Halo is the quintessential first-person shooter with equally iconic single-player campaigns and multiplayer modes.
This is somehow a rarity, as most good shooters are multiplayer games only, like Overwatch and Apex Legends. FPSes with sublime single-player campaigns like the Prey reboot and the Bioshock series do not have multiplayer components.
Here are 10 FPS Like Halo with exceptional single-player campaigns while not skimping or merely tacking on multiplayer modes & vice versa.
Halo Game Features
 Release Date: | November 15, 2001 |
 Developer: | 343 Industries Bungie Creative Assembly Ensemble Studios |
 Publisher: | Xbox Game Studios |
 Platforms: | Xbox Windows macOS Xbox 360 Windows Phone iOS Xbox One Arcade Xbox Series X/S |
 Genre: | First-person shooter (primary) Real-time strategy Twin-stick shooter Arcade game |
 Setting: | Future, Space |
 Game Modes: | Single-player, Multiplayer |
1. GoldenEye 007
Old is still gold. Golden Eye 64 almost always ends up in the list of the greatest game of all time on most critics’ lists. Admittedly, the game has shown its age, not just in the graphics department but also in gameplay. Yet, decades after its initial release, it is still enjoyable, especially to those who played it when it launched in Nintendo 64.
For veteran PC gamers in the 90s, GoldenEye 007 is nothing special, there is a bevy of first-person shooters on the platform already that are subjectively better, and not because of the mouse-and-keyboard control scheme, at this point, the free look is still in its infancy in PC. However, during the time of its release, most gamers are bound to consoles. GoldenEye 007 is the introduction to the genre for the overwhelming majority of gamers today who are on the precipice of their midlife crisis.
At the time of its release, there are several amazing licensed games. It is mindboggling to contemplate that a James Bond game takes the crown as the greatest of all time, not just as a licensed game but also as a first-person shooter. Aside from having a good FPS title in the console space, GoldenEye 007 provided an amazing multiplayer experience.
GoldenEye 007 is a game based on its namesake James Bond film released in 1995 starring Pierce Brosnan. As an early console shooter, you’ll be astonished at how much control you have in this game. While the N64 lacks two analog sticks, you still have complete control over movement, strafing, and gazing. Goldeneye has crouching and, unlike many games nowadays, specific leaning control.
Goldeneye’s default control scheme uses vintage controls by today’s control standards, but if it isn’t your preferred control layout, various control schemes are available, including the option to use two N64 controllers as a dual analog solution. Yes, a console game in the 00s allows for alternative keybindings which became a rarity thereafter.
GoldenEye 007 features a single-player campaign that has 20 missions with 18 story levels and two unlockable levels, three difficulty levels, and one hidden difficulty. The number of objectives increases as the difficulty increases. These objectives also become more challenging same with dealing AI-controlled enemies. Each level also has an unlockable cheat code that varies from infinite ammo to paintball mode.
You need to rely on signature Bond gadgets and different weapons to clear every level. Before each mission, there is a briefing that outlines your objectives and the characters you will encounter. Post mission screens also treat you to a wealth of stats that range from the accuracy of your shots and your preferred weaponry.
GoldenEye 007 will be re-released on Xbox and Nintendo Switch. Only the Switch version will have online multiplayer. None of the scrapped Xbox 360 remaster enhancements will be implemented in either version. There is no news if it comes to other PC and PlayStation platforms.
- Developer: Rare
- Publisher: Nintendo
- Release Date: August 25, 1997
- Platform: Nintendo 64
2. Half-Life
The truth is Half-Life 2 has the better single-player campaign in terms of quality and length. Half-Life 2 is the undisputed G.O.A.T. of the first-person shooter genre due to its single-player campaign. However, the first Half-Life game gave birth to the undisputed G.O.A.T. multiplayer FPS in Counter-Strike.
Hence, the first Half-Life is chosen for this list. More importantly, Half-Life’s single-player campaign is nothing to sneeze at, as a from-the-ground-up remake, Black Mesa, is released later to modernize the renowned campaign.
Black Mesa will look better, and its revision of the Xen, the tail-end of the campaign, is a welcome addition because the original is divisive. Half-Life is still, to this day, a great single-player experience. The interaction with the environment, the puzzle-like solutions to getting over an area, and the multiple ways of dealing with obstacles be they static objects or murderous foes, are still fresh today.
Compare this to any single-player campaign of Battlefield games and you will know that the amount of care in designing levels is incredible in Half-Life.
As to the multiplayer aspect, the modes and maps that come with the game are fantastic by themselves. Crossfire for example is a blast, literally and figuratively, as teams or individual players fight over the control of the bunker due to the nuke that would wipe out everyone, not inside the building.
Sadly, you have to gather 32 or at least 10 other friends or acquaintances to enjoy Half-Life’s multiplayer since the server population nowadays is barren.
It might be unfair to include Counter-Strike here, but one cannot play that game without the Half-Life base game. Obviously, it became its own thing in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (and its predecessors, Counter-Strike: Source and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero), which is Steam’s biggest game, and one of the most popular eSport. It might be a mod, but it is the greatest mod of all time. Not to mention, Day of Defeat is one of the Half-Life mods that are also a magnificent game on its own.
Again, this list is about games similar to Halo as a franchise and not for a specific title of the series. If you are unsatisfied or wary that this discussion is through a dinosaur’s rose-tinted glasses obscuring the sad reality that Half-Life is unplayable for gamers aged 20 and below, Half-Life 2 is the better game when it comes to the single-player component.
Although not like the behemoth that is Counter-Strike, Half-Life 2 multiplayer mods Chivalry, Insurgency, and Garry’s Mod are also more than competent titles.
- Developer: Valve
- Publisher: Sierra Studios
- Release Date: November 19, 1998 (PC) / November 11, 2001 (PlayStation 2)
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 2
3. Destiny 2
The makers of the first entries of Halo learned valuable lessons and put everything on Destiny 2. This space-shooter has the same fantastic gunplay as Halo.
Destiny 2 is a much more non-conventional inclusion than Half-Life. Destiny 2 is an MMORPG-lite, it is a persistent online game that is best played with other players but can also be played all alone.
Destiny 2 can be completed from start to endgame alone although it is much more difficult to both survive and loot. In short, this game is the fusion of both single-player and multiplayer modes so there is no need for further delineation. This game is not a straight-up shooter with a campaign to follow.
In Destiny 2, you can choose amongst three classes: Hunter, Titan, or Warlock. Each of these three classes has a unique set of movement and fighting abilities.
A Hunter wields a supernatural gun, but a Warlock can discharge lightning from his fingers like Sith in the Star Wars universe.
Unlike any of the games in this list, or even Halo (except for Halo Infinite), Destiny 2 is a Games-as-a-Service. This means, there are constant updates of content and rebalance, or even deletion of content.
It is really worth repeating that the gunplay in Destiny 2 is otherworldly. Guns have a powerful punch. The controls are tight, and nothing beats shooting enemies in the skull. The mobility varies significantly from class to class, but the combination of dodges and leaps allows more versatility and a wider skill gap.
There is some balance to be done due to it being a GaaS, Bungie might fix an issue or add a new weapon or skill only for it to break the balance of what is already in the game.
- Developer: Bungie
- Publisher: Activision, Bungie
- Release Date: September 6, 2017 (PS4, Xbox One) / October 24, 2017 (PC) / December 8, 2020 (PS5, Xbox Series X|S)
- Platform: PS, Xbox, PC
4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)
Call of Duty is probably the most popular first-person shooter franchise by looking at its series lifetime sales. True, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive have greater numbers as a single title compared to any title of the Call of Duty franchise. But one must glean the fact that COD games are far more expensive, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is now free-to-play.
Veering away from this toxic sales talk, Call of Duty made a killing when it was released Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007) abandoned the World War II setting and jumped to modern times. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is not a remake or remaster of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007), it is a reboot of the Modern Warfare series and an entirely different game and not a sequel or prequel.
This is sort of the Tomb Raider reboot where characters are retained as well as core gameplay and themes, and not the Prey “reboot” (which is not actually a reboot, but that is not the topic here) which has the two games with no connection whatsoever other than the name and the umbrella genre and science-fiction themes.
The new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare offers the usual customary Call of Duty multiplayer components like Survival and Spec Ops coop mode cooperation. Of course, the campaign is still there. Honestly, Call of Duty: Black Ops had the best campaign for its twists and turns but the current Call of Duty is just too good overall. The multiplayer in Call of Duty titles has always been the game’s focal point, but developers of these games always produce wonderful single-player campaigns.
The story in the campaign is noteworthy. Terrorists have seized possession of chemical weapons after a failed covert mission, with potentially catastrophic global ramifications. Players will alternate between two primary adventures, one set largely in the fictitious Middle Eastern kingdom of Urzikstan and the other traveling across the world with the renowned Captain Price.
As a reboot for the Modern Warfare franchise, players will recognize familiar names and encounter objectives and story beats inspired by previous favorites as well as real-world events, but the campaign is brand new in all the right ways.
- Developer: Infinity Ward
- Publisher: Activision
- Release Date: October 25, 2019
- Platform: PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One
5. Red Faction
The more modern Red Faction games are already implementing the third-person point of view so they are disqualified from this list. Although those games are still good, it is not just within the category set in this article.
Red Faction is one of the few FPSes that feature destructible environments as early as 2001. This game is a classic that holds up rather well in the present era and is fairly good in comparison to its contemporaries. However, again, it shows its age in some aspects, even in its performance on modern hardware even though its system requirements are incredibly low.
After a few hours into the game, there isn’t much of a story to be beholden to. You are caught up in a rebellion and dash about trying to escape from a terrible authoritarian corporate entity. The presentation is not that great and that is understandable, but the level design of the campaign is incredible.
Red Faction and its sequel, Red Faction 2, are good retro-FPSes that introduced to the masses destructible environments. You can use explosives to create new paths across chambers or to block off passageways if you so want.
The gunplay is also quite good – while hitboxes are sometimes smaller than I would like, the bullet spread and overall playability are far superior to other well-known games of the genre, such as Duke Nukem 3D, and the difficulty strikes a nice balance of requiring tactical thought without being Dark Souls of FPSes.
- Developer: Volition
- Publisher: THQ
- Release Date: May 22, 2001 (PlayStation 2) / September 17, 2001 (PC)
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 2
6. Titanfall 2
Apex Legends is a modern classic probably the best battle-royale / hero shooter, and Titanfall 2 is its precursor. Unfortunately, it looks like this franchise is dead in the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, it is still a fun game with a great single-player campaign and even better multiplayer modes.
Ironically, the first Titanfall game was criticized for lacking a single-player campaign. Even if there is a single-player campaign, the sequel never really took off, and it is rightfully deserved.
The most refined movement in all of FPSes. The game seems really well-rounded, and the Titans clash is something that no other game can provide at this time: epic, action-packed, tactical, and captivating.
What about the single-player campaign? It is the surprising part of the sequel. The plot is both unexpected and emotional while having the best movement of all FPSes out there.
- Developer: Respawn Entertainment
- Publisher: Electronic Arts
- Release Date: October 28, 2016
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
7. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault War Chest
What does Saving Private Ryan have in common with Medal of Honor: Allied Assault? D-Day, the Normandy landings! While the film was a visceral experience, the game takes it further by putting you in the middle of a crazy firefight right at the beginning of the game.
Allied Assault has the vibe of a late-90s shooter like Goldeneye. Enemies are predictable, spawn in observable places, and you might still carry an entire armory while relying on health kits to manage your health.
Nonetheless, these design elements, while now obsolete, are a breath of fresh air from chest-high wall shooting galleries and regenerating health. There are a lot of scripted passages in Medal of Honor, yet they nevertheless give the player some agency and freedom.
The idea of being a commando behind enemy lines, on the other hand, is a pleasant relief from the loudness and turmoil of Call of Duty. Rather than pulling you at dizzying rates, the game normally lets you go about shooting objects at your own pace.
There is time to reflect and contemplate, and maybe even explore a level a little to uncover secret ammunition and healing caches. This makes a tremendous difference between Medal of Honor and Call of Duty. The former is much more methodical, while the latter is arcadey of some sort.
- Developer: Rare
- Publisher: Nintendo
- Release Date: August 25, 1997
- Platform: Nintendo 64
8. Doom (2016)
The single-player campaign of Doom places players in the shoes of an unnamed space soldier or Doomguy. He awakens on a laboratory bench, devils at his throat. After identifying his location on Mars, the mission becomes clear: Kill all the demons and seal the portal that allows them to cross over from hell.
The game returns to the straightforward framework of its previous entries. Players progress through numbered stages, which include a succession of wave-based gunfights against progressively huge and tough hellspawn squadrons.
These areas are separated by passageways and disguised by sub-objectives: for example, you may be sent off to find a blue key in order to open a blue door.
While the in-between parts sometimes contain platforming or the odd light firefight, most of your time is spent imprisoned in chambers of all shapes and sizes, running around murdering stuff for the purpose of pacing.
Doom Eternal is the superior game, however, the multiplayer aspect of this game is clearly inferior due to the omission of Deathmatch and instead employed asymmetrical multiplayer mode. Have they not learned from Evolve?
- Developer: id Software
- Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
- Release Date: May 13, 2016 (PC, PS4, Xbox One) / November 10, 2017 (Nintendo Switch)
- Platform: PC, PS, Xbox, Switch
9. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands
Wildlands encourages you to interact with other players. It keeps reminding you that matchmaking is just a button push away. Before you even load onto the map, the game’s main screen displays your buddies for you to add to a team. It’s unavoidable. It’s fantastic to play with pals. Matchmaking is seamless, and all progress made in a friend’s game is passed over to yours.
While Wildlands is primarily a co-op game, it is worth noting that the single-player experience provides you with a three-man NPC squad to command. Their AI is somewhat useful, and a basic command system lets you direct their positions, but they prefer to find better spots if you leave them alone.
The multiplayer and single-player aspects may not be as seamless as Destiny 2 but in this game, both methods of clearing the game are enjoyable. It is just crazy to experience a very open-world game with a great campaign on top of an outstanding coop mode.
- Developer: Ubisoft Paris
- Publisher: Ubisoft
- Release Date: March 7. 2017
- Platform: PC, PS, Xbox
10. Battlefield Hardline
- Developer: Visceral Games
- Publisher: Electronic Arts
- Release Date: March 17, 2015
- Platform: PC, PS, Xbox
Conclusion
Only a few in this list exceeds the lore of the Halo universe. However, some of these games exceed that series in terms of certain aspects of gameplay.
You are sure to have to experience equally enjoyable multiplayer and single-player sessions with the games on this list. Notwithstanding, of course, the lack of population in servers due to some of these games being old.
Again, there are passionate communities keeping these games alive, there may be some Discord groups out there, or check some Reddit dedicated to these games, and even Steam communities. Befriend them and play these outstanding multiplayer games.
