After DOOM became the bane of office and campus networks the world over in 1992, a seed was earthed that would blossom into one o🅺f the most abso💛lutely titanic forces in the gaming industry. Today, the first person shooter is a genre that is nearly synonymous with gaming itself, with any one of its vast array of offerings immediately coming to mind when the topic comes up in casual conversation.

It’s a genre of ambition, with entries like Crysis setting new standards and pushing the envelope in terms of graphical capabilities. And it is a genre of innovation, with games like Superhot constꦰantly teasing out new and outrageously fun ways to imbibe the classic and timeless formula we just can’t seem to stop slurping down.

However, with all of that said, it’s also a genre that invites polar extremes. Controversy can give right away to t📖ired gimmicks, ambition can breed thorough disappointment, and innovation only stays innovative until it becomes standard practice. You have to admit, we’re a pretty demanding fandom. If a highly hyped shoot ‘em up doesn’t meet expectations we aren’t exactly quiet about it, much less polite. You’ve played Xbox Live, right?

So let’s have a look at some of the benchmark titles that kept us fr💛osty and staring down the sights, and while we’re at it, let’s look at some that just became targets when they missed ꦦthe shot.

30 GREATEST: Over😼watch (2🦄016)

When a studio known almost exclusively for RPG and RTS offerings decides to enter the first per꧃son shooter arena, expectations can be apprehensive. And when that studio is an industry giant like Blizzard, they can also be very high. Luckily, Blizzard is also synonymous with little things like “quality,” and “excellence.” It didn’t disap♈point.

The development team obviously read over the Team Fortress 2 doss𝓡ier🦂 and said, “Let’s turn all of that up to eleven. Wait, does it go higher than eleven?”

It did, apparently. Because Overwatch is an explosive and deജeply skill-based team play experience with one of the fastest booming eSports scenes in recent history.

29 DISAPPOINTING: Turok (2008) 🍸

Rebooting a series known and loved for helping ൲to bring first-person shooters t🐭o the living room shouldn’t be too much of a task, should it? Besides, dinosaurs. It sells itself.

Or it might just oversell itself. Coming into play a full six years since the laꦐst sequel, this lackluster reboot of the original dinosaur shooting safari was met with lukewarm praise at its very best. Just imagine being told that the original Nintendo 64 game was better in 20🐎08. Harsh.

Dinosaur hunting is cool and all, but just how thick do our nostalgia lenses need to be in order to forgive t🌳his QTE ridden travesty?

28 🍸 GREATEST: DOOM (2016)

This revival of the great, great grandfather of all shooters defied every expectation from announcement to release, bringing it bac🥃k to the forefront oꦇf gaming with a wicked vengeance.

The single-player campaign produced a symphonic roller coaster of violence punctuated with brilliant set pieces and simple, yet thoroughly en♓grossing storytelling. Th⭕e Doomslayer vents his righteous fury in a way most of us can only dream of.

The best way. With a chainsaw.

While controversial, the multiplayer writes us a poetic love letter to our nostalgic Quake deathmatches o🌄f yore. After all, this franchise invented them. How could they not be good?

27 DISAPPOINTING: Far Cry 2 (200𓃲8)

The first entry in this nowဣ well loved open world shooter series tested the early limits of graphics process𒉰ing and secured a solid foothold for this sequel’s success.

However, the clunk♍y ✨mechanics and drab, repetitive gunplay failed to excite fans.

The weapons upgrade system was more painful than rewarding, and there was little variation in the constantly respawning enemies. These aspects combined with bad AI and a less than vivid color palette left gamers wit♌h few memories outside of frustration and a brown blur of unexciting combat.

26 🍒 🔯 GREATEST: Quake (1996)

Outside of offering a great, techno-gothi൲c single player experience, this id Software powerhouse was an essential milestone in many ways that can’t be ignored.

Basically, you’ve got a l🏅ot of things to thank Quake for.

While Quake wasn’t the first game to offer “true” 3D graphics, it was the first to do it with detail and consistency. It also served as the turning point for industry focus on multiplayer functionality, particularly with post-launch update QuakeWorld. Helping to set a lot of standards for arena shooters, in gener𝐆al, is also a nice bonus.

25 DISAPPOINTING: Call Of Dut𝓀y: Ghosts (2013)

After three iterations of Modern Warfare, not to mention two releases of sister branding Black Ops, tꦏhe predictable formula and moder𝓰n tactical shooter setting had worn thin and through with the fan base.

At this point, the franchise was just coughing up dust. There was little innovation to be had outside of a few new, though unimpressive tricks, and an apocalyptic near future setting that still didn’t quite f🌸eel new. If anything, this release signaled the necessity for a new direction. The question is, did we really end up feeling any different✱ly about that direction?

24 GR🃏EATEST: Borderlands (2009)

Guns, guns, more guns, a few stylisti🍸c risks, a unique art direction, and just to be sure, a few more guns. How did that recipe turn out, you wonder? It was perfect.

This cel-shaded delight 💃for the eyes adapted Diablo’s “loot pinata” item drops, a lightweight but rewarding RPG character progression system and open world navigation. After fusing these elements with your typical first-person shooter conventions and some choice comedic script writing, it emerged as a genre-bending Frankenstein of epic proportions.

Now, if only we could mute Clap🍌trap for the entirety of our playthrough.

23 DISA♕PP🍃OINTING: Daikatana (2000)

A long♕ development period, marketing hubris, and under🧔whelming delivery left fans less than enthused about this Y2K offering from industry wizard John Romero when it finally arrived.

We love you, John. But wasn’t a good call.

Granted, . The significant buzz and Romero’s name were enough to hold this title to mountainous expectations, most of which it sไimplyꩵ couldn’t hold itself up to. The game’s delayed development process resulted in mechanical and graphical fidelity that appeared dated alongside its competition.

22 🎐 GREATEST: PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (2017)

The survival sandbox boom was unprecedented. And the greater majority of the buzz surrounding it stemmed from the tense and unpredictable PVP situations that games like Day Z and RUST produced.

It was soon discovered that you could isolate those situations from tꦯhe rest of the experience to streamline the whole process, resulting in a wildly popular sub-genre dubbed “battle royale🧜.”

PUBG stepped up to captain this new ship, and the trend became completely inescapable. Although Fortnite was hot on its heels, it has sailed on steadily ever since. Even industry monolit🐷hs like and stopped to take notes. That says a little something.

21 DISAPPOINTING: Command &🐭amp; Conquer: Renegade ꦗ(2002)

Most people would read that title a𝔉nd immediately th൩ink of a slew of RTS greats that paved the way for most others, not a first-person shooter.

Well, this is the game that ensured it would st♏ay tha🌄t way.

While it did bring a unique flavor to the table with i𒅌ts passable multiplayer mode, the core mechanics and single player landed somewhere south of innovative. Far, far south. Probably on a different continent. Not to mention how badly the generally fun, even charming🐲 campiness of Westwood’s flagship translated to the new format.