by
Chinh Tran
, posted 1 day ago / 1,351 Views
In yet another year with dual Battlefield and Call of Duty releases, shooter fans had no shortage of options to choose from. Yet neither of the latest entries in those established franchises find themselves on our shortlist for Best Shooter of 2021. Instead, this year’s nominees all brought something different to entertain players.
Turtle Rock Studios released a spiritual successor to the wildly successful Left 4 Dead games, bringing new additions to an already enjoyable core experience. 343 Industries finally released the long-awaited Halo Infinite, proving once and for all that the team there can indeed match Bungie’s pedigree. Capcom’s Resident Evil Village continued to demonstrate that Resident Evil 7’s first-person perspective was the right call for the series, and finally Housemarque released its biggest hit to-date with Returnal.
The Shortlist:
Back 4 Blood
Halo Infinite
Resident Evil Village
Returnal
The Winner:
Halo Infinite
Runner-up: Resident Evil Village
After a disappointing gameplay debut in 2020, Microsoft and 343 made the difficult – but ultimately right – call to delay Halo Infinite for a year. In that time, 343 clearly made drastic improvements, proving Shigeru Miyamoto’s saying correct once again. Thanks to a new open-ended arena to explore, new tools in Master Chief’s arsenal, and gameplay that perfectly blends established elements from the classic Halo games with fresh ideas, Halo Infinite is the Best Shooter of 2021.