The greatest shooter ever

The greatest shooter, or FPS game ever made is...

Metroid: Prime?


Ok maybe not. But here's what brought this all up. A regular was in the other day, and we were all discussing Killzone over Bulletstorm (sorry, if two shooters are released the same day, they're going to be compared, it's bound to happen). He blatantly said "Metroid: Prime is the greatest shooter to date".

Silence followed. How could this happen? A Metroid game beat out COD, Battlefield, even Goldeneye? That's when it struck me. All shooters are different, but the "best" one is hard to judge. This guy had played the COD series, played Bioshock and Borderlands, played all of the other shooter games, but he still stuck to his guns (wah wah) that M:P was the best. So what caused him to think so? Well, his arguments were environment and atmosphere. I'll be damned, he's right. To him, M:P gave him everything he wanted from a shooter. No multiplay so the single-player could be a long length, a good combat system, and an amazing soundtrack. So throughout the day, I've been asking people what they though the greatest shooter ever was. It unsurprisingly wasn't always COD. Not to start beating that dead horse again, but I think people are blinded by the current popularity and forget about the other good shooters that have come and gone.

Here's my short list of amazing shooters worth a try.

1. World is Not Enough
(think Goldeneye, but with more... other stuff)
2. Metro 2033
(a shooter should be complicated, and take bullet management, no one can carry 9000 rounds)
3. Metroid: Prime
(the guy was totally right, this was an awesome game that's faded into the background)
4. Deus Ex
(sandbox FPS, it takes some time to get into, but it was the start of what we take for granted now)
5. Return to Castle Wolfenstein
(no one will come close when it comes to atmosphere and story)
6. Thief: Deadly Shadows
(a shooter doesn't have to mean guns, it can be sneaky too)
7. Far Cry 2
(try the damn game, I don't care if it's old. You can start field-fires, think about that in combat..)
8. No One Lives Forever
(take Austin Powers-type comedy, mix it with a good early 2000s shooter)
9. Serious Sam
(although it's coming back, it sorta reignited the fast-paced Doom-esque shooter)
10. Kingpin: Life of Crime & Postal 2
(both got recognized because of their violence, but underneath the hype lies two games with surprisingly solid gameplay mechanics, and a deviation away from the normal "shoot in the head" logic).

You'll notice they're mostly older games, but they still make my list of games worthy of keeping around, if nothing else, it's nice to see games focus on the entire experience, not a package deal.

Metroid: Prime is the greatest shooter ever? I suppose maybe in some peoples eyes.
But as the Jimmy Carr joke goes "throwing acid is wrong.... in some peoples eyes". Think about it.