Summary
First-person shooters are a powerhouse staple of the gaming industry. FromCall Of DutytoTitanfall, almost every gamer out there has played at least one. A majority of these games focus on human characters, even those with fantastical settings. There is something to be said about the “everyman” playable character, and how important identification is within game protagonists.
Despite this, there are a few FPS games that specifically allow the player to choose to play as a non-human character, whether that be a robot, an alien, a monster, or even a hamster. Each of the games on this list gives the players options to play as some unique species, whether it’s just a skin or a whole new play style.
When creating a guardian inDestiny 2, the player has the choice of three playable races; Human, Exo, and Awoken. This choice has little bearing on gameplay, it offers some deeper character personalization, which manyDestinyplayers have become very attached to in the game’s near-decade run. Even though these races are unique beings, they each stem from humanity in some sense.
The Exos are robotic bodies with the consciousness of humans within them.Considering the Exo production facility on Europa has, at the current point in the game’s timeline, been out of use for centuries, all the members of the Exo species are very old. Despite this, many of them have no recollection of these long lives, as Exo can be reset, which wipes their memories, losing a little more of their past personality with each reset. The Awoken were a subgroup of humanity that fled into the stars, their bodies warped by their home’s existence between realities.
InMetal: Hellsinger, the player takes control of “The Unknown”, a lost soul who has to fight their way through hell to defend their life and regain their memory and voice. The Unknown’s main weapon, a skull named “Paz”, narrates their journey as he too slowly regains memories of the events that led up to the start of the game.The game plays similarly to the modern entries in theDoomfranchise, except the player must shoot, dodge, hack, and slash to the beat of a song. If done correctly, the player will build up a score multiplier, and more layers will be added to the music until, finally, the vocals kick in.
This game is a unique FPS, largely due to the rhythm game elements mixed into the standard FPS format. While it is cool to customize and play as the demon that can bring down the gods, The Unknown doesn’t feel like enough of a standout character to be the main draw to the game. Despite this, Paz’s narration makes up for the lack of dialogue coming from The Unknown and offers brief glimpses into the character that allows the player to get attached.
As an FPS title set in theStar Warsuniverse, there are plenty of alien races that are available for the player to choose from. When playing the Clone Wars era battles, players can take control of the Clones as members of the Republic army, or the droids as a part of the Separatist Alliance. While playing as a Battle Droid is fun, taking part in the imperial era battles offers the player a much greater choice of alien species to play as.
If the player ends up on the side of the Empire, they get to choose from several helmet-clad troopers. However, if they play as the rebellion, they can play as any number of races from across theStar Warsfranchise. While this choice has no bearing on the actual gameplay ofBattlefront, the flavor of being able to play as all these obscure races make the rebellion feel more like the rag-tag group of misfits they are intended to be in the films. It is world-building that makes these games feel like one of the most definitiveStar WarsFPS experiences on the market.
Overwatch 2allows players to take control of an extensive list of characters, a majority of which are humans. However, players can choose to play as the robotic characters Bastion, Echo, Orisa, Ramattra, and Zenyatta, or the animal characters Winston and Wrecking Ball. While this isn’t a huge selection of races, the game takes full advantage of having these non-human characters, all of which make for entertaining, unique play experiences. There is something hilariously fun about the ability to play as a hamster in a giant ball, or a gorilla with a gun that shoots electricity.
DespiteOverwatch 2’s balancing issues regarding its huge character roster, it stands out as one of the very few hero-based FPS games on the market that has successfully integrated non-human characters in such an interesting way. It is hard to find anything that rivals the characters ofOverwatchin their gameplay styles, recognizable designs, and colorful visuals.
Halois one of the most iconic FPS franchises of all time, having been on top of the industry for years. After playing as the Spartan Master Chief in the first game, the two follow-up games offer the chance to play as a member of the Covenant, an elite known as the Arbiter. The intention behind this was to shift the player’s perspective, taking control of an enemy species they spent a whole game massacring, to beg a more sympathetic ideology from the player towards the Covenant.
In both games, the Arbiter has some minor gameplay differences from Master Chief, which simply serves to differentiate the two in the player’s mind. Both characters have access to similar weaponry, so to distance the two, the Arbiter can activate camouflage that aids in stealthier gameplay that Master Chief isn’t well known for. Ultimately, what makes the Arbiter stick out in the minds of many is not the way he controls, but rather the way he makes players consider their position as a Spartan god of death mowing their way through Covenant forces.
PuttingEvolveon this list is kind of cheating, considering the monsters can’t be played in first-person. However, the game is a first-person shooter when playing as human characters, so it is arguably an FPS that allows the player to play as other species. For those unfamiliar with this relatively dead and buried game,Evolveis an asymmetrical PvP game where four players take control of human hunters, playing a traditional FPS-style game. They have to fight the fifth player, who takes control of one of many monsters, playing in third-person, as they hunt the humans to survive.
Evolveisn’t the best game on this list by any means, but, the monster designs seen in the game are fantastic and allow for a variety of play-styles. This is also one of the only games on this list where the player can see the full models for the various species they play as, offering a slightly different perspective. It’s a fun game that has been left behind due to its initial underwhelming reception and deserves a little more love than it has gotten over the years.
Aliens vs. Predatordoes what it says on the tin, allowing the player to play as the titular aliens and predators. Each faction in the game gets its own fully playable FPS campaign, as well as offering a multiplayer mode in which the player can once again choose which species they wish to play.While there have been a lot of games to spawn from both theAlienandPredatorfranchises, this 2010 entry is often looked back on as one of the best. Unlike games likeAlien: Isolation,Aliens vs. Predatorrecreates the action-packed chaos of theAvPfilms instead of the claustrophobic horror of the mainAlienfilms.
Each faction, Xenomorphs, Predators, and humans, has a unique play style, despite all being relatively simple FPS characters. The flavor of playing as the aliens that have terrified gamers for years scratches a power-fantasy itch that is unmatched in any game released since. There is something so satisfying in running about as a Xenomorph, hunting human marines, and fighting predators, but the game isn’t as accessible as it used to be simply due to its age.
1Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior
A Warhammer Game Where You Aren’t A Space Marine
Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrioris one of the most underrated games in theWarhammercatalog. When many think ofWarhammergames, they think ofSpace Marineor one of the many strategy games that emulate the tabletop game.Fire Warriortakes the player away from the Imperium of Man and instead gives them control of a singular Tau warrior, tasked with overcoming impossible odds to save his species. While this game has not aged well, it stands out within the corpus ofWarhammergames simply because of the fact the player isn’t a human, but one of the species they have been trained to hate by so many other games.
Despite its issues,Fire Warrioris a fun romp through the grim-dark world, from a unique perspective, even if it does feel like the human characters largely overshadow the characterizations of the Tau.Fire Warrioris not the best FPS in theWarhammerlineup, but it is unique and is worthy of a lot more recognition than it has received.
