Summary
The 2010s were a pretty great year forFPSgames. We got a good variety of games ranging from well-written, story-driven experiences to some innovative multiplayer shooters and even a few great first-person RPGs.
Almost every year of this decade had one or two FPS games that really stood out and were among the best games of that year across all genres, thanks to either their narrative or gameplay qualities, and quite often, both. Most of these games still hold up very well today, and some have even influenced the genre in noticeable ways.
Just like Halo: ODST the year before it, 2010’s Halo Reach introduces a brand new cast of characters, including a new protagonist, temporarily saying goodbye to Master Chief.
One of the big reasons why Reach was so good was that it felt fresh and different from the Halo trilogy that came before it, and it showed a different side of the galaxy. It wasn’t as high-stakes, but instead was more character-driven. All the various members of the Noble Team were interesting, and seeing what happened to them one by one was devastating.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a deserving sequel to 2000’s Deus Ex, with some great characterizations and nuanced writing of heavy topics such as human augmentation and corporate greed. It follows Adam Jensen, a security officer who gets cybernetic augments after suffering a brutal attack.
Alongside the FPS gameplay, it has a lot of RPG and immersive-sim elements, letting you take care of situations through stealth, hacking, or combat. What really made this game stand out was its atmosphere and writing. The game’s dark, cyberpunk world felt alive, and the characters had depth and personality.
While the Far Cry series has seen several regular installments in the form of Far Cry 4, Far Cry 5, and Far Cry 6, the third game in the seriesremains the best. Vaas was an iconic and intimidating villain, despite him meeting his fate quite earlier than what most players would’ve liked.
Far Cry 3 has you explore dangerous and lawless islands as an American tourist who gets caught up with local drama. The open-world setting is massive and full of things to do, and it feels especially unique for its time. This game also refined the open-world formula Ubisoft used in plenty of other games after it.
Bioshock: Infinite went in a different direction, abandoning the location of Rapture from the first Bioshock game to try something completely new and different with its storytelling. The game remains one of the best narrative-driven FPS games of its time.
Sure, some gameplay mechanics had to be toned down due to hardware limitations, but the final product is still something special. Columbia is a bright and colorful city, but has a lot of dark secrets hidden beneath the surface. The ending, especially, has the gamefinish on a high note.
While Metro: Redux is technically a remaster of two games, 2010’s Metro 2033 and 2013’s Metro: The Last Light, the full package was the best FPS experience of 2014. The game is set in post-apocalyptic Moscow, and you play as Artyom, travelling through the claustrophobic underground metro tunnels while dealing with mutants and hostile human factions.
The games are dripping with atmosphere and immersion, and you have to deal with low resources, dim lighting, and constant tension. The survival mechanics force you to manage things like air filters and ammo carefully.
Though it’s made by the team behind the first Dead Island, Dying Light is a lot darker and grittier. You play as Kyle Crane, an undercover agent sent to infiltrate a quarantined city overrun by zombies. The two cities you get to explore are great, the characters are grounded and interesting, the side quests are a highlight, and everything comes together really well.
It doesn’t feel like just another zombie game and has enough originality to make it stand out,such as the flexible parkour system, along with the super aggressive zombies that only come out at night.
Even though the game has continued to attract many fans since its launch, Titanfall 2 remains an underrated FPS game. The wall-running and overall traversal mechanics are super smooth, the level design of the maps is complex and intricate, and everything just looks, feels, and sounds great.
All of this is without even mentioning the campaign, which is among the best the genre has ever seen. Unfortunately, the game launched right in between two other heavy hitters, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Battlefield 1, which led to disappointing launch numbers for EA.
Resident Evil 7 pretty much revived the series after a few dull installments, both mainline and spin-offs. The switch to first-person was a risky move, but it paid off well, thanks to the game’s focus on survival horror along with some great characters in the Baker family.
It’s completely different from everything else in the series (aside from its follow-up, Village), but still manages to have sufficient connections to the original games to make it feel like a deserving entry in this iconic series. Its sequel, Resident Evil Village, was great, too, and fans are eagerly awaiting the ninth installment in the series.
Insurgency: Sandstorm was a unique game for its time, being a different type of multiplayer FPS game. It’s more focused on the hardcore military aspects, with a lot of realism and teamwork involved. Gone are the more casual, arcade-y style of other popular FPS games such as Call of Duty titles; instead, Insurgency focuses on tactical realism.
The game does a good job of balancing its overall vibe and not making it as punishing as games like ARMA, for example. The sound design and animations are all great, and while the game never became extremely popular, it still stands out by offering a different kind of FPS experience.
No, not The Outer Wilds. Obsidian’s highly anticipated first-person RPG has some design similarities to Fallout: New Vegas, but it’s still a very different game. It does the space RPG thing very well and has some genuinely funny writing.
Its commentary on capitalism is even more relevant in its futuristic space setting, and the writing is sharp and actually funny. It has plenty of wacky and interesting characters, and its two story DLCs add even more fun lore to the game.
