10 Best Linear Shooters for Players Tired of Open World Bloat

3 weeks ago 12

Daniel has been playing games for entirely too many years, with his Steam library currently numbering nearly 750 games and counting. When he's not working or watching anime, he's either playing or thinking about games, constantly on the lookout for fascinating new gameplay styles and stories to experience. Daniel has previously written lists for TheGamer, as well as guides for GamerJournalist, and he currently covers tech topics on SlashGear.

You know what’s always fun in a video game? Walking in a straight line and shooting a gun, the ol’ “W+M1.” Shooters, as a genre, started like most games did, as purely linear affairs. You walk through a hallway, guys jump out at you, and you make them go away with a hail of bullets. It’s a winning formula, and always has been. Of course, as with most established gaming norms, newer games have sought to combine it with other prevalent genres and frameworks, such as open-world RPGs.

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Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with an open-world shooter, so long as it’s done well. Even if it’s done well, though, you do lose some of that classic shooter magic by putting things into a sprawling map rather than carefully designed setpieces and corridors. While they may not have the same degree of raw playability, those intricate corridors still allow good shooter mechanics to really strut their stuff on their own merits. If you’ve been feeling a little burnt-out on open worlds lately, there are plenty of shooters across the spectrums of age and production size that’ll help you really appreciate the artistry behind sharpshooting.

10 Shadow Warrior (2013)

Katana in One Hand, Gun in the Other

Melee weapons in shooters are nothing new. Even the earliest examples had melee options, though they were usually reserved as emergency measures for when all of your guns ran dry. Shadow Warrior, specifically the 2013 reboot, is a little different. Not only is melee not just for emergency situations, it’s of arguably equal or greater importance to your guns.

Shadow Warriors stars Lo Wang, a corporate assassin who inadvertently finds himself drawn into the world beyond our own when he takes hold of an ancient, mystical katana. Said katana is your trusty sidearm throughout the entire game; you can pick up and use a variety of guns like revolvers and explosive crossbows, but the katana never loses its role in the whole procedure.

Obviously, the katana can only be used at melee range, but if you can get a feel for the timing and input of its various slashes, it can instantly kill even large, powerful demons, whereas your guns might require an entire magazine to accomplish the same. It’s a risk-versus-reward style of gameplay that encourages you to really get up close and personal with foes.

9 The Darkness II

Double Your Limbs, Double Your Fun

Developer

Platforms

Release Date

Digital Extremes

PC, PS3, Xbox 360

February 2012

It’s nice when a licensed game is good on its own merits, because it means you can enjoy it even if you have no frame of reference on the source material. Case in point, I have never read The Darkness comic series, nor have I even played the first game, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying The Darkness II.

The Darkness II follows Jackie Estacado, head of one of New York’s most prominent crime families and host to an ancient force of pure evil. Said pure evil manifests as a pair of tendrils that emerge in the dark, which Jackie can wield as slings and blades in addition to his own dual-wielded guns. If you thought dual-wielding weapons in a shooter was wild, try quad-wielding: two weapons in your hands, one tendril slashing at nearby foes and another holding up an unfortunate thug as a human shield.

Jackie’s tendrils make him nearly invincible, but also give him several critical weaknesses. The tendrils need to consume hearts to recover, which you can’t do if you just gun down everyone, and his powers weaken when exposed to direct light. It’s these little quirks that make you feel powerful, yet encourage you to play carefully in large arenas.

8 Call Of Juarez: Gunslinger

Big Iron, Big Iron

If we’re talking about old-school gunfighting, it doesn’t get much older than revolver-spinning cowboys. Guys back then knew how to rock a stetson and sling a six-shooter, and even with the more primitive weaponry, it still makes a great setting for a shooter. A game that both properly embodies the western spirit while still being fun to play is Call of Juarez: Gunslinger.

Gunslinger is framed as a bounty hunter in a bar regaling the patrons with his daring tales of frontier justice, crossing guns with some of the most notorious crooks and sheriffs in the history of the Wild West. Since it’s a story, realism isn’t really a concern, so you can just grab a couple of revolvers and go to town on an entire pack of thugs with little concern for your wellbeing. In fact, at several points, usually after a patron points out an obvious lie, the hunter will reframe his story, causing changes in the environment.

Gunslinger’s gunplay is lightning-fast and arcade-styled, encouraging you to quickly snipe multiple targets either from the hip or with your bullet time ability, dodging incoming fire by a hair’s breadth. Most major encounters are capped off with a quickdraw contest, which requires a mix of aim, timing, and guts to succeed in.

7 Turbo Overkill

No Such Thing as Too Many Chainsaws

From the first time the Doom Guy picked up a misplaced piece of woodcutting equipment, chainsaws have had an enduring place in the ultraviolet shooter arsenal. Turbo Overkill, however, is not satisfied with just one chainsaw, held in two hands. No sir, this game not only gives you chainsaws built into both your arms, but two more built into your legs as well.

Turbo Overkill is a sci-fi shooter set in a dystopian cyberpunk city overrun with mechanical monstrosities. To fight back, you have an arsenal of heavily modded weaponry, from auto-locking plasma rifles to teleporting sniper rifles. Every weapon can be augmented and upgraded, unlocking both minor perks and major upgrades like secondary firing modes. With a little creativity and high-flying antics, just about every weapon in your arsenal packs a similar degree of deadliness.

Of course, the aforementioned chainsaws are the crown jewels of the lot. Your leg-mounted saws allow you to perform speedy chainsaw dashes, which increase your overall movement speed. Defeating bosses unlock additional body mods, like a grappling hook and a wrist-mounted missile launcher. Hey, humanity is overrated anyway. The future is chrome!

6 Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun

Smells Like Heresy in Here

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun

Part of what was fun about old-school shooters was playing as a huge dude with a huge attitude, the kind of protagonist who could easily shrug off several hundred bullets while responding in kind. Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun embodies that particular era of shooter gameplay perfectly with a hearty helping of spacefaring warfare dolloped on top.

Boltgun stars one of the franchise’s signature Space Marines on a mission to a planet overrun with cultists, heretics, and other assorted monsters. The story isn’t really important. What’s important is that you’re a big dude with a big rifle and a big chainsaw, and everyone in the same zip code as you is going to get a taste of both of those weapons. Repeatedly.

Boltgun keeps things relatively simple amongst its contemporaries, giving you a hefty arsenal of oversized weaponry and a cornucopia of freaks and monsters to utilize it all on. You’re incredibly mobile despite your size, so you can leap and bound through both corridors and large arenas as you spray metallic death from on high. Now that’s how you purge heretics.

5 Halo: Combat Evolved

No One Does it Like the Chief

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary

Prior to the early 2000s, shooters were mostly a PC gaming thing. It just wasn’t comfortable to play them on a gamepad, especially before twin sticks were normalized. That changed in a major way with the release of the original Halo, a shooter whose campaign still holds up surprisingly well all these years later.

Halo: Combat Evolved was the very first game to introduce us to Master Chief, the Covenant, and the titular ring-shaped Halo, as well as the major conflict involving all three. It was a game that popularized a lot of elements that remained constants for a long time, such as its two-weapon switching, its various hop-in vehicles, and the Chief’s signature recharging shields. You may not be able to endure as much punishment as the shooter heroes of old, but having that shield gives you quite a bit of survivability, which helps keep the action flowing consistently.

To make up for the fact that you can only hold two weapons at once, you can procure all sorts of nifty implements of violence from fallen enemies and allies. Human weapons include all of your favorite bullet-belchers like assault rifles and shotguns, while the Covenant’s energy weapons force you to change up your playstyle to accommodate their different firing types.

4 Half-Life 2

The Fun and Practical Applications of Physics

Before PC gaming became mainstream, there was one series of games that served as a pseudo-mascot for the entire platform. That series was Half-Life, and when Half-Life 2 originally released in 2004, to say it was a big deal would be a critical understatement. You don’t need to have played the first game to enjoy this one, though it certainly wouldn’t hurt.

Half-Life 2 follows beleaguered physicist Gordon Freeman, returning to the Earth after a prolonged stasis to find it conquered by the interdimensional fist of the Combine. With naught but a crowbar and pistol, he sets off on a rampage across City 17 and beyond to aid the human resistance. Part of Half-Life 2’s enduring appeal is its flexible level design. The levels are linear, yes, but the game’s proprietary physics engine provides a multitude of avenues for getting through them.

Speaking of, that physics engine is the other major secret ingredient, controlled largely through the game’s signature Gravity Gun. Even if you run out of ammo for your normal weapons, you can always pick up a random chunk of debris and launch it at a foe’s head at terminal velocity. It’s economical, scientific, and oodles of fun!

3 Left 4 Dead 2

Nothing Builds Cooperation Like a Zombie Plague

Speaking of Valve games, the other major series that cemented Valve’s dominance in the PC shooter scene was Left 4 Dead, with Left 4 Dead 2 in particular still being a popular game today despite being over a decade old. Valve doesn’t make new games often, but when it does, they usually hit.

Left 4 Dead 2, much like its predecessor, is a four-player co-op shooter, in which four survivors need to get from one end of a level to another with a whole lot of mutant infected in their way. You have to use whatever weapons you can get your hands on, whether it’s pistols, shotguns, rifles, or the occasional electric guitar. More than that, though, the survivors need to watch out for each other, as only an ally can rescue you if you’re pinned down by one of the special infected.

Obviously, Left 4 Dead 2 is best-known for its appeal as an online multiplayer game, but you can also play solo with CPU allies if you want. They’re mostly smart enough to come rescue you when necessary, and it means you can progress through the levels at your own pace.

2 Wolfenstein: The New Order

The Definition of One-Man Army

The original Wolfenstein 3D is largely credited with the birth of the modern shooter genre. It wasn’t particularly complicated: one-man army B.J. Blazkowicz rushes through a Nazi stronghold, gunning down every punk in a grey uniform, before ultimately blowing up cyber-Hitler. The 2014 Wolfenstein reboot, The New Order, is a slightly more nuanced take on the concept of one man versus a Nazi army, though only slightly.

The New Order takes place in an alternate history where the Nazis won World War II with super-advanced scientific weaponry. After getting bombed into a coma at the end of the war, B.J. awakens over a decade later to find the world firmly in Nazi grip, and he joins an underground rebellion to free Europe from its control. Despite the inherent absurdity of the premise, it’s actually a pretty somber story, with B.J. severely shellshocked from his years in service.

Unlike his early-shooter predecessor, B.J. can’t take sustained gunfire in this game, so you need to employ some more traditional hit-and-run tactics in addition to the usual pitched firefights. Use every dirty trick in the book, from sneaking up on soldiers and stabbing them to lobbing grenades over cover. Given the strength and scope of your foe, you will frequently feel outnumbered and overpowered, but that just makes the whole experience even more exhilarating.

1 Doom (2016)

Ripping and Tearing Since ‘93

Of course, we can’t have any kind of conversation about shooters without tipping our hats to Doom. Doom was, is, and shall remain the poster child of the whole genre. It went through some growing pains in the mid-2000s, but the 2016 Doom showed us all why the Doom Guy, now the Doom Slayer, still does it best.

After an extended nap in Hell, the Slayer awakens from a coffin on the surface of Mars, once again besieged by demonic invasion. With little prompting, he dons his armor, grabs a pistol and shotgun, and begins a singular campaign to make as many demons stop living as realistically possible (which is a lot, for him). Over the course of the game, you’ll receive just about all the classic Doom weapons, overhauled for the modern age with unique shot patterns and firing types, and all ready and waiting to be pointed at something gross-looking.

Doom 2016’s major innovation was the introduction of glory kills, in which the Slayer finishes off weakened foes with a quick, yet brutal beatdown, restoring health in the process. With this single addition, the game turns into a perpetual feedback loop of ultraviolence; you can rush right into a swarm of Imps and tear them to shreds with little concern for your wellbeing, and boy howdy, is it consistently satisfying.