HomeFeatures
The 25 best FPS games on PCThe worthiest reticules of all time
The worthiest reticules of all time
FPS games are a classic PC gaming staple, and whether you’ve been playing them since the 90s or started your journey more recently with the boom inbattle royales, there are plenty to choose from when it comes to the all-time greats. To help you narrow down what to play next, we’ve created this list of the best FPS games to play right now, from single-player epics to team-based shooters you can play with mates. Heck, some don’t even necessarily have guns in them at all, and you may find the odd boomerang or bow in here too.
The Voice Cast Of Team Fortress 2 Reveal The Origins - And The Future - Of The “Sandvich Saga"Watch on YouTube
The Voice Cast Of Team Fortress 2 Reveal The Origins - And The Future - Of The “Sandvich Saga”
The 25 best FPS games on PC
25. Severed Steel
What else should I be playing:If you’re willing to focus more on the stunts, thenMirror’s Edgehas plenty of first-person freerunning to enjoy. For more fast-paced shooting, check out Turbo Overkill and Neon White further down on this list.
Kicking off with a newbie to the list,Severed Steelis all about sick stunts. Wall runs, somersaults, dolphin dives, slick slides: if you want it, Severed Steel has it. As you run around each mission while pulling off stunts and completing objectives, you shoot voxel dudes with their voxel guns that you pick up on the go. As you shoot your guns and arm cannon, bodies and walls will explode in a glorious shower of destruction. Oh yeah, you have an arm cannon! It does big damage, and Severed Steel’s destructible voxel arenas (am I saying “voxel” enough?) become your playground when you start blasting through walls.
Severed Steel can feel disorienting at first, but it’s rather forgiving. You won’t take damage as long as you simply keep moving, so it’s all about chaining stunts together to close the distance between enemies and take them down before they land a single shot. It’s the complete opposite of Superhot’s near-constant slow-mo, but it makes you feel equally badass.
24. Resident Evil Village
What else should I be playing:Resident Evil 7is much more horror, but it still gives you a big ol' flamethrower to burn some zombies. If you’re after more horror action, thenF.E.A.Rhas very good kicks alongside its spooky vibes.
Village thrives on that action, and while the first half is a slower, more horror-focused experience, the latter half gives that up for an action game that fires on all cylinders. There are big boss fights, even bigger explosions, and hordes of enemies to slaughter as you see fit. If you’re hankering for more, the Mercenaries mode offers action-packed time trials that rank your combat abilities, while playing the campaign with cheats is an absolute treat. Trust us when we say infinite ammo grenade launchers are the best.
23. Boomerang X
What else should I be playing:GiveAmid Evila shot, orUltrakilla try. The latter has you drench yourself in the blood of your foes to regain health, and is an absolute rip-roaring time.
Boy does the boomerang feel good to fling, and you’ll quickly get access to a handful of superpowers that’ll only make the wooden spinner even more fun to use. Like the ability to teleport to it mid-air, or the ability to slow-time to a crawl as you line up that perfect shot. Combat is remarkably fluid and there’s barely any downtime. It’s fast, frenetic, and a whole heap of cool. String together a flawless succession of moves, and trust me, the feeling is unrivalled.
22. Titanfall 2
What else should I be playing:You could slam all the way into simulation and seek outMechwarrior 4, or if it’s the high-speed, ultra-fluid, wall-running movement that most pleases you, give Mirror’s Edge orDying Lighta try. Apex Legends also works.
Titanfall 2could have been the best singleplayer FPS of 2016, if it hadn’t been for the new Doom. Nonetheless, if you want straight-up action thrills with a whole lot of flash, some particularly glorious movement and impressively stressful mech-based boss fights, this is going to make you very happy. And hey, there’s a robust soldiers vs giant robo-suits multiplayer mode in there too, building on what the multiplayer-onlyTitanfall1 already established.
That is, assuming you can find opponents. Titanfall 2 suffered from something of a failure to launch, having resolutely lost the marketing wars of late 2016. It may stay alive over time thanks to word of mouth, but even if it doesn’t, definitely check it out for that singleplayer campaign. It is, however, on the brief side, so we strongly recommend playing on Hard difficulty - as well as making it last longer, it makes the mech fights particularly feel that much more satisfying once you finally claim a steel scalp.
21. Halo Infinite
What else should I be playing:For more from the Chief himself,Halo: The Master Chief Collectionhas all of the campaign modes, and their respective multiplayers, featuring the legendary sparton soldier.
Halo Infinitelanded out of nowhere with a surprise multiplayer launch in late 2021, but it disappeared equally as fast. That’s a shame, because it’s one of thebest free to play games on PCright now. Sure, the progression system wasn’t great at launch and improvements were slow, but that core loop of running and gunning around arenas is Halo at its finest. With the campaign dropping a few months after (paid or on Game Pass), Halo Infinite quickly became a full Halo experience - and it might just be the best one in decades.
If you’re after something a bit bigger than Halo’s multiplayer arena shooter, then check out the sprawling open world campaign. Sure, an open world Halo might not have been on your wishlist, but careening around huge spaces in a Warthog while gunning down grunts and hoovering up collectibles is like a bigger and better version of Combat Evolved’s infamous Silent Cartographer level. If you simply miss the Halo of old, then don’t panic. Halo Infinite still has plenty of linear levels sprinkled throughout that feel like traditional Halo.
20. Deathloop
What else should I be playing:If you’re after more from Arkane,DishonoredandDishonored 2both have a similar style while focusing more on being stealthy. They also make you think a little more about your actions, as you’ll need to hide bodies and consider how each kill might affect your morality rating.
InDeathloop, a puzzling plot sends you back through a repeating timeloop while you figure out how to assassinate eight visionaries. They’re a bunch of nasties on an island, and if you manage to kill all eight in one night, you can free yourself from the timeloop. The day is split into four sections - morning, noon, afternoon, and evening - and you can only enter one of four areas per chunk. The visionaries move between the four areas throughout the day, so the puzzle is finding a routine that lets you kill all eight. That usually involves finding the moments when they pair off, so that you can execute a sneaky double assassination.
Only, Deathloop isn’t actually that sneaky. Unlike its predecessors in Arkane’s Dishonored franchise, Deathloop seems to focus heavily on action, relishing in the FPS joys of headshotting a bunch of enemies. Time is a weird soup, after all, and death doesn’t really mean anything when you’re trapped in a loop. So, kill, die, and kill some more. It’s a liberating cycle that allows you to really go wild and experiment with playstyles, as you don’t need to worry about future repercussions of your actions if you never make it past today.
19. Rainbow Six Siege
What else should I be playing:Rainbow Six Vegas 2is another series highlight, particularly in terms of poppy, glitzy co-op vs AI. If you want real tactical action, you’ll want to be back to the original Rainbow Six trilogy.
Rainbow Six Siegedoes what Battlefield games have thus far only pretended to do: provide a multiplayer world which is destructible at a granular level. Instead of buildings collapsing when scripted levers are pulled, in Siege almost every door, window, wall, ceiling, and floor can have a hole poked in it via gunshot, grenades, battering rams and breaching charges.
It’s equally impressive for being a team-based multiplayer shooter that feels fresh, offering something different from the Counter-Strikes and Call of Dutys while staying true to the spirit of the Rainbow Six series.
18. Warhammer: Vermintide 2
Image credit:Fatshark
What else should I be playing:Left 4 DeadandBack 4 Bloodstrike a similar vein, albeit one that’s more rotten and zombified. If you’re after more Warhammer, then Vermintide successorWarhammer 40K: Darktideis set to hit PC in November. It’s leaping over to the space marine setting, and will have a larger focus on ranged weapons.
Warhammer: Vermintide 2is all about killing rat people. Slicing them with swords, whacking them with maces, chopping through them with an axe - anything goes when you’re fighting the vermin hordes. Most importantly, though, it always involves bloody carnage that feels oh-so-good. If you’re in the mood for some simple, yet chaotic melee action, then Vermintide 2 is the game for you. And, for those of you screaming about how it isn’t an FPS, every class has some kind of ranged option to try. The bow is a personal favourite of mine, but there are also spells and guns that you can use to blow the rat people to pieces.
17. Turbo Overkill
What else should I be playing:If you enjoy Turbo Overkill, consider taking a trip back to the past to see some of its inspiration inDOOMandQuake.
Turbo Overkillis a retro-inspired FPS following in the footsteps of Quake and DOOM, albeit with a techno twist. You’ll charge around arenas slaughtering all sorts of enemies, but along the way you find augments that you can install to gain new powers. That could be a subtle boost, such as extra armor on getting a chainsaw kill, or something a little more chaotic, such as massive explosions whenever you hit the ground. Traversing the map to find those upgrades is a treat, too, as Turbo Overkill constantly propels you forward with incredible speed through its neon-filled streets.
We gave Turbo Overkilla bestest bestwhen it launched in early access in late 2021. But, to reiterate one of the most salient points: you have a chainsaw for a leg. Fun times follow, as you can use that chainsaw leg to skid and slide around while tearing through baddies. They explode in violent bursts of blood, but there’s no time to stop and look at your victims, as Turbo Overkill is all about delivering that huge damage with speed and style.
16. Neon White
What else should I be playing:Games on this list like DOOM Eternal and Turbo Overkill carry a similar sense of speed. If you like the puzzle element, why not try outPortalandPortal 2? They aren’t focused on speed, but give a similar sense of satisfaction.
Carrying on from Turbo Overkill, here’s another game that’s about running fast.Neon Whiteis a speedrunning FPS in which you use cards to either kill nasty demons, or launch yourself towards the goal in hopes of shaving off half a second.
It’s that second part that’s really fun, as each of Neon White’s levels quickly become complex puzzles to solve. It’s easy to get stuck in a loop of just running the same route over and over again, sure, but taking the time to step back and wander around the level to see every avenue and secret passage will give you insight into other potential paths. And then you run it and complete the mission an entire second faster. A second! Few things feel better than that.
15. Hunt: Showdown
Image credit:Crytek
What else should I be playing:Escape From Tarkov,Stalker, or theMetrogames share that hardcore, dingy DNA.
14. Call Of Duty: Warzone 2
What else should I be playing:I’d recommend Apex Legends if you’re after a more arcadey experience, although it plays very differently. Otherwise, I suppose you could opt forPUBG, although it feels ancient in comparison.
Warzone 2may not be battle royale king like its predecessor once was, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t any good. Far from it! There’s a brand new gunsmith which lets you tinker with weapons in even greater detail, which makes for even spicier metas. The new map Al Mazrah is - in my opinion - better than Verdansk, in the way it facilitates fights and removes a lot of boring grey in favour of some actual colour.
13. Team Fortress 2
What else should I be playing:Overwatch, you fools.
ThatTeam Fortress 2is a sequel and a remake of a sober-as-a-nun multiplayer mod seems almost irrelevant now. But it’s part of what makes the game so important. Valve took years and years to settle upon a model for what has become one of the firmly-entrenched favourites of the PC gaming fraternity, and that they did so allowed it to prove that a multiplayer first-person shooter can be funny, even witty, and that constant experimentation and progression can keep a game alive and evolving long after it should have ground to a halt.
Team Fortress 2 felt like an experiment, and it still feels like an experiment, and that experiment was a success. A move to free-to-play and a hat-centric economy has kept TF2 thriving. The cost of this is that something of the original spirit was perhaps lost in this translation to gimmee, gimmee, gimmee, but we can forgive that.
12. Devil Daggers
What else should I be playing:Thumper has similar values applied to rhythm action, while AliceO recently wrote a review on Devil Daggers' surprise sequel,Hyper Demon.
2016 was in many ways a vintage year for first-person shooters, and the reason for that was because they understood their past. DOOM, obviously; Overwatch returned to Team Fortress rather than COD; Titanfall 2 was the big sci-fi silliness of the noughties again andDevil Daggers… well, Devil Daggers is from an alternate timeline where Quake changed everything and was never forgotten in favour of military men and careful plots.
A beautiful hellscape of big square pixels against a midnight backdrop, monstrous things looming at you from the darkness, and the dance, the endless dance. A pure test of everything that first-person shooters ever taught us. Reflex, awareness, movement, practice, true grit and no surrender. It is about your own time and only about your own time, because that is all that matters - everything else that shooters ever added is mere fluff.
11. DOOM Eternal
What else should I be playing:Recommending DOOM Eternal is very good, because it means we can also tell you to go play DOOM 2016 if you haven’t already. I beat it in a very bloody weekend, and now I only see pentagrams and demons.
DOOM 2016 was a bloody and brilliant reintroduction to the demon-slaying franchise, butDOOM Eternaltakes it to new heights. It doesn’t waste any time making you wait around, opting instead to hand you a shotgun and force you out into the demon crowds. Within moments, you’re platforming around chaotic arenas with an upgraded shotgun, machine gun, and a chainsaw doing what that DOOM guy does best. Namely, rippin' and tearin'.
Sure, you might have done that just a few years ago in its predecessor, but Eternal pushes you to get faster and more ferocious. It has some new platforming elements that not everyone will appreciate, such as wall climbing and swinging from poles, but when it comes to tearing through arenas filled with hulking demons, DOOM Eternal does it best.
10. Left 4 Dead 2
What else should I be playing:GTFO is similar, but much scarier and with aliens. Warhammer Vermintide is also worth a shot if you’re after that 4 player gore fest. And Back 4 Blood is a more recent take on the zombie-slaying formula that hit PC in 2021.
9. SUPERHOT / SUPERHOT VR (2016)
What else should I be playing:There are a lot of other VR shooters out there, but not much else compares. Play SUPERHOT.
There ain’t nothin' new under the sun - a miserable claim that SUPERHOT Team disproved twice in one year. First there wasSUPERHOTitself, a shooter in which time only moves when you move (or shoot) (or throw something) (or punch). Then there wasSUPERHOT VR, which singlehandedly redeemed the whole concept of virtual reality and easily made it into our pick of thebest VR games.
SUPERHOT is both maximum-adrenaline thrills and highly tactical - transforming the first-person shooter from a game about precision aiming and reflexive movement into one in which every twitch counted. The world is super-slow-mo until you do anything, which grants you the time to plan the move but leaves you subject to a devious puzzlebox construction in which one action leaves you vulnerable to some other threat. It is sublime, and it is impossibly cool.
Particularly in VR, where you are making those movements yourself - the ducking, the punching, the throwing, the shooting. The Matrix fantasy without any of the bilge - just superhot action. A glorious, glorious reinvention of first-person violence.
8. Deep Rock Galactic
What else should I be playing:If you’re looking for something more serious, GTFO has a similar co-op mission structure. To mess around and run away from things, grab your pals and go playPhasmophobia.Sea of Thievesalso has similar co-op activities on the open seas.
Deep Rock Galacticcombines drunk dwarves with some complex tunnel systems and lots of nasty subterranean bugs. The result is often sheer chaos, as four players charge into the depths to mine whatever they need for the big corporation in the sky. You pick a role, each of which has a unique weapon and traversal mechanic, and zip through the caves at incredible pace, collecting ores as you head towards a main objective.
The chaos comes when you’re trying to wrap your head around these main objectives, connecting winding pipelines or powering huge machines, while fending off those blasted bugs that just won’t stop. As you go, hordes of creepy critters will charge in your direction. A rational team might fight them together, deploying traps and getting into a strong defensive formation, but I find the fun in panickedly running away and screaming. But, whether you play Deep Rock Galactic as a true co-op shooter or as a wild romp in the caverns, it’s sure to be a good time.
7. GTFO
What else should I be playing:Not much matches GTFO’s oppressive atmosphere. Phasmophobia is a good place to mess around and scream with friends, so give that a go for some more co-op scares.
Hurtling down into the dark depths ofGTFO’s Rundowns (levels) is a terrifying start. What’s even more terrifying, though, is when teammates don’t work together. We tend to quickly designate a leader when I play with friends, but someone always wanders off a little too far or fails to follow orders. Lots of screaming, shooting, and swearing ensues. It’s pure chaos with a horror-filled flair, and it’s a great time online. It demands teamwork and precision if you want to survive, but that fills every encounter with a level of tension that few other FPS games reach.
6. Half-Life: Alyx
What else should I be playing:Half-Life 2, for more of that Gordon Freeman goodness.
Alright, yes, you’ll need a VR headset for Half Life: Alyx, alongside a powerful enough rig to run it nicely. But, if you’ve got both of these things, then you’re in for a treat.
Graham said in hisHalf-Life: Alyx reviewthat this is “theHalf-Lifegame you’ve been waiting for, even if it’s not the one you were expecting”. And this is because the game’s been designed with VR in mind. You’re now able to reach out and touch City 17, and the motion control shooting “feels better than Half-Life’s combat ever has”.
5. Half-Life 2
What else should I be playing:So many shooters deliver the story as you roll now, butBioShockis perhaps the best example of this philosophy taken to its peak.
Of course. So much is inHalf-Life 2, from an unprecedented level of architectural design to facial animation which rendered anything else obsolete overnight, to a physics system which transformed shooter environments from scenery into interactive resource, to some of gaming’s most striking baddies in the Striders and a huge step forwards in making AI companions believable and likeable.
It’s also a long, changeable journey through a beautifully, bleakly fleshed-out world, and although of course you are on the hero’s journey, it’s careful to keep you feeling like a bit player in a wider conflict. That this, plus the cliffhanger ending of Episode 2, left so much more to be told leaves PC gaming in a perpetual state of frustration that the series has, publicly at least, ground to a halt. I don’t think all of it is as striking as it once was - particularly, much of the man-shooting feels routine and slightly weightless now - but Half-Life 2 gave us more than any other first-person shooter before, and maybe even since.
4. Dusk
What else should I be playing:I’d recommend Turbo Overkill or most other ‘Boomer’ shooters, like DOOM, Quake, or Prodeus to name just a few.
DUSKis a retro-styled FPS that’s retro, but doesn’t get stuck trying tomimicretro. It has the gut-spilling impact of the genre, yet mixes it with modern twists: like picking up items to create impromptu climable routes to hidden areas, or just slinging saw blades and soap at foes.
There’s a lot of coloured-key collecting to open doors in DUSK, but it’s spread across loads of complex, batshit maps that only get better as you barrel through through its campaign. There is, of course, a metal soundtrack paired with a level of spookiness designed to make you both enjoy the riff and jump out of your chair within five seconds of one another. Please don’t skip out on this.
3. Valorant
What else should I be playing:CS:GO is a very similar experience, just without all the wizardry.
If Valorant sounds like Counter: Strike, that’s because the gunplay is pretty similar. However, where it differs is in ability usage. You can choose from a roster of Agents who each have special powers that’ll let them do stuff like teleport across short gaps, flashbang around corners, or heal allies. If this sounds aggressively unbalanced, don’t worry, almost all of these abilities feel like useful tools, as opposed to pain-bringers.
I’d say I prefer Valorant to Counter: Strike nowadays, purely because it feels more current. There’s regular updates and some invaluable tools - like an aim training map - are baked into the game, as opposed to being buried away in a “community creations” section of a store.
2. Apex Legends
What else should I be playing:Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds is the other titanic battle royale, as isFortnite. As is Call Of Duty: Warzone.
Oh my, Apex, what excellent bumslides you have. What solid shootsing you offer. What a delightful bunch of canyons and swamps you’ve plonked us in. We should have known better than to doubt the makers of Titanfall 2’s robot antics. Since its launch Apelegs has added plenty of new characters, new maps, and even a new Arenas mode.
It’s a solid murder hike every time you dive intoApex Legends, and there really is nothing that matches its pace in the Battle Royale realm.
1. Destiny 2
What else should I be playing:TheBorderlandsseries will give you a similar loot-scavenging runabout. If you want to dip into third-person,The Division 2is another solid looter shooter.
Destiny 2is an incredibly fluid MMO FPS with some of the best shooting around, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Whether you want to team up with others to topple big bosses, turn on your fellow players and slug them with a shotgun in Crucible’s PvP modes, or play through epic stories that span the solar system, Destiny 2 has something for everyone. Whichever activity you prefer, you can easily sink hundreds, if not thousands, of hours into it, and the brilliant gunplay makes it a constant joy. Not only is the best FPS around, I’ll wager that Destiny 2 is also the best superhero game right now. There’s something I love about swinging electro swords and firing off a golden gun imbued with solar energy to kill massive raid bosses in a bid to save the solar system.
Destiny 2 has so much to love, but that doesn’t mean it’s without fault. The onboarding experience is incredibly awkward for newbies, with the removal of the original Red War campaign and subesquent Forsaken expansion making the story completly incomprehensible without watching oodles of lore videos. That proves a chore for even the most dedicated of Guardians, and it’s a roadblock that’s almost guaranteed to alienate new players who try to hop in for a new expansion.
However, it’s a testament to Destiny 2’s strengths that we still recommend it so highly. It’s a masterful FPS with so much fun to be had, regardless of whether you prefer PvE or PvP. And, with so much content available for free, there’s no really no reason not to give it a go. So, off you pop, go decrypt some engrams, get some snazzy armor, and start shooting aliens. Eyes up. Guardian.
