Last Updated on February 26, 2018
Why spend your hard earned money on proprietary software when open source software provides a similar (or better) amount of functionality? That’s a very good question.
Linux is blessed with thousands of open source games covering all different types of genre. However, whilst the quality of these open source games is generally high and they are great fun to play, there is a lack of truly world-class innovative open source games. In many respects, the open source development model is not really applicable for game development.
To be eligible for inclusion in this article each game needed to be:
- Released under a proprietary license with a fee required either to purchase the game, or a monthly charge
- Not require Wine to run. Wine is a compatibility layer for running Windows software
Please recognise that the games featured in this three part article only represent a current snapshot of the best games. There are some very exciting commercial games to be released shortly for Linux.
Now, let’s examine the 8 games at hand. For each game we have compiled its own portal page, providing screenshots of the game in action, a full description of the game, with an in-depth analysis of the features of the game, together with links to relevant resources and reviews.
| Commercial Games (Part 2 of 3) | |
|---|---|
| Heroes of Newerth | Real-time strategy based on Defense of the Ancients |
| Shadowgrounds: Survivor | Single and multiplayer shooter with fantastic graphics |
| BOH | Original, retro-flavoured exploration game |
| Telepath Psy Arena 2 | Tactics based role playing game |
| X³: Reunion | Space trading, empire building, combat game |
| Grappling Hook | Innovative first-person action puzzle / platform |
| Irukandju | Fun score attack shooter, set in an abstract underwater trench |
| Cube Combat | Based on the classic Bomberman game |
 Read our complete collection of recommended free and open source software. Our curated compilation covers all categories of software. The software collection forms part of our series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. There are hundreds of in-depth reviews, open source alternatives to proprietary software from large corporations like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. There are also fun things to try, hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. |