8 Best Modern Shooter Games That Use PS1-Style Graphics

Key Takeaways

• FPS games like Dread Templar & ULTRAKILL offer PS1-style graphics & fun combat mechanics.
• Project Warlock combines magic & guns in a vintage-style shooter with expressive movement.
• Games like Cultic use PS1-style graphics to deliver a horrifying experience with unique gunplay.

When it comes to the most exciting and fast-paced genre in gaming, most players agree that the FPS genre is king. Shooters have been around for decades, and over the years, they’ve been improved upon significantly with new game mechanics, devastating customizable weapons, and vicious enemies to fire at.

While some FPS games are rather short, others can keep players busy for months, delivering an amazing experience every time. The majority of modern titles in this genre opt to take advantage of the hardware available and present players with amazing graphics. However, some developers prefer to give their games a more nostalgic look. Here are some of the best modern shooter games that use PS1-style graphics.

8 Dread Templar

Fight Unholy Creatures With A Wide Arsenal Of Weapons

• Platform(s): Microsoft Windows
• Developer(s): T19 Games
• Released: January 26, 2023
• Genre(s): Shooter Video Game
• Various weapons to choose from
• Players must face unholy creatures

In Dread Templar, players take on the role of the protagonist, who shares his name with the game’s title. Throughout the game, players will have to fight merciless armies of unholy creatures that will put them to the test at every turn.

Despite being released back in 2021, this title has an overall appearance reminiscent of PS1-style graphics, which makes playing it a trip down memory lane for veteran players in their late 20s and early 30s. Dread Templar features fun game mechanics and a solid upgrade system that will keep players busy for several hours.

7 Project Warlock

Magic And Guns Must Be Used To Kill Evil Creatures

• Four different realms with creatures from each one
• Expressive movement that feels smooth

Project Warlock is an outstanding shooter game using PS1-style graphics, as combat isn’t only fun, but it also plays like it’s a vintage title. Players will control the Warlock, an individual with superhuman magic and gun skills who’s on a warpath against different corrupted creatures from the Medieval, Antarctica, Ancient Egypt, and Industrial realms.

This title is a blast to play, as its fast-paced, varied and has some really expressive movements as players shoot their way through every level. Within minutes, players will be thrown back to the early 2000s thanks to Project Warlock’s incredible design.

6 ULTRAKILL

A Fast-paced Shooter With Deep Lore

• Unique art style that looks vintage, but might not fit the PS1 look to the letter
• Interesting lore

While many shooter games that aren’t developed by AAA studios lack the proper lore to make them interesting, this isn’t the case for ULTRAKILL. Not only does this title have a very rich backstory, but the combat mechanics and the overall aesthetic of it are amazing.

It could be argued that this game looks a little newer than other titles featuring PS1-style graphics, but if players look hard enough, the look is there. The gunplay isn’t as challenging as what players would find in titles like DOOM (2016). However, it’s still somewhat difficult and very satisfying.

5 Ion Fury

A Futuristic City Needs Saving

• Futuristic setting with cybernetically-enhanced soldiers
• An outstanding throwback title in every sense of the word

While most of the games on the list so far will have players face unholy creatures from Hell and other desolate places, Ion Fury switches things up and presents a story involving cybernetically-enhanced soldiers. Players will take on the role of Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison to progress through this amazing title that will provide them with hours of fun.

It’s evident that Ion Fury takes inspiration from some of the most influential FPS games of the 90s, as it features a vintage aesthetic, and combat feels intentionally designed to flow as it would in an older title.

4 Cultic

Players Must Defeat A Twisted Cult

• Mysterious disappearances affect a small town
• Wide arsenal of weapons to choose from

With various horror elements and a ton of mystery around the disappearances of several people in a town, Cultic presents players with an interesting story that is complemented wonderfully by its amazing gunplay mechanics. Although it might be hard to imagine that a title with PS1-style graphics could deliver a horrifying experience, Cultic shows that it’s possible.

Granted, this title won’t have players jumping from their seats, but it will keep them in a state of constant stress that is most welcome in certain situations. With many different weapons and a unique art style, it’s clear that Cultic was inspired by some of the best FPS from the 1990s.

3 Nightmare Reaper

The Mind Is Home To Many Horrors

• Platform(s): PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X
• Developer(s): Blazing Bit Games
• Released: July 16, 2019
• Genre(s): Shooter Video Game
• Players take on the role of an unnamed asylum patient
• Explosives, firearms and magical artifacts are at players’ disposal

An FPS game is very likely to be interesting when it focuses on the main character’s dreams, or better said, nightmares—and Nightmare Reaper does exactly that. Focusing on an unnamed patient inside a creepy asylum, players will have to blast their way through the vicious creatures that inhabit the loneliest corners of the patient’s mind.

To do this, players will have a wide range of guns, melee weapons, explosives, and even magical weaponry at their disposal. And while these might be of great help, their skills and reflexes will still be put to the test more than once.

2 HROT

A Scary Title With Lots Of Action

• No story, only a creepy atmosphere that sets the tone for the game
• Creative enemy designs

It’s really hard to pull off an FPS game with horror elements that has no story, as typically, it’s the lore that sets players up for what they’re about the experience. That said, HROT manages to deliver an amazing experience despite having no real backstory. The only thing players know is that they’re in a socialist country neighboring the Soviet Union.

Instead of relying on narrative elements, this title messes with players’ minds and sets the stage for the constant feeling of a dark evil lurking in the shadows.

1 DUSK

Demonic Forces Emerge From Mysterious Ruins

• A network of ancient ruins is discovered beneath a small town
• Players will have to face the demonic forces that are after them

DUSK is not only a great title because it has solid combat mechanics, but also because it presents players with a very interesting and spine-chilling story. When a large network of mysterious ruins is discovered underneath the fictitious town of Dusk in Pennsylvania, the government immediately gets involved, but their findings quickly become horrifying, as a series of demonic attacks and possessions start to take place.

With a wide variety of weapons for players to use against their enemies, DUSK is arguably one of the best shooters with PS1-style graphics of the last 10 years.