shooter game part of a series onaction games subgenres actionadventure game action roleplaying game open world stealth game survival game survival horror battle royale beat em up fighting game platform game platformadventure game metroidvania shooter game firstperson shooter thirdperson shooter hero shooter light gun shooter roleplaying shooter shoot em up tactical shooter rhythm game topics capture the flag cover system firstperson shooter engine free look quick time event wasd keys lists list of beat em ups list of fighting game companies list of fighting games list of firstperson shooters list of freeware firstperson shooters list of thirdperson shooters list of shoot em up game companies list of survival games list of gun games list of maze video games list of platform games vte shooter games are a subgenre of action game which often test the players speed and reaction time it includes many subgenres that have the commonality of focusing on the actions of the avatar using some sort of weapons usually this weapon is a gun or some other longrange weapon a common resource found in many shooter games is ammunition most commonly the purpose of a shooter game is to shoot opponents and proceed through missions without the player character being killed or dying a shooting game is a genre of video game where the player has limited spatial control of his or her character and the focus is almost entirely on the defeat of the characters enemies using longrange weaponry subgenres shoot em up shoot em up shoot em ups are a specific subgenre of shooters wherein the player may move up and down and left and right around the screen typically firing straight forward shoot em ups share common gameplay but are often categorized by viewpoint this includes fixed shooters on fixed screens such as space invaders and galaxian scrolling shooters that mainly scroll in a single direction such as xevious and darius topdown shooters sometimes referred to as twinstick shooters where the levels are controlled from an overhead viewpoint such as bosconian and time pilot rail shooters where player movement is automatically guided down a fixed forwardscrolling rail such as buck rogers planet of zoom and space harrier and isometric shooters which use an isometric perspective such as zaxxon and viewpoint this genre also includes run and gun games which emphasize greater maneuvering or even jumping such as thexder contra and metal slug shooting gallery shooting gallery games include light gun games although many can also be played using a regular joypad and an onscreen cursor to signify where the bullets are being aimed when these debuted they were typically played from a firstperson perspective with enemy fire that occurred anywhere on the screen damaging or killing the player as they evolved away from the use of light guns the player came to be represented by an onscreen avatar usually someone on the bottom of the screen who could move and avoid enemy attacks while returning fire these sorts of shooters almost always utilize horizontal scrolling to the right to indicate level progression with enemies appearing in waves from predestined locations in the background or from the sides one of the earliest examples is the 1985 arcade game shootout produced by data east a specific subgenre of this type of game is the cabal shooter named for the game cabal in which the player controls an onscreen avatar that can run and often jump around the screen in addition to being able to aim their gun other games in this subgenre include blood bros dynamite duke nam1975 wild guns and sin and punishment as light gun games became more prevalent and started to make use of fully 3d backgrounds such as the time crisis or house of the dead series these sorts of games fell out of popular production but many like blood bros still have their fanbase today other notable games of this category include operation wolf and laser invasion light gun shooter light gun shooter light gun shooters are shooting gallery games that use a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games the first light guns appeared in the 1930s following the development of lightsensing vacuum tubes it was not long before the technology began appearing in arcade shooting games beginning with the seeburg rayolite in 1936 these early light gun games used small targets usually moving onto which a lightsensing tube was mounted the player used a gun usually a rifle that emitted a beam of light when the trigger was pulled if the beam struck the target a hit was scored modern screenbased light guns work on the opposite principlethe sensor is built into the gun itself and the onscreen targets emit light rather than the gun the first light gun of this type was used on the mit whirlwind computer which used a similar light pen like rail shooters movement is typically limited in lightgun games notable games of this category include the 1974 and 1984 versions of wild gunman duck hunt for the nes the virtua cop series time crisis series house of the dead series and resident evil the umbrella chronicles darkside chronicles firstperson shooters firstperson shooter doom one of the early games that defined the firstperson shooter genre firstperson shooters are characterized by an onscreen view that simulates the ingame characters point of view while many rail shooters and lightgun shooters also use a firstperson perspective they are generally not included in this category notable examples of the genre include doom quake halflife counterstrike goldeneye 007 battlefield medal of honor unreal call of duty killzone timesplitters team fortress 2 and halo thirdperson shooters thirdperson shooter thirdperson shooters are characterized by a thirdperson camera view that fully displays the player character in hisher surroundings notable examples of the genre include the tomb raider series syphon filter max payne socom star wars battlefront resident evil 4 gears of war splatoon and fortnite third person shooter mechanics are often incorporated into openworld adventure and sandbox games including the elder scrolls series and the grand theft auto franchise hero shooters hero shooters are a variation of multiplayer first or thirdperson arenabased shooters where players split among two or more teams select from predesigned hero characters that each possess unique attributes skills weapons and other activated abilities players may gain abilities to customize the appearance of these characters but these changes are usually cosmetic only and do not alter the games balance hero shooters strongly encourage teamwork between players on a team guiding players to select effective combinations of hero characters and coordinate the use of hero abilities during a match such games are inspired by multiplayer online battle arena games a popular hero shooter is team fortress 2 considered one of the first along with other games such as outtrigger gunslinger stratos overwatch gigantic paladins and quake champions hero shooters have been considered to have strong potential as esports games tactical shooters tactical shooter tactical shooters are shooters that generally simulate realistic squadbased or mantoman skirmishes notable examples of the genre include ubisofts tom clancys rainbow six and ghost recon series and bohemia softwares operation flashpoint other additionally artillery games have been described as a type of shooting game controversy shooter games have been accused of glorifying and promoting violence and several games have been the cause of notable video game controversies after school shootings in erfurt emsdetten and winnenden german conservative politicians accused violent shooter games most notably counter strike to incite young gamers to run amok vtevideo game genres listaction beat em up hack and slash fighting maze pacman clone platform shooter firstperson thirdperson light gun shoot em up tactical survival battle royale actionadventure grand theft auto clone immersive sim metroidvania stealth survival horror psychological horror adventure escape the room interactive fiction interactive movie visual novel mmo mmofps mmorpg mmorts mud roleplaying action roleplaying dungeon crawl roguelike tactical roleplaying simulation construction and management business city government life simulation dating sim digital pet god social simulation sports strategy 4x multiplayer online battle arena realtime strategy tower defense time management realtime tactics turnbased strategy turnbased tactics wargame vehicle simulation flight simulator amateur combat space racing kart racing sim racing submarine simulator train simulator vehicular combat other genres artillery breakout clone digital collectible card game eroge exergame incremental music rhythm nongame party programming puzzle sokoban tilematching related concepts aaa game advertising arcade game art game audio game casual game christian game crossover game educational game fmv gamification indie game multiplayer video game nonlinear gameplay open world nonviolent video game online game browser game multiplayer online game online gambling socialnetwork game pervasive game serious game toystolife twitch gameplay video game clone 