These days, first-person shooters are a large part of the gaming industry. Most AAA games are split up into either third-person action games, usually inspired by Dark Souls, or first-person shooters that still take inspiration from games like Call of Duty or Halo.
However, there was a time when the first-person shooter did not exist as the technology wasn’t quite there yet. The 1990s was not only the decade the genre was popularized, but it was also the decade that saw some of the best first-person shooters to ever be released. To commemorate one of the greatest decades for the first-person shooter, here are the 10 best that were released in the 1990s.
10 Wolfenstein 3D
While there were other first-person shooters before Wolfenstein 3D, they were typically choppy and generally not well made. Wolfstein 3D took the genre and made it a fun and enjoyable experience. You fought through room after room of Nazis until you finally face mecha-Hilter.
Wolfstein 3D was a follow up to Castle Wolfenstein and Beyond Castle Wolfenstein, which were both overhead stealth games that looked very similar to Berzerk. The series is still running to this day with the latest entry being Wolfenstein: Youngblood, which was released in 2019.
9 Heretic
Unlike most first-person shooters, Heretic has a medieval setting where you shoot magic from a staff rather than firing bullets from a gun. Heretic was built using the same engine that was used to create Doom, and, also, like Doom, in Heretic, you must make your way through levels, kill enemies, find keys, and look for secrets.
However, in Heretic, there are interactive environments such as water that will push you along. You can also pick up items and put them in your inventory for future use like health potions or a potion that will turn enemies into chickens.
8 Shadow Warrior
Like some other games on this list, Shadow Warrior was made using the Build engine that was created by 3D Realms. Shadow Warrior has a Japanese theme with weapons like a katana and shurikens on top of more typical weapons like shotguns and uzis. The sticky bomb, which has become a staple of the first-person shooter made its very first appearance in Shadow Warrior. Shadow Warrior saw a reboot of the genre in 2013 which also got a sequel in 2016 called Shadow Warrior 2. Additionally, the third game in the reboot trilogy was recently announced for 2021.
7 Blood
Blood takes the gameplay seen in Doom and adds even more excessive gore and dark themes. There are many outlandishly dark weapons like a voodoo doll, dynamite that blows enemies to gibs, and a flare gun that sets enemies ablaze.
The settings of the game are also dark and morbid as you travel through graveyards and torture chambers while cultists chase you around. As you blow enemies away, Caleb, the main character, laughs maniacally and spouts one-liners as he blows enemies into nothing but blood and viscera. The game was recently remastered for the PC called Blood: Fresh Supply.
6 Unreal
Unreal, developed by Epic Games, the creators of the Gears of War series, where you play as a human stuck on an alien planet. There was an expansion for the game that was later released called Return to Na Pali. Unreal was followed up by Unreal Tournament which focused on multiplayer deathmatches.
The game was powered by the Unreal engine, the legacy of which continues into the modern era, with many games still using iterations of it, such as the Final Fantasy VII Remake, Fortnite, and Mortal Kombat 11.
5 System Shock 2
System Shock 2 adds heavy role-playing elements to the first-person shooter formula and was the spiritual predecessor to the BioShock series. While BioShock takes place in an underwater city that has been destroyed thanks to unchecked objectivism and gene splicing, System Shock 2 takes place in an abandoned space station that is being controlled by a rogue artificial intelligence.
You can customize your character to be more proficient with guns, hacking, or any other cyberpunk related abilities. System Shock 2’s predecessor, System Shock, is getting a remake and is said to be out sometime this year following multiple delays.
4 Duke Nukem 3D
The Duke Nukem series started off as a series of platformers for DOS made by Apogee before they saw what was possible with Doom and decide to take Duke to the third dimension. Duke Nukem is filled with movie references and misogynistic behavior that, for some reason, was par for the course with action movie heroes of the 80s and 90s.
Duke is on a quest to save females from humanoid pig aliens that have invaded earth. While Duke’s quotes can become somewhat grating over time, the gameplay itself is very solid and still holds up to this day.
3 Quake
Quake took everything established by the first two Doom games and took it into a real, polygonal 3D environment as opposed to the pseudo-3D worlds created in Doom. There is a dark atmosphere that permeates throughout the game with its Lovecraftian inspired enemy design and world.
While the first Quake has a gothic horror setting, future games in the series went for a more space-theme and slowly began to shift to predominately online multiplayer games, with the most recent entry Quake: Champions being exclusively online.
2 Doom 2
Doom changed video games as a whole when it was released in 1993, similar to how Super Mario Bros., Grand Theft Auto 3, and Fortnite have done. Many of the games on this list were at one point called Doom-clones rather than first-person shooters as the game was that iconic.
Doom 2 is essentially a massive expansion to the first game with new weapons, enemies, and more. Doom 2 has you running around with massive guns blowing away demons with satanic imagery at every turn.
1 Half-Life
Half-Life was developed by Valve in 1998 and uses the Quake engine. Half-Life takes the first-person genre, bu it attempts to bring the story at the forefront. Unlike most games at the time that would use a cutscene to tell a story, Half-Life keeps your perspective in the first-person as the story unfolds in front of you.
In Half-Life, you play as theoretical physicist Gordon Freeman who creates a resonance cascade that opens a portal to an alien world. You must escape Black Mesa before the aliens and eventual military stop you.