10 Best Third-Person Shooters of 2026

Resident Evil 4 ranks first because it pairs the best player reception on this list with a mid-range price. Capcom's 2023 remake follows Leon S. Kennedy, six years after Raccoon City, as he tracks the president's kidnapped daughter to a secluded European village. Capcom describes it as modernized gameplay with a reimagined storyline and new graphics, and the camera sits over Leon's shoulder for every fight. On Steam, 96% of 74,320 English reviews are positive, and the listing shows a Metacritic score of 91, both the highest here. The minimum PC is modest for a 2023 game: 8 GB of RAM and a 4 GB card such as a GTX 1050 Ti. The limits are clear too. There is no co-op or PvP in the Steam categories, it is Windows only, and its horror pacing gives you less ammo than Gears 5 or Space Marine 2. At $39.99, it is the safest first pick for a single-player third-person shooter.

The UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves Collection ranks second because it puts two story campaigns in one $49.99 purchase. UNCHARTED 4: A Thief's End follows Nathan Drake and his brother Sam hunting Henry Avery's pirate treasure, and The Lost Legacy sends Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross through India's Western Ghats after the Golden Tusk of Ganesh. Naughty Dog's PC version adds 4K and ultra-wide support, adjustable texture, shadow and reflection settings, and DualSense haptics over a wired connection. Steam lists adjustable difficulty and save anytime, which makes it the gentlest campaign here for newcomers. On Steam, 89% of 11,047 English reviews are positive. The costs: a 126 GB install, the largest on this list, and no multiplayer, since the collection includes only the single-player stories. It is also Windows only. For a player who wants story first and shooting second, it is the best value on the list.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 ranks third because it covers more ways to play than any other paid game here. You fight as Lieutenant Demetrian Titus in a campaign that continues 2011's Space Marine, and Saber's Swarm Engine puts hundreds of Tyranids on screen at once. Outside the story, there are PvE and PvP modes with seven classes, each with up to 25 perks, plus a 3-player Siege mode against endless waves where points buy ammunition, equipment or a Dreadnought. Steam lists online co-op, online PvP and cross-platform multiplayer. It is also the most reviewed paid game on this list, with 86% of 99,393 English reviews positive. The drawbacks are price and hardware: $59.99, an SSD requirement, 75 GB of storage and a 6 GB graphics card at minimum. If you play with friends, it is the strongest co-op pick in the top three.

Max Payne 3 ranks fifth on value. It is the cheapest paid game here at $19.99, and the Steam version is a complete edition with every DLC pack, from Deathmatch Made In Heaven to the Classic Max Payne 1 Character. The story follows Max, no longer a New York cop and addicted to painkillers, as he takes a job protecting the family of real estate mogul Rodrigo Branco in São Paulo, and Rockstar pitches it as cinematic shooting tied to a dark story. On Steam, 85% of 25,198 English reviews are positive, and the listing shows a Metacritic score of 87. Its age is an advantage for hardware, with a minimum spec of 2 GB of RAM and 35 GB of storage. It also shows its age: it came out in 2012, Steam lists only partial controller support, and it runs on Windows only. For a single-player shooter at the lowest paid price, it is hard to beat.

Warframe ranks fourth and is the only free game on this list. Digital Extremes calls it a third-person combat experience: you wear a bio-metal Warframe suit, choose from more than 60 Warframes with different powers, and build an arsenal of weapons. Missions are built for co-op squads with in-game matchmaking, and the system adds open-world areas, parkour movement and ship-to-ship space battles in your own spacecraft. The story spans 5 expansions and more than 30 quests. On Steam, 91% of 304,188 English reviews are positive, the largest review count here. It also has the lowest minimum RAM, at 4 GB. The trade-offs come with the free model: in-app purchases, an always-online connection and a lot of systems to learn, which is why it scores lower on ease of setup. Expect a 75 GB download, and there is no Mac or Linux client.

Gears 5 ranks eighth but has one feature no other game here lists on Steam: split-screen. The campaign follows Kait Diaz as she breaks away to uncover her connection to the enemy, and you can play it in three-player co-op online or split-screen. Versus covers competitive PvP, while Horde and Escape are co-op PvE modes where you pick a character and class. The Coalition also lists accessibility features including full controller remapping, single stick movement, Adaptive Controller support and narrated menus, and the game ships with a level editor. It costs $29.99. Two things hold it back. It requires an Xbox profile, and its Steam reception is the weakest on this list, with 73% of 8,925 English reviews positive. Steam also lists only partial controller support. For players who share a couch, it is still the obvious choice.

HELLDIVERS 2 ranks sixth. Arrowhead calls it a fast, frantic and ferocious third-person shooter: you are assembled into squads of up to four, pick loadouts and stratagems, and complete missions that feed a shared Galactic War where capturing and defending planets depends on the whole player base. Friendly fire is always on, so teamwork matters. Steam lists online co-op, adjustable difficulty, narrated menus and chat speech-to-text. With 78% of 644,826 English Steam reviews positive, it has the second largest review count on this list. The reason it is not higher is recent reception: Steam's summary for the last 30 days shows 26% of 12,419 reviews as positive, so check current player sentiment before you buy. It also needs 135 GB of storage, the most here, and Steam does not list a single-player category. For four friends at $39.99, it remains the most social shooter on the list.

REMNANT II ranks seventh as the best pick for players who want boss fights and loot. Gunfire Games' sequel to Remnant: From the Ashes sends survivors across multiple worlds full of creatures and what it calls god-like bosses, with a mix of ranged and melee combat. Dungeons and areas are dynamically generated, so playthroughs differ, and branching quest lines, augments and crafting give you reasons to replay. The expanded Archetype system lets you earn, level and equip multiple Archetypes together for different builds. You can play solo or in co-op with two friends. On Steam, 85% of 27,557 English reviews are positive, though the last 30 days dropped to 68% of 370. The hardware bar is high: the minimum spec lists 16 GB of RAM and 80 GB of storage. At $49.99, it suits players who like difficulty and build crafting more than a linear story.

Tom Clancy's The Division 2 ranks ninth and is the open-world pick. Ubisoft describes a tactical third-person shooter set in Washington, D.C. after a pandemic, built on cover-based firefights where positioning and gadgets decide fights. You loot and craft gear, learn skills and choose Specializations such as long-range marksman, demolition expert or survivalist leader. Co-op supports up to three other agents, and missions scale with the squad. After the campaign, there are endgame missions, PvP battles, world events and seasonal rewards. On Steam, 79% of 18,380 English reviews are positive, and the listing shows a Metacritic score of 84. At $29.99, it is cheap for the amount of content. Steam lists only partial controller support and in-app purchases, and the minimum spec requires a CPU with SSE 4.2 and AVX. It suits players who like long-term gear progression more than a short story.

Returnal ranks tenth because of its price and difficulty, not its ideas. Housemarque calls it an award-winning third-person shooter with bullet hell action: Selene crash-lands on a shape-shifting planet and restarts every time she dies, while the world and the items you find change with each cycle. The PC version includes Suspend Cycle, Photo Mode, two-player online co-op and the Tower of Sisyphus mode from day one, along with five graphical presets and an FPS, CPU and GPU usage overlay. On Steam, 80% of 4,982 English reviews are positive. At $59.99 it ties Space Marine 2 as the most expensive game here, the minimum spec asks for 16 GB of RAM and a 6 GB graphics card, and the run-based structure means losing progress on death. Players who enjoy learning patterns and starting over will get the most from it.