

There’s nothing quite like a well-done tactical shooter that throws you into realistic firefights, forcing you to think on your feet and react quickly – and, with their current resurgence in popularity, these high-stakes, deceptively cerebral gameplay experiences are more accessible than ever, if you have the patience and trigger discipline to try them. But they have their own appeal that makes them stand strong as a sub-genre, offering a more realistic, slower-paced, and tenser type of gameplay, in which the increased lethality of each bullet sees careful movement, cover and concealment – not map memory or mouse speed – reigning supreme. Tactical shooters are often confused with (or compared to) faster-paced, multiplayer-first FPS games, like Call of Duty or Battlefield. Unlike other shooters, they have a unique, highly-strung playstyle that forces you to use both your motor skills and your strategic brain. These games drop you and your teammates directly onto an intense, unforgiving battleground where robust teamwork and a keen aim become a matter of life or (sometimes sudden) death. Tactical shooters are the adrenaline-seeking wargamer’s bread and butter.
