Also known as local multi-device games. Are games that you can play by connecting to the same network and play with family. examples:
- BombSquad
- Juicy Realm
- Rusted Warfare
- Mindustry
- UFO99
- Krafteers
- Mini Militia
- ReCharge RC
Please tell me about any LAN game that you know of. Appreciate it.
Co-Optimus is a great resource for this.
Here’s their database with a filter showing all PC games that support LAN play:
Thank you so much!
This list is the way to go. My last Lan party was about 17 years back but there is one golden rule, which is still more important than anything else: pick a game no one has played or one that everybody is familiar with! The biggest fun killers are unbalanced teams and matches. Despite that, we liked the first flat out game which now should be wreckfest and strangely enough a soccer mod for CS:S back then.
Most multiplayer PC games before 2010ish.
Factorio doesn’t give a fuck and will let you play with up to 254 other people on the same server. Most survival games have LAN, as a matter of fact. Somehow this is the only genre that will hold developers accountable on a regular basis and make them hurt for not having LAN and player-controlled servers. Not all of them will, but most will offer LAN.
All of Larian’s recent RPG efforts have LAN and direct IP connections: Divinity: Original Sin 1 and 2, and Baldur’s Gate 3.
Titan Quest, Grim Dawn, and the entire Borderlands series (outside of the GOTY edition of Borderlands 1) support LAN, surprisingly, if you want to get your loot game on.
Is Recharge RC the same as the upcoming Unreal engine racing game Recharge? If they don’t have the same lineage, they’ve at least got similar inspirations.
Warside is an upcoming turn-based strategy game inspired by (or ripping off wholesale?) Advance Wars, and it’s got LAN in its features list.
Streets of Rogue is an all-timer in the co-op roguelike department, and it too supports LAN.
A game that I download and install on a regular basis in the freeware realm is Armagetron. It’s the light cycles from Tron but in an open source LAN game. It doesn’t exactly have a ton of depth, but it’s good fun for about an hour every couple of years.
Minecraft bedrock works over lan, I enjoy playing with my brother. Not exactly pvp though…
So does Java Minecraft
I didn’t see a way to set it up on Java without running a local server. Is there? I prefer Java, but it seemed like a lot of hours of work to get a server set up.
Yeah you play single player, pause, and hit “open to lan”
Then someone else can connect to lan by typing in the IP. I think it autodetects a lan connection that’s already open, too, but it’s been a bit since I’ve used it.
Anything with a server software you can host can be played on LAN (okay probably not some things because they’re being weird but in general this is true).
That means counter strike, Minecraft, supertuxkart, xonotic, enshrouded, pal world, etc
Planetary Annihilation, Warcraft 3 (at least pre-reforged if you can get a hold of an old copy), Unreal Tournament, Killing Floor, Battle for Middle Earth (1 & 2), OpenTTD, Simutrans, Settlers: Heritage of Kings, some of the older Wolfenstien games, Battle for Wesnoth, Warzone 2100, Teeworlds, Widelands
I self host satisfactory. It’s going swimmingly.
Doom 2
Lethal Company is another example.
Four player co op PvE tactical shooter.
Have all players install this mod which completely revamps the game to add a ton of more modern features
Age of Empires 2 is awesome.