GOTY 2025 – Best Shooter Game

Arguably since the mid-90s and certainly since the mid-aughts, the shooter has been the biggest gaming genre. From Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM and Marathon at its birth, through Goldeneye, Halo, Call of Duty, Gears of War, Borderlands, Destiny, The Division and beyond, there’s countless variations on the simple gaming theme of channelling your inner Frank Reynolds and just start blastin’ at the baddies.

The last decade has seen plenty of innovation around this, though. Multiplayer has become a more integral part of many games, other genres have been blended into the mix for roguelike fusions, and there’s been the breakout hit of the battle royale. 2025 was really the year that the extraction shooter was propelled into the mainstream consciousness, but for all the buzz surrounding them, it’s still had to contend with the traditional mainstays of the genre.

So, speaking of DOOM…

It’s been a light year for FPS releases with a big focus on single-player campaigns. Heavy-hitters like Battlefield 6 came through with a massively engrossing multiplayer package, and other giants like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 fumbled trying to be too many things at once. DOOM: The Dark Ages, though, had a singular focus on applying the strongest elements of the last two games in this reboot trilogy onto a bigger, bolder, and uncompromising single-player experience.

Gunplay is tight and rewarding, built around the concept that the Doom Slayer is a tank-like force of destruction, this slower pace going hand-in-hand with the ability to parry attacks back with his shield. But alongside that shift is pace and focus, the guns you use throughout your adventure are some of the most unique weapons I’ve ever seen in an FPS. Plus, how can I say no to sections where I get to pilot a giant Doomslayer robot or fly a dragon with laser wings and shoulder-mounted gatling guns?

I can’t get over how cool the mashup vibes of the setting for this game are. Layering medieval iconography like battle axes, chunky armor and gothic castles on-top of the familiar DOOM sci-fi aesthetic is such a wild combo – yet it works so, so well. id Software continue to put out some of the most rewarding and exciting FPS experiences out there with these new DOOM releases, and I can’t wait to see what comes next.

– Miguel

Battlefield 6 – Runner Up

While some may view the first person shooter as gaming’s most vanilla genre, developers are constantly finding ways to excite and innovate instead of slavishly gunning for Call of Duty’s crown. Speaking of which, it’s been an… interesting year for Activision’s behemoth franchise. Black Ops 6 was always going to be a tough act to follow, though its sequel has well and truly dropped the baton, forcing the publisher to rethink their plans for the series going forward. That vacuum has allowed other, more deserving shooters more time in the spotlight, showing there’s more to the FPS genre than gun nuts and endless rounds of team deathmatch.

Even if Call of Duty did manage to nail the landing with Black Ops 7, there’s a very good chance it lost the fight against Battlefield 6. These two titans of the FPS genre have been duking it out for years and while CoD has just come off a pretty impressive streak of back-to-back yearly hits, EA and DICE have been patiently biding their time, returning to the safer, more familiar Battlefield formula that we all fell in love with during the early 2010s. The campaign isn’t all that compelling with REDSEC arriving late to the battle royale party, yet the core multiplayer offering in BF6 cannot be topped if you’re in need of a militaristic multiplayer shooter. It’s squad-focused, class-based and executed with style.

– Jim

ARC Raiders – Runner Up

I certainly had my doubts that the extraction shooter could really hit the mainstream this year, but ARC Raiders quickly proved me wrong. This branch of the online shooter has simmered in the background, waiting for someone to come along and tenderise the tougher to swallow elements to make it more broadly appealing. While there’s still a hard edge to ARC Raiders, where getting wiped out and failing to extract means you lose everything you’re holding, whether you scavenged it or brought it with you, Embark Studio lessened the blow with a simple safe pocket to stash something extra valuable.

But what’s really shone through is the sense of community that’s built up within the game. While every encounter with another player or team comes with the risk that they can be hostile and simply try to take you down, the early weeks and months have seen many more trying to work together to take out the tougher ARC robots, to overcome the challenges inherent in the world as opposed to squabbling over the scraps of civilisation.

Can ARC Raiders keep it going? We certainly hope so, and there’s already been community events, a new map and region to explore, and with more expected to come.

Honourable Mentions (in alphabetical order)

• Mohrta
• Mycopunk
• Synduality: Echo of Ada

That’s our pick for the best shooter of 2025, but what do you think? Let us know in the comments.

Catch up on our Game of the Year 2025 awards so far:

• Best Remake
• Best Narrative
• Best Visual Design
• Best Original Soundtrack
• Best Roguelike
• Best Puzzle Game
• Best Independent Game
• Best Multiplayer Game
• Best Strategy & Simulation Game
• Best Racing Game
• Best Horror Game
• Best RPG

Tags: ARC Raiders, Battlefield 6, Doom: The Dark Ages, Game of the Year 2025