Natural Selection: 3 Open Source Clones Compared
The Natural Selection entry here is itself a Half-Life mod — its README is simply Valve's Half-Life SDK license — meaning it depends on owning Half-Life to run, and its Windows-only build shows as halted rather than active. Unvanquished, catalogued alongside it in the same lineage, is instead a standalone game with its own SDL2-based engine that ships all the assets it needs for free, and remains under active cross-platform development. Tremulous is also listed as active and cross-platform, but no further descriptive detail is available for it in the data collected here.
Comparison table
Availability
- Status
- Playable
- Platforms
- Windows, Linux, OSX
- Play in browser
- No
- Mobile
- No
Project health
- Development status
- Active
- Last updated
- 2mo ago
- Stars
- 1,125
- Contributors
- 198
- Engine
- SDL2
Compatibility
- Requires original assets
- NoThe game is free software and includes all necessary assets as part of the free downloadable packages.
- Multiplayer
- Online
Availability
- Status
- Playable
- Platforms
- Windows
- Play in browser
- No
- Mobile
- No
Project health
- Development status
- Halted
- Last updated
- 13y ago
- Stars
- 273
- Contributors
- 11
- Engine
- —
Compatibility
- Requires original assets
- —
- Multiplayer
- —
Availability
- Status
- Playable
- Platforms
- Linux, OSX, Windows
- Play in browser
- No
- Mobile
- No
Project health
- Development status
- Active
- Last updated
- 18d ago
- Stars
- 0
- Contributors
- 110
- Engine
- —
Compatibility
- Requires original assets
- —
- Multiplayer
- —
| Title | Unvanquished | Natural Selection | Tremulous |
|---|---|---|---|
| Status | Playable | Playable | Playable |
| Platforms | Windows, Linux, OSX | Windows | Linux, OSX, Windows |
| Play in browser | No | No | No |
| Mobile | No | No | No |
| Project health | |||
| Development status | Active | Halted | Active |
| Last updated | 2mo ago | 13y ago | 18d ago |
| Stars | 1,125 | 273 | 0 |
| Contributors | 198 | 11 | 110 |
| Engine | SDL2 | — | — |
| Compatibility | |||
| Requires original assets | NoThe game is free software and includes all necessary assets as part of the free downloadable packages. | — | — |
| Multiplayer | Online | — | — |
| Preview | | |
Frequently asked questions
Are the Natural Selection clones on this page open source?
Yes — every clone catalogued here is an open-source project. Availability, license, and development-status details for each one are listed in the comparison table above.
Do I need to own the original Natural Selection to play these clones?
Unvanquished runs standalone, no original files needed.
Which Natural Selection clone is the most actively maintained?
Unvanquished and Tremulous are currently under active development, based on recent commit activity. See the "Development status" row above for every clone's current status.
See the full write-up for each clone, or go back to Natural Selection.