The Best Shooters to Play Right Now, Ranked by Our Scores

Still the high-water mark for the pure first-person power fantasy. DOOM Eternal turns combat into a frantic, aggressive dance, forcing you to keep moving, keep switching weapons, and keep pushing forward to survive, and the result is one of the most exhilarating action loops in any game. It is demanding, it is loud, and when it clicks it makes you feel unstoppable. If you want a shooter that is all skill, speed, and spectacle, this is the one to beat.

The best co-op shooter going, and proof of how much friendly chaos a good third-person shooter can generate. Helldivers 2 drops four players into hostile alien worlds with heavy weapons, orbital strikes, and a lot of accidental friendly fire, and the comedy and tension of coordinating that carnage is where it shines. It is a live-service game and carries the usual caveats, but as a thing to play with three friends on a weeknight, very little competes.

The stylish outsider on this list, and a treat for players who want their shooting with a heavy dose of atmosphere. Luna Abyss fuses first-person gunplay with bullet-hell intensity, sending waves of projectiles at you inside a striking, oppressive sci-fi world. It is as much about movement and pattern-reading as raw aim, and its bold art direction gives it an identity most shooters lack. A distinctive, confident pick for anyone tired of the usual.

The boomer-shooter revival at its most characterful. Twisted Tower blasts through a rotten 1950s theme park with fast, weighty, old-school gunplay and one of the most inventive arsenals in recent memory, from a bubblegum chain-gun to a sniper slingshot. Its BioShock-flavored setting and killer art direction give it a personality far bigger than its budget, and its tight runtime never overstays its welcome. If you miss the shooters of the early 2000s, this is a love letter to them.

The return of a legend, and a reminder of why Halo defined console shooters for a generation. This is classic, methodical first-person combat, the sandbox of weapons, grenades, and vehicles that made the series iconic, brought back for modern hardware. It is a more deliberate, old-school feel than the twitch shooters above it, and it will not be for everyone, but for fans of the franchise and its patient, tactical firefights, it delivers exactly what it promises.

The co-op curveball, and the pick for groups who want their shooting mixed with something stranger. Rogue Core takes the beloved dwarves-mining-in-space formula and runs it through a roguelite structure, layering randomized runs on top of the series' excellent four-player co-op. It is rougher and more uneven than the games above it, and it will not win over anyone who wants a polished solo campaign, but as chaotic, cooperative comfort food, it has real charm.

Every game here is one we played and reviewed, ranked by our scores rather than reputation. We kept the tent wide on purpose: first person and third, single-player and co-op, twitch-fast and slow-and-tactical, because the shooter genre is at its best when it is this varied. What unites them is that each one nails the fundamental thrill of a good shooter, the moment-to-moment satisfaction of aiming, firing, and reacting, in its own distinct way.

Why it matters: shooters are the most crowded genre in gaming, and that makes the ones worth your time genuinely hard to spot in the crowd. These are the ones that earned their scores with us, from the untouchable speed of DOOM Eternal to the scrappy charm of a boomer-shooter like Twisted Tower. Start at the top and work down, and you will find a shooter for every mood you are in.