Libre ego shooter with story?

Peter

I'm absolutely not an expert when it comes to ego shooters. But some people in this forum are. My question:

What are libre ego shooters with a story? I think shooters don't have sophisticated story, but a bit would be cool.

In case you need more info: I liked Half Life 1 where slowly some secrets are revealed. It is not an interactive plot, but I consider this a story.

[Edit: From Quake/Doom-mods to most modern 3D mumbo-jumbo everything counts.]

(Sorry, I probably chose wrong tags. But I can't find a "Playing" tag.)

ffaf

Sadly I don't know any of such FPS+story that are also libre.

A very good series of FPS+story that are open-engine and gratis but alas not open content is Ashes 2063. You can play them on Linux via Lutris (or install them on your own if you prefer), they are challenging, have an interesting backstory and an immersive gameplay.

TPW

Do you use the Stallmanian version of "free" (engine open, closed assets okay) or the more stricter (engine open, assets under free license)?
If the latter: I don't know of any.

But there are a few liberated games classics that require you to have the assets from another source:
Jedi Academy:
grayj/Jedi-Academy

System Shock 2:
Interrupt/systemshock

Doom / Doom 2 can be played with Chocolate Doom and the original wads, but there are some pretty neat Doom mods and levels that are story heavy, and, given that the engine is liberated, can be seen as free software. A map that turned some heads is "myhouse.wad".

Here is also the account of id, with Doom 3 under the GPL:
https://github.com/id-Software

Most of these games are considered classics of the genre :).

Peter

Thanks to both @ffaf and @TPW for the pointers. Ideally I would prefer strictly libre (including assets). But I will take libre engine and gratis assets, too. So Ashes 2063 seems worth a closer look.

I believe you when you say they are classics, but they are completely new to me because I only played Half Life 1 and shortly tested (iirc the names) Rexuid and Anarch.

poVoq

There is this new Quake1 mod, that could be interesting: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2024/07/check-out-the-immortal-lock-an-impressive-new-quake-1-mod/

and there is this older Quake1 mod, that is also quite cool: https://www.moddb.com/mods/arcane-dimensions

Technopeasant

Yeah, with the possible exception of Anarch, the only real contenders from a libre perspective (so far) are Freedoom and Blasphemer, and they have argued about their story amongst themselves for literal decades.

Mind you, you could make a Freedoom PWAD with your own story in it.

Freaks! has a rather trippy premise and setting, and seems to be libre.

https://triptico.com/software/fr2002.html

If Doom engine PWADs are your thing: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Indie_games

I think Vomitorium and Wolfenstein: Blade of Angry have more fleshed out plots than some.

Technopeasant

On the subject of Freaks!, my brother did a write up on GamingOnLinux.

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2024/09/building-a-retro-linux-gaming-computer-part-43-demons-and-angels/