://www.minetest.net/ and was pleasantly surprised. It's a sandbox game where you collect resources and build structures.

Pros

• Free
• In game chat with keyboard
• It took me a matter of a few minutes to join a server with at least a few other players online.
• Installed from Synaptic in Linux Mint (could apt-get install as well)
• Lots of mods available

Cons

• The game is a little bit challenging to just sit down and figure out what to do (There is an online wiki that helps out)

Also worth checking out is SuperTuxKart https://supertuxkart.net/Main_Page It's a racing game.

Pros

• Free
• In game keyboard chat
• Install with apt-get or synaptic
• Easy to figure out how to play
• lots of servers online
• Graphics are great

Cons

• Can't think of any right now