Video games have always been a way to experience what is tangibly impossible, whether that be exploring the cosmos and fighting aliens or adventuring across a fantastical world. Games such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Red Dead Redemption 2 achieve this, but one of the most popular genres of the medium is First-Person Shooters, which takes the danger out of a firefight and onto the screen.
The FPS genre is one of the most popular in the medium, which is why this list will rank the ten greatest FPS games of all time based on gameplay, combat, controls, design, narrative, visuals, polish, originality, influence, fan opinion, critical acclaim, and overall quality. With some of the most popular games of all time, these are the best of the best when it comes to first-person shooters.
10
‘Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’ (2012)
counter-strike-global-offensive.jpgImage via Valve
First-person shooters aren’t just full-priced AAA games that release a new title every year; they can range from single-player adventures to multiplayer sensations. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive doesn’t have a designated narrative, but it simply focuses on the tactical multiplayer gameplay through a handful of round-based games where they rescue/guard hostages or defuse/protect a bomb.
For fans simply wanting quick FPS experiences with their friends online, then CS: GO is the game for them, because its refined combat, well-designed maps, and round-based format are tailored for a densely packed shooting sensation. However, this isn’t just a fun time, because the grueling competitive scene makes it a highly challenging game where only the truly skilled players can thrive.
9
‘Metroid Prime’ (2002)
A still from Metroid PrimeImage via Nintendo
Nintendo isn’t known for its shooter games, and while they have been dabbling, their best comes from the most underappreciated franchise, Metroid. Delving into the 3D realm, Metroid Prime follows Samus Aran’s journey to an ancient planet after seeing a distress signal. A group of pirates has taken over to develop a parasite, and Samus is the only one who can stop it.
Metroid Prime is one of the most meticulously designed FPS games that keeps the gameplay flowing, building a masterful pace that never gets too dull. It is best known for its metroidvania design, worldbuilding, and adventure experience, but it is still a unique FPS game that brings in many other aspects. The technical jump to 3D proved worthwhile, as it became one of the best-selling video games in its franchise.
8
‘Titanfall 2’ (2016)
A man with a gun looking at a mech in the rain in Titanfall 2Image via Respawn Entertainment
A lot of video game franchises continue well past their peak, becoming irrelevant and stale. However, some other titles deserved more entries, and fans are still waiting for a sequel after Titanfall 2. After suffering an ambush, the player must connect with their new mech in the middle of a war. But the only way to save the world is to use this mech to destroy a new super weapon.
Titanfall 3 may never happen, and while that is sad, fans can find solace in the fact that it won’t get any better than Titanfall 2. Renowned as having one of the greatest single-player campaigns, each new mission has a definitive hook that spices up the gameplay. With a tight pace that is paired with phenomenal gunplay and parkour, it creates a flawless explosion of action, drama, and excitement.
7
‘BioShock’ (2007)
There is no formula for success in the FPS genre, with some of the most popular games being creative revolutions in the industry, such as BioShock. After barely surviving a plane crash, the protagonist, Jack, finds safety in a lighthouse. Descending into it, he discovers a failed utopia known as the Rapture, where political mayhem and genetic experimentation have rendered it an art-deco hell-hole of creatures and villains.
BioShock isn’t known for its shooting gameplay, even though it is fun, but rather the narrative prestige that critiques Randian objectivism, which champions self-interest. The world, themes, narrative, and dialogue all challenge this way of thinking, not to mention the atmosphere, vibe, and environmental storytelling create some of the best worldbuilding in video games. Still, BioShock is an FPS game, and one of the most fascinating ones at that.
6
‘Perfect Dark’ (2000)
Perfect DarkImage via Rare
After initially announcing a remake of Perfect Dark, it was revealed that the project was canceled, meaning the original remains one of the best first-person shooters. When an investigative operative is sent to steal some company secrets, they uncover a grand conspiracy that involves aliens and a plan to assassinate the President of the United States.
Some of the best FPS games are surprisingly on the N64, and that includes Perfect Dark, which was a fantastic and underrated shooting experience. The main story was a fun time, but the multiplayer mode was even better, using its revolutionary secondary firing modes and advanced AI to create one of the most stimulating first-person shooters ever.
5
‘GoldenEye 007’ (1997)
A gun pointed at an agent in GoldenEye 007Image via Rare
James Bond is the greatest fictional spy, and all of his movies can prove this. However, one of his best entries might not have been on the silver screen, but rather on a home console. GoldenEye 007 is a 1990s video game based on the film where players must stop a rogue syndicate from using their new super weapon to destroy the financial records in London.
This game is an essential multiplayer experience that defined the 1990s with its remarkable level design, fun co-op system, and split-screen death match. It pioneered many mechanics and design elements for first-person shooters that helped it become the best couch coop game of the 20th century.GoldenEye 007 also had objective-based stealth gameplay that made the single-player mission just as fun.
Collider Exclusive · James Bond Personality Quiz Which James Bond Actor Are You Most Like? Connery · Moore · Dalton · Brosnan · Lazenby · Craig
Six actors. Six completely different visions of the same man — dangerous, charming, complicated, and almost certainly wearing a very good suit. Only one of them shares your particular way of moving through the world. Eight questions will figure out which Bond you really are.
🏴Connery
😄Moore
🎭Dalton
✨Brosnan
🤵Lazenby
💠Craig
01
How do you carry yourself when you walk into a room? Bond is always the most interesting person in the room. The question is how he makes you feel it.
02
How do you handle a dangerous situation? Every Bond faces it differently. What does your version look like?
03
How do you charm someone you need on your side? Bond always gets what he needs. The method varies considerably.
04
How do you handle your emotions on the job? Every Bond deals with this differently. Most of them not particularly well.
05
How would your colleagues describe your working style? MI6 has opinions about all of its 00s. What are theirs about you?
06
How do you feel about operating within the rules? The licence to kill comes with terms and conditions. Not everyone reads them.
07
What is your relationship with love? Every Bond has a different answer. None of them have found it easy.
08
When the mission is over, how do you want to be remembered? The name is Bond. The rest is entirely up to the man behind it.
The Name Has Been Determined Your Bond Is…
Six actors. One role. Your answers point to the Bond who shares your presence, your method, and your particular way of carrying the weight of being the most dangerous person in the room.
Dr. No — You Only Live Twice · 1962–1967
Sean Connery
You are the original — and you carry that fact without needing to announce it. There is an authority in the way you occupy a room that others spend careers trying to replicate.
You don’t explain yourself, justify yourself, or soften yourself for anyone’s comfort. The confidence is structural, not performed.
Connery’s Bond established everything — the tone, the danger, the cool — because Connery himself had the innate presence to make something that had never existed feel inevitable.
You share that quality: the sense that you were always going to end up exactly here, doing exactly this.
The name is Bond. In your case, it always was.
Live and Let Die — A View to a Kill · 1973–1985
Roger Moore
You understand something that more serious people miss: that wit is its own form of intelligence, and that making people laugh is not a retreat from danger but a way of mastering it.
Moore’s Bond is underrated precisely because the effortlessness looks easy — and effortlessness is the hardest thing to manufacture.
You have the same quality: a lightness that disarms people before they realise how sharp you actually are.
The raised eyebrow, the perfectly timed quip, the refusal to be rattled — these are not affectations. They are a philosophy about how to move through a world that would like to take itself too seriously.
You have never let it.
The Living Daylights · Licence to Kill · 1987–1989
Timothy Dalton
You took the role seriously when everyone wanted you to coast — and that refusal to take the easy version of anything is the most defining thing about you.
Dalton’s Bond has genuine moral weight: he feels the cost of what he does, he has lines he won’t cross, and he is not interested in the version of himself that pretends otherwise.
You share that intensity. You push harder than the situation technically requires, because you have a standard and you hold yourself to it.
He was ahead of his time — the Bond the franchise wasn’t quite ready for yet, arriving exactly when he was meant to.
You know what that feels like.
GoldenEye — Die Another Day · 1995–2002
Pierce Brosnan
You are the complete package — and you know it, which is part of what makes you so effective and occasionally so infuriating to the people around you.
Brosnan arrived at the role looking exactly like Bond was supposed to look, and he delivered on that expectation with a professionalism that made it seem effortless.
You have the same quality: a smooth competence, a charm that operates like a precision instrument, and the ability to make even difficult things look like they weren’t.
His era was the most commercially successful in the franchise’s history. There is a reason for that.
The reason is that some people simply fit their moment perfectly. You are one of those people.
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service · 1969
George Lazenby
You stepped into something enormous with less preparation than anyone around you thought was sufficient — and you delivered something genuine anyway, which is the more impressive achievement.
Lazenby’s single outing is, by many measures, one of the finest Bond films ever made — and he is not a small part of why.
You share his quality of raw authenticity: less polished than the alternatives, more honest for it, capable of something real that technique alone can’t produce.
He was underestimated, and then he wasn’t, and then history caught up with him.
You are the kind of person history catches up with. Give it time.
Casino Royale — No Time to Die · 2006–2021
Daniel Craig
You stripped everything back and found what was underneath — and what was underneath was harder, more honest, and more human than anyone expected.
Craig’s Bond is the franchise’s most psychologically complete: a man doing a brutal job, carrying its costs imperfectly, capable of love and loss in ways that can’t be dismissed.
You share that depth. You don’t hide behind the role or the charm or the suit — you let the work show what it actually costs.
He was controversial from the moment he was announced and definitive by the time he was finished. The sceptics became the believers.
That arc — of being underestimated and then undeniable — is one you know intimately.
4
‘Half-Life 2’ (2004)
Image via Valve
After Steam announced its new console, there has been renewed hype that Half-Life 3 will come out, and while that is a possibility, it will have a hard time topping Half-Life 2, which is one of the best games ever. Years after the events of the first game, Gordon Freeman wakes up to find aliens in control of the planet. Joining the human resistance, he aids in the revolution to take their planet back.
Half-Life 2 pioneered the genre by blending the gameplay and narrative into one, having the combat overlap with the story so neither interrupts the flow of the other. The Gravity Gun was one of the most entertaining mechanics in gaming, making everything a puzzle and earning Half-Life 2 the title of masterpiece. It is a cinematically immersive and groundbreaking title that is more than just an FPS.
3
‘Doom’ (1993)
doom-1993-1.jpgImage via id Software
This list features some of the best first-person shooters, but it wouldn’t be complete without the most important and influential one: Doom. After a teleportation experiment on Mars goes wrong, a space marine known as Doomguy is the only hope for the planet after swarms of demons from Hell begin invading the planet.
Doom is the most influential FPS of all time, and that is because its pseudo-3D visuals made the graphics look even more realistic. Not only that, but the fast-paced combat and style made everything more intense, giving gameplay an extra invigorating punch. All future first-person shooters were thanks to Doom, and that alone makes it one of the best video games of the 20th century.
2
‘Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare’ (2007)
call-of-duty-season-4-modern-warfare-warzone-images-captain-price-social-featuredImage via Activision
One of the best FPS franchises is Call of Duty, and while a lot of the games are similar, one that stands out is Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Players control either a British SAS squad or the US Marines after they are sent out to accomplish a dangerous mission where they need to stop a Middle Eastern dictator from starting a global nuclear war.
The Call of Duty franchise has some of the best FPS games and some of the worst, but Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is hands down their magnum opus. It defined a generation of grounded and authentic shooters through its realistic and well-designed maps. The snappy gunplay is downright addictive, and the tightly paced campaign is immaculately designed, proving Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a staple FPS of the generation.
1
‘Halo 3’ (2007)
Master Chief and The Arbiter fighting alongside each other in ‘Halo 3’Image via Microsoft Game Studios
2007 must have been the best year for FPS games because it featured BioShock, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and the number one game on this list, Halo 3, which is arguably the best of the Halo franchise. Rounding out the original trilogy, it follows Master Chief in the fight against the Covenant, which seems to never end. However, he hopes that this will be the final battle that will decide their endless feud.
Each of the first three Halo games could be sitting at this spot since they are all some of the best and most influential FPS titles, but Halo 3 barely takes the honor. But fans should view it more as a representation of the entire franchise, with Halo 3 simply being the figurehead. It perfects the mechanics and gameplay established in previous titles and polishes the experience to create a definitive shooting experience. The 2000s were ripe with FPS games, and Halo 3 was the king, marking a generational time for video games. It proved to be the best Xbox game of all time, as well as the greatest shooter to ever be released.
