First-person shooters have come a long way from their early beginnings in the ’90s, with so many awesome series like Wolfenstein, Doom, and Call of Duty that have endured from their early beginnings and still put out critically acclaimed titles today. Other FPS games don’t have as much luck and score very poorly among critics, but some of those are still worth playing.
Whether they be older games from the 2000s or newer FPS games, they’re all unique and impressive in their own ways, despite being poorly reviewed. Some of these also just get too much undeserved hate, but they could very well be your next brilliant FPS experience if you give them a chance.
Rogue Warrior isone of the most hilarious older gameshere and earns the reputation of being so bad that it’s good. The story and level design have very basic FPS military shooter objectives and gameplay, but there is absolutely nothing special or groundbreaking. It is a bit of a shock considering that Sniper Elite developer Rebellion is behind it, with Bethesda as the publisher.
Nonetheless, what sells this gem of an FPS experience are the diabolical and vulgar (times one thousand) voice lines said by protagonist Richard Marcinko, a real-life Navy SEAL the game is based on, who’s voiced by Mickey Rourke. It’s hard not to burst out in laughter throughout this whole experience when your character is eliminating North Korean soldiers while roasting Karl Marx and communism, among other expletives.
Following in the footsteps of Monolith’s FEAR, Clive Barker,the author and creator of Hellraiser and Candyman, along with developer MercurySteam made another attempt at combining horror and FPS in 2007. Clive Barker’s Jericho has one of the most unique premises in the FPS genre, combining religious fantasy, military, and horror and gore. It’s a bit along the same lines as Undying, but not quite.
The lore is that there’s a Department of Occult Warfare (DOW) within the US government, and a team called Jericho has to seal a breach made by its rogue higher-up. That would be General Arnold Leach, who freed God’s Firstborn from imprisonment in a plane known as the Box. The gameplay is like Resistance meets Hellraiser and Doom, with some pretty grotesque enemy designs and the ability to possess any of your squad members.
Another horror FPS game that gets a lot of undeserved criticism is Aliens: Colonial Marines. This game actually did a good job of fusing the horror aspect fromRidley Scott’s original Alien filmwith the Colonial Marines action from James Cameron’s sequel, Aliens. What you get here is scary and disturbing Xenos with fast-paced FPS gameplay. Granted, the AI had its issues, but it’s a decent game overall.
The game is very immersive from the FPS perspective, with Xenos jumping at you from all sides unpredictably. The story may not be to the level or length of Alien: Isolation, but it’s still better and more substantive than most games in the Alien series. There’s an Alien cocoon scene that really brings backits chilling nature, and you fight a Queen and encounterspecies of Xenomorphs that aredifferent from the movies.
Similar to Cyberpunk 2077, Fallout 76 got off to a rocky start. However, with all of its new updates and added content, not to mention its revival thanks toPrime Video’s live-action TV show, it’s doing much better now. Therefore, the original scores of 52 on Metacritic and 54 on OpenCritic should be ignored, as it’s still a great co-op FPS experience in the wasteland.
In Fallout 76, you explore the Appalachia region, exiting the Vault on ‘Reclamation Day,’ and you encountersome new mutated enemies and creatures, like Scorchbeasts, which weren’t in previous Fallout games. There are tons of objectives, and you’re able to work with other players since this is a co-op multiplayer experience. You now also have the Atlantic City expansion, so it’s definitely a return to form.
After Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus, which retains a high score of 87 on Metacritic, the follow-up game, Youngblood, didn’t do quite as hot. Its score wasn’t as low as the VR Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot game, but it was the least-liked entry. Part of it involved saying goodbye to B.J. Blazkowicz and instead playing as his daughters. Part of it was also because it’sa co-op title(though it can still be done in single-player). And then also enemies with level bars and other minor RPG elements.
It’s a different experience from Wolfenstein 2 because of Arkane Lyon serving as the co-developer and infusing its skillset into the level design and gameplay. It’s not a bad game by any means, and quite enjoyable, as some of the reviews make you think that it’s not worth it at all. The level-locked enemies can be annoying and make it less immersive due to the difficulty, but it’s no different from the newest Assassin’s Creed games.
LikeHazelight offers with It Takes Two and Split Fiction, Wolfenstein: Youngblood indeed offers a Buddy Pass, so your friend can join you in playing as either Jess or Zofia for free if they don’t have the game.
Bright Memory: Infinite is one of the most refreshing, visually striking, and different FPS experiences that’s very underrated. It’s an incredibly short game, originally launched as Episode One of a planned two-episode launch, but was then reworked into one complete game, Bright Memory: Infinite. You play Shelia, a Supernatural Science Research Organization member investigating a mysterious black hole occurrence.
The graphics are pretty amazing, with some splendid environment art, and the weapons, character, enemy, and UI design. The other cool aspect of this game is that it’s a hybrid of an FPS and a melee combat system, where you’re able to parry and hack and slash away at enemies. It’s like Crysis meets Ghostrunner meets Soulslikes (because of the boss designs).
RoboCop: Rogue City comes from developer Teyon, which also made Terminator: Resistance, another underrated FPS titlebased on an iconic ’80s sci-fi action movie series. I’m not sure why the scores are this low for Rogue City and its 2025 follow-up, Unfinished Business. These games are built on Unreal Engine 5, have brilliant destruction mechanics, carry the vibe of the original films, and Peter Weller even reprises Alex Murphy.
This series from Teyon nails the RoboCop formula in video game format and even incorporates some RPG elements to make things more interesting. The UI for the RoboCop suit’s vision is well-designed, you have the Auto 9, and getting into battle with an ED-209 is marvelous and exactly what fans want. The sequel expansion even allows you to operate an ED-209 to fight off enemies.
Though Frontiers of Pandora will now begetting an update for third-person modewith the release of the third film, Avatar: Fire and Ash, it launched as an FPS experience, and you could say it’s like Far Cry on Pandora. The storytelling might not be as strong as James Cameron’s films, but the Pandoran landscapes are still beautiful with all their flora and fauna, making traversal incredibly immersive.
Frontiers of Pandora brings you to an all-new location that continues to expand on the worldbuilding from the movies, and the game is canon. You get to go up against the RDA, which means you fight their mech units and ships to stop the destruction of the planet, and there’s a new main enemy as despicable as Miles Quaritch. You also get to fly on your Ikran and ride other mounts. It’s all still more impressive than the previous Avatar game.
