Every level feels daunting, which makes every success feel earned. The game leans on its roster of enemies, bombastic personality, and head-banging soundtrack to entertain action fans everywhere. Serious Sam is a tough-yet-fair FPS designed to keep players pressing down the trigger for as long as possible. The game makes do with just a truckload of guns and enough eclectic alien enemies to invade a small nation, and that’s more than enough. Serious Sam: The First Encounter doesn’t need any of those things. Some FPS games spice up the genre formula with RPG mechanics, random loot, and explorable worlds. TimeSplitters: Future Perfect is also packed with optional challenge levels that will test your FPS skills, sometimes to the point of wanting to pull out your hair in frustration. However, the campaign is only half the journey. While the story only occasionally follows the key rules of time travel, the characters are certainly memorable (and often just plain hilarious). The TimeSplitters franchise is a lost gem of a series, and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect is the final (and best) entry.Įach level in TimeSplitters: Future Perfect takes players on a journey through different time periods. (which is surprisingly good to this day) and expertly implemented scares makes it one of the more intense titles on this list. F.E.A.R.‘s blend of revolutionary enemy A.I. offers a pure action experience that just so happens to occasionally dive into more supernatural waters. It also features the best version of Terrorist Hunt: one of the greatest co-op modes in FPS history.īy emphasizing first-person shooter elements more than most modern first-person horror games do, F.E.A.R. Like the best sequels, though, Vegas 2 just does everything a little bit better. Vegas 2 features the incredible level design, wonderful visuals, and fascinating blend of team-based tactics and pulse-pounding action that made the previous game such a surprisingly refreshing take on the franchise. Yet, in some ways, I feel like Vegas 2‘s enhanced accessibility (relatively speaking) allows it to capture the “fantasy” of the Tom Clancy experience better than any other Rainbow Six title. Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 is certainly more action-focused than the early games in the Rainbow Six franchise. *This list has since been updated to include entries 26-30. However, special consideration was given to games that did both well. – Single-player only and multiplayer-only FPS games were not necessarily faulted for lacking either mode.

– How enjoyable (for whatever reason) an FPS game is ultimately determined by whether it was selected for this list and where it was ranked, but innovation, historical significance, and longevity were all used as prominent “X-factors” to determine rankings The more a game emphasized shooting/combat as a core part of the experience, the more likely it was to be considered part of the genre. An FPS must obviously have a first-person perspective and shooting, but when in doubt, we looked closely at the “shooter” part of the equation. – Defining a first-person shooter can be tricky. Many offer something different, but the one thing that most share is the feeling you get just from hearing their names.īefore we dive into the list, here are a few notes about the criteria used to make these selections. The best first-person shooters ever may have inspired each other, but each ultimately brings something special to the table that helps it stand out among some considerable competition. Those are the games we’re here to celebrate today. The history of the genre is written by developers who used a certain point of view and a gun or two as the basis for a variety of experiences that continue to surprise us even after we told ourselves that we’ve seen it all. There’s no one element that makes FPS games so brilliant, and that is, ironically enough, exactly what makes them brilliant. Game genres go in and out of fashion all the time, but for over 30 years, first-person shooters have been one of the industry’s most reliable sources for blockbuster experiences that often help dictate the future of the medium.

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