Highlights

  • Sony's PlayStation challenged Nintendo's dominance in the console market with its successful sales and diverse game selection.
  • The PS1 struggled initially to find its identity but found success with a variety of games like Crash Bandicoot and Metal Gear Solid.
  • The PlayStation brand had successful first-person shooters that showcased the console's capabilities and popularity during the mid-nineties.

Sony's PlayStation was a pioneer of three-dimensional console gaming. The PS1's huge sales gave Nintendo serious competition in the home console market, a market that Nintendo had dominated in the years prior. Nintendo's sales were pushed by its iconic collection of mascot characters like Mario, Link, and Donkey Kong, as well as its recognition among consumers as being the company with the best platformers and collections.

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Despite the PlayStation's excellent sales, it initially struggled to find an identity. It was originally marketed as a console for older gamers than its N64 counterpart. However, Sony soon decided that it wanted a slice of Nintendo's pie and tried to brand Crash Bandicoot and Spyro The Dragon as their gaming mascots. Ultimately, the PlayStation brand decided to embrace its diversity, with vastly different games like Crash Bandicoot, Metal Gear Solid, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater all proving to be very successful. One of the original PlayStation's many successful genres was first-person shooters, which were rapidly growing in prominence when the console debuted in the mid-nineties.

Updated on February 1, 2024 by Mark Sammut: The PlayStation was not exactly synonymous with shooters, but that was not for a lack of trying. In fact, Sony's original console has quite an expansive selection, at least for its era. What are the best PS1 FPS games?

On-rail shooters like Time Crisis will not be included.

16 Codename: Tenka

Gamefaqs Rating: 3.33/5

FPS view of a room filled with electronics
Codename: Tenka

Released
May 31, 1997
Developer(s)
Psygnosis
How Long To Beat
4 Hours

Also known as Lifeforce Tenka, Codename: Tenka was developed by former British development and publishing team Psygnosis, who are best known for their work on the WipeOut, Lemmings, and Destruction Derby franchises.

The game features a futuristic setting and predominantly pits players against robotic enemies. One of the most unique features of the game is how the player doesn't collect new and improved weaponry like in most shooters but instead finds weapon modifications that change how their gun is fired.

15 007: The World Is Not Enough

Gamefaqs Rating: 3.28/5

world is not enough ps1
The World Is Not Enough (PS1)

Released
November 7, 2000
Developer
Black Ops Entertainment
How Long To Beat
5 Hours

The World is Not Enough was the second James Bond game to be released on the PlayStation and the first to be released on the Nintendo 64 since the genre-changing GoldenEye 007. Developer's Black Ops Entertainment improved on their previous entry Tomorrow Never Dies with more gadgets, tighter gameplay, and smarter enemy A.I.

Despite these improvements, the development team again made the baffling decision to not include a multiplayer mode, frustrating players who were hoping for a split-screen mode similar to the N64's GoldenEye. This was especially disappointing as Eurocom's N64 version of The World Is Not Enough was released a month earlier and had an excellent multiplayer mode.

14 Disruptor

Gamefaqs Rating: 3.59/5

disruptor ps1
Disruptor

Released
November 20, 1996
Developer(s)
Insomniac Games
How Long To Beat
5 Hours

Disruptor was the first game released by Insomniac Games, the company that would go on to develop the original Spyro The Dragon trilogy. Indicative of being the company's first game, it struggled to find its own identity, playing similarly to previously released games like DOOM and Duke Nukem 3D.

Disruptor did have some innovations though, predominantly its Psionics. These Psionics gave players various abilities such as Heal, Shock, and Shield.

13 Alien Trilogy

Gamefaqs Rating: 3.45/5

Gameplay from Alien Trilogy on the PS1
Alien Trilogy

Released
December 31, 1995
Developer
Probe Entertainment, Sculptured Software
How Long To Beat
7 Hours

Movie tie-in games are often looked down upon predominantly due to the rushed development that is needed to ensure that they are released in line with the movie release date.

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Alien Trilogy, however, was released over four years after the third Alien movie, giving developers Probe Entertainment plenty of time to make a game fitting of its corresponding films. This development time paid off, as Alien Trilogy provided an enjoyable action experience that sold very well.

12 Hexen: Beyond Heretic

Gamefaqs Rating: 3.56/5

hexen beyond heretic
Hexen: Beyond Heretic

Released
October 30, 1995
Developer(s)
Raven Software
How Long To Beat
10 Hours

A bit of a special case, depending on the class chosen, Hexen: Beyond Heretic might not qualify as a first-person shooter. Built using the ever-reliable Doom engine, Hexen is a dark fantasy epic with a relatively ambitious level design, three character archetypes that support either melee, ranged, or both, and a grim aesthetic.

Heretic's sequel improves upon many of its predecessor's ideas, providing an overall superior and more timeless experience. Just to be clear, the game still very much plays like a '90s shooter, but it has enough charm to be worth revisiting (although, the PC version is unsurprisingly better than the PS1 iteration).

11 Descent

Gamefaqs Rating: 3.8/5

FPS view inside of a spaceship - firing at enemies
Descent

Released
March 17, 1995
Developer
Parallax Software
How Long To Beat
14 Hours

Descent is one of the many games on this list that took heavy inspiration from id Software's DOOM and was commonly referred to as one of the 90's "DOOM clones," despite the player being confined to a spaceship.

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Although the game took heavy inspiration from DOOM, it also provided its influences on the genre, with its six degrees of freedom movement and the fact that it was the first FPS game to feature true 3D graphics.

10 PowerSlave

Gamefaqs Rating: 3.73/5

FPS view of aiming towards statue and flames
PowerSlave

Released
October 31, 1996
Developer
Lobotomy Software
How Long To Beat
11 Hours

PowerSlave (also known as Exhumed and Seireki 1999: Pharaoh no Fukkatsu) was developed by a now-defunct company known as Lobotomy Software, which also ported Quake and Duke Nukem 3D to the Sega Saturn.

PowerSlave takes players to Egypt and tasks them with taking down a plethora of enemy types, including mummies, scorpions, and evil spirits. The console version of the game implements elements from the Metroidvania genre, as players must find new weapons and artifacts that let them explore previously inaccessible areas.

9 Jumping Flash! 2

Gamefaqs Rating: 3.73/5

Gameplay of Jumping Flash 2 on the PS1
Jumping Flash! 2

Released
August 31, 1996
Developer
Exact
How Long To Beat
2 Hours

Jumping Flash! 2 had the difficult task of trying to emulate the success of the award-winning Jumping Flash!. Developer's Exact didn't try to reinvent the wheel and kept the gameplay very similar to its predecessor.

The game did add performance medals, though, adding replay value to the game by rewarding players for completing levels in different ways.

8 Alien Resurrection

Gamefaqs Rating: 3.51/5

alien resurrection ps1
Alien Resurrection

Released
October 10, 2000
Developer
Argonaut Games
How Long To Beat
7 Hours

A somewhat forgotten 2000 FPS, Alien Resurrection had the misfortune of being tied to a generally disliked movie; furthermore, the game came out years after the film's release, so it could not even take advantage of the project's hype. Still, Argonaut Games deserves a lot of props for putting together a fun, atmospheric, and challenging first-person shooter with a fairly modern control scheme. Utilizing the dual thumbsticks for aiming and movement, Alien Resurrection was ahead of its time, and it has aged better than most PS1 FPS games, even titles that were better and more influential when they initially debuted.

Leaning into the IP's horror roots, Alien Resurrection goes out of its way to stress that the Xenomorphs are extremely vicious and dangerous. Consequently, this is not quite an all-out action shooter and instead plays out closer to a survival horror game with FPS combat. Nowadays, only die-hard Alien fans will likely get a kick out of this release since there are way too many modern FPS games that cover similar ground; however, this title deserves some recognition.

7 Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown

Gamefaqs Rating: 3.61/5

Promotional image of the PS1 game Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown
Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown

Released
December 2, 1997
Developer
Aardvark Software
How Long To Beat
10 Hours

Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown is the name given to the PlayStation port of the game better known as Duke Nukem 3D. The game is heavily inspired by Doom and subsequently plays very similarly. Fast-paced, action gameplay that must be tackled head-on is present throughout Duke Nukem's third entry.

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The game does have a few differentials, though, predominantly through the variety of environments that players fight in, something that the early Doom games lacked. Unfortunately, the PlayStation port of Duke Nukem 3D was far from perfect. It struggled with constant frame rate issues and lacked a split-screen multiplayer mode despite the feature being in the other versions of the game.

6 Final Doom

Gamefaqs Rating: 3.98/5

FPS view of loading gun as enemy approaches
Final Doom

Released
May 31, 1996
Developer
id Software, TeamTNT, Casali brothers
How Long To Beat
13 Hours

Final Doom was released on the PlayStation 1 a few months after its initial release and offered a slightly different experience to the MS-DOS version. The PS1 version of the game was made significantly easier, with a wide selection of tough enemies and even a few difficult levels being removed. This may have been due to the increased difficulty of using a gamepad over a mouse, though the oft-forgotten PlayStation Mouse accessory was compatible with the game.

Interestingly, it wasn't only difficulty changes that led to certain enemies being removed, as technical limitations meant that the Arch-vile and Spider Mastermind also had to be booted out of the game.

5 Quake 2

Gamefaqs Rating: 3.78/5

quake 2 ps1
Quake 2

Released
December 9, 1997
Developer(s)
id Software
How Long To Beat
8 Hours

Quake 2 was originally going to be a new IP. However, developers id Software ultimately decided to name the game Quake 2 as they felt that the gameplay was too similar to the original Quake to justify creating a new series. Because of this, Quake 2 plays slightly differently from the original. The player's movement is noticeably slower, and the new ability to crouch offered more tactical cover-based gameplay.

Quake 2 also offers one of the best multiplayer game modes on the console, giving PlayStation gamers an enjoyable split-screen experience to rival the N64's GoldenEye.

4 Jumping Flash!

Gamefaqs Rating: 3.63/5

Promo art featuring characters in Jumping Flash
Jumping Flash

Released
November 2, 1995
Developer
Exact, Ultra
How Long To Beat
2 Hours

Jumping Flash! introduced PlayStation gamers to the robotic rabbit, suitably named Robbit. The game differentiated itself from other shooters on the console by combining FPS gameplay with platforming.

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The game uniquely allowed players to jump multiple times, letting them reach extreme heights and navigate levels with ease. This ability to navigate stages quickly is a fundamental part of the gameplay, as players need to obtain 4 jet pods in a limited timescale of 10 minutes to complete each level. Jumping Flash! won GameFan's Megaward PlayStation Game Of The Year award in 1995.

3 Medal of Honor: Underground

Gamefaqs Rating: 4/5

medal of honor underground
Medal of Honor: Underground

Released
October 23, 2000
Developer
DreamWorks Interactive
How Long To Beat
12 Hours

Medal of Honor: Underground is the second installment in the long-running Medal of Honor series.

The World War Two shooter attempted to improve on its predecessor by adding tanks to fight against and allies to fight alongside. The objective-based gameplay that the Medal of Honor series is known for returned, and the pre-existing catalog of weaponry was improved upon.

2 DOOM

Gamefaqs Rating: 4.05/5

DOOM front cover with Doomguy shooting demons
Doom (1993)

Released
December 10, 1993
Developer(s)
id Software
How Long To Beat
5 Hours

It's no exaggeration to say that if it wasn't for DOOM, most of the best PS1 FPS games likely wouldn't exist. Id Software took the formula that they created in Wolfenstein 3D and fine-tuned it, creating a game that would revolutionize the industry and is still thoroughly enjoyable to play today.

The impressive enemy variety and range of weapons available tend to be the game's most glorified features, though the level design also deserves plaudits for how meticulously designed each level is and for how rewarding it feels to find some of the game's many secrets.

1 Medal of Honor

Gamefaqs Rating: 3.85/5

Gameplay of Medal of Honor on the PS1
Medal of Honor (1999)

Released
October 31, 1999
Developer(s)
DreamWorks Interactive
How Long To Beat
8 Hours

Topping the list is the original Medal of Honor. The smash-hit beginning of the long-running EA series engrossed gamers with its excellent objective-based gameplay that took place in a realistic and immersive WW2 setting.

As was tradition with EA's old-school releases, Underground came with numerous characters and features to unlock. These characters weren't just generic soldiers with different sets of gear, though. Players could unlock William Shakespeare, Winston Churchill, and even a velociraptor — yes, seriously. Medal of Honor also featured one of the best multiplayer modes on the console. The mode finally lets players answer the age-old question of who would win in a fight, Shakespeare or a velociraptor.

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