Awesome Shooters

Bungie, creators of Halo and Destiny reimagine their classic franchise, Marathon. This time, it’s a PvP team-based extraction shooter. The game sees players in a race to scavenge the remains of a lost colony for weapons and loot and extract before being eliminated. Coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on 9.23.25. The cinematic trailer is excellent too.

Painkiller was one of the best FPSes of the early 2000s. Now, the franchise is getting a reboot courtesy of 3D Realms. Slay demons with up to three pals in online co-op play, or enjoy a solo splatterfest. Play with over-the-top weapons and jump, dash, and hook your way through purgatory while blasting creatures. Coming to Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC Fall 2025.

Pixeljam’s vector art game Utopia Must Fall combines elements of arcade shooters, roguelites, and tower defense games. We love its frenetic pace and retro vibes that pay homage to classic arcade games ranging including Tempest, Missile Command, and Galaga. Available for Mac and PC on Steam Early Access.

First-person shooters are getting bloated with poorly written stories and cinematics, microtransactions, and shoehorned RPG progression systems. I Am Your Beast says to hell with all of that and delivers a no-frills experience in the form of a roguelite. Each level has a small area, a handful of objectives, and a timer. Go do your best.

Recently launched on Early Access, Fallen Aces is a loving homage to ’90s first-person shooters, noir, and comic books. Its visuals consist of hand-drawn characters and objects set in a spartan 3D world. The game features non-linear levels, stealth options, everyday objects as weapons, and hundreds of authentic American gangster slurs.

(PG-13) Mullet Mad Jack is a roguelite first-person shooter with ’90s anime aesthetics. Instead of having limited health, you have only 10 seconds to play. You must kill enemies to keep topping up your timer. It also has a mode with no timer if you just want to enjoy the animated story scenes at your own pace, as well as a randomized endless mode.

It’s been a while since we saw the early concept for Squirrel with a Gun. The finished game is almost here, and it’s just as deranged as the title sounds. The sandbox shooter lets players use their squirrel’s jumping and climbing abilities while wielding firearms to shake down the neighborhood for treats. Coming to PC, Xbox, and PlayStation 5 Fall 2024.

Konami dusts off the ’80s run-and-gun classic for today’s generation. While Contra: Operation Galuga mainly offers new graphics and audio to the NES arcade shooter, it also has a few new stages and enemies and adds a four-player arcade mode. It’s time to steal lives from your kids.

Ubisoft and Netflix just dropped this lighthearted take on Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six franchise with a cartoony Roguelite shooter. Build your squad and head out on stealth missions to save the world of SMOL by defusing bombs, freeing hostages, and taking down baddies. It’s free to play but requires a Netflix subscription. Available now on iOS and Android.

Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws is an open-world game that puts you in the role of Kay Vess, a mischievous young woman attempting to start a new life against the backdrop of Imperial rule. Taking place between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, she and her companion Nix must elude the Empire and contend with galactic crime syndicates.

Serious video game nerds might have heard of the never-released Atari arcade game Akka Arrh. Created by Tempest and Gridrunner dev Jeff Minter, a modernized version has been released for consoles and gaming PCs. Like other Llamasoft games, expect a trippy array of colors and insane swarms of attackers.

Bethesda Softworks presents a new mobile game set in the animated DOOM universe. This fast-paced, top-down shooter has players taking down massive hordes of cute and cuddly demons in familiar locations and with smartphone-friendly single-finger gameplay. Drops 3.21.23, with pre-registration open now.

Caverns of Mars was one of the best games for Atari’s 8-bit PCs. Caverns of Mars: Recharged revamps the downward-scroller with HD graphics, trickier obstacles, new power-ups, destructible environments, local co-op, and global leaderboards. Coming to Atari VCS, Steam, Epic, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch on 3.9.23.

Capcom’s squad-based shooter Exoprimal drops players into a crazy world where dinosaurs have started to replicate by the millions across the planet. You’ll suit up in a state-of-the-art Exosuit to battle the horde and teams of opposing players. Coming to consoles and PC in 2023.

This top-down action game puts you in the shoes of an android bounty hunter who must brawl, shoot, and drive their way through a dystopian future. Players will face off against endless hordes or gangs and corporate baddies as they tear through the neon-lit city. Coming to Steam Early Access 8.11.2021.

(PG-13) Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint has you playing as a military special operative stranded on an island where former colleagues have seized a drone factory. The open-world game features classes, customizable gear, and up to four-player co-op and PvP. Drops 10/4/19.