When comparing Warsow vs Nethack, the Slant community recommends Nethack for most people. In the question“What are the best games on Linux?” Nethack is ranked 74th while Warsow is ranked 107th. The most important reason people chose Nethack is:
Nethack is a game that you can play for hundreds of hours and still not master. But you'll have tons of fun attempting to master it.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Ultra-fast gameplay
Here some numbers: Warsow is based on Quake game engine, just like Counter-Strike so numbers are comparable. In CS you are moving usually at speed 320 ups. In Warsow average duel match goes with speeds 600-900. In CA mode most of players moving at speeds around 1000ups. And in insta CA mode on some maps you can expect opponent flying at 1500-2000ups.
Pro For both competitive and casual players
If you want to go hard then go to the online servers and pick duel mode. This is the hardest mode in the game. You will need to have many different skills to beat even an average player. If you want to just have fun you can pick bomb or ica modes. Bomb mode is much like de_* maps in Counter-Strike.
Pro One of the best gateway arena shooters for your friends
Well optimized, small file size, good bots, cute graphics, free, standard arena weapon set, good tutorial... If you are trying to get your friends to try playing hardcore arena shooters with you, like your Quake, UT, Reflex or what have you, this is a quick and free download that won't take too much convincing that will also give you a great experience.
Pro Good old Quake-like game mechanics
Pro Has match-making feature
Game optionally can collect your statistics to find game that matches your skills.
Pro One of the best gateway arena shooters for your friends
Well optimized, small file size, good bots, cute graphics, free, standard arena weapon set, good tutorial... If you are trying to get your friends to try playing hardcore arena shooters with you, like your Quake, UT, Reflex or what have you, this is a quick and free download that won't take too much convincing that will also give you a great experience.
Pro Potential for enormous skill growth
Nethack is a game that you can play for hundreds of hours and still not master. But you'll have tons of fun attempting to master it.
Pro Depth
The gameplay is very deep due to the amount of skills and systems present in the game.
Pro Over two decades of constant development
Nethack was first released in 1987. The latest version, 3.6.0, came out in December 2015.
Pro ASCII and tiles available
Nethack is able to run on simple ASCII graphics or use graphic tiles instead.
Cons
Con Hard for beginners
Quake is hardcore game. Sharp shooting is far from enough to be good at it. You need to control position of your opponents, plan your strategy really fast, control powerups, etc. Warsow is much like Quake, but movement is more complex and plays an important role.
Con Too few people online
Usually 80-150 players are online, and all the people are spread out over many modes of the game. So if you want to play duel or arena, you must wait or pickup opponents on an IRC.
Con Small difference in skill results in a huge difference in score
For example you can lose with a score such as 20:1, and this is okay.
Con Burden of knowledge
There's simply too much information that the game expects you to know before you can properly take advantage of the systems in the game.
Con Feature creep
NetHack has an overwhelming amount of features mostly because the development team found them cool at the time, but with little thought of their greater impact. For example, a Nethack staple is Sokoban as a built-in minigame, which feels out of place in a dungeon crawler.
The extremely large amount of items and abilities break the game's balance and coherence.
Con Outdated controls
You need to study a wiki just to learn the most basic controls. The game is broken in this regard.
Con ASCII Art
Con Run of the mill story
The story of the game is pretty generic fantasy fare. It features orcs, elves, and trolls in an effort for the hero to save the world. While it does not detract from the gameplay, it does seem very familiar to those interested in the genre.