Warzone 2100
Design your own tanks. Then design better ones.
The PlayBound Bar
Warzone 2100 clears all five: free with no monetisation, a complete commercial game with a full campaign, still actively maintained after being open-sourced, genuinely good on its own merits, and permanently available under GPL.
Genuinely free
No trial, no paywalled campaign, no pay-to-win, no cosmetic treadmill. Free means free, forever.
Finished enough to enjoy
Playable and satisfying start to finish today — not a promising alpha you should check back on.
Actively maintained
A release or meaningful commit within the last twelve months. Someone is still looking after it.
Stands on its own merits
Good enough that we would recommend it even if it cost money. Free is not the reason it is here.
Won't disappear
Open-source or self-hostable, so no shutdown, delisting or licence expiry can take it away from you.
Warzone 2100 last verified against the bar on . Read the full standard →
About Warzone 2100
Warzone 2100 shipped in 1999 as a commercial retail game, sold reasonably, and then did something almost no commercial game does — its owners released the source code and the assets, and volunteers have been improving it ever since. Twenty-seven years later it is in better shape than it was at launch.
What makes it distinctive is the unit designer. Most real-time strategy games hand you a fixed roster; Warzone 2100 hands you components. You research bodies, propulsion systems and weapons independently, then combine them into your own designs — a fast wheeled scout with a machine gun, a heavy tracked hull carrying artillery, a hover platform with anti-air. Because the research tree is enormous, running to hundreds of technologies, your army composition is genuinely a product of your own choices rather than a build order you looked up.
The single-player campaign is substantial and unusually well structured, carrying your units and research between missions so that losses actually matter. It is one of the better RTS campaigns of its era and it is free.
The trade-off is pace and presentation. This is a slower, more deliberate game than OpenRA, closer in tempo to 0 A.D., and it looks like what it is — a 1999 game with a lot of careful renovation. Multiplayer exists and works, with dedicated servers, but the population is modest.
At 550 MB it runs on anything, and it is one of the lighter installs among games of this scope.
Why we picked it
The unit designer alone justifies it. Very few strategy games let you build your own army from researched components, and none of the ones that do are free. That Warzone 2100 was a paid retail product that its owners chose to liberate, and that volunteers have improved for nearly three decades, makes it one of the best arguments for open-source game preservation there is.
Who it's for
Great if you want
- Designing your own units from researched components
- A long, well-structured single-player campaign with persistent units
- Deep research trees and technology-order decisions
- Slower, more deliberate strategy than classic C&C
- Old hardware — light on resources for a game of its scope
Look elsewhere if
- You want fast matches; this is a deliberate, slow-burning game
- You want a large multiplayer population
- Dated presentation bothers you, renovation notwithstanding
- You prefer fixed unit rosters to component-based design
Features
System Requirements
Minimum
1.8 GHz CPU · 2 GB RAM · OpenGL 2.1 GPU · 1 GB storage
Recommended
2.5 GHz CPU · 4 GB RAM · Any modern GPU · 2 GB storage
Frequently asked questions about Warzone 2100
Is Warzone 2100 free?
Yes, entirely. Warzone 2100 was a commercial game in 1999 whose source code and assets were later released. It is now open-source under GPL-2.0 with no purchases or advertising.
Is Warzone 2100 still being updated?
Yes. Volunteers have maintained and improved it continuously since it was open-sourced, and releases continue to ship.
Does Warzone 2100 have a single-player campaign?
Yes, a substantial one. Units and research carry between missions, so losses have lasting consequences — one of the more interesting campaign structures of its era.
What makes Warzone 2100 different from other RTS games?
The unit designer. Instead of a fixed roster you research bodies, propulsion and weapons separately and combine them into your own designs, backed by a research tree running to hundreds of technologies.
Does Warzone 2100 have multiplayer?
Yes, including dedicated servers, though the player population is modest compared with newer free strategy games. Live server counts are shown on the Warzone 2100 servers page.
