Step into the heart-pounding world of FPS gaming. Ever wondered which games will get your heart-racing?

Brace yourself as I reveal the top 20  FPS games of 2024. 

Counterstrike 2 

https://youtu.be/UaHtT48MIhg?t=1414 

Counterstrike is one of my favorite tactical shooters. You can choose from two factions: the terrorists or counter-terrorists. You fight on different maps set in different parts of the world, and your outfit changes based on the country you’re in. In some maps, you’ll be tip-toeing through a jungle searching for sneaky terrorists. And in another, you’ll be behind an office chair sweating.  

Your goal is to stop the terrorists from planting the bomb on the site, you need to position yourself in a way that stops them from getting map control. I like that you can play this game for endless amounts of hours and still have more to learn. The unique part about the game is the gunplay and movement bring a lot of depth to the gameplay. There is a huge difference between a good and bad player in this game. 

leave the hacks at home buddy

PUBG: Battlegrounds 

https://youtu.be/6PVOJ8uNwwI?t=242 

PUBG is one of the best battle royale games of our time. You land on a deserted island where you must rush to grab a gun quickly before your enemy. The maps require you to learn the gun spawns and make a coordinate landing to the best loot spots. 

. The game keeps you guessing as you have to worry about pesky prone campers, and ghillied out snipers. The goal is for you to kill everyone and be the last one standing. But some people prefer to hide in a bathroom until the last 10 are alive. Whatever method you choose to reach the end - the game becomes a high-octane experience that readily becomes addicting.

um, where to now? Beats me

Apex Legends 

https://youtu.be/8kOiaAKmyG0?t=287

Apex Legends is another popular Battle Royale title where you play in a 3 man squad as a unique legend.. Legends are the different kinds of soldiers with unique backstories and abilities. You compete as a squad against others to be crowned champion.  

I enjoy the maps because they have a blend of landscapes and high-tech elements with a lot of different angles you can be shot at. The cool part is sliding down an icy-windy mountain and two-tapping some guy in the head with the wingman. Or bouncing off the wall and shooting a dude in the face.   

Your goal is to be the last squad alive, and you can do this by quickly gliding across the map and hunting people down. Or you can strategically pit teams against each other and pick off the lower health team once they are done. I enjoy the characters because they all have unique abilities which allows you to create different team synergies. 

Caustic not looking so legendary now

Destiny 2 

https://youtu.be/FhAOsQ8ujig?t=1066 

Destiny 2 is a science fiction based shooter where you play as a Guardian. You can explore various different planets which have different kinds of enemies. Some are hostile uncharted areas where you’ll encounter some strange species. And in others – like planet Earth, you can channel your inner futuristic Native American and save the tribe against invaders.

The goal of the game is to restore peace and make the right alliances and fight against the enemies of the galaxy. I enjoy the class-based PVP in this game. The unique part of the game is it seamlessly combines the single player and multiplayer experience together.

fighting off the alien horde

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® Siege 

https://youtu.be/mcRzTml-CPw?t=251 

 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® Siege is a tactical-based FPS game. You play as an elite counter-terrorist unit that has to rescue hostages or stop terrorists from planting a bomb. 

The game requires you to tactically navigate through offices and hotel rooms, peeking closely to see if an enemy is around the corner. Your enemy is also doing the same. It’s a game that requires your wits and movement.   

 Your goal is to work together as a team to stop the terrorists from planting or defusing a bomb that has been planted. It depends on the game mode, but sometimes you’re rescuing hostages from the bad guys too. 

The game is unique as there is a heavy emphasis on realism and team communication. You can’t easily run in guns blazing like in other FPS games. . You’re rewarded for being a good team player and making the right plays together. Each character has unique abilities that can help you gain information on the enemy to give you an advantage.

I need good comms and a donut break

COD Warzone 

https://youtu.be/fRM9z9GiAX4?t=625 

Another very popular battle royale game from the Call of Duty franchise is COD Warzone. The game is about taking control of the island Verdansk and collecting weapons and equipment along the way to fight against your enemies. 

The maps are quite different and have their unique style, with many different places like suburban and military areas, and skyscrapers to snipe off of. There are many great vantage points you can use to pick off stragglers. 

The goal of the game is to eliminate everyone on the island, and be the last one alive. What makes this battle royale unique is that the deadly circle forces you to take gunfights. You aren’t able to camp as effectively with other Battle Royales. 

The other great feature is that if you die you get sent to the gulag where you battle it out 1on1 with another person who recently died. If you win you get a second chance at the game again.  

maybe I need to find some cover

Battlefield 1 

https://youtu.be/fRM9z9GiAX4?t=625 

What I enjoy about battlefield 1 is that you feel as if you’ve been transported back to the past. You feel as if you’re actually in World War 1. The guns needed to be manually reloaded, trench warfare, and riding horses.  If you want to make history buffs irk as you unload your machine gun at blazing fast tanks this is a great game.  Despite it not being a perfect representation of world war 1 you get invested in the characters as they are used to portray the human side of war.

The game has a variety of maps too, so sometimes you’re out in the desert. Or at times you might be getting gas-attacked while huddled in a German trench. 

Your goal is to capture the points on the map and reduce the enemies numbers to zero sort of like an actual war. 

Using weapons from WW1 is what makes the game stand out., and being able to fight on maps that depict actual battlefields. It’s the only game where your character gets to wear the goofiest-looking tin helmet and still look like a badass. 

It’s all fun and games until I rewrite history

Team Fortress 2 

https://youtu.be/qsJ2-a8g-7k?t=375 

Team Fortress 2 is all about blending comedy with solid fps gameplay mechanics. It’s known as an FPS game that has been meme’d to death but still has a special place in our hearts. 

If you like a blend of the past and future with ww-2 era stuff mixed in with futuristic gadgets then you’ll enjoy this game. Everything has a very colorful and cartoony feel. 

There are several modes to choose from. But my favorite is payload because you must transport a cart filled with explosives to the end of the map. While you do this everyone is constantly respawning and attacking you from all angles. It means you must use teamwork to stop them and get safely to the end before the time runs out. 

What’s unique about the game is the cartoony style and quirky characters. Each class is unique and has its own playstyle, and the game has a ton of depth. You could spend endless hours learning the intricacies of each class. 

you wish you had a gun like this one

Ready or Not 

https://youtu.be/-uBsiLd-09k?t=17 

Ready or Not is an immersive experience where you play as a member of the Swat team. It takes you through the life of a police officer and puts you in the perspective of someone responsible for saving lives.    

When you enter a building you get a sense that it’s familiar. As if you’ve seen it before. I think that’s what makes the game incredibly tense. The fact that you know this has happened or could happen. And you’re responsible for people's lives.  

The goal of the game is to rescue the hostages and take out the bad guys. Along the way, your team can die from just about anything. And can you believe there’s no sprint button? You’re faced with these crazy situations and you can’t even run away.   

The unique part of the game is its unforgiving nature. You can easily die from anything, booby traps or random stray bullets. You feel like you really can't make a mistake because it can mean someone dying.   

Honey! I’m home

 Hunt Showdown 

https://youtu.be/X0gGBSDTIx8?t=290 

The next game is Hunt Showdown which is an extraction shooter. Your task is to hunt down monsters and collect bounties. 

The game is set in the 1800s and has a lot of occult themes. It feels like you’re playing a mix of a Western and horror game.   

Each map has you roaming through swamps and decaying environments that keep you on your toes. Picture this: you’ve just taken down this massive spider. Meanwhile, loot-hungry players are coming from all angles after your hard-earned loot.  

What makes this game unique are the sound cues that can give away your position or alert you to where the other players are. You can use these sounds to play stealthily or plan your attack once someone’s done looting. If you die you lose all your loot, which makes the stakes that much higher. Every moment feels very intense and you’re scared of what’s just around the corner of that barn door. 

I didn’t sign up for this

Squad 

https://youtu.be/s4RqWW8Bn2w?t=2 

Squad is a PVP military simulator, the game allows you to play in a 50-man squad against an enemy team of 50 players. You have to work together to complete different objectives on every map.   

Get ready to switch up your game plan on each map because you have a variety of different environments, such as snow, desert, and forest. In each map, you have to adapt to the weather conditions, as it can affect your visibility or movement.  

The goal of the game is to outlast your enemy team by bringing down their tickets successfully. You can gain tickets by capturing points, and you lose them for your team every time you die.  

What makes the game unique is that the game is player-driven. You feel like you’re in an actual war. You have to coordinate with your teammates and use communication effectively to beat the other team.   

I think I see something!  No, wait..it’s just a squirrel with sunglasses.

Titanfall 2 

https://youtu.be/qBnBkIqeG28?t=5077 

Titanfall is a futuristic shooter where you team up with a gigantic robot called a Titan to stop the bad guys from taking over and destroying the universe. The maps you play on are large industrialized areas with towering skyscrapers where you can slide off walls and fight up close.  

The goal of the game is to destroy the other enemy titans, and kill all enemy players, In the move Attrition you also have a mix of PvP and PvE since some enemies are NPCs  

What makes the game unique is that after racking up enough kills you can call in your Titan and wreak havoc. It’s awesome when one drops in because you can unleash special abilities or just pound those little pilots into the ground and watch them run scared.  

Plus, if someone gets up close to your Titan and they’re low on health, you can finish them off with a brutal execution move. 

um, do I get one of those?

Planetside 2 

https://youtu.be/tWRRCDYrnfg?t=300 

Planetside 2 is an awesome game where you get to pick from three factions and jump into a never-ending war across a futuristic galaxy. It's a persistent world where you’re thrown into a massive battle with hundreds of players.  

You fight across several different planets each with distinct environments, such as snow, desert, and forest areas. The maps have wide open spaces which encourage long-range combat and vehicular warfare. 

The maps have several important bases that you must capture. The goal of the game is to capture these points and successfully control the planet.  

What makes the game unique is that you get to fight with hundreds of players all in one map and the game combines aspects of an MMO with features of an FPS game. When you level up you can spend certification points to customize your character. You can become an expert Mosquito pilot or a cloaked soldier stabbing unsuspecting snipers out in the mountains, and more. 

for the republic!

The Finals 

https://youtu.be/J9pNWQQc1lo?t=70 

The Finals is a unique arena fps game where you battle other teams in 3vs3 fights. The game's theme is sort of like a mix between Squid Game, Hunger Games meets Running Man. But instead of playing Arnold Schwarzenegger, you're just a skinny contestant. 

You get to play on maps based on actual cities in real life. The difference? You can destroy them and turn them into rubble as you compete to stash as much cash into your bank.  Your goal is to collect as much money as possible before the time runs out. There's something satisfying about unloading bullets on someone  and watching them turn into a bunch of tiny little gold coins. 

 I think that's what separates the Finals from other fps games in this genre. It doesn't take itself too seriously and has a unique objective and style. You have some similarities with character customization where it's kind of like Fortnite. But I enjoy punching through walls with the heavy. 

It all comes down to this, folks…

Valorant 

https://youtu.be/yhSNWzt_WCY?t=231 

Valorant has a unique take on Counterstrike and Dota 2 as it combines fps gameplay with unique character abilities similar to Mobas.  

What I like about Valorant is that you have the serious tone of a shooter, but with an anime style that mixes cartoony effects with the same choke points and verticality in other fps games. The goal of the game is similar to CS in that your job is to plant the bomb at one of the sites. One team is tasked with defending and the other attacking.  

The unique part about the game is that each character has their own distinct personality and unique abilities. You might be rushing down a lane, and get one tapped by an Omen that just teleported behind you. Or your whole team could get an orbital strike as you wait behind a corner. The abilities keep games exciting and unpredictable as you try to gain map control. 

Um, who’s going first?

DayZ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkAnmfz51p0&t=326s

Dayz is a game where you have to survive in a world surrounded by zombies and other players in a large immersive world set in a fictional country called Chernarus.   

The map gives off the vibe that you're somewhere out in eastern europe. You're lost in a post-apocalyptic world where you can't even afford a can of beans. So, your best bet is sipping water from ponds and whacking zombies with a shovel to survive.  

The game is all about doing everything possible to survive. You have to drink, eat, and find the right clothes for the weather. It's unforgiving in that if you get beat up by a zombie and die, you lose everything you had on you. Even worse if you encounter some ghillied out player hiding in the forest, you have no chance.  

What makes the game unique is that there is no "endgame" besides what you and other players make of it. Whenever you encounter a player you're always with the option of making a friend or blasting their head off with a shotgun and collecting their boots. 

get off my lawn

Escape from Tarkov 

https://youtu.be/4sIACbNzhNc?t=257 

Tarkov is one of the most popular extraction shooters out today. The game is set in a fictional war-torn city where you must navigate through a series of maps and ultimately escape with whatever loot you find.  

You get to choose the equipment you want to bring before a match. So, if you want to go sneaky with just a pistol – you can.  There’s no shame in hiding in the shadows from the juiced-out chads unloading millions of rumbles into each other. Scavenging for whatever loot you find from dead players is a viable strategy since the goal is to get out alive. You aren’t necessarily rewarded for getting a lot of kills – the game doesn’t care. 

I like that it's a mix of a tactical shooter and MMO. You can level up and improve your skills. Some of these skills are important – like strength. As you can run faster, jump higher, and carry a lot more loot.  

Another cool aspect of the game is that there are quests and bosses on each map. So, you don’t necessarily need to play the game like a run-and-gun maniac. You can also slow it down and complete quests and kill the scavs, which are the weaker player-controlled characters that are tasked to run around and scavenge for whatever is left behind. 

looting is easy, getting out is the real challenge!

Cyberpunk 2077 

https://youtu.be/DWUp56Eqw-U?t=93 

Cyberpunk is a single-player dystopian-esque open-world game. The story is about Night City and the fight for control between corporations and gangs. You have a lot of influence on who has power as the decisions you make can shift the balance of power.  

You fight in a city that is controlled by corporations and gangs. And you get to choose who you help or who you screw over. Your goal is simply to survive, which sometimes means befriending a local gang member with a face tattoo. Or even making friends with a greedy corporate executive. The game is driven entirely by your choices. 

A cool part about your character is that you get to wear cyberware which are implants that can give you an advantage in a fight. You can wear a camo that lets you go invisible. Or even get stronger legs for some double-jumping action. You also get quick hacks which can help you fight your enemies or even get past them stealthily.  

The combination of quick hacks and cyberware allows you to have a unique experience while playing the game. What other game lets you create a cybernetic one-armed oddball with blue hair who can rock dual-wielded swords? 

when you bring the wrong gun to the cybernetic arms race

Deep Rock Galactic 

https://youtu.be/L04f8-kmC10?t=475 

Deep Rock Galactic is a 4 person co-op game where you get to play as a dwarf space miner. You are hired by a greedy corporation to mine valuable resources. You are sent to various planets to explore different alien caves.   

Your goal is to mine these resources while fending off hordes of aliens that stand between you and your paycheck. Sometimes, you’re tasked with retrieving ore from another team that failed to extract.  

What makes the game unique is the quirky tone blended with the different classes you can choose from. You can play as a driller that can drop explosives that blow aliens to bits. Or play as a gunner and unload hundreds of bullets into pesky alien scum.  

What sets the game apart is the quirky tone and diverse classes you can choose from. You can play as a Driller that blasts aliens to bits. Or mow down pesky alien scum with a Gunner. Each class assigns depth and replay value to the co-op experience. 

making new alien friends, one at a time

Doom Eternal 

https://youtu.be/f6_rMEEEY6s?t=91 

In Doom Eternal you play as a badass warrior who has to fight against demonic forces that are trying to destroy humanity.. You fight in a futuristic wasteland that is overrun by aliens and demonic creatures.   

The goal is to stop these things from invading and protect humanity at all costs. The unique part of the game is the movement. You can air strafe around the corner and move quicker and evade enemies. You can use ballista boosting to instantly propel yourself across the map and chainsaw your enemy's face. You feel like you’re in a movie because all of the gunfights are very violent and over the top. 

Time to call the demon pest control!