Highlights
- Indie developers continue to prove that they can create great first-person shooters without a huge budget or large teams.
- The "boomer shooter" scene, inspired by influential titles from the 1990s, has produced some highly popular and creative FPS games.
- These indie FPS games offer a range of unique features, from solving wardrobe malfunctions to battling mutated Communist politicians, providing players with unconventional and entertaining experiences.
Indie developers have proven time and time again that they really don’t need a huge budget or a team of a hundred employees to make a great game, and that is especially true of first-person shooters. So far, the 2020s has been blessed with some truly amazing FPS titles from a vast selection of small teams and creative minds.
Many of them have proven to be very popular with fans of the humorously-named ‘boomer shooter’ scene (a jokey term for FPS’s heavily inspired by influential titles from the 1990s), and these are but some of the best ones out there.
10 Fashion Police Squad
Who says an FPS has to be violent, bloody, and rampant with swear words? Certainly not the self-dubbed ‘humor shooter’ Fashion Police Squad. Instead of blasting demons or terrorists, this game has players solving an epidemic of wardrobe malfunctions with a peculiar armory, like a sewing gun and sock-stealing gnomes.
Meanwhile, there are mocktails galore to drink to keep the health bar filled. Its vibrant colors and witty jokes will certainly put smiles on faces, and the level designs themselves are brimming with color and thoughtfully designed to prevent anyone from getting lost. Its soundtrack is full of delightfully fabulous tracks, as well.
9 Zortch
Zortch is very much a dark horse. It wasn’t hyped up or thoroughly advertised at all, and yet, shortly after its release, shooter fans and FPS influencers all latched onto it and sang high praises. Visually and mechanically, it very much feels like a tricky Nintendo 64-era shooter, offering assorted weapons (from TNT to a lightning gun attached to some kind of fleshy creature), 15 sizable levels, and kooky jokes galore.
Plus, thanks to its custom-made engine, Zortch is capable of running on even low-end computers. Watch out for those Spider-Mines, though, as those swines can be pretty nasty in a fight!
8 HROT
Dubbed ‘Slavic Quake’ by admirers, HROT is heavily inspired by Soviet-era architecture and 3D shooters of the late nineties. The levels are based on realistic Eastern bloc locations, like a chapel and abandoned factories, while health is regained by consuming food rations.
The enemies, conversely, are a bit more unusual. Gasmask-wearing horses, machine gunners riding wheelchairs, and a mutated Communist politician with spider legs are some of the foes faced, but they’re no match for crossbows, electricity-spewing weaponry, and shotguns. HROT is an unsettling, moody, and unique experience. Plus, its Endless mode is very gratifying and well worth retrying over and over again.
7 Nightmare Reaper
When awake, the protagonist of Nightmare Reaper is an incarcerated asylum patient. But in her dreams, she is a slayer of monsters. A huge assortment of weapons is available, like grappling hook-chainsaws and spell books, while mini-games can be played to implement upgrades in the campaign and wave modes. Creatures will slash, shoot, and pump out exploding lumps of flesh at the player.
Progressing in the story mode gradually reveals more about the hero’s backstory, thus giving further incentive to pound foes into a pulp in this enthralling romp. Best of all, the whole thing is to the tune of an epic Metal score by acclaimed composer Andrew Hulshult.
6 CULTIC
CULTIC has a unique, grimy and grainy appearance to it, paired up with a skin-crawling soundtrack that accompanies the bloodshed. Manic cultists desperately want the protagonist dead in the nastiest way possible, but these dangerous guys are not impervious to SMGs, shotguns, or TNT bundles, for that matter.
As fast-paced as the game is, stealth is also a viable option, whereby traps and ambushes can help turn the tides in a tight situation. The first chapter is currently available, offering a short but very pleasant selection of levels, while a second will be released as DLC for those hungry for more of the madness that awaits.
5 Viscerafest
With two of the three promised chapters currently available, Viscerafest is home to one of the most charmingly bananas protagonists in recent times - Caroline (voiced by the immensely talented Janna Polzin). Hopping around at high-speeds and splattering alien mercenaries with futuristic weaponry to get enough money to pay for an engagement ring is certainly a unique premise, and she’s full of hilarious quips and songs she likes to sing.
It offers challenging and engaging gunplay, while the story mode is full of creative twists. The soundtrack by Michael Markie and Geoffrey Day is a hard-hitter, too. The final episode is sure to blow fans’ minds when it’s released.
4 BattleBit Remastered
While the art style of BattleBit Remastered may look a bit cartoon-like with its blocky character models, this online shooter pulls off some remarkable feats. It has a substantial attention to detail with its weapon and character customization, extensive and incredibly wide maps, servers that can support up to a whopping 254 players, and its gameplay has a high focus on realism. Clips must be retrieved from the ground, only medics can fully heal other players, and so on.
Overall, BattleBit Remastered delivers a hardcore online experience that has pulled in a considerably large player base, meaning finding a server to play in is hardly a difficult task.
3 Hedon: Bloodrite
Powered by a severely modified and upgraded version of the DOOM engine, Hedon: Bloodrite is a two-in-one package, containing the original Hedon and the titular Bloodrite chapter alongside. Combining fantasy elements with creative means of dishing out pain, this title has received much acclaim for its detailed visuals, mood-setting music, exceptionally detailed levels, engaging gameplay, intriguing story, helpful items to carry, both ambient and head-banging songs, and a badass protagonist that would make any nerdy player drool uncontrollably.
For additional replayability, there’s even a melee-centric difficulty mode with unique equipment like storm-inducing staffs and exploding war hammers to utilize, and they absolutely rock.
2 ULTRAKILL
Compared by many to the likes of Quake and Devil May Cry, ULTRAKILL helped popularize the movement shooter subgenre. Racking up combos with an assortment of guns with unique abilities - like reflecting shots off coins and pulling nails towards enemies with magnets - is wicked stuff, but hardly a cakewalk. In fact, its bosses are relentlessly aggressive, and require lightning-fast reflexes to overcome their barrage of powerful attacks.
The frantic drum ‘n’ bass soundtrack deserves a special mention, as it’s enough to raise the heart rate of any speed demon playing it. ULTRAKILL has received much acclaim, despite still being in Early Access. Act 3 is indeed incoming, with more carnage yet to come.
1 Turbo Overkill
Turbo Overkill puts players in the shoes of Johnny Turbo, a cyborg fighting an evil AI that has taken over his hometown of Paradise. Not only can he run and leap across walls, as well as upgrade his abilities and weaponry to ridiculously-powerful extents, the most distinctive aspect of his hero is his chainsaw-leg that will propel him at ridiculous speeds while dealing significant damage.
Filled with over-the-top action, Turbo Overkill has been branded by many critics and fans alike as one of the best boomer shooters in recent times, and the Overwhelming Positive reviews on Steam certainly attest to that.