HICHEM Posted January 9, 2019 Posted January 9, 2019 The world of best FPS games is a busy one. This list was never going to be easy to compile because there are so new many FPS games that arrive it can be different to parse what's good... and what's not so good. So, to thin things out a bit, here are our rules to decide the best FPS games. Read them before you move on. Number 1: The games have to be first person, and shooting has to be the predominant game system (hey, the clue is in "FPS"). So no Gears of War, and no Resident Evil 7. Number 2: This list is about currently best, not historically most important. To keep this list accessible, we're only including games you can play right now on current-generation consoles, PCs and gaming laptops, instead of having to hunt down a PS2 at a garage sale. Have no fear: we haven’t forgotten the influential games that came before. They have their very own slide that explains their importance to the genre before we get started. See if you agree with our choices, as we progress toward revealing. Best MMORPGs Best co-op games Best Xbox One games Best PS4 games 1. Honorable mentions Let's start with the influential FPS games that didn't quite secure a place on the list. If you side-step the genre's wireframe origins – expanded in our 43-year history of first-person-shooters – let's start with the granddaddy: the original, 1993 Doom. While not the first FPS, developer id's shooter is a masterclass in intelligent, cleverly-paced level design, alongside deceptively strategic gunplay - while also establishing id as the premier gun 'feel' craftsmen in the industry. In terms of its mainstream appeal and cultural crossover, the next most influential shooter was probably Goldeneye, which proved that FPS could truly work on a console, delivering the most cinematic action game of its era. Rare's shooter hosts one of the most legendary multiplayer modes in history. Oddjob is still banned, though. The split-screen multiplayer template evolved with Goldeneye's unofficial, next-gen follow-up, TimeSplitters 2. Headed up by key members of Rare’s Goldeneye team, TS2 is a history-spanning, thematic pick 'n’ mix campaign skewering movies - and even Goldeneye itself - with endless, brilliantly observed pastiche. Add another terrific multiplayer offering plus the staggering depth and imagination of its Arcade challenge leagues, and you have a game way, way ahead of its time. A less obvious choice, but a game that expertly stole – and re-assembled – the genre's greatest mechanics, is PS3's Resistance 3. With echoes of Half-Life 2, Chronicles of Riddick and Halo, this overlooked sequel is like a greatest hits package of FPS gaming's 40-year-history. A brilliantly structured campaign journey, fueled by inventive, satisfying weapon design, and serious fun. David Houghton 2. The Darkness 2 Release date: February 7, 2012 Format: Xbox 360, PS3, PC What is it? A love story. A wonderful, touching tale of a former mobster who is trying to come to terms with the loss of his girlfriend while murdering his enemies using a combination of chunky automatic weapons and demonic tentacle powers. Often both at the same time. How many other games, for example, let you pick up a goon by his feet and blow him in half with a shotgun? Or to rip him in half with your tentacles like you’re pulling the wishbone at Christmas? Or shove your tentacle down an enemy’s ass and pull out his spine? Not many. Not many at all. But yeah, The Darkness 2 is a love story at heart. And it’s still playable on PC, so you have the chance to play one of the most creative, touching, and utterly sickening shooters ever made. Go do that. Best for: The creative kills. While the story is lovely and all, you can’t beat the feeling of grabbing an enemy by the head with a tentacle and popping off his head, before lobbing it away like an apple core. Andy Hartup 3. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 Release date: November 6, 2015 Format: Xbox One, PS4, PC What is it? Call of Duty began as WW2-era shooter focused on recreating the tense drama of war. Since then, we've had CoD games set during the Cold War, Vietnam War, modern day, even the far future and outer space. Black Ops 3 is the current Goldilocks of the CoD legacy, which is to say it sits somewhere in the middle and manages to feel juuuust right. Not too futuristic, not too held back by the past, Black Ops 3 infuses smart design with fluid gameplay to create something that feels unique and powerful without straying too far from its roots. Choosing a specific character gives competitive multiplayer a slight MOBA feel, while the campaign re-introduces four-player co-op to the series. And of course, let's not forget our undead friends lurking in the Zombies mode, which gets an entire city in Black Ops 3. Best for: A night (or week, or month) of fast-paced, highly-competitive running and gunning, or anyone who wants to see Jeff Goldblum as a zombie-slaughtering magician. Sam Prell 4. LawBreakers Release date: August 8, 2017 Format: PS4, PC What is it? A Vs. multiplayer FPS that takes into account a detailed, working knowledge of the last 20 years of arena shooters, so that it can understand all of the rules and conventions before tearing them up and reimagining them into something new. Its nine asymmetric character classes deliver radically contrasting gameplay experiences - each feels like they could be the protagonist of a different (brilliant) game - but all are bonded by their scope for fantastic, unexpected, tactically kinetic gameplay. LawBreakers is a shooter as deep and clever as it is immediately, air-punchingly exciting, dense with possibility and scope for player growth, while also immediate, gratifying, and easy to initially pick up. And that growth certainly doesn't begin and and with the player. LawBreakers is also one of the best-maintained 'live' games we've seen in a long time. Developer Boss Key is taking a refreshingly pro-active, communicative, community-minded approach to the game's upkeep, pouring constant updates, tweaks and additions into it alongside its already revealed roadmap of (free) expansions for LawBreakers' opening months. Best for: When you need an immediate, incendiary burst of 'Holy crap I can't believe that just happened' multiplayer FPS action. Whether you play for 20 minutes or three hours, LawBreakers will give you plenty to holler about. David Houghton 5. Far Cry 4 Release date: November 18, 2014 Format: PS4, Xbox One, PC What is it? In essence; Far Cry 3 goes to the Himalayas. Switching out the sunny not-so-perfect tourist destination of Rook Island for the vertiginous Kyrat, Far Cry 4 adds even more deadly bells and whistles to an already solid foundation of murderous exploration. Even more flora and fauna is ready to be plucked and skinned, and entire ecosystems are just waiting to be ruined as you quest for a new wallet. The story of Ajay Ghale is almost incidental to the combination of stealth and action on offer in Ubi’s intimidatingly huge open world. Whether you want to send a drone hovering over an enemy camp and tag all enemies individually before picking them off one by one with brutal melee takedowns, shoot a tiger out of its cage from a safe distance to watch it tear your foes to pieces, or literally crash down the gates on the back of an angry tusked Babar, it’s entirely up to you. However you play, Far Cry 4 is a heady cocktail of death and destruction. Drink up. Best for: A singleplayer that’ll involve you obsessively collecting every animal skin for accessories before charging an elephant into a camp of unsuspecting foes. Sorry PETA…. Louise Blain
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