Image: 1047 Games via HGG
My name is Gibson Vasela. I am a freelance writer who has been playing video games for almost 20 years now. I play all kinds of games, but I especially love immersive sims and RPGs.
Reviewed by Benjamin Barr
Shooters are one of the most popular and well-loved genres in the gaming industry. They’re incredibly diverse, ranging from fast-paced arena games to tactical third-person shooters to gritty, realistic action games — the list goes on.
Some of the most creative and unique games of this genre come not from triple-A publishers, but from small indie studios with only a few developers and a limited budget. These games always manage to do a lot with little resources, and they deserve praise and attention. In today’s article, we’ll cover the top 10 best indie shooters for PC in 2022.
Let’s get to it!
The Best Indie Shooters For PC (2022), From Good to Best
Without any further delay, let’s jump right into these fun games.
10/10
15. Fistful of Frags
- Release Date: May 9th, 2014
- Developer: Fistful of Frags Team
- File Size: 4 GB
- Link: Steam
Let’s start our list off with an old after-school classic. Fistful of Frags is a 2014 multiplayer first-person shooter set in the Wild West. Fistful of Frags goes a long way to creating a truly great Wild West experience with such details as period-accurate guns, a diverse roster of maps, and much more!
The gunplay itself feels slower and clunkier than most shooters, but that works in its favor. It takes a good amount of skill to pull off shots, and players are rewarded for pacing and patience. You have your choice of weapon sets — you can dual wield a variety of different revolvers and other one-handed weapons, or use different rifles, repeaters, or shotguns.
Powerful weapons are placed in specific points of the map, which incentivizes big firefights to see who walks away with the powerful sniper rifle or the excellent pump-action shotgun. Speaking of maps, all the available maps stay true to the game’s aesthetic and range from old mining sites (complete with working trains!) to desert boomtowns, Mexican villas, and everything between.
9/10
My Friend Pedro
- Release Date: June 20th, 2019
- Developer: DeadToast Entertainment
- File Size: 4 GB
- Link: Steam
Next up, we have one of the more interesting games on this list. My Friend Pedro is a 2D shooter with platforming and parkour that rewards creative kills. It follows a masked vigilante on the hunt to kill members of a crime family, all while receiving guidance from a giant, sentient banana. (Yes, you read that sentence correctly.)
You are very fragile and can be easily killed in only a few hits. Luckily for you, you have several skills and abilities at your disposal. You can dual-wield SMGs, slow down time, and pull off tons of sick tricks. If you manage to kill someone in a unique way — say, jumping off a wall, backflipping, and shooting two targets at once — you are rewarded with a higher score!
If you love humor and unique stories, you’re sure to be a fan of My Friend Pedro. The dialogue is good, and there are plenty of comedic moments to be found throughout your adventures. I won’t spoil the story, but the game manages to pull off a few pretty good twists at the end. Sure, it’s no Red Dead Redemption 2, but the story is well-written and there are plenty of memorable moments.
8/10
Hotline Miami
- Release Date: October 23rd, 2012
- Developer: Dennaton Games
- File Size: 250 MB
- Link: Steam
Next up on our list, we have the top-down 2D action game Hotline Miami! This is a vibrant yet gritty adventure set in Miami during the late 1980s. It follows a silent and enigmatic protagonist on a mission to kill criminals taking part in the drug trade. When he’s not gunning down gangsters, he’s dealing with his own internal struggles and suffering from horrifying hallucinations. It’s definitely not a game for kids!
The game forces you to be slow and tactical with how you move through each level. You have very little health, and even the slightest mistake will send you back to the beginning. You have access to several different firearms, but also melee weapons with brutal kill animations. Weapons can be thrown at opponents to stun them for a second, giving you additional time to make your next move.
Hotline Miami’s most interesting aspect, however, is that it allows you to choose from one of several masks at the start of each mission. These masks grant players a wide variety of effects, such as the ability to move faster or making your character harder to detect when being stealthy.
7/10
Sir, You Are Being Hunted
- Release Date: August 19th, 2013
- Developer: Big Robot Ltd.
- File Size: 1 GB
- Link: Steam
Taking the next spot on our ranking, we have a personal favorite of mine. Sir, You Are Being Hunted is a stealth-survival FPS taking place on a mysterious archipelago inhabited by bloodthirsty robots! You’re stranded on the island until you can gather up the needed items to teleport to safety. In the meantime, you’ll have to scavenge old buildings, sneak past or shoot strange androids, and use your wits to survive encounters.
The gunplay is a little clunky, and the amount of weapons you have is limited. There’s a revolver, a blunderbuss, bear traps, dynamite, and a few others. However, you do have several tools at your disposal that you can use to avoid fighting all together — you can activate and throw an alarm clock to distract enemies, for example. Considering how limited ammo is, it’s best to experiment a bit.
My favorite aspect of this game is its creepy, dreamlike atmosphere and stereotypical British aesthetic. The islands are foggy and populated by ruined castles, abandoned English towns, and broken-down industrial sites. Even the enemy designs seem at home in a Victorian steampunk setting. There’s the top-hat wearing, mustache-twirling Hunter, the creepy, cane-wielding Landowner, and even a teleporting scarecrow with glowing red eyes!
6/10
Splitgate
- Release Date: May 24th, 2019
- Developer: 1047 Games
- File Size: 15 GB
- Link: Steam
Up next, we have everyone’s favorite Halo–Portal hybrid — the multiplayer arena shooter Splitgate! This is a great game to play with friends, featuring solid gunplay and a diverse set of weapons, both of which take great influence from the classic Halo franchise. This was released before Halo came to PC, but even now, it’s still a lot of fun to play.
The most unique aspect of the game is the ability to place functioning portals throughout the map. These portals can be used by you, your teammates, and even the enemy team to pull off a variety of good plays. You can fire one up high and snipe enemies through it. You can teleport behind someone to flank them. If you’re high up, you can even jump into one and zoom out the other side at high speeds!
Developers 1047 Games did an excellent job of designing maps around this mechanic. There are many different maps you can play on, each with its own aesthetic and special features. On some of these maps, power weapons are located up high, and can only be accessed by using your portals. You can only place portals on certain surfaces, forcing players to be more thoughtful in where they are placed.
5/10
Cry of Fear
- Release Date: April 25th, 2013
- Developer: Team Psykskallar
- File Size: 5 GB
- Link: Steam
Halfway through our list for the top 10 best indie shooters for PC, we have Cry of Fear! This is another survival FPS that’s also a full-on horror game with loads of jumpscares, terrifying enemies, and a deep psychological horror narrative. This game can get pretty intense, and it tackles some sensitive issues. If you dislike games involving themes of mental health and suicide, you should keep away.
In the game, you take on the role of a young man who has seemingly gotten lost on his way home. You’re in a city in Sweden, which is entirely deserted of inhabitants save for the freakish monsters lurking around every corner.
There is a huge variety of different creatures to encounter, and they all have different ways of attacking you. The game isn’t afraid to throw dozens of jumpscares after you in a short period of time, so you’re constantly on the edge of your seat.
The gunplay is clunky, but not in a bad way. It adds to the game’s survival aspects, as you need to carefully line up your shots and conserve ammo. Health is also scarce, and if you use it too many times, your max health will actually decrease!
Overall, Cry of Fear is a game that rewards careful movements, good accuracy, and planning ahead. In addition to its tense firefights, it also offers one of the best survival-horror games I’ve played in years. Did I mention that this game is free-to-play on Steam?
4/10
The Final Station
- Release Date: August 30th, 2016
- Developer: DO MY BEST
- File Size: 2 GB
- Link: Steam
In spot number four, we have another 2D shooter. This time, it’s a sidescroller instead of a top-down game. You play as a train conductor tasked with delivering passengers and supplies through a dying, post-apocalyptic world. This is no easy task, as you’ll have to scavenge supplies, take care of wounded passengers, and fight off hordes of strange zombie-like creatures along the way.
In between hubs and traveling by train, the majority of your game-time will be spent exploring various sidesteps on the way to your destination. You’ll explore the ruins of the old world, gathering supplies and fighting off enemies. You have access to weapons like pistols and shotguns, but can also throw large objects at zombies to deal damage. With limited ammo and health, you need to be careful if you want to stay alive!
Besides the excellent side-scrolling shooting and survival elements, the real selling point for The Final Station is its story. As you progress through your journey, you’ll uncover more information about the world and the mysterious apocalypse through terminal entries and enigmatic characters. Just be sure you pay attention and explore as much as you can — the story isn’t always that straightforward.
3/10
The Mean Greens: Plastic Warfare
- Release Date: December 8th, 2015
- Developer: Virtual Basement LLC, Code Headquaters LLC
- File Size: 14 GB
- Link: Steam
Now for one of my favorite multiplayer shooters. The Mean Greens: Plastic Warfare is a third-person shooter influenced by the Army Men games of the late 90s and early 2000s. You play as a small plastic soldier — on either the green or tan team — and have to work with your teammates to complete various objectives.
You have five different weapons that you can access at any time — an assault rifle, shotgun, sniper rifle, bazooka, and even a flame thrower! The gunplay is smooth and the action is fast-paced. There is a standard deathmatch mode and capture the flag, but also special game modes that are completely unique to the map you are playing on!
Since this is a game about toy soldiers, it only makes sense that the maps are all designed around common household settings from a toy’s perspective. One map takes place on a foosball table, and your objective is to push the ball to the enemy team’s goal. In another, you fight on a kitchen countertop, using cereal boxes as cover.
My personal favorite map takes place in a bathtub filled with water, toy boats, and a giant toy octopus in the center. Toy ducks rotate around the center of the map, and you need to ride one to the other team’s base to grab their flag and haul it back to your base. There’s honestly so much creativity in these maps, I wish I could talk about it more. But why talk about it when you can go play it for yourself?
2/10
DUSK
- Release Date: December 10th, 2018
- Developer: David Szymanski
- File Size: 2 GB
- Link: Steam
Taking home the silver medal on our ranking, we have David Szymanski’s DUSK! This is a fast-paced boomer-shooter inspired by classic shooters such as DOOM and Quake. Upon its release, it quickly blew up as one of the best boomer-shooters of recent years, and it isn’t difficult to see why.
At the start of the game, you wake up in a strange basement armed only with a sickle. Surrounded by cultists, you quickly break out to find a dark and gloomy world populated by disturbing enemies. The game gives you many different weapons, such as a powerful hunting rifle and an explosive riveter. Interestingly, the game gives you the ability to dual-wield almost any gun!
Fights are always fast and intense, and there are many different enemy types to battle. You’ll fight your way through three hellish episodes, picking up a number of interesting and unique power-ups (including one that stops time when you’re not moving!). The game is incredibly well made, with loads of content to enjoy. There’s even a wave-based survival mode in addition to its main campaigns!
The story is surprisingly good as well. It starts off simple, but as you progress through the game, things will start to deepen and get more complex. Environmental storytelling is used often, and it’s used very well. Don’t worry, I won’t spoil anything for you!
1/10
Deep Rock Galactic
- Release Date: May 13th, 2020
- Developer: Ghost Ship Games
- File Size: 3 GB
- Link: Steam
And finally, ending our article for the top 10 best indie shooters for PC in 2022, we have Ghost Ship Game’s Deep Rock Galactic! This is a first-person, multiplayer co-op shooter inspired by games like Left 4 Dead and Minecraft. It’s a science-fantasy game taking place on a distant planet. You play as a dwarf, and it’s your job to mine the planet of its resources while fighting off hordes of alien bugs!
Players can choose from one of four classes: the Scout, Gunner, Engineer, and Driller. Each class brings their own unique weapons and abilities to the table, and their equipment is viable for both solo players and those playing in teams. Each class is well-designed, and they all work in harmony together to create one of the best co-op experiences in gaming.
Another fantastic thing about Deep Rock Galactic is its gameplay loop. First, deploy to the planet and begin exploring. Then, you mind precious minerals and fight off a wide variety of bugs that attack you in massive swarms. Next, you complete your objective and haul ass back to the escape pod before it leaves without you. Finally, you use your collected resources to upgrade your guns and other gear.
Upgrading your gear is the most satisfying part of the gameplay loop. Each class has their own unique weapons, and you can upgrade and customize them to fit a wide variety of playstyles. There is even an endgame upgrade system called Weapon Overclocks, which completely changes how your weapons work. There is so much content and so many ways to upgrade and customize in this game, it’s unreal!
Join The High Ground
And with that, our ranking of the top 10 best indie shooters for PC (2022) has come to an end. What do you think of our ranking? Let us know what you think in the comments, and make sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletter! We offer regular content on all the best games, including more top-10 lists just like this one.
Happy gaming!
Surprised Superhot isn’t here.