Net Ten: The 10 Most Important Modern Shooters (page2) Subscribe to this RSS feed

#5 Battlefield 1942 (PC) - [ PC ]

There are plenty of influential war shooters out there, but only Battlefield 1942 permanently changed the stakes of online warfare. Battlefield 1942 re-defined huge...and we're talking huge: huge maps, huge numbers of players (64 per server!), and huge WWII-era vehicles. And the team-oriented gameplay was a departure from shooters, too: you couldn't simply paste your finger on the fire button and hope to be victorious. Instead, you had to carefully coordinate assaults with fellow teammates laying down suppressive fire and heavy vehicle support.

#5 Battlefield 1942 (PC)
88% average
critic
score

#4 Halo 2 (Xbox) - [ Xbox ]

Halo or Halo 2? On this list, there can be only one. For its part, the first Halo introduced two oft-mimicked gameplay conventions: rechargeable shields for a streamlined health system, as well as a strategic dual-slot weapon loadout. But Halo 2 takes the win with its unbeatable online matchmaking system, which blurs the line between console and PC gaming. Both games are groundbreaking, but Halo 2 single-handedly brought console shooters into the next generation.

#4 Halo 2 (Xbox)
95% average
critic
score

#3 Unreal Tournament (PC, PS2) - [ PC ]

Widely regarded as one of the most well-realized game experiences of all time, Epic's ground-breaking online shooter soared past its chief competitor, id Software's ho-hum Quake III: Arena, because it didn't limit itself to being "just" a deathmatch game. Unreal Tournament's suite of multiplayer game modes included the mission-based Assault mode and robust Capture the Flag support, as well as over 50 multiplayer maps. It was an unbeatable combination that other games -- even Epic's own follow-up, Unreal Tournament 2003 -- just couldn't match.

#3 Unreal Tournament (PC, PS2)
93% average
critic
score

#2 Half-Life (PC, PS2) - [ PC ]

This one's just obvious. No discussion of first-person shooter innovation is complete without Half-Life, one of the most effortlessly groundbreaking games of all time. You play as quantum physicist Gordon Freeman, who is unlucky enough to stumble into a trans-dimensional invasion on his first day to work. The pacing is sublime; the arsenal is wickedly inventive; the storyline warped and off-kilter enough to spark endless debate about its meaning. In short, Half-Life is one of the most inventive, well-produced games ever made. If there was any justice in the world, Gordon would be as well known as Zelda, Master Chief, and Crash Bandicoot.

And hey, if nothing else, Half-Life is responsible for making "resonance cascade scenario" part of the gaming lexicon. That's gotta be worth something, right?

#2 Half-Life (PC, PS2)
96% average
critic
score

#1 Counter-strike (PC) - [ PC ]

The gameplay itself is influential, but Counter-strike is legendary for another reason: it single-handedly sparked the phenomenon of gamers making games for other gamers. Counter-strike's humble beginnings (it began its run as a downloadable EXE on an obscure blog) belied its enormous rise to popularity. Within several months, the game had grown into one of the most-played games on the internet, proving once and for all that gamers make the best game developers.

#1 Counter-strike (PC)
N/A average
critic
score