long distance run around

October 30, 2010 4:41 PM

Free/cheap roguelike network games (a la Diablo II) for cross-platform, long distance relationship gaming date night?

My partner and I have been trying to find a good, low investment dungeon-crawl type game that we can play together to while away the last few weeks* of a long long-distance relationship. Some relevant details:

We want a Diablo or Diablo-like dungeon crawl that
1) can be played by two players over a network where one player has Vista, the other OSX, and both Ubuntu Linux
2) can be obtained legally via a download
3) is more cooperative or PvE than it is PvP
4) is cheap or free.

We're many miles away from each other, but both in the continental US. I'm comfortable with running a server on mine, though neither machine is really a powerhouse. Are any of those "free" browser-games that worth playing without paying for the downloadable content?

Related previous questions were helpful, but didn't quite get us what we were looking for.

* Because I'm moving, finally, not because we're breaking up. Though based on how the gaming goes...

posted by Made of Star Stuff to sports, hobbies, & recreation (7 answers total)

Well, you can get legal, downloadable copies of Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate, etc from GoG.com for $9.99 (for the "deluxe" editions, i.e. containing all of the expansion packs). I'm mildly obsessed with GoG as they have resurrected a lot of great old-school games and made them easily available.
posted by joyeuxamelie at 5:48 PM on October 30, 2010

GOG is Windows only, of course.
posted by sinfony at 6:25 PM on October 30, 2010

OOPS. Sorry, forgot about that. :(
posted by joyeuxamelie at 6:29 PM on October 30, 2010

Maybe TOMEnet or Mangband? I think these are both ssh-able multiplayer roguelikes. I've played the single-player version of TOMEnet and a few Angband variants in my time; they're pretty fun.

Crossfire is also a possibility. It's graphical (but not much; last time I looked at it it was like slightly more upscale than the old Ultimas) and multi-platform.
posted by the dief at 7:08 PM on October 30, 2010

Neverwinter Nights has a native linux client. Right now, GOG has NWN Diamond Edition for $10. All of the other GOG games listed above run great under wine on both OSX and linux.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 8:03 PM on October 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

Titan Quest, (imo) the best Diablo-a-like since Diablo II. Make sure to get the gold edition, as the Immortal Throne expansion adds some important quality of life features like cross-character item storage.
posted by Bodd at 12:14 PM on October 31, 2010

Thanks, everyone. I marked the answers that best fit our needs, but in the end, for this weekend, we went ahead and just got Diablo II. ($20 same as in town or, as I put it, less than going out to the movies three times.) I think we'll probably get to the rest eventually.
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 9:44 AM on November 1, 2010