The best first-person shooters ever may have inspired each other, but each ultimately brings something special to the table that helps it stand out among some considerable competition. Those are the games we’re here to celebrate today. The history of the genre is written by developers who used a certain point of view and a gun or two as the basis for a variety of experiences that continue to surprise us even after we told ourselves that we’ve seen it all. There’s no one element that makes FPS games so brilliant, and that is, ironically enough, exactly what makes them brilliant.
#UPCOMING FPS GAMES FULL#
They’re both excellent, full stop.Game genres go in and out of fashion all the time, but for nearly 30 years, first-person shooters have been one of the industry’s most reliable sources for blockbuster experiences that often help dictate the future of the medium. War of the Chosen is an official expansion by Firaxis that adds a ton of new factions, enemies, storylines, weapons, and more, while the sublime Long War 2 total conversion mod greatly extends the duration of the game and ramps up the importance of the strategic map and resource planning. The game offers near endless replayability, but if you get sick of the basic scheme, two additional modes turn XCOM 2 into whole new games, essentially. You have to balance between striking the aliens where it hurts while avoiding their counterattacks, juggling scarce resources all the while. During the strategic phase between missions, you deal with organizational tasks-managing finances, expanding XCOM’s influence, researching newly uncovered alien tech, et cetera. XCOM 2‘s tactical, turn-based combat is tough, with both maps and enemies randomized for every battle, but the game gives you plenty of time to think through your moves. Too many wrong moves could leave your squad stacked with rookies rather than grizzled vets, possibly forcing you into restarting the game. That’s no joke: If one of the commandos under your watch dies, he stays dead, taking his hard-won experience with him. You command a force of soldiers putting their lives on the line to conquer the threat. XCOM 2 ratchets the tension even higher than the original reboot by putting you on the offense, as XCOM becomes a guerrilla force in a world conquered by aliens. If you give yourself fully to it, you’ll find hours and hours of hilariously macabre fun. You can play the tutorial level for free if you want to get a feel for the mechanics. IO Interactive’s modern Hitman trilogy has been one of the most spectacular gaming successes in recent memory, a pitch-perfect blend of old-school and new-school, seriousness and silliness. A big part of the fun is replaying levels not once, not twice, but dozens of times-finding new areas, trying out fresh disguises, and discovering delightfully offbeat ways to stealthily kill people-in the quest for new high scores and, hopefully, an elusive Silent Assassin rating. Like the Hitmanand Hitman 2 games that precede it (which I highly recommend playing first), Hitman 3’s levels are massive, intricate, and distinctive cause-and-effect murder sandboxes, with seemingly endless ways to neutralize your targets. You don’t buy Hitman to mainline the campaign though. Each of the six levels can be beaten in an hour or so if you know what you’re doing, and new players will probably blow through the campaign in about a dozen hours. The final chapter of Agent 47’s modern adventures, Hitman 3 isn’t long in the traditional sense.