Ask HN: Linux users, which Steam game would you recommend and why?

[herodoturtle]

I'm looking for a single player game that runs natively on Steam Linux without any extra packages needed. I don't want to have to install or configure anything extra.

FWIW, I have a relatively high spec machine (Nvidia 2070, lots of RAM, etc.), so I'm not too concerned about system requirements.

When I go to explore Linux games on Steam, the list is quite long. I inevitably go down deep rabbit holes of reading player reviews trying to find the right game, until I run out of steam.

I'd appreciate your suggestions (despite my terrible pun above), and if you don't mind, please also share your reasons.

Thanks!

[gavinray]

Grim Dawn -- if you're into Diablo or Path of Exile like ARPG's

It's hands-down one of the best games I've ever played. What makes it so unique is how in-depth the builds and play styles can be. Endless combinations and replayability.

It's an "M x N" combinatorial thing.

There's something like ~10 classes, with 3 "skill trees" each.

You can (and should) choose a second class after first few levels.

Now you've got (10 ^ 2) class combinations, with 3 skill trees for each that you can freely use.

Then there's a whole thing with types of damage (fire, poison, lightning, etc) and you can tailor builds around this, with both skills and equipment bonuses.

On top of it all, it's moddable. So people have released mods to add Diablo classes into it, plus the classes from another game by the same publisher (Titan Quest).

Can play solo, or co-op (LAN or online)

I can't do the game justice with a single text comment tbh. Just have to try it, if it's your kind of game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/219990/Grim_Dawn/

Buy the entire set though if you really want to experience it, not just the base game.

[_odey]

I bought this one last year as I was nostalgic for a game I used to play when I was in middle school (Mu Online) and it looked similar enough in style :). Got the DLCs this last Steam Sale. Playing it on low settings on my AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 2700U laptop, anything higher makes it lag when having a high number of projectiles or porcs going off.

One thing to note, I had to set it to run with Proton 5.13 as the newer versions have a bug where a key-press gets queued but not handled until a few seconds later, so you press for a heal, teleport, or to open the map, nothing happens and you die (sad to have this on hardcore).

So it doesn't really fit the "native without extra packages" requirement, still a fun game though.

[dragontamer]

Recommending a good game is like recommending a good book. It helps if you told us what you actually liked.

In any case, if you like games I like, then maybe Factorio and OpenTTD are all you need. OpenTTD is free download (not on steam). Factorio is on steam, but I recommend you buy its straight from the developer instead, so you can get the DRM-free headless version and run servers (and other such benefits).

[maltelau]

It's better to just look for a game /you want to play/. Chances are, it'll "just work" via proton even if there's no native version. Right click game -> Properties -> Compatibility -> Pick any recent version.

Or, to answer more directly, I've recently played on linux via steam and can recommend:

- Total War Warhammer II (native, don't need the DLC unless you want to play specific factions)

- Frostpunk (proton)

- Don't Starve (native)

- Civilization VI (native)

- Factorio (native)

- Crusader Kings II / III (native)

- Valheim (native)

- Pathfinder: Kingmaker (native)

[revolvingocelot]

It goes against OP's stated desire to not do any installation or configuring, but cloning and building Proton-GloriousEggroll [0] can broaden the horizon of what Just Works quite considerably. Once built and copied into place, it's as easy as selecting it in the Proton dropdown.

[0] https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/releases

[the_only_law]

I’ve had issues with Civ 6 on a pretty damn beefy (albeit Nvidia) machine. Multiplayer was unplayable (would get a black screen when the match started) or laggy to the point of not being playable.

This was a few years ago on Ubuntu, and I had better on Fedora a bit later, though the game still need to be tuned down for multiplayer to be usable.

[mgdv]

I’m a fan of Mindustry (https://mindustrygame.github.io/) which is a mixture of tower defence and rts

Also, if you want to play through the story mode of an rts, I’d recommend Zero-K (https://zero-k.info/)

Both have worked well on an X220 for me

[nameisname]

+1 for Zero-k. You can run this thing on almost any hardware and it's a great RTS.

[cpach]

Oldies but goldies: Have you played Portal 1 and 2? Amazing story and voice actors. Lots of humor. Tricky puzzles. Loads of fun.

[mywaifuismeta]

Check out Hades. It's a roguelike and one of my favorite games of the past few years. Amazing music too. Won some game of the year awards I think.

I played it on Mac, so I assume it works on Linux too.

[bryan_w]

Factorio.

Aside from that, don't be afraid of using proton to play windows games. If the game has been out for a while, Steam should make everything "Just work" (assuming no online play)

[foobarbaz33]

Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn

It may be old, but it's a true masterpiece of the RPG genre.

[muzani]

I've gone back to playing this. Many modern RPGs are draggy and too big. The BG games were just the right size, not too big, not too small. You can sit for an hour and have lots of fun and go back to work.

[markus_zhang]

Can relate. The whole catalog of Bioware plus Black Isle of that era is full of masterpieces.

[stevefan1999]

Deep Rock Galactic [0]. It's reminiscent of Infiniminer and Dwarf Fortress but 3D. Being very similar to Minecraft, except DRG is not very open-ended, instead you have fixed tasks with open-ended approaches, and is also a challenging game at the top level. Recently the developer introduced modding support, and you can run some really crazy mission in the scale of Starship Troopers.

Shenzhen I/O [1]. It's one of the most hardcore and nerdiest EE simulation game out in the wild. You have to consult the manual and get the registers, DRAM and communication ports right. Trust me, the details of this game would even make a real engineer impressed.

[0]: https://store.steampowered.com/app/548430/Deep_Rock_Galactic...

[1]: https://store.steampowered.com/app/504210/SHENZHEN_IO/

[atypicalstudio]

Kerbal space program and in a year or 2 kerbal space program 2. Why? Why not! (basically the motto of KSP)

[Taikonerd]

Could you tell us more about what kind of game you like? There are enough Linux-native games that you can find several in any genre.

The best Linux-native game I've played recently has been "Sunless Sea"[0]. It's basically an interactive novel with a fascinating subterranean setting.

But, Sunless Sea might be totally wrong for you -- it depends what you're looking for!

[0] https://store.steampowered.com/app/304650/SUNLESS_SEA/

[justinplouffe]

Disclaimer : I work at Square Enix/Eidos Montreal so this is shameless self-promotion.

The three games in the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy can currently be had for very little money on Steam since they're on sale for the 25th anniversary of the franchise. They all have Linux builds and they'll run great on the RTX 2070 while also using it fully. They're one of the few AAA single player action/adventure titles available on the platform and they're good fun if you enjoy that kind of game.

[brezelgoring]

Very nice man, thanks for letting me know.

[magnetowasright]

As a life long TR fan who enjoys the reboot trilogy, they can also run well on Linux with comparatively quasi-potato hardware! A decent computer would be nice but you can still enjoy the games without in my experience.

It’s amazing to me that the first two games play well on the integrated graphics card (intel HD 620) on a dell Inspiron from a few years ago. Haven’t played the third one on that laptop but the others run great on low settings which has provided me so many hours of enjoyment, so thank you!

[cookiengineer]

I don't have a steam account so I'm mostly playing RTS games that are fun to play when other people are around.

0AD, OpenRA, Widelands are some nice improved remakes of the genre, and can fully recommend to check them out.

Other than that I'd recommend to check the appdb of wine and proton in case you want to run Windows games, their database usually contains helpful fixes and patches.

[scorecard]

Classic racing and flight sims such as Grand Prix Legends, Mig Alley/Battle of Britain and Falcon 4 are available for linux here:

https://github.com/sim-museum/esports-for-engineers

(this is free, and does not use steam)

[powersnail]

You can play Dota2 with bots, so technically a "single player" mode. It runs very smoothly on Linux. (There is a slight hiccup after the splash screen after hero selection, but the game hasn't started at that point, so it's not significant).

[Topgamer7]

I play a fair amount of dota2 on linux. It does seem to crash more than I would expect it to on Windows. But other than the occasional crash, its pretty well flawless.

[filereaper]

Extreme Tuxracer is all you need

https://flathub.org/apps/details/net.sourceforge.ExtremeTuxR...

[filereaper]

Aside from the jest above, there's plenty of games with native support in Linux.

- Half-Life 2 series has great support.

- Left 4 Dead series

- Bioshock series

- Counterstrike

- War Thunder

- etc...

There's very little configuration needed, click install in Steam and play.

With the release of SteamDeck, the list of out-of-the-box Linux compatible games should grow over time.

If you're looking for more AAA Titles in ProtonDB to see their compatibility with Steam Linux: https://www.protondb.com/

[res0nat0r]

Terraria, Factorio, Satisfactory and Oxygen Not Included are all really great.

[echlebek]

Try Stellaris. The Linux port works incredibly well, in fact it seems to work better than the Windows port. It also will run on even low spec hardware and iGPUs.