Most of our time with first-person shooters is spent in multiplayer, obviously. But we do make a point to play through each and every single-player campaign to see just what the game can throw at us. One of the best things about shooters is when the designers decide to take the brakes off and just throw truly insane stuff at us. These over-the-top moments can't carry a whole game, but they sure do act as awesome punctuation. Here are some of the best shooter moments we've ever played.
The Best Shooter Moments
Sure, we like to play shooters for the multiplayer action, but let's not diss the single-player campaign. Designers work hard to craft truly spectacular moments for us to enjoy. Here are a bunch of the most amazingly epic and over-the-top single-player firefights we've ever seen.
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By K. Thor Jensen August 30, 2011 |
| 11 | Doom 2 |
Let's start this list off with a true classic. Doom 2 took everything that was great about the pioneering FPS classic and amped it up. One moment that everybody remembers is in the game's eighth level. Titled "Tricks And Traps," an enterprising player can find themself in a room that contains a feared Cyberdemon and a swarm of Barons of Hell. Normally, this would be instant death, but the game's clever AI sets the monsters fighting amongst themselves. If you attack, you'll get your ass torn apart, but letting them pick each other off lets you watch an insane battle.
| 10 | Call Of Duty |
The Call Of Duty series is famous for its singleplayer set pieces. Forget Call of Duty: Black Ops and the latest games for now, because that tradition started with the very first game. In the beginning of the Russian campaign you are put in the shoes of a soldier in the Battle of Stalingrad; starting from the air raid that interrupts your briefing, this is a non-stop scramble through urban warfare hell, with danger striking from all sides. The days of dignified fighting were long gone, replaced with guerilla war against impossible odds. If you managed to keep a clear head through this mission, you're a better man than I.
| 9 | Far Cry |
Throughout the first Far Cry, you're put up against the Trigens - disgusting genetically-modified monsters that would love to rip you to shreds and feast on your bones. Usually, you have enough weaponry to deal with them, but midway through the game you're dumped on an island swarming with them and only have ten bullets to your name. What follows is a ridiculously intense sequence where you fight for your life with every survival tool in your arsenal, and it's awesome.
| 8 | Duke Nukem |
We probably could populate this whole list with just Duke Nukem moments and get away with it, but that would be cheating. We do, however, have to include this spectacular moment from the first 3D game. When Duke says that he's going to rip off your head and crap down your neck, he's not just engaging in witty banter to amuse the audience. He actually means it, and when you decimate the boss at the end of the Lunar Apocalypse level, Duke drops trou and lets a dump loose right down an alien neckhole.
| 7 | Halo |
For most of the first half of Halo, combat is a pretty traditional affair - it's Master Chief and his squad against the Covenant, who are pretty much equivalent to you in terms of abilities. And then you discover The Flood, and all that changes. You're not trying to outthink or outflank the rapacious, parasitic aliens - you're just trying to survive against an onslaught any way you can. It was a game-changer that really went above and beyond expectations.
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