Best Shooters of 2023

Point and shoot. It’s a simple premise, which may be why the FPS genre is sometimes accused of lacking depth. Yet you only have to look as far as this year’s releases to see that isn’t true. Whether you want to kill an evening with a cozy boomer shooter or test your mettle against the world’s best in a comp FPS, 2023 brought us some exceptional games. Some fused shooting with Soulslike or RPG mechanics, while others kept their reticule centered on gunplay. Here are The Nerd Stash’s Best Shooters of 2023, as chosen by our editorial team and contributors.

Honorable Mention – Warhammer 40k: Boltgun

David Rodriguez, editor. This was an exciting year for shooters. The usual kings of the genre had down years, allowing fresh faces to make a strong splash. Boltgun may have seemed like yet “another” boomer shooter in a glut of them, but its fresh-level design and excellent usage of the 40k license helped create one of the year’s most fun shooter experiences.

The visual design is a boomer shooter through and through. Despite that, its modern lighting and visual effects manage to push it above its contemporaries. The level design also harkens back to more complex, maze-like stages full of secrets and secret key cards to obtain. Boltgun offers a level of old-school challenge that will make you sweat.

Despite the visuals being a throwback, the gameplay is anything but. Not since Doom Eternal has a shooter managed to balance melee and ranged combat in this way. Each encounter plays out at a breakneck pace, challenging the player to survive. If you love Warhammer 40k, great gunplay, or both, Boltgun is one of 2023’s best shooters.

Fourth Place – Remnant 2

Giovanna La Pine, freelance writer. First and foremost, it’s important to say that Remnant 2 is primarily a Soulslike game. The way its combat works, the checkpoint system, gear, and so on make it worthy of belonging to that genre. However, amongst all the shooters we had this year, this one has some of the best gunplay of all. That’s thanks to its variety of weapons and customization options to make you feel like a true post-apocalyptic Traveler.

What makes Remnant 2 shine so much is its plethora of firearms and the number of options it gives players to make the right build. Do you want to be a marksman? Why don’t you try a bow or a sniper? Do you want to be as close to the enemy as possible? A shotgun blast is the answer. These elements gave us hours of fun while traversing this fantastic title’s procedural maps. And while it isn’t the best shooter of the year, it is a great game that works as a point of entry for FPS fans who want to dip their feet in Soulslike titles.

Third Place – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Amir Naseri, freelance writer. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 doesn’t have the best story campaign. As a shooter, however, it succeeds in bringing well-balanced gameplay that every type of player can enjoy. For the hit-and-run players, the game’s pacing is quick thanks to the new movement system. If you’re a sniper and enjoy hunting enemies from afar, you can trust perks and gear like Cold Blooded and Scatter Mine to prevent rushing hostiles from invading.

Simply put, MW3 rewards players who are accurate in shooting and agile in moving. Almost every weapon feels powerful in this game, allowing you to choose from a variety of options. The Striker SMG is a perfect example of a balanced weapon in MW3, but you won’t be slaying the lobby with this gun alone. WSP Swarm, Striker 9, Bas-B, and many others are just as powerful in their way, giving players plenty of choices for close to long-range combat.

The star of Modern Warfare 3, however, is the movement mechanics. They’re an updated version of the fan-favorite MW 2019, allowing players to dodge bullets by slide canceling and diving forward. The game’s movement is a great fit for the 16 different maps from the original MW2, which are fine-tuned for tactical, camping, and patrolling playstyles. MW3‘s three-laned maps like Scrapyard and Estate are suitable for game modes like Team Deathmatch and Domination, and smaller maps like Rust and Shipment are great for absolute mayhem.

Runner-up – Starfield

Dylan Chaundy, editor. While Bethesda’s galaxy-spanning RPG boasts epic interplanetary exploration, choice-based branching storylines, rich character progression, and enough spaceships to make Han Solo go weak at the knees, it also delivers a solid first-person shooter experience that feels tighter and more responsive than its Fallout forebears. Yes, it may be more of an incremental evolution rather than a massive sea change, but the game’s core shooting definitely feels like an upgrade over the studio’s predecessors.

Of course, Starfield’s gunplay may not be quite on par with the Call of Dutys of the world, but when Activision dropped the ball so hard this year, it’s easy to see why Todd Howard’s interstellar adventure pipped the best-selling military FPS to the post in this category. Though it’s an RPG first and foremost, Starfield fought hard to be counted among the best shooters, even though it didn’t always hit the mark.

Discarding VATS in favor of a more dynamic, real-time shoot ‘em up experience, Starfield does what every Bethesda RPG does well: give players oodles of distinct skills to unlock, a heap of diverse weapons to discover, and planetfuls of pesky alien monsters, mercenaries, and hostile spaceships to vanquish. Sure, if we’re being honest, Starfield’s shooting may be one of its weaker elements overall, but the Austin-based studio is still making big strides in this area, which is to be commended.

Winner – Counter-Strike 2

Alex Gibson, managing editor. Counter-Strike 2 hasn’t been without its growing pains since its unexpected release in September 2023. The sequel, which arrived hot on the heels of a limited test period, was thrust into the spotlight with a few missing features and a handful of new bugs. Despite this, the core gameplay loop and overall multiplayer experience thrust it to the top of our best shooters of 2023.

CS2 remains the quintessential 5v5 shooter that has captivated players for over two decades. Valve wisely chose not to meddle with the fundamental gameplay mechanics that made CSGO a legend. Instead, CS2 enhances the experience while keeping the spirit of its predecessor intact. The transition to the Source 2 engine brings a visual overhaul that finally puts Counter-Strike on par with its contemporaries in graphical fidelity. Maps like Inferno and Anubis now shimmer with enhanced lighting and textures, transforming familiar battlegrounds into stunning arenas.

One of the most notable gameplay changes in CS2 is the dynamic smoke grenades. No longer static clouds, these smokes now fill and adapt to their environment, creating new strategic possibilities. The ability to interact with smoke using gunfire or HE grenades adds a fresh tactical layer, offering counters to what was once a straightforward tool. Another notable change is the introduction of the global CS2 rating system which offers a clearer understanding of one’s standing in the global hierarchy, a change that has been well-received by the community.

Counter-Strike 2 may have stumbled out of the gate somewhat, but its core gameplay remains as compelling as ever. The thrill of a well-executed strategy, the tension of a close match, and the satisfaction of a hard-fought victory are all still there, now wrapped in a more visually appealing package. As Valve continues to refine and expand CS2, it’s clear that this iteration of Counter-Strike has the potential to carry over the success of its predecessor. We can’t wait to see how it evolves, but even in its current form, the game tops our Best Shooter of 2023 award.