5 Must Play Third Person Shooters

So a lot of the AAA titles hitting the market today are console exclusives. So you can’t justify that killer upgrade till Crysis hits stands this November. So Mass Effect isn’t coming to PCs. Now as a PC gamer you should be ready for any sort of crap that comes your way since the PC’s not been getting a lot of love in recent times with most developers concentrating their efforts on next gen consoles.

And now you find yourself bearing the brunt of this lack of love with the Stranglehold delay once again (PC version releases on the 18th of next month). But don’t sweat it; we understand your plight and since we care we’re going to list five third person shooters to keep you busy till Stranglehold. When I say third person shooters I don’t mean any normal run of the mill third person shooter; I mean games that play just like Stranglehold which means you have tons of enemies, tons of slow motion, tons of over the top action, tons of stylish moves and tons of weapons; only don’t go expecting any form of birds in these games.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne

Ok now before you go ahead and say stuff like Stranglehold is ripping of on Max Payne you should know that the first Max Payne game was heavily influenced by John Woo’s movies and since Stranglehold is a spiritual successor of sorts to Hard Boiled which in a turn is a John Woo movie that umm… you get the drift right? Anyway, Max Payne 2 is one of the finest action games out there and has got everything you’d expect for a AAA title; high production values, awesome visuals (for it’s time), killer gameplay and a well narrated story that’s laid out in the form of a graphic novel. Once you get bored of the game’s story mode you can try out the insane user made mods out there that include new levels, newer weapons, newer characters and total conversions as well.
__PAGEBREAK__

Dead to Rights

Even though this game has been called the Poor Man’s Max Payne, it’s got its moments. Sure it didn’t feature any earth shattering features and it was really really tough (but then again, a lot of Namco games are) but it was an entertaining mindless shooter nevertheless. I clearly remember one of the game’s mechanics that reminded me of scene of John Woo’s very own Hard Target (loved that movie) where your character could throw an explosive object like a gas canister at an enemy in slow motion and blow it up as soon as it neared his face . To provide a certain amount of respite from all the third person shooting, the game even allowed you play as Shadow (the dog) during certain missions as you went around sniffing bombs (you were maybe expecting a butt joke?).
__PAGEBREAK__

Total Overdose

Hell bent on avenging the death of his father, Drug Enforcement Agent Ramiro Cruz decides on eradicating the entire Mexican underworld armed with his humongous cahones, a huge arsenal of weapons, slow motion and tons of quirky special moves like El Mariachi (dual wielded machine guns hidden in guitars cases), Tornado (spin around like a Tornado killing every enemy on screen), EL Toro (head butt people like a bull) and lots more. What sets Total Overdose apart from the pack is the fact that it does not take itself seriously and it’s not afraid to show it so instead of a deep, meaningful story and fleshed out characters you get cocky drug dealers, bandits, loco luchadores, zombies, guerillas and much more; this game is Total Timepass.
__PAGEBREAK__

Path of Neo

Now I know Enter the Matrix sucked cow poop but trust me, this game is nowhere as near as bad as that crapfest. It actually puts you in the boots of Neo as he goes around experiencing all the key events from all three Matrix movies. What I really appreciated about this game was its killer combat system that allowed you to pull of some mad moves in slow motion (and the fact that the camera could be rotated 360 degrees just added to the whole cinematic feel). The game even culminated in a bad ass Agent Smith boss fight taken straight from The Matrix Revolutions and there’s a slight surprise waiting for you once you finish the game as well. Even though this game is available on PC I suggest the PS2 version since (a) There isn’t a lot of visual difference between both versions and (b) The PS2 version controls a lot better.
__PAGEBREAK__

El Matador

An excellent attempt from relatively unknown developer Plastic Reality, El Matador has players take on the role of Victor Corbett, a DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) Agent who’s tasked with taking down an entire drug cartel armed with nothing but his extended family by which I mean his arsenal and not his ma and pa. Even though the game had no big name attached to the project it was a pretty intense game that only looked pretty good but was complemented with awesome gameplay as well; the only serious problem that plagued this game was its retarded AI but hey, if you’re looking for some mindless action, I don’t think that should pose too much of a problem. And you’re in luck if you wanna give this game as shot since we have not one but two demos of the game floating around in our Downloads section.