5 Shooter Series That Peaked With the First Game

From the early days of run-and-shoot games on the first home consoles to the modern first-person shooters that dominate the sales charts, shooters have long been one of the most important video game genres. As mentioned, the genre has several offshoots and dozens of beloved series. For the most part, those series have iterated on previous entries, upping the game for players. However, a few shooter series have failed to take the next step up after the original game. It’s not that those games are terrible, but they haven’t been able to top the first entry.

Here are five shooter series that peaked with the first entry.

5) Max Payne

Some Max Payne fans will disagree with this assessment. After all, Rockstar Games’ Max Payne 3 is absolutely the best-playing game in the Max Payne franchise. However, that improved shooting came at a high cost for long-time fans. It ditched the noir-style visuals that made Max Payne so beloved in favor of the sun-soaked city of São Paulo, Brazil.

Again, the third game isn’t bad. It’s worth playing through Rockstar’s version of the hit shooter, but Remedy’s original game is dripping with so much style that it was nearly impossible to live up to. Putting together those graphic novel-style visuals with slo-mo gameplay was a masterstroke. Plus, the original game has Sam Lake’s digital pen behind it, so you know it’s going to be delightfully strange. Thankfully, a Max Payne remake is on the way from Remedy, so modern players will soon get a chance to try out this all-time classic.

4) F.E.A.R.

F.E.A.R. is one of the great horror games; it just so happens to be in the form of a shooter. Don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t mean the team at Monolith Productions doesn’t also have great shooter chops. In fact, the AI in F.E.A.R. is some of the best we’ve ever seen. Your opponents react naturally to your every move, making it feel like you’re going up against a human enemy.

With how beloved the first game is, it wasn’t a surprise when Monolith announced it was working on a sequel in 2006. However, it was a bit weird because the team did not have the rights to the F.E.A.R. name, so it was just going to be called Project Origin. Monolith regained the rights two years later, and the sequel was made official. Name drama aside, it was a solid shooter, but it could not live up to the original. With Monolith closing its doors in 2025, we’ll probably never see a third game.

3) Serious Sam

Serious Sam is a throwback shooter, taking the gameplay fans loved in games like Doom and Duke Nukem 3D, and importing it into 2001. We’ve seen the rise of boomer shooters over the last few years, but Serious Sam was one of the first new series to really try to make its own version of that classic gameplay.

You can expect hordes of enemies, plenty of big guns, and some wild levels that take you back in time to face down an alien force. It was a big hit critically and commercially, which meant it spawned a long-lasting franchise. Most of the future games are relatively solid, but none of them have ever been able to overtake the original.

2) BioShock

BioShock was a revelation when it launched. It mixed a captivating story, a gorgeous world begging to be explored, and fun combat that added a few game-changing powers to its first-person shooting. Toss in an all-timer of a twist during the campaign, and you have one of the best games of all time.

The sequels have never been able to reach those same highs. BioShock 2 doesn’t really get close, and while BioShock Infinite has more juice, it’s not quite enough to top the original. There’s a fourth game that’s been in the works for several years, but fans’ best chance at getting a better BioShock might be creator Ken Levine’s next project, Judas.

1) Deus Ex

Similar to BioShock, Deus Ex changed the industry when it launched in 2000. Players had dozens of ways to approach each situation. If you wanted to go in guns blazing, you’d probably die, but there was a chance you could make it through. Maybe you’d take a stealth approach, which was generally cleaner, but required more patience. Or maybe you’d use your electronics expertise to open up hidden paths to your objective.

It was so far beyond what most shooter fans were used to, and it kicked the immersive sim genre into the mainstream. We got a sequel called Invisible War, which is a solid game, but couldn’t find any ways to meaningfully build on the original. Then, Human Revolution kicked off a reboot series, which was solid, but not game-changing like the first game. Fans haven’t had anything new since 2017. It might make a comeback someday, but it seems dormant for now.

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