Single-player FPS games aren’t as common as they used to be, at least when it comes to AAA releases. We might get 3 or 4 big titles per year, and they tend to be either multiplayer-only or feature a single-player campaign that barely lasts 5 hours. I miss the days when publishers would drop experimental mid-tier shooters like Jurassic: The Hunted, The Conduit, Dreamkiller, and NecroVisioN, all of which came out in 2009.
While indie developers have picked up the slack and can keep most people busy, there is also the option to check out some forgotten FPS games from yesteryear, quite a few of which have aged well. The genre established its core mechanics in the early 2000s, and things haven’t changed that much since then; consequently, a 2010 shooter can feel just as good as a 2025 successor.
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger Is A Spaghetti Western Blast
Perfect Blend Of Style, Gameplay, And Story
- Stylized visuals have stood the test of time.
- The western setting still feels fresh.
- Just cool.
Call of Juarez doesn’t get enough love in general, and part of that might have to do with the series wrecking its momentum with The Cartel. After that misguided attempt to jump forward to the modern day, Techland and Ubisoft wisely opted to return to Call of Juarez‘s roots with Gunslinger, although a digital-only release suggested a lack of confidence in its potential.
In a sea of brown and grey shooters, Gunslinger‘s colorful comic book-style visuals, Wild West setting, myth-based storytelling, and short-burst arcade gameplay let it float to the top; in fact, this combination is still unusual today, especially for an AA game by a major publisher. Blending history and fiction, the campaign casts you as Silas Greaves as he recounts his tales of misadventures as a bounty hunter, including run-ins with the likes of Billy the Kid and Butch Cassidy.
The framing device influences the mission’s presentation, with Silas occasionally changing the story and causing the world to morph around him. Although not the snappiest gunplay ever, Gunslinger still feels good to control, especially its Concentration system that lets you slow down time and snap off multiple shots at once. Showdowns are also a blast.
Gunslinger is perpetually on sale on the Nintendo Switch, and I really recommend picking it up.
Peter Jackson’s King Kong Is The Perfect Movie Adaptation
Don’t Be Scared By The Licensed Game Curse
- Immersive presentation with no HUD.
- Multiple gameplay styles.
- Incredibly ambitious for a licensed game from this era.
I will never miss an opportunity to discuss Peter Jackson’s King Kong, just to keep its name alive, considering it has been delisted for more than a decade now. During the 2000s, few phrases sparked trepidation quite like “movie tie-in game,” and hoping for anything better than a rushed mess was a recipe for disappointment. King Kong might be lumped in with other failures of the era, but it doesn’t deserve to be mentioned alongside the likes of Sega’s Marvel games, Fight Club, or Catwoman.
Once you get into gameplay, you will instantly realize that King Kong is something special. Why? Well, you won’t see a health bar, an ammo counter, or a traditional crosshair. Instead, you rely on sensory cues to figure out this crucial information, a decision that instantly showed that Ubisoft sought to create an immersive experience rather than just Turok with King Kong (as awesome as that sounds). You don’t feel like an action hero, and you certainly don’t become Rambo running through a forest and killing everything that moves.
The wildlife AI was fantastic for its era and still holds up pretty well. As ammo is scarce, the game encourages players to think outside the box and manipulate their environment to get past predators, including using weaker animals as distractions. Humans are weak, so they need to be smart.
Oh, right, you also play as Kong. It is as empowering as it sounds.
Click on the game with the higher OpenCritic rating.
Project Snowblind Is Linear Deus Ex (And That’s A Good Thing)
Slow Down Time, Throw A Grenade, And Blow Up A Tank
- Augmented gunplay and the many ways you can destroy enemies.
- A fast-paced linear shooter.
A Deux Ex game that ended up becoming something else entirely, Project Snowblind shows its lineage through its augmentations, top-notch gunplay, and sheer power fantasy factor. Dropping any immersive-sim elements in favor of linear arcade gunplay, Crystal Dynamics’ game has aged better than any of the older Deus Ex games, even though the original is still far more impressive today.
While you might be mostly walking down a straight path, Project Snowblind offers freedom through the techniques and abilities available to players. “Reflext Boost” lets you slow down time, while Cloak lets you go invisible, and the fun comes from figuring out ways to smartly implement them during missions. The weapon selection is also quite robust, even including an Icepick gun that takes control of electronics such as mechs or turrets.
Project Snowblind certainly looks its age, more so than any other game in this article. However, the combat still feels surprisingly smooth.
Hard Reset Set The Stage For Modern FPS Games
The Boomer Shooter Before Boomer Shooters
- One of the last true AA FPS games.
- Available in an improved form (Hard Reset Redux)
I struggled to decide whether Hard Reset qualifies as forgotten, since I always come across the game when searching through stores for shooters. Ultimately, Flying Wild Hog’s first game doesn’t have the same cult following as its more celebrated peers, especially Bulletstorm and Shadow Warrior, and the Redux version doesn’t even have 2K reviews on Steam despite releasing more than a decade ago.
Hard Reset is the missing link between classic ’90s shooters and modern boomer shooters, occupying that AA space that is almost entirely extinct today. In 2011, an uncompromising PC-first FPS game that emphasized fast movement, weapon-mode management, and raw aim was far removed from the genre’s typical releases, even if it was a touch rough around the edges in places. Even its neon lighting and sci-fi weapons set it apart from the military crowd.
Moving away from the “select two weapons” loadouts, Hard Reset‘s best feature is that it offers only two weapons with multiple configurations that can be swapped on the fly. Your standard assault rifle physically shifts and reassembles itself on the fly into a shotgun, a grenade launcher, a rocket launcher, or a proximity mine layer.
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic Set An Unbeatable Bar For FPS RPGs
The Perfect Combat
- Physics-based combat is top-notch.
- A proper sandbox that encourages experimentation.
Does this count? Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is first-and-foremost an action RPG, but it also plays like a first-person shooter with magic and a sword (and a bow). Two decades later, Dark Messiah‘s genre combination continues to be extremely rare, and part of that might be due to the fact that Arkane kind of nailed the first-person combat immediately.
Because Arkane built the game on Valve’s Source Engine, the entire world is incredibly tactile, reactive, and physically modeled. If you try to play it like a traditional first-person hack and slash, Dark Messiah punishes you significantly, as you are meant to treat the environment as your primary weapon. Well, that and your boot, as kicking goblins off scaffolds is simply the best.
Magic can be fired essentially like a gun, but it’s most effective when used to exploit the physics, such as freezing a stone floor to make guards slip. The combat is just so eternally fun.
