Last year, I wondered if I had jumped the gun in claiming that the golden age of shooters was ending. In 2025, I can confirm that, yes, I did indeed get that wrong. This year had a plethora of fantastic shooters that ranged from AAA online experiences to small-scale indie games made almost entirely by a single person. So I won’t make any predictions about next year, and instead I’ll just say that as someone who loves a good first-person or third-person shooter, I’m happy past Zack was wrong.
As before, this list is split into two sections. First, we’ll look at seven fantastic new shooters that arrived this year. Then, we’ll look at a few older shooters that received updates and continued support in 2025. Let’s begin!
Arc Raiders
© Image: Embark Studios
I had tried multiple extraction shooters before Arc Raiders, and I didn’t enjoy any of them. And yet, I find myself continually hopping into Arc Raiders for a match or two because it’s the first one of these extraction shooters that feels great to play, has some style, and offers enough support to make dying and losing everything a bit more manageable. It’s not the best shooter on this list, but it is a damn fine online experience that other studios will be chasing.
Borderlands 4
© Gearbox
“lol you picked the meme game that runs bad?” I can hear you saying as I type this. But here’s the thing: Borderlands 4 is good. Yes, performance issues have plagued it since launch. Yes, some of the writing is bad. But when I’m playing this game with some pals and we’re mowing down hundreds of aliens and collecting endless piles of loot, the bad jokes don’t annoy as much. And with gunplay this snappy and fun, I’d let Borderlands 4 slap me in the face every few minutes just to keep grinding away.
Battlefield 6
© EA
Check out the Battlefield 6 subreddit or the game’s most popular content creators, and you’d assume this is a completely unplayable, horrible mess. I’m here to say that’s not accurate at all. Yes, BF6 launched with some issues, some of which have been patched, and others that are still lingering. However, none of these have stopped me from playing nearly 100 hours since BF6 arrived in October. This is by far the best FPS combat ever to be featured in a Battlefield game, and even if the maps are a bit too small, I just can’t get enough of the action and chaos that is routinely delivered every time I boot up BF6.
BRAZILIAN DRUG DEALER 3
© Joeveno / Kotaku
I didn’t expect *takes a deep breath* Brazilian Drug Dealer 3: I Opened A Portal To Hell In The Favela Trying To Revive Mit AIA I Need To Close It to be a game I would genuinely enjoy. The clips I saw made it look like a fun shitpost of a game. Something I’d play for a few minutes, chuckle, and then never think about again. That’s not what happened. Instead, I played a lot of BDD3 and enjoyed every moment of it. The Brazilian Quake-engine FPS is a wild fever dream of a game that contains well-designed levels buried in some of the strangest visuals you’ll see in 2025. It’s also only $5. And worth every damn penny.
Voidbreaker
© Playstack
Part roguelike, part Titanfall, part Portal, this year’s Voidbreaker is a fast-paced and funny indie FPS that was almost entirely developed by one person. Yet it doesn’t feel like that. Instead, its breakneck speed, upgrades, powers, destructive environments, and snappy gunplay combine to create one of 2025’s best shooters. I had more fun with Voidbreaker this year than with many of the bigger games I played that were created with larger budgets and teams. And this FPS is in early access, so it’s likely to only get bigger and better in the future.
Doom: The Dark Ages
© id Software / Bethesda
I’ve seen some folks debate whether The Dark Ages, the latest entry in id Software’s long-running Doom franchise, is a shooter or not. I don’t get the debate at all. You have a gun that crushes skulls and shoots them at demons. Sounds like a great shooter to me! And it is. Dark Ages adds some more open-ended levels and melee combat mechanics, like a shield, to the modern Doom formula, but at its core, this is still a fast-paced shooter where you’ll spend a lot of your time blasting fools with big guns. Also, Doomguy gets to ride a dragon. Like, come on. What more could you want?
Mohtra
© Scumhead / Kotaku
Oh, look, another cool indie game using an old FPS engine to create something new and awesome! This time around, it’s Mohtra, an action shooter built in a heavily modified version of the Doom engine. It’s basically Morrowind and Dark Souls tossed into a blender and filtered through Doom. Don’t assume that just because it was built using old tech, it can’t do some cool shit. Mohtra features a large hub world, RPG elements, weapon upgrades, and melee combat. It’s wild, and one of the coolest games I’ve played all year.
Fortnite
© Epic
Once again, I played a lot of Fortnite this year. It’s hard not to when Epic’s free-to-play shooter is doing awesome updates, like adding Springfield and Simpsons characters to the game. A part of me is frustrated that I keep playing so much Fortnite when I could play other stuff. But then Epic will add improved parkour and mobility controls or new features like self-revive, and I find myself rushing back to play a few more matches. Eventually, I assume, Fortnite’s hold on me will fade, and I’ll stop playing it weekly. Until then, I’ll be dropping from the battle bus for the foreseeable future.
Overwatch 2
© Blizzard
Overwatch 2 had a lot to prove coming into 2025. Marvel Rivals had just launched and looked to be real competition to Blizzard’s place on the hero shooter throne. Luckily, the team had a lot of really smart changes already loaded into the chamber by the time the year began. The addition of mechanics like Perks that let players define their playstyle and the Stadium mode in which you create an exaggerated, powerful build of each hero have broken down the restrictive barriers Blizzard has put on the game in recent years. Overwatch 2 has long held down by a feeling that Blizzard had defined a “right” way that it wanted the game to be played. In 2025, Blizzard let go of the leash, and the game is the best it’s been in a long time. – Kenneth Shepard
Gears of War: Reloaded
© Xbox
I guess technically this is a new game, but it feels strange to call a remastered remaster of an Xbox 360 shooter, even a good one like Gears, “new.” So I’m placing it here. I make the rules around these parts! Anyway, returning to Gears of War after so many years away was a treat. I think the remaster is great, even if it feels incredibly sad and desperate that Xbox’s current plan for two of their biggest franchises is “Go back to the first game again!” Still, the original Gears of War has the best vibes of any game in the series, and I expect I’ll be back to shoot Locust drones and chainsaw monsters once more in the future.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 (2017)
© EA
Andor was one of the best shows of 2025. And after watching it, a lot of people suddenly felt in the mood to hop back into EA’s Battlefront 2 and blast some folks. Somehow this old Star Wars shooter, which hasn’t received any new content in years, was one of the most popular games for a few weeks in 2025. I hopped back in, and while I got destroyed by some vets who had clearly never stopped playing, I mostly had a great time playing Battlefront 2 again. I really, really hope EA and Lucasfilm see this and decide to at least update BF2 on consoles to allow for 120FPS. Or even better: Let’s make a Battlefront 3!
Rainbow Six Siege X
© Ubisoft
I had stepped away from Ubisoft’s long-running live-service tactical shooter quite some time ago. But when Siege got a big update earlier this year, I decided to hop in and play with a bunch of friends who had also returned. At first, I got my ass kicked. A lot. Rainbow Six Siege is a game that demands a lot of skill. Once I got my sea legs back, I could hold my own in most matches, and I remembered just how tense and exciting Siege can be. Hiding in a room, listening to the enemy players break down doors and blast through walls, not sure when they’ll finally find you and your squad, is nerve-racking. Meanwhile, hunting down defenders is equally thrilling, as every room you enter might be hiding a threat. Siege is now free-to-play on all platforms, so if slower-paced tactical combat sounds like something you’d want to try out, you can join the fun. Just be prepared to get headshotted a lot by teens with more free time than you.
