best third person shooters as of 2012

I'm sick of first person shooters. I want a good third person shooter to play and Im not really sure what get. Red Dead Redemtion is stale now and I need something new.

@goldenkey: Fallout 3 and New Vegas can be played as a TPS.

Maybe I should add: Both are actually complex RPGs, so if you don't like collecting experience, doing quests, making decisions that influence the story, than you should probably skip them.

Dead Space

I strongly recommend playing Vanquish. It's the first game to do something innovative and truly different with the genre since Gear of War.

@ImmortalSaiyan: That's not really fair. Uncharted totally added platforming to the mix, and inFamous and Dead Space both added extreme levels of precision and speed not even remotely matched by Gears of War. I still think VanQuish is pretty cool, though.

Dead Space 1 is magical as a third-person shooter, and inFamous 1 is pretty awesome. Dead Space 2 actually improves on DS1 in some ways and just doesn't have the level design in its back half to back it up. I'd maintain that they're the two best gameplay systems for third-person shooting yet built, though their level design and stories perhaps hold them a bit behind Gears of War 2, Red Dead Redemption, and a few other genre stalwarts. I also really like Resident Evil 4 and think that's probably still worth your time.

@Little_Socrates: Good points. I loved the mix of Platforming and shooting in Uncharted 2. They messed it up in 3 though. The Gameplay in Dead Space never clicked for me, it felt like a worst Resident evil 4 where you could walk whilst aiming. The limb shooting was a good gimmick though and give it somewhat of a identify. For me inFamous was not about precision in the slightest, because I went with the evil powers. Which was a lot of fun.

I consider all those refinements of the genre, not the step forward I consider Vanquish. That game takes the pop and shoot cover shooting gameplay and turns it on it's head while keeping the best aspects of it. It's a super fast paced game where you are always on the move, it's frantic and intense.

But yeah, those other games deserve merit as well.

gears 3 is fucking amazing.

you should probably keep your eyes on Spec Ops: The Line which comes out at the end of June. the moral choices and sand mechanics put this near the top of my list for this year in terms of anticipation!

@Morrow: recommending the Fallout games as third person shooters just because you can switch to the terrible third person camera is really really not a good move at all. the shooting is clearly the worst part (aside from the bugs maybe) of those games. if you wanna go with RPGs as shooters then at least say Mass Effect or Alpha Protocol.

oh and maybe check out Lost Planet 1 and 2. I hear 2 got a lot of shit at launch but they put out a huge patch with lots and lots of changes from feedback to improve it. There's also Red Faction: Guerilla, Just Cause 2 (both were those early summer games that few people played but they both throw in crazy mechanics to freshen things up [namely destruction and crazy stunts]) and the Saints Row games. Also check out maybe Crackdown, Shadows of the Damned and I'd even recommend The Saboteur, to get some variety in weapons and setting in there.

@DeF:

I played neither of those, so I can't recommend them. And I don't find anything wrong with neither the perspective nor the shooting in Fallout. Worked both fine for me ^^ But everyone's different I guess.

@Morrow said:

@DeF:

I played neither of those, so I can't recommend them. And I don't find anything wrong with neither the perspective nor the shooting in Fallout. Worked both fine for me ^^ But everyone's different I guess.

you have played through both games in third person and liked it? then you're definitely the first person I've come across that does^^

recommending fallout for someone looking for a shooter is just sadistic

take no prisoners

@DeF said:

@Morrow said:

@DeF:

I played neither of those, so I can't recommend them. And I don't find anything wrong with neither the perspective nor the shooting in Fallout. Worked both fine for me ^^ But everyone's different I guess.

you have played through both games in third person and liked it? then you're definitely the first person I've come across that does^^

Yay I feel unique :D lol j/k

Well to be honest I kept switching between first and third person perspective. I prefer third pp in combat because I want to know who/what is around/behind my character. Otherwise I become paranoid. When observing the area and looking for items I switched to first pp because the view is more detailed and I won't overlook something important (which I do sometimes anyways tho).

If there wouldn't be the option of switching the perspective I would have never played Fallout 3 and New Vegas, because I'm put off by FPP, which would have been a shame since I greatly enjoyed those games and wouldn't want to miss the experience I made by playing them :)

@phrali said:

recommending fallout for someone looking for a shooter is just sadistic

My intentions were good :(

Space Marine is pretty cool. The mix of melee of gunplay is better than cover based gameplay IMO.

And Earth Defense Force 2017 is a really good mindless game to play in short bursts. Once you get a powerful rocket launcher that has homing, you can literally just look up and hold down the fire button and the entire city will get totaled and all the enemies killed. Just an easy going game (when not playing it on hard)

Kane and Lynch 2 is a short but sweet game. Its literally about 4 hours and can be beaten in a sitting or two, and the gameplay only starts to get old near the end so it doesn't overstay its welcome (unless you don't like cover based games period)

Crackdown is also really good. No real story or linear levels to go through, just picking up and throwing cars at gangs and levelling up your skills and hunting orbs. Addicting.

Dead to Rights Retribution is also pretty fun. It also has a melee component mixed in with the gunplay. It also has some brutal finishers.

Games that are also pretty cool: The Army of Two series, I hear Vanquish is awesome, Dark Sector is cool and is also dirt cheap at Gamestop, Stranglehold

I would suggest not playing Infamous. Just go straight to the sequel. The first one is mediocre at best, and the fucking grey ugly look of that game is maddening after a decent chunk of it. The sequel feels and looks much better. But if you play the original, don't play on Hard and don't play good. The evil powers are so much better.

The Gears of War series is awesome, all of them still hold up. Vanquish is certainly awesome. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter is pretty fun, if you want something more Tactical. It feels really good in third person. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 is another good option for that, though not so much for singleplayer and it's not the prettiest game. Red Faction: Guerrilla is great if you want a really unique third person shooter, but play on easy. The combat isn't fun with more challenge, and it's better to have more freedom to just fuck up buildings. Just Cause 2 is another awesome game for if you want something not really like other shooters, and just great fun especially once you get in the swing of things and figure out everything you can do with grappling and using your parachute and all that. Resident Evil 5 is probably a good option too. Mass Effect is awesome, especially on PC but you need to play the whole thing through, because skipping the original would be the worst thing ever. Dead Space is a good franchise to check out. Another game that plays with cover and traversal in interesting ways is Dark Void, not a perfect game but pretty enjoyable.

@MordeaniisChaos said:

I would suggest not playing Infamous. Just go straight to the sequel. The first one is mediocre at best, and the fucking grey ugly look of that game is maddening after a decent chunk of it. The sequel feels and looks much better. But if you play the original, don't play on Hard and don't play good. The evil powers are so much better.

I disagree, inFamous 1 was still pretty awesome and I played it on hard (and evil) on my first playthrough and loved it. (I found evil to be better in inFamous and good to be better in inFamous 2)

I would also recommend The Saboteur. I love that game and think it's really underrated.

@DeF: I played hard (without knowing it had switched at the beginining) using good powers. The controls were clumsy and no where near snappy or precise enough for how much precision your stuff required. Most of the game wasn't bad on Hard, but there were particular parts in missions that just threw too much at you to deal with. The good powers were fucking shit, and I've heard that evil powers make the game much more enjoyable and easy, but I don't really care. Playing with the good powers and being as frustrated as I was with particular bits (one of the prison missions took me hours to finish, even though it gave you the recharge things), I will never forget how shit my experience was with that game. The feel, the look, the annoying one hit kills. Yuck. I can't believe it when people say that game looked really good. It didn't even look KIND OF good, and it ran like shit 98% of the time. It was technically unimpressive and aesthetically just bland and boring and grey as hell.

Vanquish.

Edit: I don't think this thread should exist until after Max Payne 3 comes out. That game looks SICK!

Vanquish.

Personally for anything cover-based I go for the Gears Of War franchise. They perfected third person shooting with cover mechanics back in 2006 and besides the sequels, nothing I've played since has had the same feeling of fluidity and control.

As for games without a focus on cover most have had a mention already; Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, Shadows Of The Damned, Infamous and Just Cause 2, the latter mostly for the sheer ridiculous scale of the mayhem you can 'cause'.

Lastly as a big fan of Gun-fu and Hong Kong 'heroic bloodshed' films I always highly recommend the Max Payne series [which still holds up fairly well] and Stranglehold.

Vanquish. No questions asked. Just buy it. 

Don't dismiss 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand. It's stupid, yes, but a lot of fun. It doesn't elevate the genre at all and it's story is ridiculous even by video game standards, but if you want to run around a shoot stuff, jump some big-ass ramps and generally have a blast, then it's a game you should check out.

Dont know if its been mentioned but Space Marine. Third person shooter that I enjoyed.

also KANE AND LYNCH 2. I thought the multiplayer was unique and underrated... I played more of the K&L2 demo multiplayer map than I did for all of BF3's release content.

Vanquish

Space marine

Dead space

I really do like Vanquish. But you have to get good with it's machanics.

Twisted Metal is pretty cool too, if it's multiplayer was a little more consistent I'd recommend that.

You should play Saints Row the Third.

Gears of War 3 is the best pure third person shooter currently on the market, in terms of online. However, it is going to kick your teeth in for a bit before you get used to it. It feels more intense and rewarding than any other online shooter, though. At least to me.

@Gargantuan said:

Dead Space

Good choice.

A second for Red Faction: Guerrilla- although I enjoyed the challenge of veteran mode. There are some really hairy gun battles to go along w/ the truly excellent smashy-smashy.