Kerbal Space Program!
This is the right answer. CKAN is also on Linux and makes modding a breeze.
Sadly KSP2 does not have a Linux build and also doesn't run well in Proton. But then again, it's also a bit hot garbage.
Good game but I think I would recommend paying through proton anyway because the native realise seems rather forgotten about.
@flibbertigibbet @LlamaSutra yeah I found it to be a much better time through Proton... But then, that seems to be my experience in quite a few games with native versions... 😄
Dunno if it is a native game.
Veloren is a rpg game that is inspired by cube world. Altough it is alpha, lack lot thing, the game is great, beautiful. Good community and an open dev team.
It is written in Rust.
Don't know about them being the best, but I've been playing Valheim and Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun and having a good time with both.
Valheim is amazing, especially if you enjoy building. Great optional co-op, you can either run on a dedicated server or host from your computer and have friends visit. I've enjoyed my 1.5k hours of playtime immensely. :)
seconding Valheim - sadly the recent patches have brought way too many tradeskill recipes for my personal taste, but other people seem to love this kind of micro-management in the base. Still, a great, atmospheric game!
Damn so many great ones to choose from. I am big fan of Paradox strategy games, kinda in that order: Stellaris, Hearts of iron IV and Europa Universalis IV.
FTL
The games I keep coming back and playing since years are Factorio and Cities Skylines. And Minecraft if you call a Java program native. All because of the vast number of mods that exist. And Dota now and then for playing with friends.
Whenever people ask this, no one ever mentions Teeworlds. It's so cute but has insane depth
Aside from some of the things mentioned here, Death Trash is a pretty neat indev rpg.
I really like Golf With Your Friends.
Mount & Blade Warband is fantastic and I highly recommend it if you haven't played it.
Unrailed! is a neat little coop game to play with friends. If you buy this one on Steam you can use remote play together so only one person in your group needs to buy it.
Ultimate Chicken Horse is fun for a while with friends. Same deal with remote play together with this game.
Both Hotline Miami games are really fun.
I know you are specifically asking for natives, but with the awesome work Valve has put into proton so many games play well with linux now!
I have a long list :)
Dota2 & CS GO Paradox strategy games (JRepin had listed)
Many non-strategy games published (not developed by) by Paradox Interactive are also providing native Linux games, incl. Cities: Skylines, Surviving Mars, Tyranny
I love Dead Cells and me and my wife have been playing a lot of Out of Space lately. Other than that Paradox games are awesome, and one that I've played a lot years and years ago was Project Zomboid. On the more AAA front I loved Deus Ex and Borderlands 2.
Right now I'm really getting into old school games or games that have the old school look. Here's a few which have native Linux support:
- Stardew Valley
- Broforce
- Carrion
- Dusk
- FTL: Faster Than Light
- Huntdown
@privsecfoss Starsector has a Linux build, and is an excellent game.
There are a few that are really fun. My kids were getting interested in gaming, so I had to have a look into suitable games. So here is a kid-friendly list of great stuff that runs natively:
GCompris: A lot of nice learning mini games for the very young (also good to teach e.g. usage of mouse and keyboard)
Minetest: Very similar to Minecraft, but with its own twist. Highly customizable with mods and completely free and open. I am running my own minetest server with a customized non-survival world that is used by my family.
Widelands: A really great community adaption (and extension) of the Settlers II. My son totally loves it.
Unciv: Civilization game based on the Civ5 ruleset. I actually had to deinstall it again on my mobile phone (also available for Android) because it has the same addictive properties as the original...
And for non-free games: Lutris + GOG makes me happy. Currently playing some older Tomb Raider game. Although not really native, I think. Probably using Wine or so...
Last Epoch is superb, with surprising depth in the skill trees. And it's about a third of the price of Diablo 4...
That said, the best diablo-like game out there is still Grim Dawn, but it's not native.
Did you have to do anything to get it running?
It has incredibly bad performance for me using native. I Bad to play using proton.
Nope, albeit my PC is pretty beefy. I haven't tried it via Proton.
SuperTuxKart is a fun racing game
Mindustry, sort of like factorio but open source and free on itch. Although you can also buy it on steam
I go back to Battle for Wesnoth a few times a year. There are many new scenarios over the recent years.
Slay the spire and borderlands 2 are great but borderlands 2 doesn't have all content available on the native port
this makes Borderlands 2 impossible to play co op with a Windows player. Fortunately, windows version runs great on proton.
Sounds like non-free data is allowed. Then surely ioQuake is the native game I spent the most time with.
Stellaris - by far the best native game i played
0ad, Wesnoth, Endless Sky, Mindustry
The Talos Principle must be mentioned here. It was the first major game to provide Vulkan support, running just incredibly well.
And of course, Minecraft.
