10 FPS Games That Reward Slow Play Styles

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. It's a maxim of debatable origins but one that has become synonymous with special forces kicking down doors and being all #tactical. Not all FPS devs seem to have gotten the memo, however.

First-person shooters have developed a bit of a reputation as the realm of twitchy gameplay fueled by energy drinks and teenage rage. This has not been helped by the industry's obsession with multiplayer live service that actively rewards sitting in and grinding.

Despite all this, I want to believe in a better world. In honor of the silent masses who love a good slow tactical game, here are FPS titles that favor a measured approach over mindless grinding.

10 Ready or Not

Knock Knock

In spite of the controversies and teething issues with the console launch, VOID Interactive has set the standard for slow, tactical Shooter gameplay with Ready or Not.

Comprising 26 missions that play out in mostly small maps, there is no grinding in Ready or Not unless you are chasing S-ranks to unlock cosmetics. Even then, getting a perfect score requires moving with the utmost caution to avoid sending any suspect to the hospital, which is harder than it looks.

The game stands out through its great implementation of AI teammates and multiplayer dynamics, allowing for a quality SWAT experience online or offline. Just don’t kick that cabin door in if you want to live.

9 Six Days in Fallujah

Urban Hell

Four Marines with armor support against a seemingly endless stream of insurgents. These are not great odds, but Marines make do, and so do you in Six Days in Fallujah.

This tactical shooter was born out of a cancelled Konami project, but it has since made a name for itself as one of the most visceral depictions of the US invasion of Iraq.

The number of missions is fairly limited, but it’s easy to lose track of time as you and your buddies are hugging a wall amid the ruins while fighting a human wave attack.

8 Gray Zone Warfare

Run Through the Jungle

Open-world games are typically associated with grinding, but Gray Zone Warfare manages to stay expansive without sucking.

Much to the chagrin of friends who were recently deployed overseas, this is one of the few games where you can load up a backpack full of ammunition and food, then disappear into the jungle for the whole day as you explore the island of Lamang.

Despite being a PvE-first game, much of the combat is shaped by how you react to other players. I once spent two hours maneuvering my way around an airfield crawling with enemies to try and make it to the control tower without drawing the attention of a player sniper overlooking the area. Every move matters, as they like to say.

7 ARMA Reforger

War Never Changes

Plenty of shooters like to take it slow, but that crown will always belong to the ARMA series.

ARMA Reforger plays out at a smaller scale than ARMA 3, but it follows the same principles of brains over brawl gameplay.

The peak of ARMA gameplay comes not during combat, but in everything before the first bullets are fired. Trucks move supplies down dirt roads to reach the frontlines, where soldiers will carefully set up defensive emplacements. The inevitable enemy attack is just a sideshow in the orchestra of logistics, as it should be.

6 Squad

The Dodgy Logi Club

I’m sure you can handle a rifle just fine, but how about a shovel? Squad lets you spend most of the game either digging up spawn points and fortifications or walking a mile to reach an objective because the squad’s truck got blown up.

Most game modes in Squad are variations on Battlefield’s Conquest, but the large maps and slow movement culminate in rounds that last around an hour.

The shooting mechanics are deliberately tuned to punish run-and-gun players, so your only real shot at being effective in combat is to play smart and slow.

5 Ground Branch

Secret Squirrel Business

The secret deeds of intelligence agents are frequently more legendary than most Hollywood productions, but we don’t get to hear about them. Ground Branch opens the door into this world, and though it is still decidedly an early access title, it shows plenty of promise.

The core of Ground Branch is to run hostage rescue and infiltration missions as cleanly as possible, with one of the most impressive Tactical Barbie arsenals out there.

Thanks to the campaign mode, Ground Branch has a little more for you to do rather than just solo random missions, but where the game really shines is in co-op, where you and your friends can plan a whole raid together and execute it. And if it fails, well, you can at least share a laugh.

4 Metro Last Light

Tunnel Rats

The Metro series by Dmitry Glukhovsky and 4A Games achieves something few games ever manage, which is to make the player feel small and powerless.

Although that feeling is best captured by Metro 2033, its sequel does a better job at giving the player some agency over how to approach levels, despite being a fairly linear experience.

Most situations in Last Light can be resolved either sneakily or through violence, and Artyom’s survival depends solely on your ability to keep a cool head in horrifying situations.

Who Dares, Wins

Long before officer Paddy Mayne became a known figure through the show SAS: Rogue Heroes, Hidden & Dangerous 2 was giving World War 2 special forces the attention they deserved.

Hidden & Dangerous 2 replicates the mission profile of the British SAS, complete with all the flexibility that came with it. The large maps allowed you to solve things just about any way possible, from crawling for 20 minutes to cut a hole through the fence to punching through the front gate guns blazing.

To encourage a more measured approach, the enemies are fairly good marksmen, so you and your team don’t typically last long if you pick the loud solution every time.

2 Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon

The Crisis Simulator

Once upon a time, Ubisoft was known as a great publisher with a catalogue of elite titles. One of these games was Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon, arguably the founder of the modern tactical shooter.

The first Ghost Recon put all the money where it mattered most. Sure, the game was on the ugly side even for 2001 standards, and all you’d see on your screen was the crosshairs, but it didn’t matter.

Red Storm Entertainment crafted an expansive tactical sandbox where you’d plan and execute missions that would impact the fate of the world, while also managing the members of your team. It was lightning in a bottle, and the world will probably end before Ubisoft pulls off anything vaguely as good as this.

1 Vietcong

Lost to the Jungle

In this unfair world, one of the most unique shooters ever made is not available for purchase on any major digital storefront. Czech project Vietcong had its fair share of Eurojank when it came out in 2003, but it more than compensates for this with esoteric game design that captures the horrors of the Vietnam War like no other game.

Vietcong drives home the fact that jungle warfare fundamentally sucks, and no amount of heroics can change that. You spend your time patrolling, dodging booby-traps, and fighting off Vietcong ambushes that wear you down.

The gunplay is fairly similar to Far Cry 2, but with a more linear format to prevent you from straying. Getting shot normally means death or losing most of your health for that mission, just like in Nam.