The ten best FPS titles that change up the game

FIRST-PERSON shooters are one of the most popular genres of video games, but they are not all made the same.

Check out these ten games that changed up the game, and see how many you have mastered.

10. Apex Legends

Trust Respawn to look at games like Fortnite and PUBG and ask the impossible: what if these games felt good to play?

With slick movement and punchy guns, Apex Legends is one of the best-feeling shooters around, and easily the smoothest battle royale.

With its pool of Legends — who all have different abilities — interesting arsenal, multiple distinct maps, and high skill ceiling, it’s no wonder it dominates the Steam charts.

9. GoldenEye 64

Back in the ‘90s, Rare was the king of developers, giving us some of the best games for the N64.

Alongside its beloved character platformers, Rare also developed the two best FPS games for the console: Perfect Dark and GoldenEye 007.

Perfect Dark is probably the better game technically, but it is the James Bond shooter that people remember most fondly.

GoldenEye 007 was many people’s first experience of multiplayer shooter action, and it had a wide variety of modes to play with.

From normal play to one-hit-kills, and even levels with an overpowered super weapon, GoldenEye 007 changed how we play FPS multiplayer.

Pair this with its excellent single-player story mode and you get a truly excellent game all round.

8. New Pokémon Snap

We may have taken the meaning of shooting a bit loosely here, but we couldn’t let the opportunity to sing the praises of New Pokémon Snap pass.

Think of it as a stealth shooter where you creep through various Pokémon habitats and take them out covertly.

Much like a regular FPS, you are still trying to find the right angle to shoot the Pokémon from, usually without being noticed.

New Pokémon Snap introduces puzzle elements to the genre, where you perform different actions to get Pokémon to move into position.

Free DLC was released for this game, giving more options to fans of shooting who aren’t so big on multiplayer (and violence).

7. Titanfall 2

Titanfall 2 is one of the best FPS games of all time, due to how the game reinvents itself every few levels.

Its most talked about mission, Effect and Cause, is the perfect example of this.

When players first saw the prompt “press X to time travel” they knew Titanfall 2 was going to become a very different game.

Outside of its rip-roaring main campaign, there’s also its tactical, parkour fuelled multiplayer.

You play as a mech pilot who owns a robot the size of a tank, but it feels just as good when you’re outside of the cockpit and wall-running across any vertical surface that crosses your path.

It sounds completely unbalanced, but somehow Titanfall 2 pulls it off to perfection.

6. Team Fortress 2

Before Fortnite made cartoony shooters famous, Team Fortress 2 defined the genre first.

Back when Valve was making games and not selling them via Steam, it was one of the best developers in the industry.

Team Fortress 2 works well because despite having nine different classes to choose from, they each feel balanced and have counter play.

Each member of your team is vital, from snipers to melee combat and skilled medics.

Team Fortress 2 injects humour into the multiplayer FPS genre.

Even after 23 years, it will still make you smile.

5. Quake

When we talk about influential shooters, Quake is the place where many began.

With its huge modding community, many games and industry professionals got their starts right here.

Placing mediaeval knights in space, Quake broke boundaries on what a shooter could be, with devilishly difficult levels and outrageous themes.

The standard of level design created by the original developer id Software, and the passionate modders, remains some of the best in gaming.

It’s a high bar which many games have tried and failed to meet ever since.

4. Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus

Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus took the FPS playbook and threw it out the window.

Focusing on creating an interesting world with vivid characters, every weapon you use makes you feel like you are dealing with greasy Victorian machinery.

Dual-wield Machinenpistole and show the Nazis what for, while also navigating the tight corridors of a Zepplin in a wheelchair.

The dialogue switches between deep social commentary and sincere examination of taboo topics.

Wolfenstein 2 shows players that not every FPS has to be a multiplayer game.

3. Half-Life

In this list we could have replaced New Pokémon Snap with the puzzles of Portal and fear being called Valve simps.

But the truth is, Valve did make incredible game-changing shooters, and Half-Life is one of its best.

Half-Life changed the rules for FPS games. You no longer had to be a maniac muscle-man running around shooting everything in sight.

Instead, we play scientist Gordon Freeman as he tries to figure out just how his co-workers were led astray.

It opened up a whole new way stories in FPS games could be told via atmosphere, puzzles and NPC encounters.

After Gordon’s time in the test chamber, shooters were never the same again.

2. Doom

We all know it has to be up here, because we all know the Doom is good. Doom is very good.

Doom brought shooters into the mainstream, as you run around blowing up the spawn of hell, and there is a reason people kept playing.

With levels so deep to explore, Doom introduced replayability that gamers had never seen before.

While later Doom titles, such as Doom 2016, are both very good and give you the same rush as you play, the original set out the guidelines.

Doom should never stop being celebrated. It should never stop being played. 

Boot it up now. You won’t regret it.

1. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

While Team Fortress 2 started life as a Quake mod, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive started as a Half-Life mod that eventually surpassed the original.

The fact that it has changed little since then, and that people continue to play it, shows how strong the original design was.

CS:GO added tactical elements into shooters, which weren’t as common before its release.

You are never just planting bombs or extracting hostages — you do this all while thinking two rounds ahead.

You work as a team. You work efficiently. You do all this or you don’t stand a chance.

The perfect marriage of shooting skill and tactical prowess.

Written by Georgina Young and Kirk McKeand on behalf of GLHF.