Best first person shooter games for pc 2009

Besides, dinosaurs. It sells itself. Or it might just oversell itself. Coming into play a full six years since the last sequel, this lackluster reboot of the original dinosaur shooting safari was met with lukewarm praise at its very best. Just imagine being told that the original Nintendo 64 game was better in Dinosaur hunting is cool and all, but just how thick do our nostalgia lenses need to be in order to forgive this QTE ridden travesty?

This revival of the great, great grandfather of all shooters defied every expectation from announcement to release, bringing it back to the forefront of gaming with a wicked vengeance. The single-player campaign produced a symphonic roller coaster of violence punctuated with brilliant set pieces and simple, yet thoroughly engrossing storytelling. The Doomslayer vents his righteous fury in a way most of us can only dream of.

While controversial, the multiplayer writes us a poetic love letter to our nostalgic Quake deathmatches of yore. After all, this franchise invented them. How could they not be good? The weapons upgrade system was more painful than rewarding, and there was little variation in the constantly respawning enemies. These aspects combined with bad AI and a less than vivid color palette left gamers with few memories outside of frustration and a brown blur of unexciting combat.

It also served as the turning point for industry focus on multiplayer functionality, particularly with post-launch update QuakeWorld. Helping to set a lot of standards for arena shooters, in general, is also a nice bonus. After three iterations of Modern Warfare , not to mention two releases of sister branding Black Ops , the predictable formula and modern tactical shooter setting had worn thin and through with the fan base.

At this point, the franchise was just coughing up dust. If anything, this release signaled the necessity for a new direction. The question is, did we really end up feeling any differently about that direction? Guns, guns, more guns, a few stylistic risks, a unique art direction, and just to be sure, a few more guns.

How did that recipe turn out, you wonder? It was perfect. After fusing these elements with your typical first-person shooter conventions and some choice comedic script writing, it emerged as a genre-bending Frankenstein of epic proportions.

A long development period, marketing hubris, and underwhelming delivery left fans less than enthused about this Y2K offering from industry wizard John Romero when it finally arrived. We love you, John. Granted, he knew that. The survival sandbox boom was unprecedented. PUBG stepped up to captain this new ship, and the trend became completely inescapable. Included is an expansive world, unique combat, shockingly realistic visuals, tons of player choice, and an incredible cast of dynamic characters.

Every minute is a fight for survival against the terrors of the outside world — radiation, Super Mutants, and hostile mutated creatures. Vault - Jewel of the Wastes. For years, Vault has faithfully served the surviving residents of Washington DC and its environs, now known as the Capital Wasteland. Though the global atomic war of left the US all but destroyed, the residents of Vault enjoy a life free from the constant stress of the outside world. Yet one fateful morning, you awake to find that your father has defied the Overseer and left the comfort and security afforded by Vault for reasons unknown.

Leaving the only home you've ever known, you emerge from the Vault into the harsh Wasteland sun to search for your father, and the truth. Cate must investigate a super-secret Soviet project that, if successful, could bring about a third world war. Armed with an assortment of conventional and experimental weaponry and gadgets, players will explore exotic locales, circumvent devious traps, and contend with deadly agents determined to take Cate out of the spy trade once and for all.

Call of Duty delivers the gritty realism and cinematic intensity of World War II's epic battlefield moments like never before - through the eyes of citizen soldiers and unsung heroes from an alliance of countries who together helped shape the course of modern history. Play through the chaos of battle as part of a well-trained squad, that lays down covering fire and pulls its wounded to safety.

In addition to authentic squad movements and tactics, each soldier's distinct personality and training comes out on the battlefield. No one soldier or nation single-handedly won the war. For the first time, Call of Duty captures the war from multiple perspectives, through the eyes of American, British and Russian soldiers.

Battle through 24 missions spanning 4 interconnected historical campaigns. Take on mission objectives ranging from sabotage and all-out assault to stealth, vehicle combat and rescue. Authentic weapons, locations, vehicles and sounds of war all contribute to the realism.

Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is a free, stand-alone downloadable multiplayer in which players wage war as Axis or Allies in team-based combat in traditional single scenarios, or through a series of linked scenarios in a totally new campaign mode. Combat, a free multiplayer component from the original PC title F. Multiplayer in one downloadable file. Combat users will be able to play against the owners of the retail version of F. Combat users. Portal is a new single player game from Valve.

Set in the mysterious Aperture Science Laboratories, Portal has been called one of the most innovative new games on the horizon and offers gamers hours of unique gameplay.

The game is designed to change the way players approach, manipulate, and surmise the possibilities in a given environment; similar to how Half-Life 2's Gravity Gun innovated new ways to leverage an object in any given situation. Players must solve physical puzzles and challenges by opening portals to maneuvering objects, and themselves, through space. Fans of the original game will find the unique world of Metro transformed with incredible lighting, physics and dynamic weather effects.

Newcomers will get the chance to experience one of the finest story-driven shooters of all time; an epic adventure combining gripping survival horror, exploration and tactical combat and stealth. Half-Life 2: Episode Two is the second in a trilogy of new games created by Valve that extends the award-winning and best-selling Half-Life adventure. As Dr. Gordon Freeman, you were last seen exiting City 17 with Alyx Vance as the Citadel erupted amidst a storm of unknown proportions.

In Episode Two, you must battle and race against Combine forces as you traverse the White Forest to deliver a crucial information packet stolen from the Citadel to an enclave of fellow resistance scientists. Episode Two extends the award-winning Half-Life gameplay with unique weapons, vehicles, and newly-spawned creatures. Set before the events of both Universal Pictures' "The Chronicles of Riddick," starring Vin Diesel, and the cult classic "Pitch Black," which first introduced Diesel as enigmatic anti-hero Riddick, the game tells the story of Riddick's dramatic escape from the previously inescapable triple max security slam Butcher Bay, home to the most violent prisoners in the galaxy.

The Chronicles Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay will blend action and stealth elements, as players navigate Riddick through the harsh environments of the slam - dank tunnels, dimly lit corridors, and other hazardous areas filled with guards, savage inmates and deadly creatures that prowl the darkness. In Deus Ex: Human Revolution you play Adam Jensen, a security specialist, handpicked to oversee the defense of one of America's most experimental biotechnology firms.

But when a black ops team breaks in and kills the scientists you were hired to protect, everything you thought you knew about your job changes. At a time when scientific advancements are routinely turning athletes, soldiers and spies into super-enhanced beings, someone is working very hard to ensure mankind's evolution follows a particular path. You need to discover why - because the decisions you take and the choices you make will be the only things that can determine mankind's future.

Several years have passed since Kyle Katarn avenged his father's death and saved the Valley of the Jedi from Jerec and his band of Dark Jedi. Allowing his Force powers to languish for fear of falling to the Dark side, Kyle set aside his lightsaber, vowing never to use it again.

But when a new and menacing threat to the galaxy emerges, Kyle knows he must reclaim his past in order to save his future. Players assume the role of Kyle as they employ a unique mix of weapons, Force powers and your lightsaber in both single- and multiplayer modes of first-person action.

An epic, open-ended single-player game where you create and play any kind of character you can imagine. Be the noble hero embarking on an epic quest, or an insidious thief rising to leadership of his guild. Be a malevolent sorcerer developing the ultimate spell of destruction, or a reverent healer searching for the cure to a plague. Your actions define your character, and your gameplay changes and evolves in response to your actions. Confront the assassins' guild, and they take out a contract on you.

Impress them, and they try to recruit you instead. No two sagas are the same in the world of Morrowind. Set in the aftermath of a world-wide nuclear war, Fallout will challenge you to survive in an unknown and dangerous world. You will take the role of a Vault-dweller, a person who has grown up in a secluded, underground survival Vault. Circumstances arise that force you to go Outside -- to a strange world 80 years after the end of the modern civilization.

A world of mutants, radiation, gangs and violence. Your immediate task is to find a replacement for the broken water purification controller chip. Without that chip, your fellow Vault dwellers are doomed to dehydration or be forced to leave the safety of the Vault for the Outside. Fight together A new and highly virulent strain of the rabies virus emerges and spreads through the human population with frightening speed.

The pandemic's victims become grotesquely disfigured, wildly violent psychopaths, attacking the uninfected on sight. One of the "lucky" few apparently immune to the sickness, you, unfortunately, are also trapped in a city crawling with thousands of the bloodthirsty Infacted.

Together with a handful of fellow Survivors, you must fight your way to safety or die alone. A co-operative multiplayer action game from the makers of "Counter-Strike," Left 4 Dead is built atop the most advanced version of the Source Engine and introduces version 2 of Turtle Rock's artificial intelligence A.

This co-operative action horror FPS takes you and your friends through the cities, swamps and cemeteries of the Deep South, from Savannah to New Orleans across five expansive campaigns.

Play as one of four new survivors armed with a wide and devastating array of classic and upgraded weapons. In addition to firearms, you'll also get a chance to take out some aggression on infected with a variety of carnage-creating melee weapons, from chainsaws to axes and even the deadly frying pan. You'll be putting these weapons to the test against or playing as in Versus three horrific and formidable new Special Infected. L4D2 promises a satisfying and uniquely challenging experience every time the game is played, custom-fitted to your style of play.

Borderlands 2 advances the distinct blending of FPS and role-playing genres to create an evolution of the Role Playing Shooter. Team up with up to 3 other players for 4-player online goodness or go old-school with 2-player split-screen couch sharing mayhem as you spend hours leveling up your character and equipping them with one of the millions of badass weapons.

Borderlands 2 features a new array of procedurally generated guns, shields, grenades, artifacts, enemies and more. Choose one of the 4 new character classes to be taken through a carefully crafted and connected story to all new and surprising environments across the living planet of Pandora.

Make new friends, arm them to the teeth and fight alongside them on your relentless quest for revenge and redemption. Prepare yourself for the ultimate 3D Slugfest. Murderous aliens have landed in futuristic Los Angeles, and the humans suddenly find themselves atop the endangered species list. The odds are a million-to-one. Just the way Duke likes it. Dive into realistic 3D scenarios, with 28 totally realistic levels, as you drive the sinister aliens through the streets of LA, out to an orbiting station, and onto the surface of the moon itself!

An you'll be armed to the teeth with 10 hi-tech weapons. Clear crowds with the pump action Assault Shotgun, blast through enemies and walls with the Rocket Propelled Grenade, splat enemies under foot after blasting them with the Shrinker, cut through trouble with the 3-barel Ripper machine gun, set DukeMatch traps with the wall-mounted Laser Mine, watch enemies shatter after cooling them off with the Freeze Cannon, and 4 more! A tropical paradise seethes with hidden evil in Far Cry, a cunningly detailed action shooter that pushes the boundaries of combat to shocking new levels.

Freelance mariner Jack Carver is cursing the day he ever came to this island. A week ago, a brash female reporter named Valerie had offered him an incredible sum of cash to take her to this unspoiled paradise. Shortly after docking, however, Jack's boat was greeted by artillery fire from a mysterious militia group swarming about the island. With his boat destroyed, his money gone, and the gorgeous Valerie suddenly missing, Jack now finds himself facing an army of mercenaries amidst the wilds of the island, with nothing but a gun and his wits to survive.

But the further he pushes into the lush jungle canopy, the stranger things become. An immersive power fantasy simulator with tactical stealth elements set in a sewage infused garbage world.

If you aren't afraid of the dark, you should be! Can you handle the mind-blasting rush into all-new degree 3D worlds of darkness?? The sequel to the mind-blowing original is here! New features make Descent II the most challenging game yet! In the full version of D2, you'll experience: Guide-Bot - Your own handy side-kick. Thief-Bot - Steals weapons and power-ups from your ship.

Headlights you can turn on and off. Afterburners to increase your speed. Missile Cam and Guide-Bot Cam. Enhanced lighting. Flowing water and lava. Energy to Shield converter. New network play features. More complex levels. Hidden doors and rooms. Descent 2 ended with you drifting helplessly in deep space.

Just as your life support begins to fail, you are miraculously rescued by a group of renegade researchers. Soon after, the researchers confide that a Dr. Swietzer has been secretly developing the deadly robot virus you've encountered in the mines.

Upon agreeing to help the researchers locate Swietzer, you learn that Dravis, the corporate executive who contracted you, not only is working with Swietzer, but intentionally sabotaged your warp drive, leaving you stranded in the depths of space. Rejuvenated with a desire for revenge, you focus your search for Swietzer, and eagerly await your next meeting with Dravis. The gut-wrenching Descent saga continues with more pulse-pounding action than ever before. Dive into massive subterranean strongholds and experience a whole new degree of freedom powered by the all-new Fusion engine.

Test your piloting skills against an army of assault-bots using an extensive arsenal of firepower. As bullets whiz by, walls crumble, and explosions throw you to the ground, the battlefield feels more alive and interactive than ever before.

In Battlefield 3, players step into the role of the elite U. Marines where they will experience heart-pounding single player missions and competitive multiplayer actions ranging across diverse locations from around the globe including Europe, Middle-East and North America. In Battlefield , you will experience the heat of battle as you heroically storm the beaches of Normandy, drive a tank across the deserts of northern Africa, pilot a fighter plane during the Battle of Midway, command a battleship at Guadalcanal, or parachute and commandeer a jeep in operation Market Garden.

It is the only first person, team-based action game that places you in the midst of a raging WWII battlefield with 35 "machines of war" under your control.

You'll pick up the sidearm of your choice and get behind the wheel of a variety of vehicles, ships, and aircraft to go to war on land, sea, and air during some of the most famous and pivotal battles of the Second World War. Return of the Obra Dinn is a first-person mystery adventure based on exploration and logical deduction. What Remains of Edith Finch is a collection of short stories about a cursed family in Washington State.

First Encounter Assault and Recon , is an intense first person close-quarters combat experience with rich atmosphere and an engaging storyline. The story begins as an unidentified paramilitary force infiltrates a multi-billion dollar aerospace compound. The government responds by sending in Special Forces, but loses contact as an eerie signal interrupts radio communications.

When the interference subsides moments later, the team has been literally torn apart. As part of a classified strike team created to deal with threats no one else can handle, your mission is simple: Eliminate the intruders at any cost. Determine the origin of the signal. And contain this crisis before it spirals out of control. The sequel to Sierra's multiplayer phenomenon "Starsiege: Tribes," 's degree, team-based first-person shooter, "Tribes 2" lets up to 64 gamers simultaneously battle online in 40th century outdoor environments.

With Far Cry 3, players step into the shoes of Jason Brody, a man alone at the edge of the world, stranded on a mysterious tropical island. In this savage paradise where lawlessness and violence are the only sure thing, players dictate how the story unfolds, from the battles they choose to fight to the allies or enemies they make along the way. As Jason Brody, players will slash, sneak, detonate and shoot their way across the island in a world that has lost all sense of right and wrong.

Halo 3 is the third game in the Halo Trilogy and provides the thrilling conclusion to the events begun in "Halo: Combat Evolved. The Master Chief is returning to Earth to finish the fight.

The Covenant occupation of Earth has uncovered a massive and ancient object beneath the African sands - an object who's secrets have yet to be revealed.

Earth's forces are battered and beaten. The Master Chief's AI companion Cortana is still trapped in the clutches of the Gravemind - a horrifying Flood intelligence, and a civil war is raging in the heart of the Covenant. This is how the world ends Blazkowicz, a highly decorated Army Ranger recruited into the Office of Secret Actions, you are tasked with escaping and then returning to Castle Wolfenstein in an attempt to thwart Heinrich Himmler's occult and genetic experiments.

Through genetic engineering and the harnessing of occult powers, Himmler hopes to raise an unstoppable army to level the Allies once and for all. You must first escape from imprisonment in the castle to report the strange creatures and happenings in and around Wolfenstein to the OSA.

Your mission takes a drastic turn as you learn the depth of Himmler's plans and what you must do to defeat the evil he has unleashed. Choose from four ultra powerful transforming Mobile Combat Armor suits, each with its own advantages and strengths. Find tons of powerups and enhancements to improve your MCA's performance.

In addition to piloting your MCA through deadly outdoor, underground, and city missions, you will be able to dock in certain areas and strike out on foot to complete objectives. There may even be a surprise or two in store Shogo: Mobile Armor Division uses Monolith? Explore the world of Thirty Flights of Loving through a first-person short story.

In this sequel to Gravity Bone, take a deep dive with high-flying schemers, lovelorn criminals, and more stray kittens than you can shake a stick at. Saddle up, gunslinger. User Score: 5. Conquer with character in Apex Legends, a free-to-play Battle Royale shooter where legendary characters with powerful abilities team up to battle for fame and fortune on the fringes of the Frontier. Master an ever-growing roster of diverse legends, deep tactical squad play, and bold new innovations that level-up the Battle Royale experience—all within a rugged world where anything goes.

Welcome to the next evolution of Battle Royale. It is a first person exploration game. You will play as Stanley, and you will not play as Stanley. You will follow a story, you will not follow a story. You will have a choice, you will have no choice. The game will end, the game will never end.

Set approximately 10 years after the events of the original BioShock, the halls of Rapture once again echo with sins of the past. Along the Atlantic coastline, a monster has been snatching little girls and bringing them back to the undersea city of Rapture. You are the very first Big Daddy as you travel through the decrepit and beautiful fallen city, chasing an unseen foe in search of answers and your own survival.

Multiplayer in BioShock 2 provides a rich prequel experience that expands the BioShock gameplay. This deliberately slow-paced and engaging FPS has shades of Stalker with a gorgeous sci-fi open world that's based on concept illustrations by former Rockstar artist Ian McQue. You hijack a surveyor drone, investigating the signal in the title, and fend off other robot factions as you explore the planet's surface.

Later in the game you get to command other surveyors, too, who can help you in combat. The unusual and memorable setting, combined with great sounding and feeling guns, makes this one of the more notable recent cult hits on Steam. You don't necessarily have to play all these games with a group, but they're better that way. Buy a copy with a friend—or maybe 20 friends depending on the game—and do a bit of bonding by graciously showing them where bottles of pills are and yelling at them when the bullheadedly dash into the next room before you're ready.

There's a good reason to play every Halo game, whether it's 5 or 10 or 20 years old. That reason differs from game-to-game, though there's still nothing else in the FPS world quite like Halo's big, sandboxy levels.

But each has a unique draw: in Halo 1 it's the pistol, a sublimely overpowered hand cannon and more-or-less the only weapon you need in multiplayer. And multiplayer itself is still really fun, a throwback to the LAN days of hour-long CTF matches and ridiculous vehicle physics. In Halo Reach, the 4-player co-op campaign and wave-based survival mode Firefight are perfect with friends. Thankfully, Microsoft made the wonderful decision to bring the MCC to PC, where they'll be playable and moddable for years to come.

With Halo 4 added toward the end of , the full collection is finally complete on PC. But that doesn't mean is done improving the package. The studio is still adding maps and quality-of-life features like crossplay with PC and Xbox. Deep Rock Galactic is what happens if Left 4 Dead's zombies were giant bugs and its maps were fully destructible playgrounds.

As professional mining dwarves armed to the teeth, up to four players delve deep into procedurally generated caverns to complete all sorts of mission types. Sometimes you're mining for a specific mineral, other times you're building pump networks, but all the while the looming threat of bug hordes persists. Maybe the most surprising part of Deep Rock is how good the guns feel and how well the four classes synergize together. Bug carcasses audibly crunch under the impact of my Engineer's shotgun and bugs scream as they're lit ablaze by the Driller's flamethrower.

Procedurally generated games have a habit of feeling samey after a while, but Deep Rock is the rare exception. With a healthy variety of mission types, no shortage of goals to work toward new weapons, perks, abilities , and more post-release support in the works, it's a shining example of how to do co-op shooters right.

Release date: Developer: Fatshark Link: Steam. Vermintide 2 is a fully cooperative FPS where you and three friends axe, arrow, magic, and sword your way through a variety of Warhammer baddies. The sequel ramps things up significantly from the original with more weapon types, enemies, and a new progression system centered around fairly generous loot boxes. It's intensely satisfying melee combat on a scale you just can't get anywhere else, especially in the comfort of a four-person party with friends.

No other first-person shooter offers a simulation on this level, with such high production values. Bohemia has built on Arma 3 with the excellent Apex expansion, too, which adds Tanoa, km2 of gorgeous tropical landscape to navigate. It was one of Evan's personal favorites of , and Andy Kelly even created his own Olympics-style events in Apex using Arma 3's Zeus mode.

It's an essential add-on. Release date: Developer: Bungie Link: Steam. Bungie proved its talent for weapon and encounter design in the Halo series, but Destiny 2 fits those guns into a dazzling new sci-fi setting with RPG elements and a strong reliance on fighting for fresh loot.

The community has struggled to get on board with Destiny 2's new seasonal structure, but if you're a new player there are hundreds of hours of great missions, much of which you can access for free. Competitive PvP is fairly decent, but Destiny 2's very best missions ask six players to come together in meticulously designed raids—part puzzles, part shooting challenges. As you earn power levels, you earn a huge collection of beautiful sci-fi guns, many with pages of backstory attached.

Destiny 2 still needs to prove itself as a long term prospect as a living game for really devoted hobbyists but, moment to moment, it's a beautifully designed FPS that still feels amazing a thousand hours in. We've should know; several PC Gamer staffers have spent more time than that shooting aliens across the solar system.

SWAT 4 is finally available digitally, too, after a wait of years. You can pick it up for a reasonable price from GOG. To celebrate its re-release, Andy took another look at it in With the ideas that drove its predecessor validated by strong sales, Gearbox had the resources to pour production value into the second coming of its silly, more-is-more approach to a grindy FPS.

Bandits scream, limp, kamikaze, and sputter last words. The Goliath subverts your years of training, counter-intuitively going into Hulk mode when you headshot it. Mutated pests swoop, leap, burrow, and shield their vulnerable spots. Polished, playful, and our favorite antidote to military shooters that take themselves too seriously. Borderlands 3 may be newer and shinier, but we preferred the romp across Pandora in Borderlands 2, and it has the advantages of being cheaper and playable on any modern PC.

The years-long effort of a group of modders, Sven is player cooperative Half-Life played on dozens of crazy, homemade maps. Download an assortment of weird maps, hop in Discord with five or six of your buddies, and lose yourself in hours of retro-weirdness, laughter, and awkward platforming. An outstanding co-op FPS for blasting waves of bots, Insurgency's mission structure produces a ton of tension.

Everyone on your team has a single life, but dead teammates respawn if an objective gets completed. This setup creates some brutal indoor defenses where two or three remaining players cover doorways as seconds tick down, trying to pick the right moment to reload without getting caught with an empty rifle.

A points-based gun customization system allows for genuinely different playstyles, and Insurgency's spasmodic bot AI makes enemy soldiers easy in some moments, but unpredictably deadly at others. Twelve years later, L4D2 remains an overflowing fountain of free content. Forget the stock characters although, how could you?

The original Doom was a vital multiplayer game, but the campaign is what gets the focus today. So while many of the games on this list have some sort of multiplayer component, these are the games we specifically recommend for the competitive type that cares about the best mouse DPI.