First Person Shooters (FPS) are one of the biggest segments of the gaming market, but many of them are almost solely focused on competitive play rather than a complete experience these days. Here we go over the best single player FPS games for you to play in 2021. Some of these games may include multiplayer modes, but unless there’s an extremely well-fleshed out single-player campaign, the game is not worthy of this list.
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1. ULTRAKILL
- Platform(s): PC
- Subgenres: Arena Shooter, Movement Shooter, Stylish Action
ULTRAKILL is my personal favorite single-player FPS on the market right now. It has easy and intuitive movement mechanics, nostalgic PS1-style graphics, a superb soundtrack, and a bunch of fun gameplay elements lifted straight from games like Devil May Cry. At the time of writing, the game is technically in early access, but about a third is complete and available to play.
2. Metro Exodus
- Platform(s): PC, Xbox One consoles, Xbox Series consoles, PS4 consoles, PS5 consoles
- Subgenres: Survival Horror, Story Driven
Metro Exodus is another superb single player FPS game. Unlike other games on this list, Exodus has many very slow-paced segments, and isn’t afraid to take power completely out of the hands of the player. Metro Exodus boasts truly gorgeous graphics, especially with ray-tracing enabled on the Enhanced Edition (included by default with next-gen and PC purchases). If you want a game to really push the graphical limits of your PC and get really immersed into, Metro Exodus is a great choice.
3. Doom Eternal
- Platform(s): PC, Xbox One consoles, Xbox Series consoles, PS4 consoles, PS5 consoles
- Subgenres: Arena Shooter, Movement Shooter
Doom Eternal is the sequel to the 2016 DOOM Reboot and basically takes everything that game did and turns it up to 11. It’s a much more difficult experience but a more rewarding one once the player masters weapon switching and quick weak point targeting. There are many great set pieces and plenty of visual variety due to the galaxy-spanning narrative.
Eternal has received consistent post-launch support through the addition of Master Levels (harder remixes of existing levels), two 3-level DLC packs (The Ancient Gods), and various smaller content updates. Just recently, it even got ray-tracing and DLSS! The sheer scale and intensity of Doom Eternal is unmatched by anything else on this list. If you want a high octane single player FPS, we can’t recommend Eternal enough.
4. Black Mesa
- Platform(s): PC
- Subgenres: Survival Horror, Exploration/Puzzle
Black Mesa is essentially a full-blown remake of Half-Life 1, and is considered by many to be an upgrade over the original in nearly every way. The graphics are certainly better in every way and many improvements have been made to parts of the game that people previously didn’t like, especially late in the game. The reviews on this game are pretty much universally positive, and Valve liked it so much they gave the team permission to sell a remake of their game for profit.
5. Titanfall 2
- Platform(s): PC, Xbox One consoles, Xbox Series consoles, PS4 consoles, PS5 consoles
- Subgenres: Movement Shooter, Arena Shooter
Titanfall 2 is a Movement Shooter before anything else, with its focus on grappling hooks, wall-running, air-strafing, bunny-hopping, and more. There’s a lot of depth to the movement in this game, and that’s before you even start getting into the deeper gunplay and Titan (giant robot you can pilot) mechanics. The single-player campaign has a lot of huge maps to practice your movement in and surprisingly endearing characters to match. It’s no Citizen Kane, but it’s great fun.
6. Amid Evil
- Platform(s): PC, Switch release TBA
- Subgenres: Arena Shooter, Movement Shooter, Fantasy Game
Amid Evil is a high fantasy spin on the classic Unreal/Quake formula. That’s basically the gist of it. You get bunnyhopping, speedy base movement, many projectile weapons, and pickups. It has really well-designed arena shooter stuff with great music and a unique retro aesthetic. You can also enable ray-tracing and DLSS to take that retro aesthetic and turn it into something undeniably modern.
7. Dusk
- Platform(s): PC, Switch release 2021
- Subgenres: Arena Shooter, Movement Shooter, Horror
Dusk is also a spin on classic arena shooters but leans much closer to Doom than to Quake or Unreal. The player is rarely ever not in power, but the game isn’t afraid to challenge you, and the atmosphere actually can be quite creepy and oppressive at times. Like with over arena shooters, there’s a strong focus on movement here as well, with a high skill ceiling for improvement.
If you’re itching for more retro-styled shooters and like horror aesthetics, Dusk will definitely be a good fit for you.
8. Halo: The Master Chief Collection
- Platform(s): PC, Xbox One consoles, Xbox Series consoles
- Subgenres: Arena Shooter, Story Driven
Last but certainly not least on this list is Halo: The Master Chief Collection. This is a collection of six Halo games, starting from the original and ending at Halo 4. All of the games have an optional mode where you can see remastered graphics, and the MCC supports cross-platform play between Xbox and PC.
Halo is renowned for its sci-fi story and setting, and the gameplay is actually quite fun, too, especially if you’re a PC player who’s been missing out on the series. It may be at the bottom of this list, but that’s really because Halo needs the least introduction of any of our entries. If you want to get into Halo, there’s never been an opportunity better than the Master Chief Collection.
Parting Words
Ultrakill and Doom Eternal are our top picks of the best single player FPS games for those looking for a high-octane FPS experience. If you want something more focused on setting a mood and immersing the player, Metro Exodus and Black Mesa are our primary recommendations.
Comment below and let us know: are you playing any of these or think something else deserves a spot on the list more?
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