Hero shooters person go a mainstay of modern gaming. Everything's a leader shooter now! Call of Duty, Battlefield, adjacent Bungie’s upcoming revival of an aged franchise, Marathon, volition person a formed of heroes with antithetic abilities and play styles, thing fans are not blessed about. Needless to say: leader shooters are everywhere.
But, this increasing fig of games successful the genre has near a batch of radical exhausted. Many gamers wince astatine the dependable of “hero shooter”. Yet, immoderate are truthful good, that nary magnitude of genre saturation stops radical from playing them.
Here are immoderate of the champion PC leader shooters I ever find myself going backmost to, and I highly urge you play adjacent if you don't similar the genre.
5 Overwatch 2
The 1 that started this full trend.
What is determination to accidental that hasn’t already been said astir Overwatch, some bully and bad? Though not the archetypal leader shooter ever created, this is the crippled that brought them into the mainstream. It was a phenomenon. Even radical who ne'er touched a video crippled successful their lives played Overwatch.
This was acknowledgment to the formed of colorful characters that resonated with beauteous overmuch everyone. If you didn’t privation to play arsenic a cyborg ninja, you could play arsenic a time-skipping, smack-talking pilot. If you don’t privation to play arsenic her either, conscionable prime the African warlord with a powerfulness fist.Still not convinced? Go for the aged German antheral successful a suit of cybernetic knight armor, wielding a rocket hammer.
In 2022, the archetypal Overwatch was unopen down and Overwatch 2 was released arsenic a free-to-play sequel, a determination that puzzled galore fans.
Despite the changes, Overwatch 2 retained each the elements that resonated with millions astir the globe. Overwatch 2 makes you consciousness similar the leader careless of which quality you picked. It felt similar you were the main quality successful a Saturday greeting cartoon. The heroic euphony that played during the Play of the Game, those awesome squad fights, and the perfectly timed ultimates were the magic that made Overwatch a staple of modern gaming.
The hype for Overwatch has since died out. Fans were near disappointed erstwhile the archetypal was unopen down to marque mode for the sequel. Genre fatigue besides took its toll, since galore grew bushed of the leader shooter genre. And determination were besides the galore controversies of Blizzard, starring to galore boycotting their games. The beingness of Overwatch and its sequel has been a roller-coaster thrust and not ever a amusive one.
Today, Overwatch doesn’t look to beryllium arsenic large a portion of mainstream civilization arsenic it erstwhile was. Sure, subordinate numbers are inactive rather high, but caller rivals are popping up near and right. Will Overwatch 2 support its steadfast grip connected the leader shooter genre, oregon has its clip already passed?
What Made Overwatch truthful Popular?
- Colorful formed of characters that each play differently.
- Incredible creation direction, charming designs, and animation.
- Plenty of country for unthinkable teamplay.
A amusive blend of conflict royale and leader shooter.
I ne'er overmuch liked Apex: Legends. This was mostly due to the fact that I felt burned by however the unthinkable Titanfall bid being truthful unceremoniously canned.
Apex is “supposedly” a spiritual successor to the franchise, but it ne'er captured the tone of what made Titanfall truthful overmuch fun. It’s a conflict royale, it has a azygous representation with a azygous mode, and it doesn’t person those awesome mechs.
When you look astatine Apex: Legends done this lens, yeah, it's a precise underwhelming game. However, erstwhile you enactment each your wounded feelings to 1 broadside and instrumentality Apex: Legends for what it is, you find that it’s a precise amusive blend of leader shooter and conflict royale.
Play immoderate different conflict royale crippled today, and you’ll find that each lucifer plays beauteous overmuch the aforesaid way. Each crippled successful Apex: Legends is wildly antithetic from the next. This is each acknowledgment to the amusive leader abilities, mixed with the unsocial weapons and the varied representation design. In immoderate cases, you’ll onshore successful a gangly gathering and person a vertical firefight. Other times, you’ll beryllium moving done an unfastened field, jumping implicit bottomless pits.
Coupled with the exhilarating question strategy and the truly almighty guns, Apex: Legends is 1 of those leader shooters that ever keeps things fresh. And though it won’t capable the spread successful my bosom that Titanfall 3 would, it’s inactive a beauteous amusive crippled successful its ain right.
- Fun leader abilities.
- Vast representation with tons of variety.
- Powerful weapons that are satisfying to shoot.
3 Team Fortress 2
The charming classical that inactive holds up.
Ok, fto maine beryllium wholly transparent with you: Team Fortress 2 is my favourite crippled connected this list. End of story. I’m not going to fell my bias: erstwhile it comes to leader shooters, TF2 is my favourite without a doubt.
I’ve played Team Fortress 2 since 2009 (my God, it’s been a agelong time), and I find myself downloading it each twelvemonth oregon two. What's adjacent much absurd, is that Valve isn't giving up connected it, and adjacent promises to merchandise updates.
What bash I emotion truthful overmuch astir TF2? No, it’s not the easy-to-learn but hard-to-master combat. It’s not the formed of hilarious characters, nor the uniquely charming setting. It’s besides not the wide scope of weapons and instrumentality that tin importantly change the mode each of the 9 classes are played. It’s the goldmine of memes that has had an immense power connected net culture.
As for the gameplay, it’s a batch of fun. There are 9 chiseled classes that each play differently, with a wide assortment of weapons that tin alteration up your playstyle adjacent further.

TF2 leans into the humorous mounting by implementing a batch of absurd mechanics, specified arsenic rocket jumping, throwing jars of piss, and sidesplitting opponents with emotes.
Now, TF2 does person its problems. There has been a batch of hackers successful caller years. The mode you unlock caller weapons and instrumentality is archaic. And the assemblage tin be… gauche, to enactment it mildly. But regardless, TF2 is inactive fun, and contempt releasing astir 2 decades ago, it remains 1 of the most-player games connected Steam.
How does Team Fortress 2 inactive reign supreme?
- Incredibly charming characters and setting.
- Tons of maps, modes, and guns.
- Nine unsocial classes that play precise otherwise from 1 another.
2 Marvel Rivals
Play arsenic your favourite heroes from Marvel.
The newest of the clump is besides the 1 that’s putting up rather a fight: it’s Marvel Rivals. Saying that the MCU is fashionable is the understatement of the century. The MCU is present a regular portion of our mundane lives. So, it’s beauteous astonishing that nary multiplayer Marvel games person go chaotic successes implicit the years.
Marvel Rivals fills this powerfulness vacuum with its ain (somewhat) antithetic instrumentality connected the leader shooter genre. It inactive has a batch of the genre-defining features, specified arsenic skills you’ve astir apt seen successful different games, classes oregon roles, the “push this happening forward” objective, etc. But it does a fewer things differently.
Unlike each the different games connected this list, Marvel Rivals is 3rd person. It features biology destruction, which allows heroes to carve their ain paths done the map. Some characters besides synchronize if they person an in-canon connection, specified arsenic Scarlett with Magneto (he’s her dad), Thor, Loki, and Hela (they’re siblings), and the Fantastic 4 characters (they’re the Fantastic 4, what other did you expect). On apical of that, it besides features tons of melee-only characters, truthful players who suck astatine shooters tin besides lend to the squad effort.
The constricted crippled modes and maps are among the fewer things that dampen the amusive successful Marvel Rivals. The matches are ace quick, truthful you’ll perpetually spot the aforesaid loading screens, connected the aforesaid maps, wherever you’ll beryllium playing the aforesaid objectives. For now, it’s rather repetitive.
However, its ample roster of fan-favorite characters afloat realized arsenic multiplayer shooter heroes makes up for the repetitiveness. Despite the genre fatigue, tons of gamers were relieved to find that Marvel Rivals is really a ton of fun.

Marvel's Free-to-Play Shooter Doesn't Suck and I'm So Relieved
Move Over-watch, Marvel's got a revolutionary caller hero-shooter that is amazingly good!
Marvel Rivals is simply a amazingly caller instrumentality connected the genre that is rather replayable acknowledgment to its large roster of heroes, and with plentifulness of new ones connected the way.
How Marvel Rivals changed the formula.
- The ample formed of comic publication characters.
- Each quality looks and feels existent to their comic publication and movie counterparts.
- Destructible maps adhd a unsocial twist to the modular leader shooter formula.
1 Rainbow Six: Siege
A tactical leader shooter with a dilatory pace.
Let’s extremity things disconnected with the astir hardcore crippled of the bunch. Rainbow Six: Siege is my 2nd astir played crippled connected this list. And I volition admit: I person a love-hate narration with it.
I started playing Siege due to the fact that I ever wanted a tactical multiplayer experience, somewhat reminiscent of the aged Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon games oregon today’s Ready oregon Not. Needless to say, Rainbow Six: Siege was not the hardcore tactical crippled I wanted it to be, but it has a winning look of its own.
It’s much, overmuch harder than your modular Call of Duty, Battlefield, oregon Counter-Strike. Just a mates of bullets from beauteous overmuch immoderate weapon, oregon a azygous headshot, could instrumentality you down. So not lone bash you request to caput your surroundings, but you person to usage them to your advantage.
The maps successful Siege are (almost) wholly destructible. This means you person the accidental to make lines of show from unsuspecting angles. On apical of that, you person a immense enactment of operators, each with their ain weapons, gadgets, and skills that alteration the mode you play each match.
So, if there’s truthful overmuch to emotion astir R6: Siege, where’s the hate? Initially, Rainbow Six: Siege had a much gritty attack to its quality design, some successful presumption of their quality and kits. Though by nary means a milsim, Siege was grounded successful reality, and each the operators could easy person existed successful existent life. But past came holograms, wasp drones, goo-filled shurikens, and I conscionable mislaid interest.
Rainbow Six Siege has reliable servers, aggravated gameplay, absorbing maps, and superb graphics. - Dalton Cooper, GameRant
Again, Rainbow Six: Siege was ne'er meant to beryllium a super-gritty, realistic instrumentality connected hostage rescue oregon weaponry defusal. But with however brainsick the gadgets person gotten, players started to trust much connected their quality kits, and little connected clever tactics, the usage of destructible environments, oregon teamwork.
So, portion contiguous Rainbow Six: Siege is not my favourite leader shooter, it is inactive tons of amusive with friends, and I bash urge you effort it out.
Why bash players emotion the slower gait of Rainbow 6: Siege?
- Huge assortment of operators.
- Separate onslaught and defence stages.
- Fully destructible maps.