The Best Shooters Of 2024

Space Marine 2

While I was excited to play Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 because I’m a big fan of the original game, I didn’t expect it to be much more than another fine third-person shooter with big guns. I was wrong! Space Marine 2 is a really great shooter with a bombastic campaign, solid PvP options, and co-op missions featuring a separate (and deep) progression system. A nice surprise in 2024!

Order Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2: Amazon | Best Buy | Humble Bundle

It’s been a while since a Call of Duty game has got its claws into me. I think the last one I actively played and enjoyed was Advanced Warfare. However, Black Ops 6 has turned me into a CoD sicko all over again.

The multiplayer alone in BLOPS6 is worth the price of admission, with so many modes, guns, upgrades, and maps, as well as new features like the game-changing omnidirectional movement. Toss in CoD’s usual tight gunplay, perfect performance, a full campaign, and an excellent Zombies mode, and you have one of the best FPS experiences of the year.

Order Call of Duty: Black Ops 6: Amazon | Best Buy

Most of the headlines about Selaco were focused on the fact that the indie FPS was built using a modified version of the Doom engine. And yes, that is cool and worth mentioning. But, even if Selaco had been made in Unity or something, it wouldn’t change that this retro FPS is awesome. It features chunky combat, incredible levels, and an assault rifle that deserves a place in the video game weapon hall of fame alongside the Lancer from Gears of War and the Super Shotgun from Doom 2.

Order Selaco: Steam

If I was handing out an award for the weirdest FPS of the year, it would probably go to Echo Point Nova. That’s not a criticism, either. Echo Point Nova is a weird, sometimes lonely open-world shooter set in a large, dream-like map made up of floating islands and infested with evil mercenaries.

Most of the game is spent swinging, hopping, sliding, and shooting all over this massive map, and it’s some of the most fun I’ve had in a first-person shooter in a long time. If you long for Titanfall 3, you should stop reading this and play Echo Point Nova.

Order Echo Point Nova: Steam

In 2024, Mullet Madjack was just what the doctor ordered. It’s a fast-paced, hyper-linear, action-packed FPS built around killing rich robots as quickly as possible. In Mullet Madjack you use not only guns but also your fists, feet, and melee weapons to massacre wealthy androids while you livestream it to your in-game audience. They always want more murder, and I’m always happy to oblige them because it feels great to kill some robot CEOs with a shotgun in Mullet Madjack.

Order Mullet Madjack: Steam | Eneba

Is this a shooter? Many characters in the game, like Punisher and Black Widow, use guns, and others, like Hela, use ranged magic attacks. But then still others, like Hulk and Wolverine, are strictly melee. Personally, I think there are enough shooter-y vibes and gameplay elements in Rivals for it to make the list.

What I love about Marvel Rivals is how powerful characters feel. Jumping into a group of enemy players as Venom, taking most of them out, and then hopping away feels good. On the flip side, when I see a Venom try to do that and I’m playing as Black Widow, I just smile and snipe that gooey bastard from afar. Everyone is powerful. Everyone feels dangerous in the right hands. Is this balanced? Probably not. But that’s why it’s so much fun!

Order Marvel Rivals: Steam

Sulfur first caught my eye because it had a wicked slick art style. It basically looks like a playable cartoon. But then I actually played Sulfur—which launched in Steam early access earlier this year—and discovered a roguelike FPS with tight gunplay and satisfying combat. I sort of suck at Sulfur, but I still keep coming back to play more. I want to collect more random loot, kill more cute goblins, and maybe—assuming I get better at it—figure out the mystery at the game’s core.

Order Sulfur: Steam

Fortnite

Last year, I suggested that Fortnite might not make it on a future “Best Shooters” list because the game had become so much more than a third-person battle royale. Fast forward 12 months and here’s Fortnite on the list. Why? Well, because Epic has greatly expanded the shooty-shooty bang-bang bits of Fortnite, helping it secure a spot here one more time.

In the last 12 months, Epic has added Fortnite OG, Reload, and Ballistic to the game. The first is a stripped-down battle royale experience based on the game’s first year. Reload is a fast-paced battle royale with respawning. And then there’s Ballistic, a first-person shooter built in Fortnite that plays light Counter-Strike. It’s wild that so many really good shooters live in one game, but I’m not complaining.

Play Fortnite: Fortnite

2024 was supposed to be a victory lap for Destiny 2, with a big expansion paying off a decade of live-service storytelling. And Bungie did end up landing the ship, but it was a bumpy ride and it’s now far from clear if the thing will ever be able to fly again.

Still, The Final Shape offered some of the best missions the game has ever seen, and delivering the epic conclusion fans have been waiting for. Other additions, like the horde mode Onslaught, showed Destiny 2 is still at its best when friends are just shooting tons of aliens together and collecting tons of loot for doing so. Fans got a great raid this year and another great dungeon, and while updates are buggier and Destiny 2's future more up in the air than ever, the bones of this shooter are still some of the best around. - Ethan Gach

Order Destiny 2: The Final Shape: Best Buy | Humble Bundle

Technically, this is a new game, but it’s also a remaster of an old classic, so I’ve placed it here. Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster is exactly what you want it to be: Dark Forces, the classic ‘90s Star Wars FPS, but now it looks nicer and plays better on modern hardware. And as a bonus, it’s now playable on consoles, too.

If you’ve never played Dark Forces, you should pick up the remaster and experience this Doom-like spin on ‘90s-era Star Wars. And if you have played Dark Forces, well, odds are you already know about the remaster. So let’s sit here and nod in agreement for a few minutes about how good it is.

Order Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster: Amazon| Humble Bundle

Why is Half-Life 2 here? Well, earlier this year, Valve updated the classic FPS to celebrate the game’s 20th anniversary. The big update fixed a ton of bugs, added workshop support and modern gamepad controls, and imported all the Episodes into one big package.

It’s now easier than ever to play Half-Life 2 and many of its best mods. And there are so many. If you’ve never really dabbled in Half-Life 2 or Source mods, go grab Half-Life 2 and check out its ever-growing Steam Workshop. You’ll have plenty of stuff to play.

And here are a few games that just missed making it on here, but are still good and worth checking out: Fallen Aces, Stalker 2, I Am Your Beast, and Blue Shift (a Black Mesa mod).

Order Half-Life 2: Steam

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