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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.
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.
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This article originally appeared on GameRant and is republished here with permission.
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6 Comments
Great insights on Defense. Thanks for sharing!
Interesting update on Shooters With Better Action Than Call Of Duty. Looking forward to seeing how this develops.
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Good point. Watching closely.
Solid analysis. Will be watching this space.
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