We have a lot of love for the FPS here at PC Gamer, not only because the PC is the best platform to play them on, but because it's where they were born. Wolfenstein 3D and Doom established a framework for first-person combat that dominated the early '90s and exploded into the next millennium as one of the most vibrant, constantly evolving genres in gaming. These days, the FPS is most closely associated with live-service multiplayer games, but an explosion in indie FPSes in recent years has resurrected the singleplayer campaign, and we're seeing more co-op shooters crop up too.
2024 games: Upcoming releases
Best PC games: All-time favorites
Free PC games: Freebie fest
Best FPS games: Finest gunplay
Best MMOs: Massive worlds
Best RPGs: Grand adventures
It's a genre known for its violence, yet that's not always the reason we're drawn to the FPS. We celebrate the immersive potential of the first-person camera, and how that point-of-view challenges our physical and emotional responses to problems thrown directly in our faces. They are often intense tests of reflex, but also foundations for engrossing worlds and realistic simulations of survival, battle, and play. We feel a closer, truer connection to the world around us because we are literally seeing it through our character's eyes.
Below you'll find a list of the best FPS games you can play right now. It's not a list of the most historically significant FPS games, but rather ones that we'd recommend today, right now, to PC gamers exploring the genre. This is also a living list, so expect updates in the future.
Recent updates
October 2024: It's proven a quiet year for the FPS, with the handful of new shooters to strike it big in 2024 so far (Helldivers 2, The First Descendant, Once Human) all sporting third-person cameras. Look out for an update on Hunt: Showdown's big "1896" upgrade and Destiny 2's future after The Final Shape. On the horizon, we're curious to get our hands on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, No More Room In Hell 2 (co-op zombie shooting from the Chivalry dev) in October, and of course, Stalker 2 in November.
The best singleplayer FPS games
Doom Eternal
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Release date: 2020 | Developer: id Software | Steam
id got to sit down and reimagine what Doom is in the modern age, and it came up with a buttery smooth, highly acrobatic FPS that celebrates gratuitous indulgence while demanding discipline through HP-recovering glory kills. Eternal brings more verticality, greater enemy variety, and an enthralling campaign that never seems to end (boosted by two great DLC campaigns). It's never just run 'n gun and it's definitely not a cover-shooter. This is what the Doom clone would've become if modern military shooters hadn't taken over the world. Let the latest run of Doom games be a strong kick to the pants gaming execs: the singleplayer FPS is stronger than ever, and there should be more of them.
Read more: Doom Eternal has ruined all other shooters for me
Neon White
Release date: 2022 | Developer: Angel Matrix | Steam
The most exciting shooter of recent history, ironically, doesn't really have guns. In Neon White, an FPS speedrunning platformer, guns are represented by cards with secondary movement abilities like a leap, dash, or slam. Beneath its visual novel interludes and anime art, Neon White is a pure distillation of athletic FPS action. Levels often last less than a minute, but you can easily spend an hour perfecting a route until satisfied with your spot on the leaderboard. Perhaps Neon White's most genius design choice is built-in shortcut markers hinting at faster routes that require clever application of your kit.
Read more: Steam reviewers love Neon White despite its horny anime nonsense, or very much because of it
System Shock (2023)
Release date: 2023 | Developer: Nightdive Studios | Steam
2023 was a great year for remakes, but the underappreciated star of the bunch was Nightdive's loving recreation of one of the most influential videogames of all time. The System Shock remake somehow succeeds at the nigh impossible task of modernizing System Shock while also maintaining its '90s charm and quirks. Its reimagined guns look, sound, and animate beautifully, and they're all useful too—even the mini-pistol, the relative peashooter of the bunch, feels like a substantial piece of hardware once it's got a couple of mods attached. Purists will insist that System Shock is an immersive sim (I am, and it is) but it also plays beautifully as a straight-up shooter. Want to heft an assault rifle or a railgun or a magnum pistol that kicks like a mule and just blast the holy hell out of everything you see? Go for it—you might get lost now and then in Citadel Station's twisting corridors, but I can guarantee you're going to have a good time.
Read more: System Shock review
Titanfall 2
Release date: 2016 | Developer: Respawn Entertainment | Steam
Years later, Titanfall 2's campaign still stands out for its inventive levels and comfortable linearity. You can tell the minds behind Call of Duty's most memorable campaigns had their hands in it—you're never far from an eye-pleasing set piece, but unlike Call of Duty, Titanfall 2 has more to offer than horizontal firefights behind chest-high cover. The flow of firefights depends entirely on the shape of the room and your ability to wallrun, double jump, or slide across it while shooting. And then, every once in a while, Titanfall becomes a pretty good mech game, too. It's the kind of delicious junk food game (uncomplicated, but beautiful) that's easy to forget about and pick up every few years to remember why it's so good.
Read more: Northstar didn't just save Titanfall 2, it completely transformed it
Metro Exodus
Release date: 2019 | Developer: 4A Games | Steam, GOG, Epic
4A Games' Metro trilogy came to a gratifying end with its most ambitious game to date. Metro Exodus packs a lot of game into modestly-sized open worlds, focusing its efforts on making every interaction meaningful. Guns are ultra lethal and ammo is scarce, meaning you'll almost never be shooting your precious AK-47 full-auto. Weapons can be modified anytime with transformative attachments or receivers capable of turning an SMG into a shotgun. Though the same gun will also jam if you don't take care of it. If you love diegetic design, Exodus is a feast. Every little gizmo and widget on Artyom's bracer has a purpose (the small piece of real estate holds a stealth indicator, a compass, a radiation meter, and a watch) and the map is a real-world object that Artyom holds.
Read more: Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition brings new light to old darkness
Doom and Doom 2
Release date: 1993, 1994 | Developer: id Software | Steam, GOG, Epic
Throwback shooters are great and all, but if you want a reminder of where all great FPSes ultimately came from, the original Doom and Doom 2 are still excellent games in their own rights. Maybe what stands out most about OG Doom nowadays are its gigantic maze-like maps rich with secrets and, of course, the inability to move your camera on the Z axis. Both games actually received a nice update in 2024: Bethesda surprised fans with the "Doom + Doom 2" collection (free to existing owners) that adds cross-platform multiplayer and mod support.
Read more: The story of Doom and how it changed everything—as told by co-creator John Romero
Turbo Overkill
Release date: 2023 | Developer: Trigger Happy Interactive | Steam
If you thought Doom Eternal was too tame in its gratuitous ambitions, Turbo Overkill should be your next stop. It may look like a conventional throwback shooter, but Turbo is packing modern FPS sensibilities like wallrunning, sliding, weapon upgrades, and vertically massive levels. The guns and their alternate fire modes are the stars of this one: dual magnums that are also Smart Guns, a minigun that uncorks into a flamethrower, a System Shock-like shotgun that can overpump for extra damage are just a few favorites. Turbo Overkill released out of early access in 2023 with the completion of its campaign, solidifying it as one of the best singleplayer FPS offerings around.
Read more: The FPS that gives you an instagib chainsaw leg just keeps getting better
Black Mesa
Release date: 2020 | Developer: Crowbar Collective | Steam
Black Mesa drags Half-Life into a shower and washes all that '90s stank off it. It's a slick, often beautiful recreation of Half-Life with revamped sounds, animations, and an entirely new Xen section that turns the worst part of original Half-Life into maybe the best. Black Mesa's largest changes center around Xen, but it also remixes some old areas and adds completely new puzzles in others. Being built on the base of Half-Life 2, it also benefits from better physics interactions (but don't expect a gravity gun). This isn't a 1:1 remake, so it's not a perfect replacement for experiencing the original, but it is the best way to play a version of Half-Life in 2023.
Read more: Half-Life Xen vs. Black Mesa Xen: a video comparison
Ultrakill
Release date: 2020 (early access) | Developer: Arsi "Hakita" Patala | Steam, GOG
This absurdist retelling of Dante's Inferno stars a murderous robot fueled by human blood, or, as the game helpfully puts it, "Mankind is dead. Blood is fuel. Hell is full." Ultrakill's mega-grimdark existentialist nightmare is helpfully offset by a gleefully dark sense of humor, and its vision of hell is truly creative and unique. My favorite layer, Greed, consists of a vast desert of gold dust punctuated by Egyptian pyramids. More than any other shooter, Utlrakill is just fast. You're constantly bouncing around, swapping weapons, countering resistances, and trying to keep a Devil May Cry-esque style ranking high. It manages that Neon White thing where even low-skill play feels thrilling and masterful, while high-skill play looks impossible. Acts one and two have landed in early access so far, and their ample secrets and built-in replayability with the ranking system offer plenty of options to keep you busy.
Read more: How a remake of an obscure 1995 FPS led to a retro shooter revival
The best co-op FPS games
Borderlands 2
Release date: 2012 | Developer: Gearbox Software | Steam, Epic
Borderlands invented the looter-shooter, and Borderlands 2 had more fun with it than anyone else. While there are a gajillion guns—shout-out to the self-healing Grog Nozzle, and the shotgun that shoots swords that explode—that's not what makes it great. The same more-is-more approach to weapon design is applied to its colorful, over-the-top sci-fi setting, full of unconventional enemies. Masked bandits deliver speeches from their sniper perches or wail nonsense while running right at you, goliaths subvert years of FPS training, counter-intuitively going into Hulk Mode when you headshot them, mutated pests swoop, leap, burrow, and shield their vulnerable spots. Still the best in the series, Borderlands 2 is polished, playful, and a gleefully silly antidote to military shooters that take themselves too seriously.
Read more: Borderlands 2 was ahead of its time
Deep Rock Galactic
Release date: 2020 | Developer: Ghost Ship Games | Steam
We're enjoying a resurgence of the co-op FPS and Deep Rock is a golden example. Ghost Ship Games got just about everything right—you wouldn't guess by its low-poly look that Deep Rock is packing some of the best FPS combat out there. I'll never get tired of hearing alien bug carapaces crunch under the weight of a shotgun blast. Four classes with wildly different capabilities and progression trees make its procedurally generated missions highly replayable. Because missions are just as much about mining as shooting, the best co-op moments are usually a combination of fending off bug baddies and placing a clutch zipline or platform to reach a precariously-positioned ore vein.
Read more: Meet one of the last positive communities left in gaming
Destiny 2
Release date: 2017 | Developer: Bungie | Steam, Epic
Bungie made an FPS MMO that millions of players have actually stuck with. It's a testament to the Halo creators' knack for designing great-feeling guns that Destiny 2 players happily repeat the same missions over and over again to get the best stuff on offer. It can be hard for new players to catch up with veterans, but at the end of the road are raids—expansive six-player missions that test aim, timing, and communication all at the same time. There's truly nothing like Destiny 2, and yet, its future is uncertain at the moment. Bungie won back fans with The Final Shape, an excellent expansion that closed the book on a story that began 10 years ago. But Bungie later revealed that the expansion didn't perform as well as it hoped, and now it's not clear exactly what shape Destiny 2's ongoing support will take going forward.
Read more: Quiz: Destiny exotic or craft beer?
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
Release date: 2022 | Developer: Fatshark | Steam
It was an easy guess that Fatshark's followup to Vermintide 2 would be a great co-op slaughterfest, but I didn't expect Darktide's newly emphasized gun combat to be so excellent. The Kantrael MGXII Infantry Lasgun sizzles through infested elites like a precision cooker and autoguns topple hordes into tenderized ragdoll piles. It's a gorgeous and challenging co-op experience (far less zen than Deep Rock). It's not as rich with mission variety as games that have been out longer, but a major 2023 update added new progression trees for every class and mission modifiers that help keep things interesting.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Release date: 2019 | Developer: 343 Industries | Steam
Did you know every Halo game from Combat Evolved to Reach is bundled together in one big mega videogame complete with crossplay co-op, multiplayer, and Forge? I smile just thinking about it. There was a time when The Master Chief Collection was considered a disaster, but today, the entirety of it is playable on PC with minimal bugs. Even if you're not ready to go toe-to-toe with sweaty Halo 3 players who've been practicing half of their lives, MCC is still an amazing package for co-op. There are fewer gaming memories I cherish more than running through Halo's campaigns with a friend.
Read more: While Halo Infinite struggles for a win, Master Chief Collection is the gift that keeps on giving
The best competitive FPS games
Hunt: Showdown 1896
Release date: 2019 | Developer: Crytek | Steam
Our favorite of the extraction shooter genre, Hunt: Showdown 1896 ditches battle royale circles in favor of a PvPvE format that pits hunters against zombies, bug assassins, aquatic tentacle monsters, and each other. Its 19th century American setting is distinct, and compliments its unexpected arsenal of early firearms. It's not only the best cowboy FPS we've played, but one of the greatest multiplayer games around right now. The FPS recently got its largest update to date: the "1896 update ushered in a new era of Hunt with an upgraded engine, a new map, and significant rule changes that prove Crytek plans for Hunt to stick around for a long time.
Read more: The future of battle royale is here, and there's no circle
Battlefield 2042
Release date: 2022 | Developer: DICE | Steam, Epic
DICE has put in the work on Battlefield 2042. Years after its tumultuous launch, 2042 runs better, feels better, and is finally packing enough great maps to mean that when you jump in you'll always have fun. A lot is owed to DICE's reintroduction of proper Battlefield classes, which added much-needed structure and role-specific responsibilities to 2042's unique specialists. Six seasons of new specialists and maps have rounded out a package that felt a little light at launch. That, and its frequently discounted price, makes it an easy recommendation.
Read more: Here's the thing: Battlefield 2042 is really good now
Halo Infinite
Release date: 2021 | Developer: 343 Industries | Steam
As 343 Industries is hard at work on new Halo projects, Halo Infinite has finally reached a good place. The game experienced a streak of popular updates in 2023 bolstered by better customization options, the addition of AI in Forge, and the co-op Firefight mode. Multiplayer is full of playlist options, map variety is finally acceptable, the challenge system is borderline good, and Infinite's combat remains excellent. Player numbers are up too, suggesting it's not just me playing a few matches of Big Team Battle as an after-work ritual. The community still has lots of valid complaints, but a buttery smooth Halo game with problems still rates pretty high.
Read more: Halo Infinite Season 5 has the makings of an honest-to-god comeback
Counter-Strike 2
Release date: 2023 | Developer: Valve | Steam
Counter-Strike is back, and it never left. Valve has papered over CS:GO with Counter-Strike rebuilt on the Source 2 engine. While the headline features of CS2 won't immediately blow your socks off—volumetric smoke grenades, prettier lighting, "sub tick" servers—it sounds like this is only the beginning for Valve. Last year, the studio told PC Gamer that, yes, it plans to add more weapons to CS2.
Read more: Exclusive interview: Valve on the future of Counter-Strike 2
The Finals
Release date: 2023 | Developer: Embark Studios | Steam
I didn't love The Finals when it first dropped. All of its launch modes were a bit too sweaty for me, and it felt like it was missing a landing pad for players to chill out, experiment with wildly varied loadouts, and goof around with the destruction tech without the pressure of a three-person squad. The 5v5 tug-of-war mode Power Shift, introduced in Season 2, is that landing pad. Having a full team behind in what feels more like a casual, Battlefield-like environment has opened my eyes to The Finals' best qualities: excellent shooting, wild weapon choices, and an unmatched sense of speed in modern arena shooters.
Overwatch 2
Release date: 2022 | Developer: Blizzard | Steam, Battle.net
Overwatch 2 might be a failed idea, but deep down it's still the one-of-a-kind FPS that we fell in love with years ago. Overwatch 2's legacy will likely always be defined by what it failed to deliver (a campaign, co-op missions, a sense of a larger world), but PvP continues to be Overwatch's strength as it regularly expands its roster with creative new heroes you can't find in any other game.
Rainbow Six Siege
Release date: 2015 | Developer: Ubisoft Montreal | Steam
The G.I. Joe of competitive shooters. Rainbow Six Siege has changed dramatically over eight years, but it's still a tremendous tactical FPS that's not afraid to take risks. The roster of 70 operators continues to grow, adding new (and increasingly unbelievable) gadgets that build on its lethal firefights with intel gathering drones, laser tripwires, and a dozen different ways to blow up a wall. I'm continually impressed with Siege's willingness to break its own rules and rewrite major parts of its meta.
Read more: Rainbow Six Siege keeps reinventing itself in ways other games are too scared to try
