Great Linear Shooters With Lengthy Campaigns

Ever since games like Half-Life revolutionized the shooter genre, many companies have delved into the world of making immersive stories in which the player must gun down many enemies while experiencing a lengthy and fun campaign.

For those wanting to enjoy a good game for quite a bit of time, let’s take a look at some of the best shooters with lengthy campaigns, ranging from famous titles to obscure gems.

HowLongToBeat will be used as a data source. Also, RPG shooters and open-world games like Borderlands, Cyberpunk 2077, Far Cry, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Fallout will be avoided since the focus will be on primarily linear campaigns. That said, a few exceptions might slip through the cracks.

Updated December 2, 2023, by Mark Sammut: First-person and third-person shooters are not known for their lengthy campaigns, particularly the former. A Call of Duty release will typically include a single-player story that lasts maybe 6 hours, and Activision’s franchise is filled with great campaigns. Therefore, more does not always equal better, even if there are some great long shooter games that suggest otherwise.

18 Wolfenstein: The New Order

11+ Hours

B.J. Blazkowicz against thousands of evil Nazis: same old stuff, right? Well, in this reboot of the series, the story jumps ahead many years and shows an alternate history where the Nazi regime won World War 2 and took over the world.

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With gameplay that distinguishes itself perfectly from the new Doom games, id Software and Bethesda hit it out of the park with this game and its sequel by giving a scenario in which the player will have no qualms with eradicating the enemies. Amazing visuals combined with a rich story lead to The New Order being the reboot that the series needed, particularly after the lukewarm 2009 outing.

17 Resistance: Fall Of Man

11+ Hours

Insomniac’s Resistance trilogy peaked with its first entry, perhaps explaining the franchise’s short lifespan. The PS3’s best launch title, Resistance: Fall of Man matches tight first-person shooter mechanics with an ambitious storyline that guides players across a devasted United Kingdom.

Along with solid multiplayer, Resistance: Fall of Man‘s single-player campaign is fantastic. Packed with memorable set pieces and enemies that are at least somewhat competent, Insomniac put together a great shooter that makes every second of its story count. Even in 2021, this game is well worth playing.

16 BioShock

12+ Hours

The best place to start this series is with the original entry. While Columbia is breathtaking at times in BioShock: Infinite, there is just something both horrifying and enchanting when experiencing the underwater city of Rapture for the first time. Everything looks beautiful, but the player knows that something is not right in the city.

Mixing superpowers and gunplay together, BioShock is an amazing start to the series that keeps players engaged from beginning to end. The mystery, the look of the world, and the gameplay mix so well to create an unforgettable experience.

15 Shadow Warrior (2013)

12+ Hours

Despite its sequel adding some RPG elements and extra side content, 2013’s Shadow Warrior has comfortably the more substantial main campaign. A reboot of the 1997 classic shooter, Flying Wild Hog’s release combines an acquired sense of humor with satisfying melee combat and a respectable arsenal of weapons to create a fun throwback to old-school shooters.

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An argument can certainly be made that Shadow Warrior overstays its welcome. However, sometimes nothing hits the spot like slashing demons in half with a katana or reducing them to mush while dual-wielding submachine guns.

14 Half-Life 2

13+ Hours

Valve’s genre-defining first-person shooter set a benchmark in gaming that few have been able to surpass. 2004’s Half-Life 2 moved away from the original’s confined setting, as Gordon Freeman went on a cross-country expedition filled with plot reveals, inspired weaponry, and wonky vehicles.

Half-Life 2‘s road trip-esque structure and persistent desire to evolve keeps the game constantly feeling fresh, even if the gameplay cannot be seen as anything more than decent in this day and age. Half-Life 2 is considered a classic for a reason.

13 The Operative: No One Lives Forever

13+ Hours

A love letter to spy shows and movies from the 1960s, The Operative: No One Lives Forever is a classic that deserves to stand alongside the likes of Perfect Dark and TimeSplitters. Along with its highly regarded sequel and the Blood games, No One Lives Forever helped put Monolith Productions on the map.

These spy shooters have aged quite well since they combine solid gunplay with fun gadgets, memorable soundtracks, and engaging storylines packed with unforgettable characters, particularly the charming lead, Cate Archer.

12 Metroid Prime 1–3

13–17 Hours

Arguably the greatest side-scrolling shooter franchise of all time is also responsible for one of the best FPS trilogies ever. Metroid Prime is actually the shortest of the three titles, but since the games build upon each other, the original 2002 release deserves to be highlighted alongside Echoes and Corruption. It is also available on the Nintendo Switch, making it accessible to newcomers to the series. That said, they are all fantastic.

Despite the change in perspective, Metroid Prime still has all the hallmarks of a classic Metroidvania: power-ups that open new areas, puzzles, and tight controls. The game nails its gunplay too, both in the GameCube iteration and the Switch remaster.

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10 Doom Eternal

14+ Hours

Doom has very few “mediocre” games, and most of the franchise’s entries are designed with replayability in mind. Therefore, the average time of a single playthrough is not necessarily representative of the full package since most of the fun comes from trying the missions on higher difficulties. That said, when viewed in isolation, Doom Eternal has a particularly long campaign by the license’s standards.

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Building on 2016’s brilliant Doom, Eternal does not settle for just more of the same. Id Software took a few risks by expanding the Doom Slayer’s movement arsenal, a decision that was somewhat polarizing. Doom Eternal is punishingly difficult, and the player will need to constantly be on point if they want any hope of surviving. This intensity makes the 15-hour campaign fly by while also ensuring that each moment matters.

9 Painkiller: Hell Wars

14+ Hours

Combining 2004’s Painkiller with its Battle Out of Hell expansion, Hell Wars follows Daniel Garner through a blood-soaked war against Lucifer’s forces. Featuring more than 20 stages spread over five chapters, Painkiller: Hell Wars is a chaotic first-person shooter that harbors back to classic ’90s games like Doom and Blood.

At its heart, Hell Wars is a very straightforward shooter, one that appreciates carnage with every fiber of its being. The stages are diverse enough to keep things from growing stale, while the gunplay is gratifying.

8 Metro Exodus

15+ Hours

Metro Exodus is a special case since the game does incorporate a few sections that border on open-world and have optional content. However, the campaign is still fairly linear and only offers a small handful of opportunities to significantly diverge from the beaten path. As such, a playthrough will likely take most players roughly the same amount of time.

The third entry in 4A Games’ trilogy, Metro Exodus is a slower-paced first-person shooter that incorporates horror, stealth, and survival elements. Set in a post-apocalyptic Earth that has largely restricted humans to underground tunnels, Metro Exodus shakes things up by including lengthy sections on the surface world.

7 Chrome

15+ Hours

With franchises like Dead Island, Call of Juarez, and Dying Light, Techland has firmly cemented itself as a respectable name in the shooter genre. One of the studio’s earliest successes was 2003’s Chrome, a mission-based FPS that included a handful of RPG mechanics.

Chrome was quite a unique game when it was first released since it favored open levels over corridors and prioritized precision in its gunplay. Although Techland’s game has aged quite a bit over the years, Chrome is still impressive almost two decades following its debut.

6 Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

15+ Hours

Naughty Dog’s Uncharted franchise presents globetrotting adventures reminiscent of the likes of Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider. As presumably the final entry in Nathan Drake’s tale, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End delivers the most substantial storyline yet, both in terms of quantity and quality.

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Almost twice as long as the rest of the entries in the series, Uncharted 4 desperately aims to be regarded as an epic adventure. And, for the most part, it succeeds. While the shooting galleries are still among the weakest elements of this title, Uncharted 4‘s gunplay is considerably better than that of its predecessors.

5 Resident Evil 4 (2023)

16+ Hours

Resident Evil has spent the best part of two decades jumping back and forth between pure action and survival horror. 2005’s Resident Evil 4 blends the two genres together to near perfection, and its 2023 remake retains most of the elements that made the original title such a seminal release. Similar to 2019’s Resident Evil 2 remake, which is also nothing short of fantastic, Capcom opted against merely retreading the exact same ground as before when crafting this modern update.

While not wildly different from its predecessor, the remake implements enough changes to freshen up the campaign for veterans who have already played through Leon’s adventure multiple times. For the most part, RE4 plays like a conventional third-person shooter, albeit a slower-paced one than most modern releases; however, the release also showcases the license’s survival horror roots through its horrifying and aggressive enemies. The game is difficult while still remaining fair.

4 Outriders

16+ Hours

Outriders is quickly fading into oblivion. As of November 2023, the game is struggling to reach 200 concurrent players on Steam, which screams “failure” for a live-service project. At least, that would be the case if Outriders was a standard example of the genre, but that is not really the truth. A confusing pre-launch promotion cycle muddled the audience’s expectations of the game, resulting in a fairly linear shooter being held to the continuous development standards of titles like The Division 2 and Destiny 2. Outriders should be treated as a single-player or co-op experience with a reasonably lengthy campaign. If someone enjoys that ride, they can look forward to some post-game content.

For all its flaws, People Can Fly’s game is a decent third-person shooter with RPG elements that allow for build variety. While it arguably does not succeed completely, Outriders tries to tell a satisfying story teeming with world-building. Nowadays, the game cannot be recommended as a multiplayer experience outside of streaming platforms like PS Plus Extra, but it could hit the spot for people looking for a third-person shooter to play solo.

Outriders is an RPG shooter, but the “shooter” part is stronger than the “RPG” component.

3 Remnant 2

19+ Hours

Soulslikes exist in their own subgenre, and they predominantly lean into action RPG territory. Remnant 2 fits this standard mold to an extent, all the while changing a few things to set it apart from the Dark Souls and Lies of Ps of the world. For one, it is primarily a third-person shooter, a choice that few Soulslikes have made and even fewer have executed well. While melee is an option, it is largely limited to a single class; consequently, most Remnant 2 players will do battle from a distance.

Expanding on Remnant: From the Ashes‘ many good ideas, the sequel is bigger and better in nearly every way. Split into realms, the game regularly flings players into fresh worlds that are completely different from each other, and that’s not even taking into account the fact they utilize procedural-generation technology. The classes are unique and offer a fairly wide range of build options, allowing players to craft an experience that suits them. More importantly, the gunplay is sharp, responsive, and awesome.

2 Returnal

19+ Hours

Returnal‘s status as a roguelike means the length of a playthrough will vary greatly from person to person. In some cases, someone might need more than 50 hours to complete a playthrough; conversely, another person might have it done in less than 10.

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Compared to most roguelikes, Returnal is considerably longer than the norm. Even once somebody is familiar with the biomes and a few bosses are defeated, a run should still take a couple of hours.

1 Earth Defense Force 5

28+ Hours

Debuting in the early 2000s, Earth Defense Force embraces the allure of B-movie schlock, arguably doing it better than any other video game franchise on the market. Generally, the games boil down to killing wave after wave of insect-esque aliens, with the fifth numbered entry offering more than a hundred single-player missions.

The gunplay is satisfying but not especially deep, giving an arcade-type feel to the minute-by-minute action. However, Earth Defense Force 5 complements its combat with a great class system, a substantial selection of weapons, and enemies that require some thought to defeat.

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