By my estimate, 10 million FPS games exist, give or take a few million. Unless somebody is a true completionist, they don’t need to play 99% of them… but what about that 1%? Well, they are exceptions for a reason, and every single gamer in existence should spend them on a couple of shooters. Sure, you might not like each one of them, but you’ll probably adore a few, at least if you are into the FPS genre in general.
Nobody needs me to spread the word on Halo, Half-Life, BioShock, or Modern Warfare, and I don’t want to waste anybody’s time by just listing the most famous must-play FPS games of all time. Instead, let’s focus on deeper cuts that achieved perfection without necessarily cementing themselves as legendary.
7
Cultic Is A Bloody Great Time
A Modern FPS Game Inspired By Another Part Of ’90s Gaming Culture
- An atmospheric-as-hell retro shooter that takes cues from Blood
- Available on PC, PS5, and Xbox.
- Who shouldn’t play this? People who don’t like the color brown.
I love a good boomer shooter, but not every throwback FPS game needs to take inspiration from Quake and Doom. The ’90s were filled with groundbreaking projects that tried something a bit different, and Monolith’s Blood stands the test of time as one of the decade’s crowning achievements. You should definitely play Blood, but if a modern spiritual successor is more your speed, Cultic is the way to go.
Find the odd one out before the timer hits zero.
While most boomer shooters establish movement as the player’s best performance of defense, Jasozz Games opted to slow things down to emphasize positioning and traps. You don’t just blast your way through the cultists, but you use the environment’s natural chokepoints and hazards to throw them off their game.
Cultic also knocks its gunplay out of the park, with headshots being particularly visceral.
6
Compound Is The FPS Dream Game Of Every ’90s Child
Virtual Reality At Its Best
- A VR FPS game that is also a rogue-lite.
- Available on SteamVR, PS VR2, and Meta Quest 2.
- Who shouldn’t play this? Anybody who gets motion sick when playing VR. Also, if you don’t own a headset, maybe don’t buy one just for Compound.
First-person shooters make so much sense in virtual reality, and plenty of titles managed to cement themselves as staples. Admittedly, a game’s ceiling is fairly low if it can only be played with a headset, as a Meta Quest or SteamVR seems unlikely to ever reach anywhere near as many folks as a standard console. Still, I’d say releases like Pavlov and, obviously, Half-Life: Alyx are way too well-known to be considered for this type of article… not Compound, though!
Bevan McKechnie’s game is very easy to sell: Imagine a ’90s arcade shooter in VR. That’s right, pure Doom goodness with VR movement and modernized through procedural generation and a roguelite structure. You physically step out of the way to dodge well-telegraphed bullets, making yourself feel like a genuine Doomguy. Alternatively, in extremely intense gunfights, you will feel like you are in the middle of a life-or-death battle where the end could come at any moment.
5
Severed Steel Nails Its Movement And Gunplay
A Prime Example Of A Modern FPS Trend
- Short burst levels where you kill quickly and stylishly.
- Available on PC, PS5, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series
- Who shouldn’t play this? Anybody who wants a slow-paced gameplay loop.
Greylock’s Severed Steel and Echo Point Nova are both must-plays, but I went with the former since I think it might click with a few more folks (and it’s older and cheaper). Here is a game that wants you to feel incredible, but also wants you to earn that feeling. Cast as a one-armed protagonist, players rampage through missions that typically only last a couple of minutes, and you spend the whole time executing stunts while blasting enemies into the next life.
Movement shooters have taken hold over the last 5 years, and the subgenre’s title explains them perfectly. These games are all about wall runs, slides, leaps, and frantic but still controlled action. Severed Steel sits among the best examples of this type of FPS project, and it is just a fantastic game by any metric.
4
Deadlink Is Roguelite FPS Brilliance
Take A Shot At Megacorps
- A roguelite with arena shooter gameplay.
- Available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series.
- Who shouldn’t play this? Anybody who really dislikes the roguelite gameplay loop.
Although I enjoy them in isolation, I don’t seek out single-player roguelite games nowadays, as I prefer campaigns that are always guaranteed to move forward. That said, Deadlink makes the concept work as a purely solo adventure, primarily by incorporating consistent progression in terms of both gameplay and, to a lesser extent, story. It also helps that the core gunplay is unfiltered arena shooter goodness that starts you off with a satisfying shotgun and rocket launcher.
Set in a cyberpunk world and featuring a classic “to hell with megacorporations” story, Deadlink revolves around completing missions that typically end with boss fights, and you will definitely die along the way. As each run rewards things like XP, you are constantly improving your stats, and it only takes a few failed runs for you to start feeling more powerful. The gameplay is rock-solid, too.
3
Supplice Is Classic Doom Mods In A Modern Design
A Boomer Shooter All About Booming And Shooting
- A retro shooter with modern sensibilities and mod respect.
- Available on PC.
- Who shouldn’t play this? Anybody who is just sick and tired of the GZDoom engine. Also, anybody who avoids Early Access releases.
Yeah, we have another backward-looking game that doesn’t remotely try to hide its retro aspirations, which means Supplice knows exactly what it is trying to be. Rather than focus on flat hallways or arenas like most boomer shooters, Supplice prioritizes verticality far more than most of its contemporaries. Set on an alien mining colony, the environments are not only surprisingly massive but are also packed with scenes that make the world feel massive, which is equally important.
In its current Early Access state, Supplice comes across like a boomer shooter stripped of fluff and completely dedicated to its mechanics and gunfeel. Each weapon not only feels good to fire but also has clear uses that help justify its existence, making the arsenal worth using on the whole. Enemies are challenging but fair, and they typically give you enough time to react to attacks.
2
Blood West Is The Antidote For Arena Shooters
Not Every FPS Game Need Be Frantic And Fast-Paced
- A stealth immersive sim.
- Available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series.
- Who shouldn’t play this? Anybody who wants a fast-paced shooter that is primarily an FPS and not a stealth game with FPS elements.
I admit, I tend to gravitate towards twitch shooters. It’s just what I prefer. However, let’s switch things up for this entry, as Blood West is about as far removed from boomer shooters as an FPS game can get. Set across three maps, Hyperstrange’s supernatural western drops players into fairly open sandboxes and tells them to play smart, not fast. A stealth-first approach is pretty much a must rather than just a suggestion, and you want to gather information and plot your moves rather than just jumping head-first into combat.
Immersive sims are hard-as-heck to come by, and Blood West is an impressive modern example of this under-represented genre. The game incorporates some RPG elements through its perk trees and, arguably, invention management, but it is really at its best when taken as a stealth sandbox sim where a lone gunslinger must survive against all sorts of unspeakable horrors.
1
Turbo Overkill Might Be The Best FPS Game Of The 2020s
Certainly One Of The Most Entertaining
- Movement and shooting at their absolute peak.
- Available on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series
- Who shouldn’t play this? Anybody who doesn’t immediately get excited by the thought of a “chainsaw leg.”
Honestly, I probably mention Turbo Overkill a bit too often, but it is so absurdly fun. On the surface, this might look like your typical “never stop moving, never stop shooting” FPS game, but there is a lot more underneath than you might think. The moment-by-moment gunplay is all about cycling through satisfying guns that feature alternate fire modes that pretty much transform them into entirely new weapons, and even the starting dual pistols remain viable throughout the campaign.
Turbo Overkill‘s true calling card is its progression system, as players can install upgrades into body parts that provide direct or passive benefits. These aren’t small additions either, as they can greatly expand your movement, increase your survivability, or just give you more firepower.
Also, Turbo Overkill gives you a chainsaw leg that you can use to cut enemies down to size. It is awesome.
