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Best Shooting Games

Video games have had a long history of including shooting play. Like the instinct of children to pick up sticks for imaginary gun-play, this offers players a chance to step into dangerous situations that raise the adrenaline and require high levels of skill and precision.

Often called shooter games, or shooters, they test the player's spatial awareness, reflexes, and speed against computer characters and human other players in online games. They usually offer players a range of weapons, each of which behaves differently and require practice to use efficiently.

While the main aim of most of these games is to shoot enemies in the head to kill them, there are many other things also going on. Players need to consider their environment, other opponents, team-mates, mission objectives, which weapon to use and how much health they have got. This level of systems work extends beyond quick reflexes to social understanding, layered decision making, long term strategic thinking and rigorous practice.

DetailsGenre Details

Era: 1981 - 2023
Total Games: 479
Total Likes: 5,758
 

 

Halo (Series)

Release Date: 15/11/2001, updated in 2020

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Halo is the longstanding sci-fi shooting video game series that started when Halo: Combat Evolved launched alongside the Xbox in 2001. The franchise has featured on every Xbox platform since then, with Halo 5: Guardians serving as the latest entry in...

Valorant

Release Date: 02/06/2020

Out Now: PC, PS4 and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 13+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person

Valorant is a team-based online shooting game, where two teams of five compete under the role of agents with unique abilities. It's designed to be competitive and requires considerable skill and practice to win matches. Between rounds, players spend...

TowerFall Ascension

Release Date: 25/06/2013, updated in 2017

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS Vita, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

TowerFall Ascension is a running, jumping and archery game where each player selects a pixelated knight and fights to eliminate opponents by shooting them with arrows or jumping on their heads. Play is about quick reactions and second-guessing what your...

Affordable Space Adventures

Release Date: 09/04/2015

Out Now: Wii U

Components: 2D Side-On

Affordable Space Adventures is a communication shooting game where you work to pilot a diminutive spacecraft through a hostile environment. One player uses the Wii U game tablet to control engines, power and shields. A second player controls lights and...

Steamworld Heist

Release Date: 16/11/2015, updated in 2016

Out Now: 3DS and 2DS, PS Vita, PS4, Stadia, Switch and Wii U

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Hand-Made and Pixels

Steamworld Heist is a platform shooting game where steam-powered robots fight for space supremacy. It sounds like the script for a 1950s B-movie but as in those matinee hits, the point here isn’t realism but interesting characters. Like the related...

Valkyria Chronicles 4

Release Date: 21/03/2018, updated in 2020

Out Now: Android, PC, PS Vita, PS4, PSP, Stadia, Switch, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person, 3D Third-Person, Grid, Hand-Made and Weather

Valkyria Chronicles 4 is a turn-based strategy game where you take command of a squad of soldiers and use your wits and tactics to plan and lead them to battle. You play as Commander Claude Wallace and the soldiers of Squad E and experience a gripping...

Deceive Inc

Release Date: 21/03/2023

Out Now: PC, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person

Deceive Inc is an online stealth traversal game where you are a spy trying to get into the vault to steal an artefact. The twist is that everyone can disguise themselves as different agents to blend in with the computer-controlled characters. It stands...

Splatoon 3

Release Date: 21/07/2017, updated in 2022

Out Now: Switch and Wii U

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person and Cartoon

Splatoon on the Wii U, Splatoon 2 and Splatoon 3 on the Switch are games where you shoot ink rather than bullets in this deeply skilled combat game. As well as taking out opponents, teams work together to cover the arena with their colour of ink. This...

The Last Of Us

Release Date: 14/06/2013

Out Now: PS3 and PS4

Skill Rating: 16+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Weather

The Last Of Us is an action-adventure where You play a father, Joel, whose daughter was killed during the early stages of a deadly fungal outbreak. It’s now 20 years later, and he has clearly suffered from the loss. When Joel is given charge of a...

Superhot

Release Date: 25/02/2016, updated in 2019

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4, Stadia, Switch, Web and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person and Cartoon

Superhot is a shooting game with a twist. Time only moves forward (bullets, enemies, damage) when you move your character. This is still a violent game, in fact, in slow motion, it feels more violent.

Control

Release Date: 28/08/2019

Out Now: PC, PS4, PS5 and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Control is a narrative shooting game set in an outlandish paranormal fantasy, where you are swept into a role as the new director of the Federal Bureau of Control agency of the ‘paranatural’. With impressive cinematic visuals and storytelling, your...

Destiny 2

Release Date: 09/09/2014

Out Now: PC, PS4, Stadia and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person and Open World

Destiny 2 is a shooting game set in space. You have to play online as it focuses on grand sci-fi adventures with other players. From the same developer, it takes Halo towards a bigger online role-play experience.

Returnal

Release Date: 30/04/2021, updated in 2023

Out Now: PC and PS5

Skill Rating: 13+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Returnal is a sci-fi shooting game played in repeating rounds that slowly change the world and your character. You are a pilot stranded on a mysterious planet and must investigate and fight through the world to both survive and solve the repeating...

Deep Rock Galactic

Release Date: 13/05/2020

Out Now: PC, PS4, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person and Cartoon

Deep Rock Galactic is shooting game where you play a team of dwarves in a totally destructible world. You explore caves and battle enemy hordes that are different each time you play (like Left 4 Dead).

Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime

Release Date: 19/09/2018

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime offers a space-survival challenge where you must collaborate to defend your circular spaceship. Each player needs to take on specific tasks to manage offensive or defensive duties.

Bioshock Infinite

Release Date: 26/03/2013, updated in 2020

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox 360 and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 15+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person

Bioshock Infinite is an adventure shooting game. Although the story is unconnected to the previous games in the series, it raises similar themes of dictatorship communities and alternative to capitalistic society. It's another nuanced and complex story...

Halo Infinite

Release Date: 15/11/2021

Out Now: PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 13+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person, Day and Night and Open World

Halo Infinite is the latest release in the longstanding Halo series of first-person shooting games. This latest entry continues the story, while adding new abilities, such as the grapple and weapons, differentiating it from the other...

Void Bastards

Release Date: 29/05/2019

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Components: 3D First-Person and Cartoon

Void *!@?* is a tongue-in-cheek shooting game, where you control misfit prisoners out of the Sargasso Nebula. You decide which shops to investigate, what to do and who to fight. When you die, you start again with some of the loot you've collected...

Gonner (Series)

Release Date: 22/10/2020

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Gonner 2 is a running and jumping game where you defend yourself by shooting enemies in a chaotic procedural environment as a small character called Ikk. You'll need a large amount of patience as you die a lot. To progress you need to hone your shooting...

Red Dead Redemption

Release Date: 18/05/2010, updated in 2023

Out Now: PS3, PS4, PS5, Switch and Xbox 360

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person, Day and Night, Open World and Weather

Red Dead Redemption is an adventure game set in a vast wild west open world. As you play, you meet characters, engage in shootouts and heists, and define your character's legacy in the twilight of the cowboy era. It stands out for the freedom it gives...

Plants Vs. Zombies (Series)

Release Date: 04/09/2019

Out Now: PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox 360 and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Plants Vs. Zombies Garden Warfare is a series of third-person shooting games about the battle for supremacy between weaponised plants and attacking zombies. It's good for families because the comedic zombies and funny plant powers keep things away from...

Screencheat

Release Date: 23/01/2016

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person

Screencheat pits four players against each other in a shooting battle on one system but keeps the violence low by making the players invisible. You win by peeking at other players’ portion of the screen to figure out where they are as you hunt them...

Skies of Fury

Release Date: 12/04/2018

Out Now: Android, Switch and iOS

Components: 3D Third-Person

Skies of Fury is a World War I fighter pilot game set during the Bloody April battles. You pilot one of 10 aircraft from the WWI era and take on missions as a single-player before challenging friends to the multiplayer, split-screen battles.

Jets'n'Guns 2 (Series)

Release Date: 19/11/2004, updated in 2020

Out Now: Mac, PC and Switch

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Jets'n'Guns 2 is a fast arcade-style shooting game where you defeat wave after wave of enemy ships and avoid an endless barrage of bullets. While initially the challenge seems overwhelming, building instincts of how and when to move and upgrading your...

Sky Force Reloaded (Series)

Release Date: 01/01/2004, updated in 2018

Out Now: Android, Apple TV, Mac, PC, PS Vita, PS3, PS4, PSP, Switch, Wii U, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Pixels

Sky Force Reloaded is a fast arcade-style shooting game where you defeat enemies, earn money and upgrade your ship. As you shoot down huge opponents and dodge barrages of attacks, you save civilians and upgrade your ship with unique upgrades that make...

Child of Eden

Release Date: 17/06/2011, updated in 2011

Out Now: PS3, Xbox 360 and Xbox One

Components: 3D First-Person

Child of Eden is a dance and motion game that uses the Xbox Kinect camera. You use your body to shoot and move. Rather than fruit, however, here it’s beautiful firework-style visuals and music that are the challenge.

Gunman Tales

Release Date: 01/08/2018, updated in 2023

Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Gunman Tales is a retro light-gun shooting game where 4 players target enemies to hit them before they get shot. You control your moving and aiming with a single stick, so the fun is about working within these limits to survive each level. It stands out...

Sol Cresta (Series)

Release Date: 22/02/2022

Out Now: PC, PS4 and Switch

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Sol Cresta is a classic-style arcade shooting game. It follows previous Cresta games (Moon Cresta and Terra Cresta) focus on bullet dodging, ship augmenting action. Here though you have three ships that can combine their weapons in different ways.

Otxo

Release Date: 20/04/2023

Out Now: PC

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Pixels

Otxo (pronounced oh-cho) is a violent shooting game where battle your way through a mansion in search of your lost love. Play is brutal, fast and tactical as you plough your way through each room managing your foes by getting your shots off first. It...

Wild Guns Reloaded (Series)

Release Date: 30/10/1996, updated in 2018

Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch, Wii and Wii U

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Wild Guns Reloaded is a fast retro shooting game where you control the gun with one stick and your character with the other. It's set in an alternative steampunk Wild West.

Fortnite

Release Date: 25/07/2017, updated in 2018

Out Now: Android, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person, Cartoon and Open World

Fortnite rose to popularity via its Battle Royale mode where 100 players fight against each other in online battles to the death. While they play, using shooting, evasion and building skills to survive, a storm is closing in to make the playable area...

Overwatch 2

Release Date: 24/05/2016, updated in 2022

Out Now: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person

Overwatch 2 is a shooting game where the focus is on teamwork and skill rather than violence. In teams of five, you communicate and work together to take out the other team and complete your objective. Along with games like Rocket League, it has...

Krunker

Release Date: 29/01/2019

Out Now: Web

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person and Blocks

Krunker (Krunker.io and Krunker Free) is a shooting game where you compete against online opponents on various maps. As you level up you unlock weapons that help you in the game. It's unusual because you play it in any web browser with no need to...

Phantom Forces (Roblox)

Release Date: 31/08/2015

Out Now: Mac, PC, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person and Cartoon

Phantom Forces Roblox is a popular shooting game on Roblox. Phantom Forces isn’t available on iOS or Android. It's a shooting game played in an online arena in teams. Although it looks simple, it offers a high-skill challenge similar to [link to...

Rust

Release Date: 08/02/2018

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4 and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person, Day and Night and Open World

Rust (also, Rust: Console Edition) is an online survival game set in the wilderness. You explore, gather and craft materials to manage hunger, thirst, health and protection. The preparation is to ward off the threat of bears, wolves and (more commonly)...

Free Fire

Release Date: 29/10/2018

Out Now: Android and iOS

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Free Fire (also called Free Fire Battlegrounds, Free Fire, Garena Free Fire-New Beginning) is a shooting game like Fortnite but only played on mobile phones and tablet devices. It is highly popular for its online battles where 50 players search for...

Hades

Release Date: 06/12/2018, updated in 2020

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Pixels

Hades is a fighting game where you battle your way through dungeons to escape hell and the clutches of Hades. You play as Zagreus, the son of Hades and through the game, you'll meet many recognisable Greek gods like Zeus, Athena and Poseidon who will...

War Thunder

Release Date: 21/12/2016, updated in 2018

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Open World

War Thunder is a shooting game where you drive a range of vehicles in warfare combat. Similar to Wargaming's World of Warplanes it creates realistic battles on air, land, and sea. The attraction of the combat is that each vehicle or craft’s...

Rogue Company

Release Date: 30/06/2020

Out Now: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Open World

Rogue Company is an online shooting game where players compete in teams to win rounds. You play as one of the elite agents of Rogue Company, each with their own individual set of skills, and go to war in a variety of different game modes.

Star Wars: Republic Commando

Release Date: 28/02/2005, updated in 2021

Out Now: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Components: 3D First-Person

Star Wars: Republic Commando is a shooting game set in the Star Wars universe, where you complete missions as part of an elite squad of Clones. Still regarded as one of the best Star Wars games over 16 years after its initial release, its fast-paced...

Taming Gaming Book Written by parents for parents, the database complements the in-depth discussion about video game addiction, violence, spending and online safety in the Taming Gaming book. We are an editorially independent, free resource without adverts that is supported by partnerships.

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