The shooter genre is so notorious that it has its own trope. There’s an unspoken notion that the gaming industry is saturated with shooters above other, more ambitious genres. Regardless of why that is, the shooter genre has been given more attention for years, though 2019 made it apparent that developers are running out of ideas when it comes to shooters.
Third-person shooters were mostly untouched by a feeling of repetition that plagued many first-person shooters in 2019. Games like Control and Gears 5, especially given the latter’s decade plus-old formula, retained their creativity and satisfaction of gameplay. Even games like Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered felt good despite the genre’s long existence.
First-person shooters were another matter altogether. Far Cry New Dawn failed to engage the series’ large audience as much as previous iterations. And, although Metro Exodus was given praise, it was more liked for its great narrative and presentation than its gunplay.
Rage 2 was yet another high-profile first-person shooter that came out this year, albeit to lackluster reviews.
Yet, there were at least three standout FPS’s this year, praised for their gunplay mechanics; those being Borderlands 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and Apex Legends.
Released in early February, the Respawn Entertainment-developed Apex Legends delivered a solid first-person shooter with tight mechanics and well-received battle royale gameplay. The only problem was that, as it was developed by Respawn, it adhered too closely to the Titanfall formula, minus the Titans.
Borderlands 3 was also mostly well-received, building on pre-existing mechanics, which is also what made it stale. Borderlands 3 didn’t innovate so much as it refined what already existed in a beloved world with memorable characters.
Finally, there was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which was set to be the Call of Duty that would draw in jaded fans of the franchise out of nostalgia and hope that the series would be heading in the right direction. The story was great, the audio direction was terrific, and the gunplay was, as expected, tight and responsive. The only problem, as with the problem experienced by previous games here, is that it is heavily derived from previous games in the franchise with few innovations.
All in all, the shooter genre in 2019 didn’t have the spirit it did in past years. There were a number of disliked high-profile FPS’s, but even the standout ones simply slightly tweaked established formulas. Hopefully, 2020 and years beyond will find more creativity within the genre because 2019 was simply a low point for the genre.
