Games come with all sorts of perspectives. You have the bird-eye views for strategies and many RPGs, third-person perspectives for plenty of action-adventure games, and there are quite a few more. But here we’re going to focus on one specifically: the first-person perspective.
Although it’s best-known for shooters, they aren’t the only games which work well with this perspective. It works very well with RPGs, puzzle games, horrors, and more, and we have this entire list to prove just how versatile FPP can be! Shooters, slashers, immersive sims, we’ve got a whole spread ready for you!
Game | Release | Genre | Developer | |
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Portal 2 | 2011-04-18 | Adventure | Valve | |
Portal | 2007-10-10 | Adventure | Valve | |
Deep Rock Galactic | 2018-02-28 | Shooter | Ghost Ship Games | |
Borderlands 3 Super Deluxe Edition | 2020-04 | FPS | Gearbox Software | |
Borderlands 2 Goty | 2012-09-20 | Action & Shooter | Gearbox Software | |
Borderlands Goty Enhanced | 2009-10-26 | Action & Shooter | Gearbox Software | |
Deus Ex Mankind Divided | 2016-08-23 | RPG | Eidos Montréal | |
Deus Ex Human Revolution Directors Cut | 2013-10-25 | Action & Shooter | Eidos Montréal | |
Slime Rancher | 2017-08-01 | Adventure | Monomi Games | |
Slime Rancher 2 | 2022-09-22 | Adventure | Monomi Park | |
Dishonored Definitive Edition | 2012-10-11 | Action | Arkane Studios | |
Dishonored 2 | 2016-11-11 | Action | Arkane Studios | |
Halo Wars 2 | 2017-02-21 | Action & Shooter | The Creative Assembly | |
Resident Evil 7 Biohazard | 2017-12-12 | FPS | Capcom |
Portal
Release date: | 2007-10-10 |
Genre: | Adventure |
Developer: | Valve |
Not putting Portal on top of the list of the best first-person perspective games would be a grand disservice to one of the best games in history, puzzle or otherwise.
As Chell, you’re put to a series of tests in a pristine research facility. It’s a test of intelligence, but also (mainly) a test of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, better known as the Portal Gun, because it shoots portals.
Between the ability to create two connected portals AND the ability to carry things in an antigravity field, the portal gun is all you need to solve a gauntlet of physics-based puzzle rooms. Well, some logical and spatial thinking is going to be useful too, but mustering them is not as easy as it seems, because you’re frequently mocked and teased by a sarcastic AI overseeing the tests.
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Destiny 2
Release date: | 2019-10-01 |
Genre: | MMORPG |
Developer: | Bungie |
Steering into the lead-lined waters of first-person shooters… how about one of the most active FPS-s out there — the science-fantasy epic that is Destiny 2?
Released in 2017, in the years since then this online FPS MMO has gone free to play with a bunch of paid expansions, all of which bring in a ton of equipment, new locations, raids, and usually large chunks of lore and new events pushing the storyline onwards.
Destiny 2 is one of the archetypal looter shooters. Unlike Borderlands’ rough and dirty style, it merges high-tech weaponry and fantastic quasi-magical powers, channeled in various ways by the game’s three classes and their specializations. The gear itself is excellent, coming in several rarities, including awesome Exotics, and they always feel amazing to use, no matter the weight class.
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Deep Rock Galactic
Release date: | 2018-02-28 |
Genre: | First-Person |
Developer: | Ghost Ship Games |
Deep Rock Galactic is yet another brand of a first-person perspective game. Not a puzzle game, though some maps will take figuring out, and it’s not a shooter, although you’ll spray lead at nasty bugs like there’s no tomorrow.
Instead, DRG is a cooperative (ideally) game about space dwarves in corporate employ mining for resources in the bowels of an alien planet.
Your primary tools are a trusty pickaxe and class-determined gadgets such as a grappling hook or turbo-powered drill rig. All you need to make sure you grab the required resources without dying to gravity, hostile environment, and aliens. With procedurally generated levels, engaging gear and character progression, and great cosmetic customization, DRG is a top-tier co-op game.
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Borderlands (series)
Release date: | 2009-10-26 |
Genre: | FPS |
Developer: | Gearbox Software |
The Borderlands series could be pointed out as the one to put looter-shooter forever on the gaming world’s radar. Set on the Mad Max-like planet of Pandora, BL games put you in the shoes of treasure hunters and guns for hire, who always get tangled up in some major mess despite a simple initial goal of scoring a great haul from discovering one of the fabled Vaults.
Borderlands could be described as Diablo with guns. You get several distinct classes (typically four) with unique aptitudes and specials, and a steady stream of equipment dropping out of enemies. Sometimes you get the same gun you have with a 10 elemental damage, sometimes you get a unique gun with traits you can’t find anywhere else. Pray to the RNG and keep farming.
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Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Release date: | 2013-10-25 |
Genre: | Action & Shooter |
Developer: | Eidos Montréal |
In Deus Ex: Human Revolution you’re playing as Adam Jensen, a man whose life was saved by state-of-the-art cybernetic augmentation provided by his employer.
Now fresh out of recovery, you have to deal with a hostage situation at one of the company’s warehouses, an event which puts you on the scent of a much greater, more dangerous conspiracy.
DE:HR is a very immersive trip to a cyberpunk vision of year 2027, and while the world isn’t exactly “open”, you have a lot of freedom in how you approach the quests before you. Although, true to the Deus Ex formula, stealth and trickery are encouraged, nobody will stop you from going in guns-blazing. Although it IS an RPG, so might get strong negative reactions from your allies if you do.
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Slime Rancher
Release date: | 2017-08-01 |
Genre: | Adventure |
Developer: | Monomi Games |
Slime Rancher is probably the friendliest, coziest game on the list. Most of what you do here is herding and tending to cute blobs of relatively friendly aliens.
The slimes come in many types, with unique traits and ecology, so building a farm which can function with all of them AND making profit off selling the slimes’… plots (it’s the actual name!) can be a fairly absorbing task.
Slime Rancher is…cute. It’s probably the best adjective to use. It has bright, vivid colors, the designs tend to be smooth and rounded, even on the rocky and spiky creatures, and the slimes themselves look about as threatening as squishy plushies. Some can still wreck your HP bar, and there are many weird traits to account for, such as quantum teleportation, but it’s all good fun.
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Dishonored
Release date: | 2012-10-11 |
Genre: | Action |
Developer: | Arkane Studios |
Dishonored is in many ways similar to Deus Ex, in playstyle, at least — It’s mostly mission-based, and you’re free to find your own way to achieve the goals of a mission.
However, Dishonored’s power system is much more flexible. Combining magical abilities, technological gadgets, and regular weapons can make skilled players pretty much unstoppable.
Instead of a futuristic Earth, Dishonored takes place in a fictional setting, similar to late Victorian-era England with the addition of fantastical elements, like occult powers and high-yield oil harvested from weird whale-like creatures. You’re Corvo Attano, a bodyguard of the Empress, framed for her murder. Your goals? Revenge and saving the Empress’ kidnapped daughter, Emily.
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Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Release date: | |
Genre: | Action & Shooter |
Developer: | 343 Industries |
We put Destiny 2 up high on the list, and it deserved the spot, but it’s not the first hit FPP shooter to come out of developer Bungie.
This distinction belongs to Halo, one of the most important FPSs in gaming, and a title which made the original Xbox a solid competition for the PlayStation. The Master Chief Collection includes the first game as well as several follow-ups.
True to the title, you’ll spend a lot of time in the power-armored body of Master Chief, one of the few remaining true Spartans, humanity’s supersoldiers. Halo’s gunplay has always been some of the best in the genre, and the multiplayer modes are truly the stuff of legend. The Master Chief Collection has all of that in SPADES, taking you on a wild ride through most of the series!
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Resident Evil 7
Release date: | 2017-12-12 |
Genre: | FPS |
Developer: | Capcom |
The RE series hadn’t been known for its first-person action before, but things changed with Resident Evil 7.
It was the first game in the series to ditch third-person/fixed camera and replace it with an immersive view from the eyes of its protagonist, a chronically unlucky man named Ethan Winters, who travels to Louisiana in search of his lost wife.
RE7 also featured a whole new engine, making for fantastic graphics, and contributing greatly to the game’s atmosphere. (Un)fortunately, it also gives you the best seat to the gruesome show that are Ethan’s much-abused hands, and you also get a great view of the mutated, violent Baker family which owns the house the game takes place in. But hey, it’s a horror game after all!
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Warhammer Vermintide 2
Release date: | 2018-03-08 |
Genre: | Cooperation |
Developer: | Fatshark |
Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is in the zone that could also house Left 4 Dead or Back 4 Blood: a fundamentally cooperative first-person perspective shooter/slasher putting a team of violent maniacs up for a difficult mission with a horde of enemies standing in the way.
In this case, it’s set in the Warhammer Fantasy universe, and instead of zombies, the enemies are ratlike Skaven and violent Chaos cultists.
There are five characters, each with unique classes and roles to fill on the battlefield, such as the tanky Ironbreaker for dwarf Bardin, or lethal Assassin, an option for elf Kerillian. Vermintide 2 also offers many exceptionally well-designed, story-based missions following several different contained story arcs. If you want a rock-solid FPP, melee-favoring co-op you won’t find anything better.
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See the world through the eyes of somebody else
This concludes our list of some of the best first-person perspective games you could play in 2023 and beyond, tried and tested by thousands of players. We’ve made sure to cater to many different playstyles and genres so that everybody can find something exciting!