The Best Shooters From 20 Years Ago (As Of 2025)

Genres always change, but it feels like first-person shooters have undergone the most significant transformation in recent decades. Perhaps it can be traced back to 2007’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and how it revolutionized online multiplayer. It was another few years after that when microtransactions got into the mix.

Turn the clock back twenty years and none of that was a part of the conversation. It makes the games listed below so refreshing to play again. They hold up so well precisely because of how much the genre has changed, even if some of the mechanics don’t feel as tight as they once did.

8

Doom 3

Took Series Into A Horror-Focused Direction

The biggest thing working against Doom 3 is the fact it is Doom 3. With some of the most beautiful graphics of the time, people were looking forward to the hectic Doom action in the new generation. If you accept that it is a slower, horror-themed title and not an imitation of the older games, then Doom 3 becomes a lot more enjoyable.

You eventually play a couple of levels in Hell that call back to the classic titles, but it is just a small part of the larger campaign. The series eventually looked back to its roots in 2016, leaving Doom 3 as an enjoyable outlier.

7

F.E.A.R.

Slow Motion, Horror, And Lots Of Blood

F.E.A.R. manages to combine bombastic action with spine-tingling horror. Where a lot of first-person horror experiences are slow and methodical, F.E.A.R. lets you gib enemies with a shotgun and slow down time as bullets whiz by. The enemy AI is particularly smart here and ensures each firefight feels unique.

They flank you and vault over parts of the environment. It helps distract from the game’s major weakness: its repetitive environments. It and Doom 3 felt like the first next-generation games of the era, along with 2004’s Half-Life 2.

Trepang 2 feels a lot like a spiritual successor to F.E.A.R. It similarly lets you slow down time during gunfights.

6

Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game Of The Movie

A Surprisingly Faithful Adaptation Of The Movie

Some game adaptations of movies make sense as first-person shooters. Making King Kong an FPS seemed less obvious, but it worked. The short adventure is split between first-person levels and third-person segments, where you control the titular Kong.

The first-person levels manage to create an increased sense of immersion as you explore Skull Island. It is a shooter where you take on the monsters on the island while roughly tracing through the steps of the Peter Jackson film. It is arguably too short for what was once a $60 game, but without considering the price, it is a fun narrative-driven adventure.

5

Condemned: Criminal Origins

Melee Combat Through Dirty, Terrifying Environments

Condemned: Criminal Origins’s combat is mostly based around melee attacks. This makes sure you have to get up close and personal with enemies, further increasing the tension of an already supremely creepy game. The murky environments and the fact this game takes place mostly at night put it right in line with Outlast and Resident Evil 7.

One mechanic involves investigating crime scenes with various forensic tools. It is easy to see this as a predecessor to the “detective vision” mechanics that would be used in The Witcher 3, Arkham Asylum, and many others.

4

Quake 4

From Developers Who Would Go On To Work On Call Of Duty

After Quake 3: Arena’s focus on multiplayer, Quake 4 brought with it a single-player campaign that continued the story from the second game. However, development duties were handed to Raven Software, who are known now for their contributions to Call of Duty.

It is impossible to say how Id Software, the series’ creators, would have done with the fourth entry. The Quake 4 we have is a great shooter, but it lacks any great innovation that makes it stand out against Doom 3 and F.E.A.R.

3

Call Of Duty 2

Long Before Modern Warfare

A lot of Call of Duty fans probably never touched any entry in the series before Modern Warfare. The series was still exclusively set in World War 2 at this point.

Though a lot has changed about the games, some DNA still traces back to the second game in the series, such as the need to aim down the sights for more accurate shooting. As an Xbox 360 launch title, it was one of the first multiplayer experiences for many owners of the console.

2

Cold Winter

A Spy Thriller Set In The Modern Day

FPS games almost always looked and played better on Xbox. As a PS2 exclusive, Cold Winter did not have this problem. It managed to pull off some impressive visuals from the console as well. The dismemberment is particularly brutal, and you can interact with various objects in the environment.

You can even search dead enemy bodies for ammo and health. Using automatic weapons and shotguns leaves bodies in pieces in both single-player and multiplayer. The story takes place in the 21st century, utilizing a variety of settings from China, Egypt, and the Himalayan Mountains.

1

TimeSplitters: Future Perfect

A Comedy About Time Travel

Future Perfect takes the absurdity of the first two TimeSplitters games and actually gives it some context. The single-player has a fully developed story that connects the various time periods and characters.

Outside of that, the Challenge and Arcade League modes gave the developers more excuses to add whacky characters wherever they could. It’s nice to play a game with over a hundred originally designed characters that aren’t taking advantage of a pop culture trend or crossing over with another intellectual property.