Maybe it’s Call of Duty’s fault. Perhaps we wouldn’t have a boomer shooter revival right now if the biggest franchise in modern FPS games hadn’t spent so much time prompting us to ‘press X to pay respects’, throwing us out of yet another helicopter or having us shoot another crimelord amidst an exploding space station in zero gravity. Sometimes you’ve just got to keep it simple.
That’s what the boomer shooter movement speaks to, really: a shedding of unnecessary frills from the shooter. There’s you, there’s a room full of enemies, and here’s a weapon that doesn’t stand up to scientific scrutiny. Go make some jelly. This was the dominant school of thought during the ‘90s, when id Software was just throwing out banger after banger and we got to experience the life-affirming shift from 2D to 3D graphics, and it’s this purity of experience, together with nostalgic visuals and ironic tone, that boomer shooters promise.
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Is it a bit of an ageist term? Sure. We wouldn’t presume that a younger gamer wouldn’t enjoy Dusk, in the same way we wouldn’t presume a gamer in their sixties would get nothing out of Overwatch. But as with walking sims, you can’t hold a good niche genre down by slapping a pejorative label on it.
Here, then, are ten shooters that bring back the glory days, various visions thereof. There’s blood, there’s sprites, and there’s very little to no battle passes, NFT helmets or collectibles.