6 Best Single-Player Indie FPS Games

Key Takeaways

Indie FPS games offer rich single-player experiences sometimes overlooked in AAA shooters.
Chop Goblins is a short, humorous FPS designed for quick play sessions.
Maximum Action is a stylish, action-packed FPS with low difficulty but high style points.

While the focus of AAA and AA first-person shooters is often centered around online multiplayer, many indie FPS titles are, perhaps out of necessity, rich with the single-player experiences that were once so common in the AAA space.

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Certain higher-budget games, such as Titanfall 2, manage to offer competent single-player and multiplayer experiences simultaneously, but players who can look past or even appreciate low-budget graphics will find the realm of indie games to be a veritable treasure trove of single-player FPS games.

6 Chop Goblins

A Short, Sweet, And Wonderfully Silly FPS

Platform(s): PC, Nintendo Switch
Released: 2022
Developer(s): David Szymanski
Genre: FPS

Developed by David Szymanski, the developer of the smash-hit boomer shooter, DUSK, Chop Goblins is a remarkably short but incredibly sweet first-person shooter with a brilliant sense of humor. The ridiculousness of the titular Chop Goblins, the game’s antagonists, with their silly high-pitched one-liners and relentless need to chop, is certainly one of the game’s greatest strengths.

Murderhouse killer, HROT enemy, Kane & Lynch from kayne and lynch 2 Dog Days

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Chop Goblins was designed to be played in one play session, allowing players to blast through the game as fast as they possibly can. While this won’t be an attractive quality to some, the short nature of Chop Goblins ensures its unhinged humor and relentless pace never exhausts, and it’s perfect for a lunch break. Furthermore, the incredibly diverse levels and drip-feeding of new weapons propels the player forward at every turn, ensuring there’s always something new to discover around each corner.

5 Maximum Action

A Loving Homage To Action Cinema

Platform(s): PC
Released: 2018
Developer(s): George Mandell
Genre: FPS

It’s a little rough around the edges, but this charming homage to the action cinema of the 80s and 90s is a frenetic, fast-paced first-person shooter that’s brimming with style. Maximum Action is replete with loving references and jam-packed with weighty firearms, borrowing from Max Payne or perhaps FEAR with its slow-motion bullet-time mechanic, which simultaneously pays homage to classic action films such as John Woo’s Hard Boiled.

Maximum Action’s difficulty is certainly on the lower side, with the challenge being more about how stylish players can be, rather than the simple act of making it through each mission. This is especially encouraged by the game’s replay system, which allows players to watch a roughly-cut action replay of their runs. The gameplay is entirely centered around the moment-to-moment gameplay and messing around in its action sandbox, so players looking for a deep progression system or a meaningful narrative won’t find much to like here.

4 Zortch

A Tongue-In-Cheek Sci-Fi Adventure

Platform(s): PC
Released: 2023
Developer(s): Mutantleg
Genre: FPS

Zortch may look and feel familiar to games such as Duke Nukem and other classic first-person shooters, but its tongue-in-cheek tone and fun-first, futuristic world result in a refreshing experience that recaptures the joy of old-school sci-fi adventures. Its 3D environments are diverse and frequently fun to explore, despite a familiar lock-and-key structure, and the game throws in set-pieces here and there to keep things fresh.

The variety of alien enemies, old-school power-ups, and explosive combat encounters make Zortch a wild ride from start to finish. Furthermore, the game can be picked up at a surprisingly low price, and even offers a generous demo for players to try.

3 DUSK

An Atmospheric Retro-FPS That Keeps A Fast Pace

Systems

Released: December 10, 2018
Developer: David Szymanski
OpenCritic Rating: Mighty

Featuring tightly-designed, semi-open levels that fans of classic first-person shooters will love and a slew of lovingly-crafted weapons that hearken to the 90s shooters it’s inspired by, DUSK is a formidable retro FPS with a modern styling, built with fast-paced gameplay and intuitive exploration in mind. The lock-and-key structure and classic gameplay may be too familiar for some, but DUSK’s unique, immersive world, dense, horror-tinged atmosphere, and truly expressive combat arenas are likely to please many retro FPS fans.

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The game’s excellent soundtrack and sound design helps to propel the player through the action, and the variety of monster closets and combat arenas are interspersed with short bursts of methodical exploration. DUSK isn’t a one-trick pony, either, with each mission having its own distinctive look and feel, and the pace even changes on occasion.

2 HROT

A Moody, Surreal First-Person Shooter With An Immersive Atmosphere

Platform(s): PC
Released: 2023
Developer(s): Spytihnev
Genre: FPS

Old-school and episodic, HROT is a retro boomer shooter, complete with expressive movement controls and a diverse arsenal of weapons. Unlike many games in the genre, however, HROT’s weapons don’t shine quite as brightly as players might expect, and the game really leans on its aesthetic, mood, and immersive atmosphere.

The gritty, pixelated 3D environments and characters of HROT, along with its patently brown color palette, may immediately remind players of games such as Quake, but HROT’s unique tone and harsh, surreal world allow it to stand out. Players should expect to come across a variety of quirky enemies, from sentient forklifts to gas-masked horses, battling through dark and oppressive environments replete with sharp-edged architecture and sodden with rain.

1 CULTIC

A Stylish FPS Replete With Unique Weapons And Dynamic Action

Cultic

Systems

Released: October 13, 2022
Developer: Jasozz Games
OpenCritic Rating: Strong

It’s entirely possible that fans of classic BUILD Engine boomer shooters such as Blood and the atmosphere of survival-horror games such as Resident Evil 4 will adore CULTIC. This highly-polished, moody first-person shooter takes heavily after Blood with its dynamic action and diverse arsenal of unique weapons, though CULTIC remains distinctive thanks to its well-crafted atmosphere and relentless attention to detail.

Though CULTIC pays homage to Blood, many of its weapons are unique, from the Sten submachine gun to the lever-action rifle, all the way to more novel items such as the China Lake grenade launcher. Not to mention the game’s graphics, built around an incredibly stylish aesthetic that combines voxel-based models, pixelated three-dimensional environments, and billboard sprites akin to the classics.