The action genre of video games brings you some of the most riveting level design and set pieces and fills the landscape with intense combat encounters that oftentimes include well-balanced and satisfying mechanics. PC is flooded with numerous titles that have tons of incredible action in store, whether it be fantasy RPGs, first-person shooters, or cinematic narrative-driven titles.
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Another great trend that expands the action library on PC is notable PlayStation hits heading over to the platform. Many of the games from that influx have ended up on this list, on top of many others that equally stand out in their immersive and non-stop action.
Updated on March 20, 2025, by Dennis Moiseyev: Action games offer some of the best experiences no matter the platform, but PC certainly has the widest variety, especially with more and more titles coming over from PlayStation. You now have a couple more action games from this former PlayStation exclusive bunch that are added here, along with others that have equally exciting gameplay and mesmerizing graphics.
1
Star Wars Outlaws
Star Wars Outlaws was certainly one of the most underrated games of 2024, and now is as good a time as ever to join in on the action as a blaster-wielding scoundrel in the galaxy far, far away, considering lots of major improvements and updates have been done to it. In Star Wars Outlaws, you have a vast, gorgeous open world to explore, one that also features new planetary environments and even dogfighting and space travel.
Finally retiring a Jedi protagonist, Star Wars: Outlaws allows you to become steeped into the galaxy’s dangerous underworld and prove faction loyalty to various crime syndicates, including the Pykes and the Crimson Dawn. The main story follows Kay Vess and her adorable animal companion Nix as they’re entangled with the Empire, and there are plenty of references to the films as well as cameo appearances from major characters.
2
God Of War Ragnarok
- Released
-
November 9, 2022
- Engine
-
Proprietary Engine
- ESRB
-
M For Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language
Like the 2018 game, God Of War Ragnarok has now also come to PC with its complimentary Valhalla DLC included. Ragnarok continues where the previous title left off, with Kratos and Atreus preparing to face off against Odin and his forces to prevent the onslaught of the titular apocalypse. The sequel will now also take you to all nine of the stunning and scenic realms of Norse mythology.
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The bestiary is expanded with new creatures for you to take on, there is a larger variety of boss fights, and the story has been incredibly expanded from the more linear 2018 game. Then, there’s also plenty of more hack-and-slash action to enjoy with new mechanics, and you can now even play as both Kratos and Atreus throughout the story.
3
Black Myth: Wukong
- Released
-
August 20, 2024
- Developer(s)
-
Game Science
- Publisher(s)
-
Game Science
- Engine
-
Unreal Engine 5
- ESRB
-
M For Mature 17+ // Blood, Violence
More mythology and action-adventure collide in The Game Award winner for Best Action Game, Black Myth: Wukong. The story is inspired by Journey to the West and follows the character modeled after Sun Wukong, named the Destined One here. Built in Unreal 5, the environments and landscapes are very detailed and gorgeous, and the boss fight designs can rival FromSoftware titles.
However, the difficulty of the boss fights shouldn’t deter you from playing this game, since Black Myth: Wukong comes with intricate systems and combat design that will make you only better and better the more you progress. Some of the challenging bosses you’ll face are truly the most memorable and represent the best of 2024, whether it be their design or their move sets.
4
Red Dead Redemption
After over a decade, the original Red Dead Redemption has migrated over to PC, and you can finally explore technically what is the sequel to 2018’s Red Dead Redemption 2 with better graphics and visual improvements. Even better is that it comes with the Undead Nightmare spin-off if you’re looking for some zombie action with your cowboy bounty hunter adventure.
Red Dead Redemption tells the unforgettable story of John Marston, one of the most tragic anti-heroes in gaming history. Marston will now be working for the US government as a bounty hunter prior to the eve of World War 1 to track down and eliminate some of his old gang members, including their leader, Dutch van der Linde. The gunplay, missions, and scenic environments are as immersive as ever.
5
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
- Released
-
October 20, 2023
- Publisher(s)
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Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Engine
-
Insomniac Engine v.4.0
- ESRB
-
T For Teen Due To Blood, Drug Reference, Mild Language, Violence
Another long-awaited game to go from PlayStation to PC is Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, the stellar sequel to both the 2018 title and the Miles Morales spin-off. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 will allow you to switch between Peter Parker and Miles Morales in a sprawling campaign that introduces new villains, like Venom and Kraven the Hunter, and offers an even larger open world of New York City.
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Spider-Man 2 sets things off with an impressive opening mission where you fight Sandman, topping the Wilson Fisk fight in the first game. Then, there are many twists and surprises in the main story and also the side quests. The sequel centers on the Symbiote and Kraven’s hunt for Spider-Man’s most famous villains, with new abilities and suits adding to the spectacular web-slinging action adventure.
6
The First Descendant
The First Descendant is a free-to-play online multiplayer game built in Unreal Engine 5 that shares some of the core themes and gameplay mechanics of Warframe, Destiny 2, and Gears of War but offers its own unique lore and sci-fi story. You have 14 different Descendant characters to play and unlock, each coming with distinct abilities like freezing enemies, producing electrical shocks, or dealing water splash damage.
For a completely free game (minus the standard microtransactions), the graphics and world design are stunning, and the third-person looter shooter gameplay won’t be getting old anytime soon. Taking you around different locations on the planet known as Ingris, The First Descendant’s missions are fast-paced and involve constant shootouts with an alien threat called the Vulgus, who are led by Karel, along with various challenging bosses.
7
Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora
Though more well-known for developing third-person shooter games like Tom Clancy’s The Division series, Massive Entertainment went in a bold and new direction with the ambitious FPS design of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. This canon video game entry in the Avatar series from James Cameron is available on both Steam and the Epic Games Store.
Frontiers of Pandora continues the fantastic world-building of the Avatar series with the area known as the Western Frontier, home to flora and fauna both familiar and new, as well as new Na’vi clans not seen in the films. You can bond with Ikrans and take to the skies to shoot down RDA gunships, hunt and parkour through the lavish Pandoran landscapes in first-person, and clear out enemy camps to reduce the RDA’s presence.
8
Kingdom Hearts 3 + Re Mind (DLC)
The Kingdom Hearts series is undoubtedly one of the hardest to grasp in gaming, with the story and lore being way too detailed and drawn-out to leave you feeling easily lost. However, Kingdom Hearts 3 is absolutely worth trying out, even if you haven’t been introduced to the previous entries and are unfamiliar with the story. It’s now also free of its Epic exclusivity and available on Steam with the DLC bundled!
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Perhaps what you may know about Kingdom Hearts is that the game is a licensed Square Enix cross-over between Final Fantasy and the various worlds of Disney. It’s the ultimate and most fun action-adventure experience you can have. This installment sees Sora and companions Donald Duck and Goofy wreaking havoc on the Heartless across levels featuring Toy Story, Tangled, Pirates, Hercules, Frozen, and many more.
- Released
-
July 11, 2024
- Developer(s)
-
Free Lives
- Engine
-
Unity
- ESRB
-
m
Adding to the growing list of superb and unique games published by Devolver Digital is Anger Foot. It’s as fast-paced of a movement shooter as you can get and uses the cute aesthetic of anthropomorphic animal enemy variety like gators, birds, and pigs to only contrast them with gritty and gory gameplay and set them up as hardened criminals that you must John Wick.
This is definitely the game to play if you like the John Wick films. From an immersive first-person perspective, you will blast your way through countless rooms of enemies and drop-kick the living daylights out of them with your foot that’s as lethal as your gun, hence the name. Did we mention all of this action takes place in Sh*t City and involves getting new shoes?
10
Grand Theft Auto 5
Another wild action game, though one rooted in much more realism when it comes to the portrayal of crime and its open world, is Grand Theft Auto 5. Launching all the way back in 2013, you can definitely say it became a massive hit both player-wise and money-wise for Rockstar because it still feels constantly new and fresh to talk about, even over a decade later.
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GTA 5 delivers a sprawling open-world campaign story following the criminal misadventures of protagonists Franklin, Michael, and Trevor, who you can easily switch between to complete their set of missions, and it has a robust Online mode you can endlessly remain in. Online is probably where you’ll get the most action, with all the jobs, heists, and player shenanigans that occur.
11
Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered
Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered Starring Lara Croft
- Released
-
February 14, 2024
- Publisher(s)
-
Aspyr
- ESRB
-
T For Teen // Blood, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence
Lara Croft is one of gaming’s original female action heroes, and what a treat it is for fans to now receive the first three Tomb Raider games from the 1990s packaged together as a remaster for PC and modern consoles. The graphics and character models indeed get a boost while still keeping the aroma of that classic old-fashioned polygonal charm.
There are plenty of iconic moments, characters, puzzles, and levels to explore or re-explore in the first three games that defined the Tomb Raider games to come. Whether it’s the Temple of Xian, The Lost Valley’s T-Rex fight, or escaping the High Security Compound, Lara has some thrilling Indiana Jones-inspired adventures coming her way.
12
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
- Released
-
May 21, 2024
- Engine
-
Unreal Engine 5
- ESRB
-
m
The long-awaited sequel to Ninja Theory’s Hellblade: Senuas’ Sacrifice has arrived and is here to set another new benchmark for video game graphics, combat design, and cinematic quality. Senua’s Saga proves an overall worthy sequel that has a shorter length and is more focused on action-packed set-piece fights with a faster-paced story that takes Senua to tenth-century Iceland.
The story picks up after the first game and sees Senua as a captured slave being taken as a sacrifice to giants. She escapes her slavers to enact her vengeance on them but gets caught up with her past, along with new deadly foes, like a wide variety of brutal Draugar enemies and even feral cave creatures, in what are some of the most immersive and realistic combat sequences you’ll ever experience.
13
Dragon’s Dogma 2
- Released
-
March 22, 2024
- Engine
-
RE Engine
Despite its controversy with the use of microtransactions, Dragon’s Dogma 2 has proven itself a worthy video game sequel that displays some of the best video game design seen in years. The emergent systems, primarily the pawns and enemy combat AI, make this an action RPG like none other, giving you a cross between Monster Hunter, The Witcher 3, and Dragon Age.
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The giant mythical beasts you encounter will be relentless in their pursuit. A Griffin will fly off with you unexpectedly, Wolves can drag you far and away from your party, you’ll see monsters fighting each other around the map, and you can trick a Cyclops into forming a bridge for you. Your pawn companions are fully customizable and can aid you in ways you wouldn’t believe. Dropped by a Griffin? They’ll be there to catch you in their arms.
14
Fallout 4
Bethesda’s Fallout games once again took the world by storm and saw a revival thanks to the success of the Amazon Prime Video show, which is ripe with Easter egg nods to the games. With the next-gen update for Fallout 4 on PC and consoles, the game has never looked better or played more smoothly (despite some major issues with modding).
Although an RPG focused on quest design, NPCs, and wasteland exploration, a lot of that comes with action around every corner, thanks to the enemy factions, hostile Raiders, and well-designed radiation-altered creatures that will quickly cut your time on the surface short and make you wish you were back in the Vault. The VATS system is also a fun tool to add some critical hits to foes.
15
Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition
- Released
-
February 18, 2022
- Engine
-
Decima
- ESRB
-
T for Teen: Blood, Language, Use of Alcohol, Violence
Following in its predecessor’s footsteps, Horizon Forbidden West has also made its highly anticipated debut on PC. The game continues Aloy’s adventure in a post-apocalyptic open world full of thrilling machine combat and gorgeous art direction. It is much more expansive and refined than Zero Dawn, packed with some of the most epic world-building and single-player story experiences.
Since the story is based around the West Coast of the United States, Forbidden West introduces entirely new areas for exploration as well as machine enemies and bosses that populate them. The Burning Shores DLC also comes with the Complete Edition on PC, and this will take Aloy into the futuristic, overgrown setting of Los Angeles for one of the most harrowing discoveries yet.
16
Hades 2
- Released
-
May 6, 2024
- Engine
-
Proprietary Engine
- ESRB
-
t
If you thought you were blown away by all the action and Greek mythology fun in the first Hades game from Supergiant and that it would stop there, Hades 2 is the perfect sequel you could ever ask for that invites you to a whole new experience in the Underworld. Much of that is because of the premise following Magick wielders, one of which is your protagonist Melinoe, Zagreus’ sister who trains under Hecate, goddess of sorcery.
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You’re instantly gripped by Melinoe and the overwhelming new changes and additions, starting with the new hub location of the Crossroads. The weapons, enemy variety, area designs, and boss battles make the combat extravagantly epic and rewarding. The art somehow manages to become even more stunning, and the new mythological characters and bosses continue to be well-executed and memorable.
17
Ghost Of Tsushima Director’s Cut
- Released
-
July 17, 2020
- Engine
-
Proprietary
- ESRB
-
M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language, Partial Nudity
Ghost of Tsushima is yet another PlayStation port to grace PC, and it’s one of the best samurai games of all time made by the studio that headed the Infamous series. In fact, it’s so inspired by the genre’s greats that it even offers an immersive black-and-white Kurosawa Mode to put you in the cinematic experience of being in a samurai film made by Akira Kurosawa.
With its similar story and combat design, this is a game that was viewed as the samurai Assassin’s Creed game that never came to be, although now we officially have AC Shadows. There’s lots to love in Ghost of Tsushima, whether you want solid samurai action, stealth, scenic exploration, excellent sound design and visual feedback, or gorgeous environments and graceful guiding winds.
18
Control
Control is as frenetic action as action games can get, putting you in the shoes of the Federal Bureau of Control’s new director and parautilitarian Jesse Faden, who uses her telekinetic powers and service weapon to take on a paranatural threat. The satisfyingly engaging combat and destruction mechanics alone won’t have you putting it down anytime soon.
While the story may be more perplexing and convoluted to the scale of Death Stranding or Nolan’s Tenet and leaves you with many questions, it is from developer Remedy, known to take risks and push the boundaries of its unique storytelling style. If you’ve played Alan Wake or the 2023 sequel, you’ll find many connections in every corner of the Oldest House in Control, as it’s all now part of the Remedy Connected Universe.
19
Helldivers 2
- Released
-
February 8, 2024
- Developer(s)
-
Arrowhead Game Studios
- ESRB
-
M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence
The original Helldivers back in 2015 was a very different top-down cooperative twin-stick shooter with cartoony graphics before switching genres to a third-person shooter co-op multiplayer for its sequel, with some of the best-looking graphics in sci-fi gaming. Server issues and PSN controversy aside, this is nothing but a fun, satirical, bug-killing ride.
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Just read some of the hilarious descriptions for this game, and you’ll quickly understand one of the most notable inspirations for The Helldivers series is Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers, a satire on space warfare and fascism with some alien Arachnids. So do your part, grab your friends, and get slaying for Super Earth!
20
Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is everything Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League should’ve been. On top of literal non-stop action, it offers terrific and award-winning writing that captures the comic book characters brilliantly and is wrought with humor. It also has a fantastic mix of music used during battles and no live service angle.
Like all games developed by Eidos-Montreal, story and narrative play a huge role, and this is perhaps one of the most emotional for the Guardians, up there with the MCU’s Vol. 3. You also have choice-based dialogue, can utilize your team of Guardians’ special skills in battle, and occasionally partake in aerial combat with the Milano.