The Best Tactical Shooters – From Rainbow Six’s Counterterrorism to Ready or Not’s Gritty Realism

The slow but steady rise of the first-person shooter, aided by rapidly advancing technology, would quickly pave the way for id Software's Doom to inspire a whole host of competitors throughout the 1990s. However, those same technological advancements would also allow developers to experiment with realism in a way that the genre hadn't previously attempted, resulting in the birth of what we now know as the modern tactical shooter. While the early games in the subgenre were fairly primitive and almost impossible to enjoy thanks to their staunch commitment to realism, the breakout success of both Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six and, just a few years later, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, would establish the first and third-person templates for today's best tactical shooters.

Today, military-themed shooters that offer up surprisingly tense and realistic approximations of serving in the armed forces or acting as an operator in high-stakes law enforcement scenarios are some of the more popular FPS titles on Steam, oweing to their place as a definitive departure from the more accessible genre stalwarts like Call of Duty or Battlefield. And while it's easy to point to the visuals of many of these titles as one of the more obvious elements that separates them from the tactical shooters of old, the most important leg up they have is their incredibly advanced AI, allowing players to have a legitimately competent squad backing them up even when playing solo. Of course, even the best AI is no replacement for playing these games with a group of friends in co-op, which is where the tactical shooter genre truly shines.

• Release Date — April 22, 1998
• Developer — Zombie Studios
• Publisher — Ripcord Games
• Review Aggregate Score — 77% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — N/A
• Platforms — PC

While being the first at something is always an important distinction, there's something to be said about the benefits of iteration and refinement. Such is the case with Spec Ops: Rangers Lead the Way, which has the honor of being one of the first well-known tactical shooters, but is practically hamstrung by its commitment to realism. The Spec Ops series would also never be as good as it was in this first entry until the switch to the more story-driven Spec Ops: The Line, leaving that iteration and refinement of the formula up to other developers and games. Still, Rangers Lead the Way is a great approximation of squad-based tactical shooting that, for its time, was incredibly impressive and influential.

• Release Date — August 22, 1998
• Developer — Red Storm Entertainment
• Publisher — Ubisoft
• Review Aggregate Score — 85% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — N/A
• Platforms — Nintendo 64, PC, PlayStation, Sega Dreamcast

Where Spec Ops: Rangers Lead the Way walked, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six ran, taking the realistic third-person, squad-based tactical shooting that Rangers Lead the Way had introduced and leveling the playing field a bit to make it more accessible. While Rainbow Six is still a hard game that practically demands players think and plan carefully before executing a mission, it gives a surprising amount of agency to those same players that allows them to plan each detail of an engagement down to the smallest minutiae — something that was incredibly impressive and immersive in 1998. Plus, Rainbow Six is a surprisingly great-looking game for its time, which miraculously carried over to its console ports that helped both it and the Tom Clancy line of games become breakout successes.

• Release Date — November 13, 2001
• Developer — Red Storm Entertainment
• Publisher — Ubisoft
• Review Aggregate Score — 84% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 92% (Very Positive)
• Platforms — GameCube, PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox

Following the studio's rather quick follow-ups to the excellent Rainbow Six, Red Storm Entertainment would release its next major pillar in the history of the tactical shooter genre with Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon in 2001. At the time, few games (if any) more accurately depicted the realities of modern warfare, and the switch to a third-person perspective allowed for coordination and planning on a scale that had yet to be seen in a squad-based tactical shooter. Years later, the template established by Ghost Recon is essentially the foundation for every subsequent third-person tactical shooter, and its legacy and importance in the growth and development of the genre place it squarely alongside Red Storm Entertainment's Rainbow Six as an innovator and one of the best tactical shooters of all time.

• Release Date — March 18, 2003
• Developer — Red Storm Entertainment, Ubisoft Montreal
• Publisher — Ubisoft
• Review Aggregate Score — 86% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 91% (Very Positive)
• Platforms — GameCube, PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox

Despite Rainbow Six 3 marking the point in the series where many of the pre-mission planning elements were dropped in favor of making the game a purely first-person shooter experience, Rainbow Six 3 is still one of the best entries in the franchise precisely because of its ability to straddle tradition and modernity. That switch to a more accessible approach helped bring Rainbow Six its greatest audience yet, complete with Rainbow Six 3 getting fairly competent ports to 6th-gen consoles (of which the Xbox version is undoubtedly the best) and introducing a brand new audience to the thrill of an honest-to-goodness tactical shooter. Sierra's SWAT series may have had the upper hand as far as realism goes, but Rainbow Six 3 is perhaps where the series struck its perfect balance between fun and authenticity.

• Release Date — November 4, 2003
• Developer — Zipper Interactive
• Publisher — Sony Computer Entertainment
• Review Aggregate Score — 87% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — N/A
• Platforms — PlayStation 2

If you were to refer to Zipper Interactive's SOCOM series as "PS2 Ghost Recon", you wouldn't be too far off, but that also downplays the significance those titles held on the console. Released at a time when online console gaming was just beginning to take off, the original SOCOM was the killer app for the PS2's modem, going so far as to include it in the package. SOCOM II would arrive just a year later, and that extra time allowed for the sequel to improve on just about everything its predecessor does.

It's also worth pointing out that SOCOM II is the high point of the franchise before a noticeable decline in quality, making it that rare console tactical shooter that wasn't available on PC and, in some ways, outshone many of the games that inspired it. Like a lot of the best tactical shooters, SOCOM II's campaign was excellent, but it was the SEALs vs. Terrorists multiplayer mode that cemented it as an essential in the PS2 library.

• Release Date — September 21, 2004
• Developer — Pandemic Studios
• Publisher — THQ Nordic
• Review Aggregate Score — 84% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 70% (Mostly Positive)
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox

While the SOCOM games were fun and offered up some of the first tastes players had of online multiplayer on consoles, they weren't necessarily the most realistic of tactical shooters, creating an opportunity for another developer to step in and deliver a more true-to-life title. It's hard to think of a better studio for the job than Pandemic, which would develop Full Spectrum Warrior as a sort of template for what it would later do with both the excellent Star Wars Battlefront series and the highly underrated Mercenaries. Full Spectrum Warrior is notorious for being fairly difficult and really pushing the player to think strategically about how to handle engagements, but that's all part of what makes it one of the best squad-based games of the era and a title that emphasizes tactics more than its actual shooting.

• Release Date — April 5, 2005
• Developer — Irrational Games
• Publisher — Sierra Entertainment
• Review Aggregate Score — 85% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — N/A
• Platforms — PC

For many years, Irrational Games' SWAT 4 would serve as the "gold standard" of first-person tactical shooters, and going back and playing it makes it easy to see why. More than two decades later, SWAT 4 still presents some of the most nail-bitingly tense combat encounters of any tactical shooter emulating real-world law enforcement, and its enemy and ally AI are impressive for its time — something which has only been improved in subsequent years thanks to the efforts of an incredibly dedicated modding community. Its visuals might be a little dated at this point, but that modern games like Ready or Not are immediately held up against SWAT 4 speaks to its importance as a timeless classic in the tactical shooter genre.

• Release Date — March 7, 2006
• Developer — Red Storm Entertainment, Ubisoft Paris, Grin
• Publisher — Ubisoft
• Review Aggregate Score — 90% (Universal Acclaim)
• Steam User Score — N/A
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360

The launch of the Xbox 360 as the first 7th-gen console marked one of the first major stepping stones toward home consoles inching ever closer to being living room PCs, and a large part of that transition was marked by the games themselves. Not long after having the home console port of Call of Duty 2 being the console's killer app at launch, the Xbox 360 would get the latest game in the Ghost Recon series, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, and it stands as one of the all-time greats in the console's library and an arguable high point within the series. While relying on your squad is still important, Advanced Warfighter puts the player in control in most engagements, with an excellent early attempt at cover-based shooting (which would soon dominate most third-person shooters), allowing for a tactical approach.

• Release Date — March 18, 2008
• Developer — Ubisoft Montreal
• Publisher — Ubisoft
• Review Aggregate Score — 82% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 85% (Very Positive)
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Similar to how both series began and kicked off the tactical shooter genre in earnest, both Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon would see their series high points launch on the Xbox 360 during the 7th console generation, with Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 being every bit the essential tactical shooter on the platform that 2006's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter was. The first Rainbow Six: Vegas is a great game, to be sure, but the sequel outdoes it at nearly every turn. The single-player campaign is better and features more exciting setpiece moments (plus, it can be played entirely in co-op), the competitive multiplayer suite is expanded and better balanced, and the "Terrorist Hunt" co-op mode is a sort of arcade-style spin on the series' tactical shooter action that remains one of the best reasons to play this timeless 2008 classic.

• Release Date — September 12, 2013
• Developer — Bohemia Interactive
• Publisher — Bohemia Interactive
• Review Aggregate Score — 74% (Mixed or Average)
• Steam User Score — 90% (Very Positive)
• Platforms — PC

After years of tactical shooters sticking to single-player campaigns and cooperative or competitive multiplayer modes in almost every instance, Bohemia Interactive went and changed the game (literally) with its ARMA series. The most recent ARMA game, ARMA 3, is one of the most realistic and immersive military sandboxes available, pitting anywhere from 2 to 128 players against one another in an impressively large map rife with different terrain, buildings, vehicles, and opportunities for cooperation or betrayal. While the Day-Z mod made from ARMA 3 would eventually become one of the main things the game was known for, fans of tactical shooters and immersive military simulators know ARMA 3 as being about as close as you can get to experiencing actual wargames without enlisting.

• Release Date — August 14, 2018
• Developer — BlackFoot Studios
• Publisher — MicroProse Software
• Review Aggregate Score — N/A
• Steam User Score — 89% (Very Positive)
• Platforms — PC

Taking its name from the CIA's covert Special Activities Center unit used in paramilitary clandestine operations, Ground Branch is a game that only continues to get better with age, thanks to its place as an Early Access title that is continuously and regularly improved and shaped by fan feedback and community suggestions. As such, Ground Branch has engendered a very active community that has helped steer the title toward being something special by the time it releases into 1.0, which it should be hitting in 2026, according to BlackFoot Studios. While the enemy AI does get plenty of criticism for being too simplistic and there's a definite lack of content, Ground Branch is one of the best-looking tactical shooters. It features almost unprecedented levels of customization in its armaments and kit loadouts.

• Release Date — December 12, 2018
• Developer — New World Interactive
• Publisher — Focus Home Interactive
• Review Aggregate Score — 78% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 85% (Very Positive)
• Platforms — PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

The original Insurgency is often brought up as one of the best tactical shooters of its time (which, to be fair, it absolutely is), but Insurgency: Sandstorm takes everything that made the first game great and turns it up to 11. The core of Insurgency: Sandstorm is its emphasis on teamwork and coordination, which, like a lot of the best tactical shooters, requires players to think critically about how they approach each engagement and communicate with their squad, especially when playing in multiplayer. But the kicker with Insurgency: Sandstorm, and what helps elevate it to being a Rainbow Six-level crossover hit, is its willingness to blend arcade-style action with tactical realism, which sees it sit somewhere between the twitch shooting of Call of Duty and a more traditional tactical shooter.

• Release Date — September 23, 2020
• Developer — Offworld
• Publisher — Offworld
• Review Aggregate Score — N/A
• Steam User Score — 84% (Very Positive)
• Platforms — PC

There are lots of squad-based tactical shooters that require cooperation, communication, and teamwork on the path to victory. But few, if any, can replicate the honest-to-goodness experience of forming a band of brothers forged through combat like Squad. About as realistic of a tactical shooter as you can get, Squad is a title where you'll spend plenty of time pouring over every possible contingency in an engagement, only for it to either spectacularly fall apart or for your team to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat simply based on the strength of your coordination and ability to work together. Plus, with a variety of available servers catered to player experience, you can jump into Squad at any time, whether you're a tactical shooter vet or a newcomer looking to learn the ropes.

• Release Date — July 27, 2021
• Developer — Expression Games, Clover 6 Studios
• Publisher — Team17
• Review Aggregate Score — 79% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 84% (Very Positive)
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Funnily enough, Squad's World War II-era spin-off, Squad 44, is one of the few tactical shooters set during the Second World War to be outdone by what many consider to be the best era-appropriate game using that setting: Hell Let Loose. The selling point of Hell Let Loose is its realistic approximation of World War II-era skirmishes, complete with massive maps featuring more than 100 players that do a great job of selling the chaotic nature of warfare. That said, Hell Let Loose is still ultimately a tactical shooter experience, one that requires careful coordination and communication (preferably using voice chat) with squad members to emerge victorious on its thrilling historical set pieces.

• Release Date — January 11, 2022
• Developer — Helios Studio
• Publisher — Helios Studio
• Review Aggregate Score — N/A
• Steam User Score — 81% (Very Positive)
• Platforms — PC

Helios Studio's Black One Blood Brothers is an incredibly ambitious project that comes from a primarily solo developer. This passion project is an obvious homage to the early greats in the tactical shooter subgenre — namely, Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon — that features an impressive variety of missions, loadouts, and modes (including a full single-player campaign). Since the game's launch into Early Access in 2022, there have been several updates to help bring the game's vision into focus, but a full release is seemingly still a ways off. But for $9, you could do a lot worse than a fan-made Tom Clancy game that, in a lot of ways, outdoes many of its modern AA and AAA contemporaries.

• Release Date — June 22, 2023
• Developer — Highwire Games
• Publisher — Victura
• Review Aggregate Score — N/A
• Steam User Score — 83% (Very Positive)
• Platforms — PC (Early Access)

Another popular tactical shooter that's still in Early Access, Six Days in Fallujah, might have a ways to go before full release, but what's there is already incredibly promising. The biggest knock against the game in its current state is the lack of variety in its content (only 2 dedicated story missions and 8 procedurally generated maps), but the strength of the shooting mechanics and the squad-based tactics immediately positions Six Days in Fallujah as one of the most realistic and harrowing tactical shooters out there. And while there are plenty of modern tactical shooters that allow players to squad up in co-op or use AI teammates, Six Days in Fallujah goes so far as to allow a mix of both, meaning two-player teams can still complete missions with some AI squadmates.

• Release Date — September 9, 2024
• Developer — M7 Productions, Attrito
• Publisher — M7 Productions, Attrito
• Review Aggregate Score — N/A
• Steam User Score — 80% (Very Positive)
• Platforms — PC

One of the main things that helps M7 Productions' Zero Hour stand out among the crop of modern tactical shooters is its setting. Rather than take place within the United States or as part of an American military conflict, like most games in the subgenre, Zero Hour puts you into the shoes of an elite counterterrorism unit in the country of Bangladesh. So not only does Zero Hour offer up some intense first-person shooting and tactical squad management, it does so for a part of the world that's relatively unrepresented in the genre. Most notably, though, Zero Hour requires playing with other humans in co-op and reintroduces the careful pre-mission planning phase from the original Rainbow Six, which can occasionally go wrong in hilariously unpredictable ways when a squad isn't communicating properly.

• Release Date — December 13, 2023
• Developer — VOID Interactive
• Publisher — VOID Interactive
• Review Aggregate Score — 79% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 89% (Very Positive)
• Platforms — PC

For my money, Ready or Not is the most likely candidate for the current best tactical shooter during the subgenre's modern renaissance, delivering a tense experience that accurately simulates the realities of working for a Special Weapons And Tactics team dispatched to deal with criminal activity that normal law enforcement can't handle. In many ways, Ready or Not is a spiritual successor to SWAT 4 that significantly ups the ante on its visual presentation and delivers some of the best tactical AI as of its 1.0 launch.

The game was impressive in Early Access, but the improvements made to it post its full launch have only served to improve an already great game. And while it's been PC-exclusive up until now, Ready or Not is finally coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S later this year, which should hopefully bring greater attention and player counts to this excellent tactical shooter.

• Release Date — June 7, 2024
• Developer — Reissad Studio
• Publisher — Reissad Studio
• Review Aggregate Score — N/A
• Steam User Score — 74% (Mostly Positive)
• Platforms — PC

Sure, you could say that Bodycam is a bit of a gimmick game that has some pretty thin tactical elements, and you'd be right. But whatever Bodycam's gameplay lacks in realism, its visuals more than make up for it with their frighteningly realistic rendering of real-world law enforcement footage. Like a lot of other Early Access tactical shooters on this list, there is a bit of a lack of content in Bodycam's current state (which is mostly just online multiplayer in a handful of game modes), but the recent update that adds AI bots and a terrifying "Zombies" mode sweetens the deal and makes it worth a pick up to support the eventual full release. Frankly, still photos of Bodycam don't do justice to how incredibly realistic it looks in action.

• Release Date — February 10, 2025
• Developer — KillHouse Games
• Publisher — KillHouse Games
• Review Aggregate Score — 84% (Generally Favorable)
• Steam User Score — 95% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Platforms — PC

Now for something completely different, a top-down tactical shooter where planning is everything. Tactical shooters are often thought of as being either first-person shooters with squad management and cooperative play or third-person games with an over-the-shoulder perspective, but the Doorkickers series takes that third-person perspective and zooms it out to an overhead view that gives players a birds-eye view of the action. As a result, these games offer some of the best and most satisfying tactical planning in the genre, and the recent 1.0 launch of Doorkickers 2 cements it as the best top-down tactical shooter in what's, admittedly, a very limited space.