Survival

Valheim has sold millions of copies with millions of players exploring the massive map, creating Viking cities, slaying monsters, collecting loot and crafting gear. But where did it all start? The free-to-play beta of course!


Sadly I've had a hard time tracking down a download for Valheim Linux beta. I've kept it from years ago and it still runs pretty well and is still a lot of LAN co-op fun! If you still don't want to spend money on Valheim and want to play with limited features, give it a go, but have fun finding an installer.

I was able to host a listenserver and my daughters both joined on Mint PCs
Every once in a while there is a slight performance stutter. Part of it is the automatic save, but the other part may just be optimization issues. Either way, a lot of fun!

Specs:
Mint 21.164-bit
GeForce GTX 1650
Nvidia 530

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The world is not what it seems...
Enter a terrifying world where humanity is at its end, WAU monsters have taken over and you are the only one left to save us. Creatures roam in the dark you can run, you can hide, but the only way to stop them is to become one of them? Explore massive underwater facilities spanning across an ocean. Hear resonating memories from objects and bodies, figure out who you really are and work with Catherine the computer AI.

https://www.gog.com/en/game/soma

I've had SOMA for a few years on GOG and finally broke down to give it a try. I'm a big Amnesia fan so I knew I would like this horror thriller by Frictional Games. I wasn't disappointed! Not only does it run native in Linux, it ran beautifully and the visual effects are AMAZING! The monsters are pretty terrifying and your only defense is hiding, closing doors behind you and running. Enjoy!

Specs:
Mint 21.1 64-bit
GeForce GTX
1650 Nvidia 530

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I kept hearing the hype about Stardew Valley and thought it was just another farming/crafting game like many others. I did notice there is LAN co-op available which is always great for playing with the family.
So I finally checked it out... I love it!

Farming is the main feature of the game, but there is still a lot to do. Cut trees, mine rocks, plant seeds, water crops, fish, meet towns people and much more. There is even fighting in the caves or at night!

Like many crafting games you have a short list of available items to craft, but you can learn recipe's and level up your skills to be more efficient.


The developers were nice enough to provide a Linux version for us and everything works perfectly! I was able to host a co-op game and my wife-n-daughters joined with out any problems. The game runs smoothly and there are plenty areas to explore and events to do together.

Specs:
Mint 20.2 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 470...

PREY is an absolute "Must Play" if you are a first person shooter gamer! Imagine System Shock 2 on steroids with amazing graphics, clever morphing aliens, psionic abilities, loot, crafting, survival, sneaking and more. Of course all happening on a space station! Doesn't get any better than this!


https://store.steampowered.com/app/480490/Prey/

I remember testing PREY crashing a few years ago: reddit
But now it runs beautifully! I was even able to get a decent frame rate while recording and playing! I'm even using the same hardware, but newer Nvidia drivers, Proton, Vulkan and Mint version.

Specs:
Mint 20.2 64-bit
Nvidia 470
Proton 6.3-8

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Rise Of The Tomb Raider is another epic chapter in the life of Laura Croft. She is searching for the Lost City of Kitezh by following the relics and stories of religious prophet. But a new enemy has risen to beat her to the prize: Trinity

Survive in the frozen mountains climbing death defying cliffs, hunt animals with your bow, loot to craft new upgrades and take out mercenaries with a new throw-able weapon crafting system.

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/rise-of-the-tomb-raider


I was able to install Heroic Launcher and run Rise Of The Tomb Raider with very little issues. At first I had some logging in problems, but waited a day and I logged in just fine. Performance is hit-n-miss with Tomb Raider probably because of Proton/Vulkan Shaders. Any time I initially load a save game it takes about a minute to render the entire map so it will stutter and freeze... but when its done the game runs perfectly with nice frame...

Eternal Evil is a first person survival shooter made by one person. This is no run-n-gun shooter but instead more of a survival horror with story, weapons and puzzles. Each level is very small but packed with zombies and detail. Finding weapons, ammo and health is no easy task when zombies are clawing at your back. Each zombie walks, moves and attacks with physics instead of animation. They crawl on the ground, bump into objects and smack other zombies. Be careful, if they feed on you they become powerful and almost impossible to kill. Even objects in buildings are completely interactive with physics. Use books or chairs to slow down zombies.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1604260/Eternal_Evil_Prologue/


I'm absolutely amazing how detailed and intense this game is! I had to play through the Prologue several times to make it a bit further. Ammo is very limited and you have to be careful how you use it. Run out of ammo and...

LET IT DIE is a free to play 3rd person action survival game with a tournament style game-play. Select a male or female clone and climb the tower by slaying robots, clones and looting their corpse for gear. Eat and store frogs, mushrooms and other stuff to power up or poison yourself. This is a single-player game but almost seems like a multi-player game because you will fight against your previous characters that died.

Apparently this is a survival game but I didn't see very many survival needs... no hunger, water, sleep, or crafting. There is weapon crafting in the lobby and you can customize your characters, but it seems when you die the next start is with a brand new clone with nothing but underwear. Also, most of the levels are flat, so it doesn't really feel like you are climbing a tower until you get to the ladder at the end.

Its pretty fun slaying previous characters and finding new weapons and gear! There is definitely a "souls" style of game-play and its much...

Project Zomboid is not another zombie game!

Your character isn't going to run around with a chaingun mowing down hordes...
Your not going to hear one-liners or see finishing moves in slow motion...

This is not a typical horror survival game...

Project Zomboid IS THE PERFECT SURVIVAL HORROR GAME!!!

https://www.gog.com/game/project_zomboid


Customize your character class, strengths and weaknesses, then find yourself in the middle of a Kentucky county... in a zombie apocalypse! Exploration and looting is absolutely key for survival. Find food, board up windows, craft all kinds of useful items and level up your skills. Read books in order to learn how to farm, build, disassemble, engineer and customize just about anything you want. Eating and sleeping are absolutely necessary to retain energy!

This is a slow moving game where you plan every movement and life-risking choice:

• How many weapons and how much food...

The Survivalists demo is top-down retro survival game on a mysterious island. You are shipwrecked and alone, but you meet a trusty monkey to help you gather, harvest and craft the resources you need to survive. Night-time bring creatures out of the dark and exploring the island can be treacherous with natives and caves. No matter... still lots to do and lots of crafting to be done.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/897450/The_Survivalists/


Proton as able to handle the demo without issues! The game played perfectly and is quite fun. You can train your monkey to gather and harvest for you. Keep an eye on your hunger and explore as much as you can. There is even a hosting option to invite your friend, but I haven't tried it yet.

Specs:
Mint 20.1 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Proton 6.3-7

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Fallout 76 is a new chapter exploring the wastes of Appalachia. But this time you are not alone... the world is full of online players in this post apocalyptic MMORPG. Survive in a world very similar to Fallout 4 and experience random player encounters as you slay new minions in new epic environments ranging from New York to Alabama and Georgia. Level up your character and equip new skills for you and your team.


I was able to play Fallout 76 during a free weekend on Steam. After researching on ProtonDB.com it was recommended to use Glorious Egg Rolls version of Proton. Performance wasn't great at first. I had to crank down the display settings just to get a barely playable frame rate. But a gamer mentioned changing a setting in a configuration file. This made a significant difference in performance. Now I could play, but some of the display settings had to stay on medium... like shadows.

There were a few streaming/loading glitches...

Path of Titans is a MMO dinosaur survival simulator. The demo includes a few dinosaurs with male and female options, skins and colors. Enter the massive island to explore beautifully lush biomes. Every tree, plant, rock and cliff-side is modeled with super realism and day/night cycle shows off all varied elements in the environment. The demo didn't include gathering or eating plants, but there were hints of interactive vegetation.



Join your friends in a group and scour the landscape hunting down prey. Each dinosaur is cleverly and carefully modeled and each one has its own dino-calls. The developers "spared no expense" when designing these realistic Jurassic creatures.

https://pathoftitans.com/

I'm happy to present Path of Titans demo comes with a native Linux version which is cross-platform compatible. Meaning we can join servers from smartphones, PC, Windows alike. Unfortunately the island is so large you may find yourself...

I first play Deiland on mobile a few years back and though it was interesting. Play as a boy on a small planet harvesting corn, crafting a camp and defending against aliens. Then I picked it up on Steam during a sale and found it to be even more fun! Not only are the graphics better but the interaction and controls seem more immersive on my large monitor.



https://store.steampowered.com/app/760620/Deiland/

Proton was able to handle Deiland without any issues on my GeForce GTX 1060. I was able to complete quests, load and save. If you like casual survival games with quests and action, this is a good one.

Specs:
Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 440.59
Proton5.9

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Terraria (GOG) has been a family favorite for a few years now. The four of us will play co-op via LAN for hours each week and eventually get tired of it... then a few months later we'll create a new world and start playing a few hours a week again.


This game is never ending. You can explore, build, craft and fight all kinds of creatures forever. There are costumes, special events, bosses and all kinds of biomes. There is never a dull moment as long as you enjoy digging. You will spend hundreds of hours digging for ores and crafting them into bars to build your weapons, tools, armor and much more.

Terraria has re-invented the platform game with its huge sandbox worlds and non-linear exploration. Go anywhere you want, avoid traps and hordes... store all of your loot and go looking for more. What else could you want?

Quests?
Yes, Terraria has that too...

Tower Defense?
Yes, Terraria has that too...

Trading?
Yes...

Beyond The Thaw is a short demo of a first person winter survival. You wake up from a plane crash in a forest during a harsh winter. Packs of wolves are on the move and you need to stay warm.

https://dazvolt.itch.io/beyondthethaw

This game is beautiful! Amazing visuals and stunning snowy blizzard-like environment. You really feel like you are controller the character and stuck in this hopeless forest.

Beyond The Thaw is developed in Unreal Engine 4 and ran really well using ProtonGE and DXVK. I was able to extract the game and run it in PlayOnLinux without any issues. It is fairly short and you aren't given a lot of direction on what to do. So plan to retry several times.

Specs:
Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForece GTX 160
Nvidia 440.59
ProtonGE-5.9 64-bit
DXVK 1.7

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Dungeon Nightmares is a simple dungeon maze terror game with a perfect balance of:

• Jump Scares
• Spooky Environment
• Exploration
• Roguelike
• Procedural Generation
• Small Download
• Replayability

https://kmonkey.itch.io/dungeon-nightmares

Explore the maze-like dungeon looking for gold, candles and notes about what to do. Your goal is to survive each night without dying.... find the artifact and escape your nightmare!

Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 440.59
PlayOnLinux 4.3.4
Wine 5.0 64-bit
DXVK: 1.7

A few years back I was able to play through all of How To Survive - A 3rd person survival action game based on several tiered islands. As you slay zombies, search for food, water and resources... you can craft a bunch of neat gear and weapons. The goal was to survive night & day and leave the island alive.

The game ran well in PlayOnLinux with Wine and only a few minor issues, but I was still able to play through the entire campaign cooperatively with my wife.



How To Survive 2 is a promising sequel that ultimately fails. From the beginning it didn't play in PlayOnLinux with Wine or even Proton. There were reports of an anti-cheat in place that was not compatible with Wine. Sure enough it didn't work in Proton either. So I would check back every few months to see if it was fixed or some kind of good result. One day it happened, someone posted on protondb.com that How To Survive was now working Proton. Gave...

Valheim is a Viking survival sandbox game. Full of creepy minions, crafting and even bosses. The beta is completely free an works online and local LAN:
https://dvoidis.itch.io/valheim

Outpost Glacier is a space survival game where you landed on a remote planet that is always below zero degrees. Explore, gather resources and craft items to keep yourself alive! Most importantly... stay warm!



Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Outpost Glacier in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the itch.io version of Outpost Glacier. Other versions may require additional steps.

Tips & Specs:

To learn more about PlayOnLinux and Wine configuration, see the online manual: PlayOnLinux Explained

Mint 19.3 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.3.4
Wine: ProtonGE 5.1 64-bit
DXVK: 1.5.5

Wine Installation

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"



Look for the Wine Version: 5.0
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right

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The Wild Eight is a Wilderness Survival in the frozen forests of Alaska. Your plane has crashed and you wake up with absolutely nothing. Learn to craft tools using the environment and to make shelter before you freeze to death.



Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing The Wild Eight in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the Itch.io Demo version of The Wild Eight. Other versions may require additional steps.

Tips & Specs:

To learn more about PlayOnLinux and Wine configuration, see the online manual: PlayOnLinux Explained

Mint 19 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.3.4
Wine: 4.11-staging 64-bit
DXVK: 1.2.3

Wine Installation

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"



Look for the Wine Version: 4.11-staging
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the...