Forget Call Of Duty: These Shooters Deliver Superior Action

When it comes to shooter franchises, Call of Duty is number one. Whether players are hardcore or casual, chances are they have played one Call of Duty, if not all of them, or continue to play one of their favorites online. While the campaigns can often be epic and the weapon handling pristine, there are other shooters, and not just first-person ones, that contain better action throughout.

Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is a good third-person mech example, while a newer boomer first-person shooter like Ultrakill is breaking new boundaries. What other games are on the list? Let’s blast on through and remember that at the end of the day, the Call of Duty games are still fun.

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Armored Core 6: Fires Of Rubicon

A Classic Franchise Returns

Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is the latest game in the Armored Core series, featuring the most intense mech action yet. Most of the game will take players through a linear series of missions with big open areas to explore and attack enemies, be they other mechs, turrets, or something in between.

Players can customize their mech with parts and weapons the further they get in the game, and one build can easily make all the difference during a difficult boss fight, like favoring different treads or melee over ranged. Between gliding on the ground to dodge attacks, blasting guns return, and popping off a few rockets, players will never get a moment’s rest until the mission is cleared. Call of Duty has very rarely featured mechs and certainly not ones as quick or as sturdy as the ones in Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon.

Bulletstorm

Cliff Kickers

Bulletstorm is a first-person shooter that went for humor and creativity over everything else and has yet to earn itself a sequel. Players will get to arm themselves with the usual series of rifles and shotguns, albeit with futuristic twists, but the real hook of the game is the environment.

There will always be something in the environment to pull off a cool kill, from shooting barrels to cause an explosion to lassoing an enemy and then kicking them off a cliff. The more creative players are, the more points get accrued, which can help liven up combat from the usual point-and-shoot gameplay of Call of Duty games.

Destiny 2

Powered Up Classes

The Destiny series and the Call of Duty series have a great reputation when it comes to console shooting games, thanks to Bungie and the many developers working behind the scenes at Activision. It should come as no surprise, then, that Destiny 2 has some of the best controls in modern shooters, even though it technically is almost a decade old.

What sets it apart is the weapon variety and the classes, since each one has a skill tree that offers players more than just guns to shoot aliens with. From wielding powerful weapons and going into third-person to calling down lightning in space, the variety of powers keeps things interesting as one of Bungie’s best games.

Doom (2016)

Earning The M In Mature

The 2016 reboot of Doom was all about keeping the momentum up. Levels were not linear, but there was definitely less exploration in levels than in the previous games, or rather, there was less hunting for objectives to slow things down between what this series is great at: shooting demons.

New to the Doom series was a finishing system wherein players could brutalize their opponents to keep their health high or their ammo count in check. Like the recent Mortal Kombat games, these finishers were gooey, and even though Call of Duty is rated M, Doom is a 100% more mature than that series on every level.

Max Payne 3

Bad Vacation Vibes

Max Payne 3 is the latest entry in the series, and it has been a while since this pill-popping detective made the scene. Like the previous entries, the titular hero is now a bit older and cannot move as well as he used to. Players will feel every bullet and punch he takes, but the same is true when players fire back.

As old as Max is, he can still use bullet time to pull off cool moves on missions. This is another game that gets the mature feeling of gunplay right, both glorifying it with cool cinematic battles as well as showcasing how brutal guns are, similar to Call of Duty, but way more interesting thanks to Max’s noir-infused story, making it one of Rockstar’s more forgotten games.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Platforming At Its Best

It may seem weird to nominate a Ratchet & Clank game like Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart ahead of Call of Duty, but Insomniac Games knows what they are doing, and this series has always blended humor, great gunplay with inventive weapons, and solid platforming well.

Combat is all about keeping the move on enemies between strafing around them or jumping in the air, all while firing a wild assortment of weapons from standard laser blasts to a gun that can pixelate enemies. New to this game are the dimension switching and the two new dual protagonists, Rivet and Kit. The Pixar-level “kiddy” graphics shouldn’t dissuade players because this is legit a great action shooter.

Saros

Leveling Up Roguelikes

Saros is the latest bullet-hell roguelike shooter from developer Housemarque. Like Returnal that came before, players will have an incredibly fast movement speed in third-person, gaining various weapons and perks on runs. What’s different in this spiritual sequel is that there is a permanent upgrade tree to boost stats and abilities, like one that can save players from death.

RPGs and roguelikes with progression systems outdo Call of Duty campaigns since there are rarely achievements that carry over. The intensity that players can feel in Saros’ levels as they constantly dodge gunfire while dishing out some incredibly devastating moves of their own is also something Call of Duty players can only dream of.

Ultrakill

Armed Robot Arms

Ultrakill is one of the best modern shooters out there, and it’s only in Early Access. There’s not much of a premise beyond going into levels and blasting the absolute heck out of enemies with larger-than-life guns, from pistols that can deflect coins to a Gatling gun that heats up upon usage.

The game is presented entirely in pixel art, but does not shy away from big spurts of blood comically and colorfully. It can also be likened to an old-school bullet-hell where players constantly have to be on the move, or else they will be decimated. While gunfire can be intense in some situations within Call of Duty, Ultrakill is another game that gets movement right with intensely satisfying gun-based gameplay.

Titanfall 2

The Spiritual Successor To CoD

Titanfall 2 feels like the closest spiritual successor to Call of Duty, seeing as Respawn Entertainment was built by former Infinity Ward team members. Unlike the first game, which was purely a multiplayer shooter, this sequel had a campaign that was short, but it made every second count.

The human combat never lets up, between sliding on the ground to pop off a few rounds, or hacking robots to become allies, or running on walls and raining grenades down on enemies. This is the parkour of shooters, and that’s not even getting into the mech combat, which is equally solid, and the bond that forms between pilot Jack Cooper and his mech, BT, can be both heartfelt and funny.

Vanquish

A Rare Shooter From PlatinumGames

PlatinumGames does its best work with character action games, but Vanquish is a rare exception as their top-notch third-person shooter experiment. Equipped with a futuristic suit, the Augmented Reaction Suit, the hero, Sam Gideon, can slow down time in battle when players activate it, like when powersliding on the ground.

Movement can take a bit to get used to since the suit’s propulsion can be quick when not in slow-mo, but with practice, players can get used to it. While Call of Duty has had exoskeleton suits before with combat abilities, nothing compares to Sam’s ARS. The shooting is not bad either, but overall, it’s the momentum that is addicting in Vanquish.