Best Shooter of 2023 - Article
by Lee Mehr , posted on 09 January 2024 / 4,900 Views
Welcome to VGChartz’s 18th annual Game of the Year Awards! It's the standard operating procedure for most gaming sites, but we stand apart with one key difference: both users and staff (admins, writers, etc.) get a 50/50 split influence in every category. Throughout the month we'll be celebrating the best games of 2023 across various genres and other special categories, before finally revealing the site's Overall Game of the Year. Here we kick things off with the Best Shooter of 2023 - enjoy!
Ah, yes... the shooter. While many will besmirch the genre for being just about shooting guns, I say that's an unfair judgement. There's also the potential for stabbing, exploding, incinerating, impaling, and so much more! Jokes aside, 2023 was an... interesting year for quality, in that it felt like a coin toss whether a big-budget shooter would actually be worth anyone's time. Below are the final contenders for the year, ranging from modern-military shooters to a new IP that didn't seem like it'd ever release. Interesting, indeed.
The Shortlist:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III
Atomic Heart
Counter-Strike 2
Arizona Sunshine 2
The Runner-Up:
Atomic Heart
Given its announcement trailer back in 2017, you'd be remiss to think Mundfish's new IP would turn out to be vaporware. After years of toiling and iterating on that initial promise, out comes one of the year's biggest surprises. A large part of its success can be seen from the above picture: beautiful and painstakingly-rendered world design. Evoking so many different inspirations, ranging from a Bioshock-flavored dystopic vision of a retro-futurist Soviet Union to inherently-weird concepts from the likes of Tarkovsky's Stalker, Atomic Heart earns this runner-up spot with flying colors.
The Winner:
Counter-Strike 2
After all, what else can one reasonably expect from Valve's titanic shooter series. Out of the blue in March 2023, out sprang Counter-Strike 2's announcement as a promoted free update for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. With that update came the Counter-Strike gameplay skeleton powered by Valve's Source Engine 2. While getting beefy engine enhancements for playing de_dust2 doesn't seem like much at first glance, each new element or improvement contributes to a more demanding game. The modern military king gets to keep his crown.
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Despite it being such a strong year for gaming, shooters didn’t quite hold up .
Well that’s a list of games
Weak year for shooters honestly.
My personal snubs:
- El Paso, Elsewhere
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Warhammer 40K: Boltgun
They succeed at emulating their inspirations (Max Payne & DOOM) with ease. Haven't completed either yet, but would happily swap one of them with CoD. If either sounds intriguing to you: see if they're still on sale and pick them up.
CS2 reception has been pretty mixed from what I've heard but I'm not suprised it won since the competition wasn't that strong
I guess as an elaborate update and not actually new, it didn't get much buzz. I've had more from streamers and youtubers on channels I watch about The Finals but not sure that has staying power (it's lacking in features).
But the mixed reception that I've seen stems back from cheaters and more background-related stuff, whereas the mechanics are incredibly satisfying.
CS 2 wins!
