Everyone has their own reason for booting up a game, but I think we all have days when we just need to unwind after a terrible day by shooting monsters in the face. More than any other genre, FPS games can be downright visceral, especially releases that prioritize high-tempo action, forward momentum, and absolutely zero friction. No hiding behind cover or inventory management here.
No, you shoot, you kill, and you repeat.
Since you can jump into a match immediately, PvP shooters are often people’s go-to when they want to blow off steam without indulging in filler. Personally, though, I find single-player FPS games far more my speed when I’m looking to eviscerate a long day’s tension, although not any old title will do. The shooter needs to be all gas, no brakes; all action, no dead air.
Since I don’t want this article to be all arena shooters, I’ll cover a few other types of FPS games. That said, you won’t see any slow-paced military shooters or cerebral masterpieces.
DOOM Pushes You Into A Flow State Of Blood, Demon Guts, And Bullets
Nobody Said FPS Games Need To Be Complicated; I Want To Shoot Demons, So Let Me Shoot Demons
- Not a single second wasted by you or the game.
We might as well get the most obvious one out of the way. Most DOOM games are non-stop action, but the 2016 reboot/refresh/whatsoever embraces the “push-forward” mentality with every fiber of its being. With barely any setup, the game quickly unleashes the Doom Guy (and you) on hell’s denizens, and the best way to escape is right through the Imp standing in front of you.
From the opening section, you learn that “retreat is not an option.” Low on ammo? Chainsaw that Hell Knight into two. Dangerously close to death? Don’t worry, a glory kill quickly fixes you up. Desperate for a cathartic release? The Shotgun and Super Shotgun leave you deeply satisfied.
As great as Eternal and The Dark Ages are, they both demand consistent active thinking from players; meanwhile, Doom just wants you to run wild with reckless abandon. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t dumb or easy, but DOOM lets you rely on your instincts.
Bulletstorm Is Glorious Slapstick At Peak Violence
Itchy & Scratchy With Guns And Skillpoints
- The beautiful art of creating death.
Compared to DOOM, Bulletstorm has a story that stays present throughout the campaign, with characters and everything. However, People Can Fly mostly uses it as background noise to provide context to the mayhem and violence, both of which are so over-the-top that the game crosses the threshold and becomes a straight-up R-rated cartoon. Rather than survival or victory, Bulletstorm wants you to embarrass the enemy along the way, and it rewards your brutality with Skillshot points à la Devil May Cry.
Once you get past the shortish intro, you gain access to most of your crowd-control toolkit, giving Bulletstorm a pick-up-and-play feel not found in many story-driven single-player FPS games. Use the Energy Leash to whip an enemy toward you, triggering slow motion and setting them up for a boot to the face that splats them into a wall of rusty rebar spikes. Then power-slide across the battlefield while shooting two linked grenades that wrap around a hapless foe. Finally, watch them explode.
Painkiller Asks “What If The Punisher Ends Up In Gothic Purgatory?”
Everyone Dies, That’s What
- The 2004 original is the only good Painkiller game, so you don’t have to guess which one to try.
Let’s stick with People Can Fly for one more game: Painkiller: Black Edition. Honestly, most arena shooters are designed for immediate gratification, and you can easily boot up one of the good Serious Sam games or Unreal Tournament 2004. Ultimately, I chose Painkiller as my pick for the best stress reliever.
Arena shooters are simple. Go into a room, slaughter everything that moves, and then head to the next room. Painkiller sticks to this formula religiously, and then separates itself from the crowd by introducing gothic environments and weapons. Daniel Garner is not a superhero or even really a hero, but he wears the heck out of a trench coat, knows his way around a stakegun, and reacts to nightmarish creatures by unleashing a cool one-liner.
Kill enough demons, and you get temporary invisibility that lets you massacre an entire wave of enemies.
Ultrakill Melts Away Your Stress In Seconds
An FPS Game That Makes It Rain Blood And Wants You To Bathe In It
- Although still in early access, Ultrakill is already in top-notch shape.
DOOM 2016 broke the dam, unleashing a flood of boomer and movement shooters that continues to drown us today. Fortunately, most of these FPS games have been pretty darn great, proudly waving the genre’s flag in lieu of big-budget AAA releases. Ultrakill represents the pinnacle of this era, and it’s technically not even out yet.
Mankind is dead. Blood is fuel. Hell is full.
Now, that’s a premise designed for pleasure. You control V1, a war machine that needs blood to survive. As living humans aren’t available, it embarks on a Dante’s Inferno-style journey through hell, with sustenance being its only goal. By absorbing blood, you heal; however, blood disappears almost instantly, meaning you have to get right up in the gore to make sure you get what you need. No falling back or snipping from a safe distance.
Ultrakill is a first-person character-action game, and it gives you all the tools you need to reach your potential. The combat is so fluid you feel like a god, especially when you dismantle targets with just a coin and a revolver.
RoboCop: Rogue City Hits Like A Tank
Blow Off Steam With Pure, Raw Gunplay
OK, let’s end things with a change of pace. After all, not everyone blows off steam using the same method, and some folks prefer to feel like a tank rather than a speed demon. RoboCop: Rogue City delivers a style of power fantasy that very few modern FPS games provide, one that really emphasizes the “power” part.
RoboCop doesn’t sprint away from incoming fire, hide behind cover to avoid getting shot, or slide across the ground before leaping into a somersault; no, he simply marches forward as Old Detroit’s worst inhabitants try to erase him. He turns raiders into human shields and then flings them through a window, all while relying on his trusty Auto-9 to tear through skin, bones, and walls. He is direct, predictable, and deadly.
