I didn’t get my hands on a PlayStation 5 until March 2021, about five months after its release (November 2020). The first games I played on my PS5 were Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and a few others. What I realized after a couple of months of owning my PlayStation 5 is that I still hadn’t experienced any new First-Person Shooters (FPS).

I most likely tried out Call of Duty: Warzone, APEX Legends, and some other FREE-to-play online shooters, but I hadn’t yet experienced any next-gen first person story-driven shooters. So, sometime around September 2021, I began my journey into finding a new, exciting First-Person Shooter (FPS) for my PlayStation 5.

Let’s go over a few of those FPS games I found on PlayStation 5 with a bit of the good, the not so good, and a short description for each:

1) DOOM ETERNAL • Best Quality Shooter

I started off with DOOM ETERNAL, due to a Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal on the PS Store. Of the games on my list, this is by far the most polished, high quality game. Still, some parts felt a bit off.

DOOM ETERNAL on PlayStation 5 has some stunning visuals of hell, along with nice level design and some puzzles built in. You know a game has great level design when you can sort of figure out the path on your own — even if there are a few hiccups along the journey. The game also uses the adaptive triggers to differentiate each weapon. Playing as the Doom Slayer, you get to take advantage of his nasty executions and chainsaw kills.

The controller layout in DOOM ETERNAL doesn’t follow the universal FPS controller layout we’re all used to these days. There is no reload button, which I’m used to pressing over and over in my FPS games (I’m somewhat of a chronic reloader). Instead the reload button (square) is used for chainsaw attacks, which can only be executed when you have enough fuel. There are a few other controls that are not there or are used for something else, that can throw you off. I don’t think every FPS needs to play the same, but there are some basic mechanics that have been established across many games — shoot (R2), zoom (L2), reload (square) — over the years.

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2) BRIGHT MEMORY INFINITE • Most Sci-Fi

I first had the chance to play a bit of Bright Memory Infinite on my older PC, but I was hoping it would soon come to PlayStation 5 — and it did. The story of Bright Memory Infinite mixes Sci-fi with ancient fantasy in a fun way.

In Bright Memory Infinite, you play as Shelia who is some sort of master of weapons and the supernatural. The combat mixes gunplay with melee and some elemental powers. The shooting feels good overall. It’s also nice to mix parrying with slicing and shooting enemies. This game seems to have a pretty cool story, with some intense cutscenes. There is also a great mix of fantasy and medieval villains coming into this future world.

The game is not perfect at times. The visuals are pretty solid, but I did find some animations a bit off. For example, in a stealth level where you only have a knife, every stealth kill would start with Shelia slicing at the enemy before strangely jumping into a different animation of a stealth takedown. After a couple of levels I found myself running through different areas, fighting the same battles with few new enemy characters coming in (other than bosses).

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3) SHADOW WARRIOR 3 • Silliest Story

I’m not sure what I expected from Shadow Warrior 3, but this game is super fun and funny. It is comparable to the DOOM series: with the monsters, weapons and even the creative fatalities (or executions). After some fatalities you even get the chance to use enemy body parts as weapons. The part that makes it extra cool to me is that you have all of these weapons/guns, but also a sword as your backup — a sword that can even be charged and used for special executions.

Shadow Warrior 3 is full of strange weapons and odd enemies. One dude was built like a human accordion. The weapon upgrade system within the menu is pretty simple to use and understand. When upgrade systems become too complicated, I find myself throwing random points all over instead of really paying attention to my progress. This game is a fast-paced run and gunner. I really enjoyed the platform puzzler aspect with the grapple system, in between all of that chaos and madness.

Of the FPS games I’ve played, this is the only one that does not have a PS5 version. I played the PS4 version on my PS5, however it still looked and handled just as well (or even better). There were times where there was just a bit too much chaos within a battle. Waves of opponents continued to pop up with no end in sight. After certain death, I had to continue retrying until I figured it out.

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4) SERIOUS SAM 4 • Most Basic

I had heard of the Serious Sam series of games in the past, but had never tried one out for myself. There are some good things about this game, but I much preferred the first three over this one.

The game follows Serious Sam and a cast of low budget action movie stars. The story is meant to be silly and outrageous, but it comes off as kind of corny most of the time. Perhaps the first three titles had a better run. I did enjoy the combat against everything from human soldiers to giant animals to strange mutated beasts and robot worms. The shooting is fine, but doesn’t feel like anything new or special.

The game design has no real guidance for the player. Many times you’re just shooting waves of bad guys until the game tells you it’s time to move on. Other times you need to step into an area to trigger a new wave of the enemy, before you can move on. I just found myself lost at points, waiting for something to happen. There are many annoying opponents, like the screaming bomber bad guys.

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DEATHLOOP • Best FPS Game

The true first next-gen FPS game I played on my PlayStation 5 was Deathloop. The way this game plays just feels amazing. The groundhog day/time loop story of Deathloop makes it not your traditional FPS game, which is why I didn’t plan on including it on the main list here. If it was on the main list, this would definitely be my number one game.

I still have to go back and beat this game. It’s so great how you slowly uncover new parts of the story each time you play. I also love that you can choose whether you want to attempt to break the loop (with Colt) or ruin someone else’s (with Julianna). There’s so many great things about this game, and once I finally do clear the loop I plan to write a whole game diary about this game.

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I’m looking forward to trying out more and more FPS games on my PlayStation 5. On another note, the only reason I purchased Overwatch for the third time (on my Nintendo Switch), was to own a FPS game on my Switch. I guess that was also the first FPS game I played on my PS5, even if it is an online multiplayer FPS game.

Perhaps I used to be a big FPS gamer but have since moved on to more third-person and other types of games?

What are your favorite next-gen, current-gen and all-time FPS games? Comment below.

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*myVGBC.com was given a few game codes (Bright Memory Infinite, Serious Sam 4 and Shadow Warrior 3) for review by the publisher.
Due to our crazy backlog of games to review, we’ve started this new multi-review with short write-ups to be able to share about more games. There will still be single game reviews, diaries and more, but from time to time you may see a Multi-Review post like this one.