If you’ve got an itchy trigger finger and need to be aware what the very best FPS games are that may satiate your hunger for explosions and excitement, NME has you covered. From the latest edition of Halo with a older gems, we’ve collected a selection of the very best shooters that you can download and play right now – and we’ve got something for every taste, whether you need to be on mouse and secrets of obtain the full satisfaction of landing a headshot or you prefer to have the squeeze of the trigger in real-time on the pad.
FPS games – or first-person shooters, if you prefer – have long been commonplace in gaming. Whether you prefer to experience PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X, older-generation machines, or on PC, you’ll observe that an enormous chunk of your back catalogue will place you within the boots of a hero, gun in hand, heading off wave-after-wave of blood-hungry enemies. There’s something very comforting in saving the planet with hot lead and gunpowder, right?
So flick off the safety, slam another magazine of ammo into your favourite rifle and hunker down – we’re about to list probably the most essential games for just about any first-person shooter fanatic out there.
Best FPS games 2023
We’ll be updating their list of best FPS games as new games emerge. In no particular order, here are a few from the games you ought to be blasting through.
- Prodeus
- Escape From Tarkov
- Valorant
- Titanfall 2
- Apex Legends
- Metal: Hellsinger
- Call of Duty: Mw2 (2023)
- Doom Eternal
1. Prodeus
Faster and much more intense than the majority of the other games on this list, Prodeus combines old-school FPS design using the fidelity you realized from the modern-day shooter. The mix is intoxicating and turning enemies into a meaty paste is about as satisfying as you would expect.
Interesting weapon design – including a pinched-from-Doom appearance of genre-favourite the Super Shotgun – and a distinction look are further
Several of the games on this list are multiplayer focused or have big open worlds. Prodeus is about linear solo play, and it is a perfect companion piece for Doom Eternal, for two solid campaigns of unmitigated, unrelenting, violence.
2. Escape From Tarkov
Do you want misery? Would you like skirmishes that need as much brainpower as gun skill? Escape From Tarkov is how all the finer, grittier information on the FPS genre meet. Battlestate Games exposed the hardcore survival-shooter as a beta back in 2023, and it has been steadily updating the sport with additional features since.
Playing as whether PMC or BEAR operative, players are tasked with entering different zones of Tarkov – a fictional region in Russia – to accomplish missions, retrieve valuable loot and extract before the timer runs out. This means rivaling other players and a host of NPC factions, and if you die in the raid you’ll lose all you introduced along with you.
What lands Escape from Tarkov about this list may be the degree of detail that goes into every single component of the beta. The sport features an intricate weapons modding system where you can customize every component of your gun before taking it right into a raid, while the in-depth ballistics system means you’ll have to consider your loadout right down to the bullet.
It could be a steep learning curve, however this attention to detail culminates in intense firefights that may set you back everything. There are few games that manage to make every second of combat feel consequential, but Escape From Tarkov helps to ensure that you’ll never feel more alive as you fight to ensure that it stays that way.
3. Valorant
If there's an FPS game worth mastering in 2023, Valorant is hard to beat. A team-based (PC-only) game so colourfully immersive you'll feel like you're bounding from the pages of the graphic novel, it requires real invention, too.
Think of it like American Football, only instead of working together to position a pigskin behind the opposition team’s goalposts, it's a bomb behind enemy lines, that you simply must plant or defuse based on whether your team is attack or defence. Granted, it’s simply the same premise of Counter-Strike, but truthfully it’s so much more, boasting enough magic and sci-fi like weaponry to rival the MCU.
Each agent has a unique skills and talents reflecting their strength into the spotlight, and the additional time spent experimenting on the game then your more likely it is that might be a personality whose skills complement your personal. As stylish because it is satisfying, you won’t find many shooters as sharp because this one.
4. Titanfall 2
Before the former Call of Duty devs at Respawn Entertainment surprised everyone using their extremely popular battle royale game Apex Legends, they tried breaking into the FPS space with Titanfall, a futuristic shooter in which players took charge of highly acrobatic, wall-running pilots as well as their titans – gigantic combat mechs able to stomping aforementioned pilots beneath their humongous heels. Titanfall was well-received, but the series really hit its stride when Titanfall 2 was launched in 2023.
So how did the sequel towards the 2023 sleeper hit become among the best (and most underrated) FPS games of the previous generation? Simply put, it iterated on and delicate what made the first game's multiplayer unique – the frantic boots-on-the-ground (and walls) parkour action, and cool-as-hell giant robots dropping from orbit to conquer the tar from each other. At the time, it was difficult to find FPS games that weren't boilerplate, modern military approximations a la Call of Duty, so Titanfall 2's acrobatic, sci-fi spin around the genre truly felt just like a breath of fresh air.
Titanfall 2 also featured a surprisingly fun and thoughtful single-player campaign. At its core, it is a simple tale in regards to a man and his relationship together with his sentient war robot. As the story beats may not leave much of an impact, the exceptional level design will certainly. Not just is Effect and Cause among the finest single-player FPS amounts of in history, however the late game re-appearance of the Smart Pistol is also a great sequence and really worth your time and effort.
5. Apex Legends
After a secretive development process, Respawn Entertainment and EA stealth-dropped Apex Legends into players' laps in 2023. EA intentionally avoided promoting the sport so as not to draw the ire of Titanfall fans who have been expecting the third title in the series, in addition to gamers who were fed up with free-to-play, live-service titles full of loot boxes.
Ultimately they didn't must much to bother with, as Apex was a massive success. The Titanfall developers made some interesting inclusions in the typical battle royale formula, such as the inclusion of hero characters with special abilities and unique personalities, an easy-to-use contextual “ping” communication system that simplifies playing with randoms, and also the fast-paced, arcadey gunplay that made the Titanfall games so fun. And while you might not be able to run on walls, the movement product is intuitive, snappy, and reminiscent of Apex's predecessors. If you prefer a battle royale experience that skews away from the realistic and also you don't feel like playing even more Fortnite, Apex is a superb spot to land.
6. Metal: Hellsinger
Metal: Hellsinger is a vital shooter that can take everything we loved about Doom and amps up to 11. Within this head-banging romp from developer The Outsiders, players must shoot, reload and dodge to the beat of a star-studded metal soundtrack that has the likes of Serj Tankian and Trivium's Matty Heafy.
As you blast through the depths of hell, you'll hand out gratuitous violence having a host of punchy weapons together with a stylish group of dual-wielded revolvers, a devastating shotgun plus much more. There's no lack of targets for the arsenal either, with a selection of bloodthirsty demons out to stop your protagonist – and fellow demon – The Outsider from reclaiming her voice from the devil.
With mod support and loads of extra challenges thrown into the mix, Metal: Hellsinger is really a brutally fun here we are at casual shooter fans and score-chasers alike.
7. Call Of Duty: Warzone
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a top-notch shooter with a fun campaign and solid multiplayer offering. The shootouts are sublime and it feels great to play.
The reworked perks system and changes to the gunsmith mode reveal that Infinity Ward and the other developers focusing on Modern Warfare 2 still understand what makes Call of Duty tick, and it is a pleasure to look at them work.
There’s huge blow in that no guns are the real thing – renamed versions which are heavily inspired by existing weapons. No fan favourite MP5 can make some wince, but it’s here under another name.
Get accustomed to Modern Warfare 2’s garish murder playground and it'll reward you with some good clean gunfights plus some absolute multiplayer shenanigans.
8. DOOM Eternal
If id software's DOOM 2023 was designed to make players feel like an unstoppable force ripping and tearing through throngs of demonic hellspawn, DOOM Eternal's M.O. is channeling that carnage into a laser-focused flow chart of surgical death-dealing.
Series favorite weapons such as the super shotgun, the chaingun, and the rocket launcher all return – but rather than being simply different means to kill demons, each weapon in DOOM Eternal is made to be excellent at a couple of specific things. For instance, the super shotgun could be upgraded with a grappling hook attachment to shut the gap between your player and enemies, as the heavy cannon can be used to pick away at distant enemies or flaws available on bigger baddies. This “tool for each job” approach combined with the have to constantly refill health insurance and ammo reserves through the brutal glory kill melee system and chainsaw attacks implies that players will need to constantly make split-second decisions about the best way to approach each scenario. You won't be utilising your preferred weapon for long stretches of time, but that is just area of the grisly appeal.
It would be a huge oversight to talk about either from the modern DOOM games without mentioning the disgustingly heavy, djent, industrial, and thrash-inspired soundtracks present in both. The most benign players may have difficulty keeping their heads from banging throughout the tracks that exude pure violence within the games’ combat-heavy arena sections.
The combination of the frenetic gameplay, exaggerated violence, and the extremely brutal soundtrack makes DOOM Eternal a sinfully great time, and well worth the play.
