FPS games, broadly speaking, follow pretty straightforward concepts, whether it’s high-speed action FPS games like Doom or more military shooters like Call of Duty. You got a gun in your hands, you point it at the bad guys, pull the trigger, and they fall down. Maybe sometimes there will be secondary weapons or abilities or an increased emphasis on teamwork for multiplayer shooters, but that’s the long and short of it.
While FPS games have been mostly nailed down to a science, though, that doesn’t mean all FPS games are like that. As with pretty much any genre of game, there’s always room for experimentation, novel approaches to gameplay, story, aesthetic, and so on.
These are games that could still definitely be identified as an FPS if you ask most people, but there are also at least one or two elements that are wholly unlike anything else in the genre. If you’re in the mood for something a little off the beaten path, give these games a try.
Doom With A Beat
Many FPS games have pretty kickin’ soundtracks, particularly the more in-your-face ones like Doom. When you get into a good flow state in these kinds of games, you may inadvertently find yourself running and gunning in time with the music backing you. If you already have a habit of doing that, you’re in the perfect mindset to play Metal: Hellsinger.
Metal: Hellsinger is an arena-style FPS a la Doom or Quake, with the difference being that, in addition to running and gunning, you need to do your best to do it all on the beat of the backing soundtrack. Staying on beat increases your damage and boosts your meter, allowing you to use your most powerful abilities to fight off the demons and beasts of Hell.
Compared to most arena FPS games, Metal: Hellsinger also has a generally higher concentration of bullets and projectiles flying around at any given moment, so staying in constant motion is even more important than usual. It’s a game that requests, nay, demands a flow state from you, shutting out all other stimuli to throw yourself into both visuals and sound. It’s a feast for the senses, truly.
9
My Friendly Neighborhood
Time To Learn Your ABCs
As with most children of the 80s and 90s, I have an ingrained fondness for the Muppets, as well as Muppet-adjacent shows like Sesame Street. Puppets are cute and expressive, and make for good educational programming that’s not cartoons. Of course, ever since the mascot horror boom started, the idea of evil children’s puppets has been done to death, but My Friendly Neighborhood manages to distinguish itself regardless.
There are a couple of elements that make My Friendly Neighborhood unique among FPS games. The first is its core gameplay loop, which is heavily reminiscent of the original Resident Evil trilogy while still being distinct. Your weapons are all letters, pummeling puppets with giant, metal ABCs to knock them down. Since you’re not killing them, though, they’ll always get back up when you leave the room, at least unless you expend a roll of duct tape to tie them up.
The other major element that differentiates My Friendly Neighborhood from both other FPSes and the mascot horror stuff as a whole is its tone. It’s a horror game, technically, but without spoiling anything, it’s actually a fairly heartfelt, optimistic story. That’s something you don’t get much in either FPSes or mascot horror.
8
The Darkness II
Four For The Price Of Two
I remember in the late 2000s when dual-wielding in FPS games became the new hotness. Suddenly, everyone wanted two guns per person, no matter how impractical dual assault rifles would’ve been. One particular game that took things a step further was The Darkness II, which doubled your death-dealing potential to four implements of pain. Don’t worry if you haven’t played the first game, it’s not really necessary.
You can two-hand or dual-wield guns in The Darkness II as you would expect, but in addition to your guns, you’re also aided by a pair of Demon Arms coming out of your shoulders. These ravenous tendrils can throw objects, slash at foes, and even eat dudes’ hearts to restore your health, all of which can be used concurrently with your regular guns. It’s quite the chaotic bit of whimsy when you’re using all of your abilities at the same time in perfect, mad harmony.
The game also ties its environmental hazards into your dark powers, as being directly exposed to bright light sources disables your Demon Arms and passive health regeneration. As fun as it is to lose yourself in the frenzy, you also need to be mindful of light sources around you so you can stay in the shadows.
7
Titanfall 2
Say Hello To My Big Friend
Vehicles of various shapes and sizes have been a consistent part of FPS games for a long while, but in most cases, they’re just large weapons that anyone can hop into and ride around on. In Titanfall 2, your giant mech may be a “vehicle” in the literal sense, but it’s also your one and only partner, whether you’re piloting it or not.
In both Titanfall 2’s single player campaign and multiplayer mode, you’re free to hop in and out of your Titan at will, using its overwhelming size and strength to take on similarly large opponents or using your Pilot’s enhanced mobility to move independently of it. Both scenarios have you shooting through a first-person view, but the precise experiences are different enough to keep things interesting.
In the single-player campaign, the game also throws new mechanics at you at a fairly steady clip, such as a glove that lets you instantly flip between the past and future at the press of a button. It’s a short campaign, but it’s got some exceptionally tight level and gameplay design, certainly more than you’d expect from what would normally be a token addition to a multiplayer game.
6
Void Bastards
You’re Not Paid Enough For This
In many shooters, your capability as a combatant ramps up in proportion to your progress through the campaign. It’s easier to run right out into a firefight because you have better weapons or a better understanding of your abilities. In this regard, Void Bastards is not like many shooters.
Void Bastards is a roguelike FPS, though that element isn’t the only differentiating factor, as plenty of roguelikes have their own power curves. Rather, in Void Bastards, you never really become meaningfully more powerful than you do at the start of the game. Yeah, you get some new guns on occasion, but ammo is extremely scarce, to the point you may not be able to use your heavy hitters for multiple levels in a row.
Rather than just blasting your problems away, Void Bastards encourages caution and risk management. You need to weigh what you’re capable of against what a level may throw at you, and try your hardest not to get into any firefights you aren’t certain you can win. Basically, if you get into the FPS part of this FPS game, you’re doing it wrong.
5
Mullet MadJack
10 Seconds To Annihilate
FPS games are pretty fast games by design. It wouldn’t really make sense to drag out a dude getting shot, after all. No matter how fast a typical FPS game gets, though, it’s probably a safe bet you’re taking more than just ten seconds to play them. Frankly, both Mullet MadJack and I think that’s a little extraneous.
Mullet MadJack is an FPS with light roguelike elements in which the primary twist is that you only have ten seconds to live. The only way to reset the timer is to kill stuff or drink soda, both of which involve shooting, stabbing, and bicycle kicking anything and everything as quickly as you possibly can. To keep the pace going, most of the levels are just long hallways, but it is still possible to get turned around and tripped up, costing you valuable heartbeats.
At particular junctions, the game switches off the ten-second timer and forces you to take the more traditional approach, usually during boss fights. It’s in these moments that you’d better hope you put the right build together from between-level powerups, because what may have worked for manic floor-climbing suddenly won’t cut it anymore.
4
Ghostwire: Tokyo
Deadly Hand Signs
FPS games don’t necessarily need to have guns as their primary choice of weaponry. Really, any means of launching projectiles at foes will suffice. If said projectiles can be spiritual mojo powered by cool hand signs, who’s going to complain? I certainly didn’t complain when I got to do all that in Ghostwire: Tokyo.
Ghostwire: Tokyo is an open-world adventure-style FPS, wherein you have mostly free rein of a Tokyo that’s been completely suffused with malevolent spirits and yokai. Obviously, you can’t just shoot a ghost, so your weapon of choice is elemental energy conjured forth by spiritual hand signs. It’s still an FPS in spirit, though, as you can switch between hand signs for different elements and replenish your ammo by defeating enemies.
When battling spirits, you can’t just blast away at them until they stop moving. You need to whittle down their defenses until their core is exposed, then rush in and crush it to finish them. It’s a risk versus reward combat style that forces you to get right into the mix in order to seal the deal.
3
Boomerang X
High-Flying Ricochet
Speaking of games that don’t make you use guns, what’s the first thing you think of when you think of a thrown projectile? No, not a spear, or a grenade, or a knife; I’m talking about a boomerang. Have you ever wanted a game where you can chuck a bladed boomerang at people at ridiculous speeds and heights? That’s a job for Boomerang X.
This arena FPS gives you one weapon and one weapon only: the titular boomerang (which is really more of an oversized throwing star, but whatever). In addition to throwing it and having it come back to you, you can instantly launch yourself along your boomerang’s trajectory to soar into the air, as well as slow down time to take aim at enemies.
Boomerang X is quite possibly the most high-flying FPS you’ll ever play, with both you and your boomerang bouncing around large arenas at high speed, lining up precision shots and rebounds with each successive throw. It takes some practice to get good at, but it’s a real spectacle once you get the hang of it.
2
Superhot
Time Moves When You Do
When you play an FPS game, it’s almost always on an opposing force’s timescale. You run when an enemy isn’t shooting, take cover when they are, pop your head out when you have a shot, and so on. What if we were to take this established paradigm and flip it on its head, so that the world moves on your timescale instead? Well, then we’d end up with Superhot.
Superhot is a short-burst FPS game with a bit of a puzzle tinge in which the world’s time only progresses when you’re physically on the move. If you’re standing still, everything slows to a near-halt, including enemy movement and flying bullets. Since you can read bullet trajectories in this manner, you can almost always position yourself to be standing precisely where they’re not flying with a few quick steps.
Of course, your bullets and thrown weapons only move when you move as well, so you can’t just hang around in one place. You may have the power to influence the progression of a fight, but that means you need to have the planning skills and reflexes to make sure everything unfolds in an advantageous way rather than misjudging your footing and getting shot in the butt.
1
Receiver 2
Do You Know How A Gun Works?
I’ve never actually held or fired a gun in real life, and frankly, I hope I never have to. A gun is a tool for killing things, which makes it kind of inherently intimidating. Some say that playing FPS games desensitizes you to gun violence, but if you want a game that shows you just how dangerous guns can be, try Receiver 2.
Receiver 2, sequel to the game jam-made Receiver, is a game whose mission statement you’ll understand pretty much as soon as you start a level. The only goal is to find hidden tapes while dodging and battling unmanned drones and turrets. The catch is that all of your guns are as accurate to real life as realistically possible, and that includes their inner workings and potential for malfunction.
Even for just a handgun, you need to manually fill a clip, load the magazine, turn off the safety, and pull back the slide before you can start firing, and if you forget to properly turn the safety back on and holster it, you’re liable to shoot yourself in the leg. Receiver 2 is both a fascinating experiment in game design and quite possibly the best justifier for gun safety you’ll ever see.
