What is it about theRPGand shooter genres that players love so much? Perhaps it’s the choices, being able to customize your character in a fantasy adventure, or selecting a favorable weapon of your personal taste in a tactical FPS. Whatever the reason, what happens when you take these two different genres and fuse them together? You get gold.
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As video games get bigger with every generation, more releases add role-playing elements. Whether first-person or third-person, some of the most legendary RPG shooters have shown the importance of balancing the five key mechanics every game requires: story, characters, choices, the leveling system, and most importantly, the weapons. So, it’s time to unload some loot and check out which RPG shooter stacks up the best.
10Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
We Built This Game on Rock & Roll
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
Looking for a space escapade with a rocking soundtrack from the 70s and 80s?Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxynot only takes the trophy for its killer score and grandiose adventure, but it also stands out as one of the bestMarvelgames around.
The galaxy is falling apart, a universe-ending threat is on the loose, and it’ll take a team of honorable heroes to save it. Unfortunately, the Avengers are busy, so the universe is stuck with Star-Lord and his team of misfits. When you’re not trying to talk your way out of trouble in a narrative-driven story with dozens of choices and outcomes, you’ll be blasting away bad guys with the Guardians while using their range of abilities. Even Star-Lord’s iconic Walkman is a mechanic, featuring over 30 songs that’ll motivate your team to fight harder and give you a fun tune for every battle.
9Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Rise Above Your Limits
From the classicDeus Exseries comes its prequel/reboot Deus Ex: Human Revolution. For a game released in 2011, the graphics have aged well. The world and UI perfectly capture an advanced but bleak future of corporate domination and transhumanism.
In a story of conspiracy and plotting organizations, Adam Jensen is thrown into the thick of it after a terrorist attack leaves him gravely wounded. Upgraded with a new range of cybernetics and augmentations, how Jensen fights and evolves is up to you. Smarter, faster, stronger, the combat and the story all depend on your decisions. While exploring the world and undertaking tasks, you may choose to go in guns blazing or take the stealthy route for lethal or nonlethal takedowns. If there’s any version you’re going to play, then the Director’s Cut is highly recommended.
8The Outer Worlds
“Taste The Freedom”
The Outer Worlds
In an alternate future dominated by megacorporations,The Outer Worldsbalances sci-fi storytelling with a comedic tone. Developed byObsidian Entertainment, you awaken after 70 years in cryosleep to discover the colonies you were meant to save have fallen into disarray due to greed and poor management. With bandits, exotic creatures, and corporate agents strangling the life out of the people, it’s up to you to fix it.
Or you can just do whatever you want. The Outer Worlds has a strong level of freedom. Ride across the stars in your very own spaceship, recruiting characters and accomplishing tasks. Every quest, every encounter, and every situation has numerous ways to resolve it. Utilizing the skill tree, you can build your character however you wish, from how smart you are, and how well you fight, to how good you are at lying. The choice is yours.
7S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
The Zone Is Calling
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
Though it leans more towardsurvival horror, the amount of weapon customizations, along with choices and the consequences they carry, makesS.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyla must-play RPG shooter. It can be challenging for beginners, and it may have its bugs, but the level of polish, detail, and effort that went in elevates S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 above its known issues.
In order to power a mysterious artifact you found, you embark into the radioactive ruins of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, also known as the Zone. The map is massive, with so much to do and explore. You aren’t alone either. There are a number of settlements in need, bandits on the loose, and horrid mutants crawling everywhere. Yet the strangest hazards are the Anomalies, disturbances that break the laws of the universe with dangerous results. So, don’t go anywhere without your gear.
6Borderlands 2
The Best Looter Shooter
Borderlands 2
Guns. Guns. Guns. If that’s what you want,Borderlands 2is what you need to get. Along with the weapons, you have a colorful selection of Vault Hunters to pick from, each possessing their own range of abilities and skill trees to use in combat as you fight to free Pandora from Hyperion control.
Whether or not you’re a fan of the series, players can agree that the second game ranks the best for its loot system, great story, and Handsome Jack, who’s quite possiblythe best villain in video games. With a whole planet to explore, there’s combat around every corner. And with an overabundance of guns and procedurally generated loot everywhere, you’ll always have a new toy to play with on every map. Best of all, the game supportsco-op, so you and at least three friends can join in the chaos.
Beware The Coffee Cups
It’s survival horror in zero gravity. On a space station orbiting Earth’s Moon, a hostile alien race known as Typhon has taken over. With no way out, it falls on you to stop the shape-shifting creatures before they consume the station and reach Earth.
Prey is more than just another horror game in space. For starters, the Typhon are without a doubt the most bizarre alien race in video games, capable of mimicking any object they touch. So, there’s always tension whenever you enter a room without enemies and notice there’s an extra chair or a mug that moved.
There’s so much to explore, as you can pretty much go anywhere in the station, even outside. You can upgrade your suit, weapons, and even yourself and gain the same powers as the Typhon. But be warned, the more you evolve, the less human you become. The choice and consequences are yours.
4Fallout New Vegas
What Happens in New Vegas, Stays in New Vegas
Fallout: New Vegas
Ever want to visit Vegas? Ever want to visit a post-apocalypse Vegas with a floating robot and a whiskey-drinking cowgirl? First, you have strange goals. Second, take a trip toFallout New Vegas, one of the best-written releases in theFalloutseries. The moment you step foot outside, you’re free to go and do as you please.
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Join a number of factions with their own rules, morals, and objectives. Or be your own person and roam the wasteland listening to the radio with a big iron on your hip. Nearly every action has an outcome, impacting your reputation across various settlements. Though the gunplay and animations may be starting to show their age, the level of content, weapons, armor, and questlines make this a massive game to explore. And for those playing onPC, check outsome of the phenomenal modsdesigned by fans.
3Cyberpunk 2077
We’ll Never Fade Away
Cyberpunk 2077
Though it had a rocky beginning,Cyberpunk 2077has gone through enoughupdates and changes since launchthat it feels like a completely new game. If you’re willing to forgive and forget, you’ll discover that this masterpiece has the perfect balance between combat and role-playing.
Your name is V. Night City is your home, your prison, and your playground. Modify your body any way you want with cyberware attachments. With a multitude of weapons, from firearms to katanas, to choose from, customize your loadout and hit the scene. Possessing over a dozen questlines, side gigs, and bonus content, your main objective is to survive long enough to make a name for yourself and become the next legend of Night City. Plus, you get to run around causing mayhem with Keanu Reeves as your pal.
Somewhere Beyond The Sea
When players think of games that impacted a generation, they think ofBioshock. As the only survivor of a suspicious plane crash, you’re hurled from one disaster into another as you plunge into the depths of the North Atlantic Ocean to the undercity of Rapture. With the population having gone mad from genetic splicing, the only way to survive is to fight and evolve.
What can be said about Bioshock that hasn’t already been restated over a million times? The gameplay combines gunplay with plasmid powers as you battle a horde of mad Splicers, killer machines, and the infamous Big Daddies. The feeling of isolation and tension is everywhere as you explore a dead city at the bottom of the sea. And it’s all tethered to a groundbreaking story that blindsides you with one of the biggest twists in gaming.
Honorable Mentions: Fallout 4 and System Shock 2.
1Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition
Call it cheating, but when you get three amazing games packaged in one, DLC included, it’s low-hanging fruit. TheMass Effect Trilogyrepresents the peak of third-person shooters and sci-fi role-playing. You’re Commander Shepard. Your history, class specialization, and choices are yours as you set out on an adventure to save the galaxy from ruin.
In the first Mass Effect, the combat is about the squad as you and your team use your range of abilities for every battle, fighting with space-age weaponry (that can overheat). With the sequel, the gameplay only intensifies as you gain newer and faster powers, but now the guns require ammunition. Jumping over to ME 3, the guns can be upgraded and customized with mods.
Play any way you choose, because your team and the bonds you forge are your main weapons. If you haven’t played these games because you’re deterred by the endings, remember that it’s about the experience and not the destination.
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