Ranking The Greatest Third-Person Shooters

Key Takeaways

• Third-person shooters offer a unique camera perspective, diverse gameplay options, and immersive narratives.
• Vanquish, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Armored Core 6 are standout third-person shooters with distinctive gameplay features.
• The genre includes diverse titles like Spec Ops: The Line, Resident Evil 4, and Grand Theft Auto 5, offering varied experiences.

Video games are all about transporting us to wondrous realities far different from our own. They allow us to perform abilities or fight enemies we couldn’t imagine even in our wildest dreams. The beauty of games is there are countless options out there spanning many genres, always offering something for everyone. The third-person shooter is one of the more popular genres with quite a few games that can be considered all-time greats.

While shooting games overall tend to be very popular, there’s a major difference between first-person and third-person: the vision. First-person shooters show the camera as if you were the actual character and third-person shooters show the camera floating slightly behind the character’s shoulder. The third-person genre has been a staple in video game history but has seen vast improvements. These are the best third-person games that the genre has to offer.

Updated on November 2nd, 2024, by Hilton Webster: Third-Person Shooters are some of the most common games out there, but that commonality is what allows its to be stretched across so many types of games. You’ll find full-on action games, RPGs, strategy, and so much more. To showcase that, we’ve added even more stellar games.

Vanquish

To talk about third-person shooters and ignore Vanquish is already a severe crime, but to not acknowledge what exactly it is that makes it so good is worse still. Directed by Shinji Mikami as his only game at PlatinumGames, Vanquish is also to this day one of the most unique third-person shooters to grace the scene.

Vanquish styles itself as a cover shooter, moving from cover-to-cover to advance on your enemies. Except that’s really just for scene-setting. Instead, you’ll be vaulting over cover, sprinting across the battlefield, and slowing down time in one of the most frenetic, stylish shooters there is. There’s nothing cooler than tossing a cigarette to distract the enemy as you rain bullets on them.

Horizon: Zero Dawn

A third-person shooter can be anything it wants to be, and a post-apocalyptic open-world game filled with machines emulating organic life is just another one of them. While the sequel builds upon much of the foundations laid down by the original, Zero Dawn indirectly puts extra emphasis on its third-person shooter mechanics by merit of their comparative strength.

Drawing your bow in Zero Dawn just feels so damn satisfying. Every shot feels like it matters and has such good feedback. Combine this with your various tools and the weight and snappiness each of them exhibits and you’ve got some stellar gunplay.

Armored Core 6: Fires Of Rubicon

Armored Core 6 takes third-person shooters to a new level. It’s one thing to wield a gun yourself, but harnessing the power of a firearm that only a mech of this scale can handle is a terrifying power, and opens up some intense actions that no single person could achieve.

As you dash across the desolate, industrialised landscapes of Rubicon, you’ll be taking down plenty of other mechs. The way you move, the weapons you use, and the enemies you face all lend the game a tactical combat feel that can’t be gotten anywhere but in Armored Core.

Remnant 2

Remnant 2 combines third-person shooting action with elements from the Soulslike genre. Incorporating aspects like a dodge button and rest points for respawning after death, it offers a challenge akin to Dark Souls but with guns.

One of the standout features of the game is its procedural generation. This means that the worlds you visit, the characters you encounter, and even the story and items you discover are all randomized. As a result, each playthrough offers a fresh and unpredictable experience, adding an exciting dynamic to the game. Alongside all of this, you will still enjoy the satisfying third-person shooting mechanics and engage in diverse boss fights, just with an extra challenge to it.

Resident Evil 4 Remake

Who hasn’t played the original Resident Evil 4 game back in the 2000s? With the announcement of the Remake back in the day, anticipation ran high, and thankfully, it didn’t disappoint. Resident Evil 4 Remake maintains the familiar feel of the original, from the iconic locations to the beloved characters, while also adding some extra touches to enhance the experience.

You’ll step into the shoes of the legendary Leon S. Kennedy as he embarks on his mission to rescue the president’s daughter, Ashley Graham, battling through hordes of Las Plagas creatures who will stop at nothing to thwart him. However, if you’re not a fan of horror, this might not be the game for you.

Spec Ops: The Line

At first glance, Spec Ops: The Line may appear to be just another third-person military shooter. You’re part of Delta Force, sent on a recon mission to Dubai – a setting that initially seems quite generic for the genre.

However, as the story unravels, you’re immersed in one of the most intriguing, thought-provoking, and clever narratives in gaming history. This aspect alone makes the game worth playing. But it doesn’t stop there – the combat is solid, and the sandy landscape of Dubai provides a unique backdrop for the action.

Saints Row: The Third

The Saints Row series may have begun life as one of the best Grand Theft Auto clones, but it soon created its own identity. The third game is the perfect example of that, as it’s Saints Row at its peak. It offers wacky weapons, strange characters, plenty of explosions, and a great soundtrack.

The story is a classic Saints tale, too, as it revolves around your customizable protagonist leading the Saints against all the other gangs in Steelport and trying to take the city over. This narrative is the perfect excuse for plenty of open-world hijinks and even more violence. It’s outrageous fun.

Max Payne

To what lengths would you go to solve the murder of your family? That’s a question Max Payne must face, as the NYPD detective tries to find his family’s killer. While investigating, Payne is caught in a larger conspiracy that includes information about a secret society and the United States military.

The game used a feature called Bullet Time, which caused time to slow down. Max Payne seemed like an ordinary third-person shooter but the game receives tremendous praise for its gunplay and the overall story. The success of Max Payne resulted in two sequels and a film adaptation in 2008.

Army Of Two

Army of Two launched amid the cooperative boom on consoles of the mid-2000s. You needed to have precise teamwork to have true success in the game and ultimately, Army of Two was meant to be played with another real person, though it does have a Partner Artificial Intelligence system, so you could play solo. Certain objectives in the game are virtually impossible without the assistance of a second player or AI.

The game follows two mercenaries fighting through a political conspiracy from 1993 to 2009. Besides the main story mode, Army of Two also had online multiplayer and was one of the first games of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 era to have region-locked multiplayer. Ultimately, Army of Two was praised for the in-depth cooperative play but only if you played with an actual real person instead of the AI.

Crackdown

During the mid-2000s, one of the standout video game series from Xbox Game Studios was Crackdown. Set in a futuristic dystopian city, essentially a police state ruled by the Agency, this third-person shooter offers a unique premise.

As a supersoldier for the Agency, you’re tasked with patrolling the city and neutralizing various threats, from terrorists to occasional monsters. Crackdown evokes a vibe reminiscent of games like Saints Row and Grand Theft Auto but with an arcade-style twist. Critics particularly lauded the game’s emphasis on environmental destruction and the freedom to explore the expansive world without being tied to a linear story.

Days Gone

Exploring a post-apocalyptic world is a common setting for video games and that’s the case with Days Gone. The game follows Deacon St. John, a former outlaw who embarks on a journey to find his wife Sarah, who he thought was dead.

Days Gone takes place in Oregon roughly two years after a pandemic transformed a multitude of humans into zombie creatures called Freakers. Days Gone received mixed reviews because of its story and mission design but was praised for its artificial intelligence and graphics. Although Days Gone sold better compared to other games that Bend Studio developed, Sony elected against making a sequel.

The Evil Within

The Evil Within treads the line of being a third-person shooter, but we include it because, well, the camera is in third-person and you shoot guns. This survival horror follows Detective Sebastian Castellanos investigating a mass murder at a mental hospital. However, Castellanos stumbles upon an evil that blows his reality.

Developed by Tango Gameworks and published by Bethesda, The Evil Within received tremendous praise for the gameplay, but the overall story was a bit more mixed. The Evil Within tends to fall into the same category as Resident Evil, so if you’re a fan of those horror shooters then The Evil Within is sure to please.

Destroy All Humans 2 Reprobed

Ever wanted to experience an alien invasion, but instead of fighting against the extraterrestrials, you played as one? Destroy All Humans 2 Reprobed is a remake of the same original PS2 game and the first entry in the series since 2008. The remake features the same story following the Furon alien Crypto.

Crypto has a small arsenal of nine weapons in his pursuit of world domination. Everything from your standard disintegrator ray to something slightly less violent in the Free Love goggles, Destroy All Humans 2 Reprobed has plenty of firepower to torment humans.

Mafia

The original Mafia game in 2002 was an early testament to what this series would be. Set in 1930, Mafia follows the rise and subsequent fall of Tommy Angelo, a taxi driver who turned mobster. Although compared plenty to Grand Theft Auto, Mafia managed to establish itself as a successful series in the genre.

Mafia received tremendous praise for the story and, at the time, featured one of the largest cities to explore. The gameplay is similar to Grand Theft Auto and most other third-person shooters but is considered one of the best games in 2002. Now, with a remake available, there’s no reason not to give it a go.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Taking place two years after the first game of the series, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is considered by many to be the best of the series. The story continues to follow Nathan Drake, who’s in search of the Cintamani Stone and Shambhala with Chloe Frazer and Elena Fisher.

The gameplay follows the same formula as its predecessor with Drake being able to jump, climb, and hide behind cover in firefights. Shooting mechanics were drastically improved from the first game, as well as having a competitive and cooperative multiplayer mode. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves received high praise and multiple Game of the Year awards in 2009. To this day, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is still considered one of the best PS3 games of all time.

Alan Wake

Developed by Remedy, Alan Wake isn’t your typical third-person shooter. While there is some gunplay involved, Remedy’s 2010 classic is more of a psychological thriller that could be compared to the hit television show X-Files. The game follows best-selling writer Alan Wake trying to solve the mystery of his wife’s disappearance, with the kicker being that the events of the game are frighteningly similar to the events of his best-selling novel.

While exploring the small town of Bright Falls, Washington, you’ll encounter various people who are becoming corrupted by a mysterious darkness. Alan Wake features traditional gunplay with standard handheld weapons and a special flashlight that’s used to destroy darkness as well. A remastered version of the game launched in 2021 that saw updated graphics and enhanced controls for a better experience.

Star Wars: Battlefront 2

For over four decades, Star Wars has remained one of the biggest and most popular properties in pop culture. People have pretended to wield lightsabers, use the Force, and talk backward like Yoda. There have been plenty of iconic Star Wars video games for fans of all genres, including one of the best shooters in Star Wars: Battlefront 2. Despite receiving negative attention for microtransactions and excessive grinding, Battlefront 2 is the pinnacle of shooting games set in the Star Wars universe.

Players drop into one of the fourteen different Star Wars locations and not only fight their way to victory but also toward more powerful characters. If you perform well in battle, you’ll have the option to temporarily upgrade your character to a special Star Wars fighter like Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader. These characters have the power to drastically turn the tide of any battle. Although the game received plenty of negative criticism for some of the business decisions, Star Wars Battlefront 2 offers superb gunplay and is deserving among the top of this genre.

Dead Space

During the PS3/Xbox 360 era, there were a few prominent horror shooter games that hit the market, including Dead Space. Developed by Visceral Games and published by EA, Dead Space is a mash of science-fiction and horror elements that culminate in one of the better third-person shooter experiences.

Set in the distant future, Dead Space follows Isaac Clarke, an engineer who battles a horde of mutated enemies called Necromorphs aboard the ship USG Ishimura. While Clarke must fight against these undead foes, the main adversaries are a group of fanatics who follow the religion of Unitology. They believe the Earth’s government has suppressed an alien artifact called the Maker and they wish to use this artifact to invoke some sort of unification process. Dead Space is regarded as one of the greatest games of all time for its gunplay and the proper mix of science-fiction and horror elements.

Rise Of The Tomb Raider

The sequel to the 2013 Tomb Raider game, Rise of the Tomb Raider followed Lara Croft on her journey to discover the city of Kitezh. Along the way, Croft fights against the militaristic organization Trinity, as they vie for the city’s powers of immortality. Rise of the Tomb Raider succeeded in elevating Croft’s story to the next level, while also providing amazing gameplay. Its success led to another sequel in Shadow of the Tomb Raider in 2018.

Many of the features in Rise of the Tomb Raider were existing ones from the previous game but improved upon in various ways. In an attempt to make the game feel more like survival, Crystal Dynamics expanded upon the hunting system but also made leveling up Croft’s skills and abilities easier this time around. The number of quick-time events was also reduced which gave fresh life to the world of Siberia around her.

Tom Clancy’s The Division

Fans of competitive shooters are quite familiar with Tom Clancy games. The Rainbow Six series has remained a staple among that community for what seems like forever, so there was much anticipation when Ubisoft announced a live-service Tom Clancy experience. Set in snowy New York City, a deadly virus has spread throughout the city and the streets have become a war zone. Known as the Green Poison, the virus was transmitted through the handling of money. So, naturally, with everyone shopping on Black Friday, it was the boiling point for the virus to erupt and run ramped through the city.

Although Tom Clancy’s The Division plays like a third-person shooter, it mixes in RPG elements, as well. In what many would describe as “spongy enemies,” the enemies you fight in The Division have larger health bars that require a bit more firepower to take down. On the multiplayer side, The Division featured various raids and harder missions in areas called Dark Zones, while also adding more online modes like Survival, Resistance, and Skirmish.