8 First-Person Action Games That Are 10/10, No Notes

The world of action has always had its fair share of exceptional games, with a few 10s gracing our screens over the past few decades. These FPS games represent the peak of design and immersion, transporting you to an adrenaline-filled world where every bullet and every step counts.

Reaching that level of perfection is no easy feat, as everything from the gameplay to the setting to the story that ties it all together has to be top-notch. Yet, as impossible as it seems, we have still been gifted with quite a few masterpieces that have literally zero flaws.

DOOM Eternal

The Peak Of Modern FPS Combat

Details:

• All mechanics tie into one another
• Aggression is rewarded above all else

DOOM Eternal takes everything that made the 2016 reboot successful and perfects it. Every weapon, enemy, and movement option is designed to complement the others, forcing you to constantly think several steps ahead and to stay aggressive and chain those brutal kills together.

The level of mechanical harmony is incredible to experience first-hand, and I have a hard time finding similar shooters that can live up to it even after all these years. It’s an experience that continually rewards mastery and pushes you to unlock new limits in yourself, with very few barriers stopping you from becoming the ultimate demon slayer.

Neon White

Speedrunning To The End

Details:

• Combines shooter mechanics with movement puzzles
• Insane replay value in each level

Neon White looked at other games that revolved around speed and turned the dial up to eleven. Momentum and pace are the most important concepts to grasp, as in each stage, you are presented with a series of leaps and enemies to take down by the end, all while keeping an eye on the ticking clock,

I think the most interesting part comes from the almost puzzle-like nature of the gameplay, where weapons can be used for mobility, and even a single wrong move can completely ruin an otherwise record-pace run. There is not a moment of downtime through the game, and once you cross the finish line for the first time, there really is no turning back.

ULTRAKILL

Pushing Classic Design To The Limit

Details:

• Creativity is the main form of skill expression
• Arena combat blended with stylish combos

ULTRAKILL embraces the spirit of ’90s shooters while introducing systems that feel remarkably modern. Movement is blisteringly fast, and there is a whole host of different weapon interactions that you can make use of, turning even simple encounters into opportunities to get creative.

The game’s depth is astonishing, and just when you think you have mastered everything, another advanced technique crops up and subverts those expectations entirely. That enormous skill ceiling is one of the reasons many others, and I keep coming back to it, and I do believe that it will go down in the books as one of the greatest FPS games ever made.

Titanfall 2

Movement Is King

Details:

• Seamless blend of parkour and titan combat
• Masterful singleplayer campaign

One of the hardest problems in shooters is making complex mechanics work in tandem without any awkward friction. In the case of Titanfall 2, the complexity comes from the dual-pilot-titan gameplay that drives every match, yet despite how different the gameplay is across the two sides, you never feel the momentum slowing down.

Pilots move with insane speed using wall-running, sliding, and double jumps to traverse the map, while Titans transform the combat into a slower, tactical battle that fundamentally alters how you engage with your enemies. To top it off, there is a stellar single-player campaign that stands out for its ability to consistently introduce new and interesting mechanics without them feeling forced, it’s just a shame that we may never see a sequel to round out the trilogy.

Metroid Prime

Pioneering FPS Exploration

Details:

• Perfectly translates the franchise to first-person
• Exploration is just as rewarding as combat

Moving Metroid into first person seemed like a risky decision, but Metroid Prime proved it could preserve everything that made the series special and also push into new ground. Exploration remains the core focus, with interconnected environments gradually opening up as you unlock new abilities and revisit familiar locations equipped with a more robust toolset.

The combat complements that structure rather than overshadowing it, throwing you into mechanically intense bossfights and pressuring you with well-placed encounters that can be fairly taxing if you position and play poorly. More than two decades later, I still consider it to be one of the clearest examples of how first-person gameplay can support far more than traditional shooting, and I am so glad to see newer games adopt the same philosophy, though never quite to the same level.

Perfect Dark

Espionage On A Grander Scale

Details:

• Introduced ambitious objectives and player freedom
• Combined stealth and gadgets into a more well-rounded experience

Perfect Dark arrived at a time when most console shooters focused almost entirely on shooting enemies, yet, instead of following the trend, the game built its missions around multiple objectives and mechanics that make every level feel far more like a secret agent operation. The gadgets take center stage, as rather than just blasting through corridors over and over, you are given a bit more choice when the bullets inevitably start flying.

Its ambitious design helped push the genre forward, introducing more intelligent enemy AI and a varied approach to mission design that has helped to retain a core audience several decades on. It says it all in the name, but I really feel as though Perfect Dark is near the peak of first-person design, and is certainly one of the most influential console FPS titles ever made.

Halo: Combat Evolved

Defining Console Shooters

Details:

• Revolutionized first-person shooters on consoles
• Established concepts that would shape the genre for decades

First-person shooters practically wouldn’t exist in the way they do today without Halo: Combat Evolved. Bursting onto the scene with an array of sci-fi weapons, stages, and enemies, you have so many options with which to clear each mission, from the dual-weapon system to the vehicles that make even large maps feel far more contained.

What truly elevates Halo is how dedicated it is to the sandbox style of gameplay. Your encounters with both AI and other players could be approached in a variety of ways that ensured, even after hundreds of matches and campaign replays, you still never ran out of fun.

Half-Life 2

How To Design An FPS Campaign

Details:

• Constantly introduces new mechanics without wasting them
• Natural merges story with gameplay

Half-Life 2 is Valve’s way of showing the world that they really know how to make a great first-person game. Starting with the story, you are thrown into a mysterious world that pulls from all sides of the fictional landscape, combining dystopian control with alien life in a very cohesive way that never feels too outlandish.

Then there’s the actual action, which sees you facing off against soldiers and mutated lifeforms of all shapes and sizes, with an arsenal of weapons and a gravitational gun that transforms otherwise grounded fights into tests of physics. I adore the feel and flow of the experience and urge anyone to revisit this classic, if only to pay homage to an era-defining FPS game.