GI Joe goes, about to save the world alone with a gun and a knife. Nothing can stop this mountain of muscle and bravado, but even this protagonist has a serious weakness: he is boring, full.
For decades now, first-person shooters have been guilty of the antithesis of good storytelling, putting players in control of a Mary Sue who always manages to save the world all by herself. However, life is not made of mighty warriors.
In honor of average Joes who can hold their own with a gun but are far from unsuccessful, this list packs the best first-person shooters where you don’t play an established character. It’s up to your skills as a player to leave your mark on history, no weapons or superpowers can help you.
For a game to fit this list, you must play a non-named character and have a story mode or ongoing progression system.
8
Outer Worlds
Space Capitalism Simulator
The Outer Worlds puts you in the shoes of an alien being awakened by a strange scientist as your ship drifts aimlessly through space. In Obsidian’s beautiful world-building phase, you wander for answers in a fantastical capitastic hellscape. It’s related, right?
As an amnesiac blank slate character, your actions and decisions shape who you play as in Outer Worlds, and the game gives you plenty of opportunities to end that.
Like most RPGs, the gunplay isn’t exactly the star, but the characters and world more than make up for the game’s combat mechanics.
7
Escape to Tarkov
“Mercenary.” To the people trapped in the city of Tarkov, that’s all you are. Escape From Tarkov lets you choose between the BEAR and USEC crews when you start the game, but beyond cosmetics and initial gear, nothing matters as they leave you for dead.
Escape From Tarkov comes in both PvP and PvE flavors, and offers you no hand-holding as you try to get out of this hellhole. If you can stick with it, you get to enjoy some of the most satisfying shooters on the market, with unparalleled gunplay and customization options.
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Your character here is essentially you and your behavior, especially when you’re competing against other players. The game throws everyone into a difficult situation and lets you fix it. Some people remain dignified even in difficult times; others become bullies, eating newborn babies in an attempt to make requests come true. All is fair in love, war, and Tarkov.
6
Error 76
Appalachian Blues
By giving Obsidian a shot at the Fallout franchise, Bethesda made sure it couldn’t be compared to the indie single-player games. Going down the multiplayer route was a smart move, and it resulted in a flawed but fun game with Fallout 76.
Aside from appearing in a place less than 25 years after the war, there isn’t much to notice about your character at first, and that’s because you’ll be building them from scratch.
To give credit where it’s due, the previous Fallout games also offer a similar experience, but none of them give you as much freedom to carve a character as Fallout 76. Following a series of updates, you can even go down the path of a ghoul, with all the horrors and benefits that come with it. It’s all up to you, and that’s what makes it such a great game.
5
Six days in Fallujah
Join the Marines, See the World
In 2004, approximately 13,000 Coalition troops, led by the 1st and 7th Marine Regiments, attacked the Iraqi city of Fallujah. Six Days in Fallujah tries to replicate what was heard on the ground.
In both campaign and multiplayer modes, you play as one of thousands of Marines navigating the bloodiest urban battle in American military history since Vietnam. It’s one of the most intense shooting feelings you can have, while feeling focused and realistic.
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A core gameplay feature of Six Days in Fallujah is teamwork. If you and your four-man shooting team work together, you can survive long enough to survive the battle.
4
Gray Zone Warfare
Soldier of Fortune
The mysterious explosion is the final nail in the coffin of Lamang Island in Southeast Asia. Local soldiers turned into criminals working for an absent autocrat, the United Nations left the area, and all that remained were bandits and mercenaries. He is one of the latter.
Three merc companies are interested in Lamang, and your character is one of hundreds of other mercenaries trying to cash in on what’s left of Lamang.
Gray Zone Warfare features one of the largest and most detailed maps of any multiplayer game, with plenty of room for you to develop your character as you try to survive and make a living doing the dirty work of rich, mysterious people.
3
Day Z
Earth, Die, Repeat
If you wake up on a beach with nothing but your clothes in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, how long do you think you can survive? DayZ helps you answer that question by showing you, through a realistic demonstration, where your survival skills are lacking.
Every time you die, you start as a new character, with nothing to say in post-apocalyptic Chernarus. You have to make do with whatever you find in the wild, and if (really, when) things go south, you start over.
This strong survival style has helped DayZ remain one of the most popular games out there, and that’s not changing anytime soon.
2
The STALKER Anomaly
The Radiation Cycle
This mod is a complete adaptation of the original STALKER trilogy that works as a standalone title, and allows you to do something that vanilla games can’t: become a stalker in the Zone.
You can choose between different factions in the original game, complete with original story lines and full freedom to roam the Zone as you like. Your actions affect your reputation, and the persistent world changes based on the events you see or cause.
The main quests in STALKER Anomaly fall short of Shadow of Chernobyl, but it’s the everyday life in the Zone that makes this one of the most exciting you’ll ever experience.
1
Atomfall
Northern Mysteries
If it weren’t for all the nuclear disaster zone shenanigans, you’d be fooled into believing that Atomfall was just a slice of life drama about living in Cumbria. Alas, the highly charged consequences of the Windscale disaster are hard to ignore here.
Developer Rebellion has delivered one of the most satisfying examples of freedom in a video game. The World of Atomfall is beautifully modeled and extremely faithful to the setting shown, and you’re free to explore it however you like.
Through it all, we never know the face, name, gender, age, or anything really about your character, and that’s because who you are doesn’t matter as you try to escape the hellscape of northern England.
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