The number of FPS players in Japan has been steadily growing in recent years. But with so many titles out there, plenty of people probably have no idea which game to actually start with. In this article, the author — who has 12 years of FPS experience — will introduce some popular titles he has personally played, aimed at people who want to give FPS a try from here on out.
The author's specs: CPU Intel Core i7 6700, GPU NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080, RAM 16GB, prioritizing 144 fps rendering. In other words, a high-end build from 4–5 years ago.
1. Apex Legends
A battle royale game with 20 squads of 3, up to 60 players total. Respawning is possible, the ping system is intuitive, the characters are full of personality, and the game is free-to-play. It's no exaggeration to call this the most popular title in Japan right now. With cross-play support, PS4 and PC players can squad up across hardware boundaries. Character HP sits relatively high so you don't go down easily, which makes situations like "I have no idea what just happened, the enemy melted me in an instant" less common. On top of that, because of the nature of battle royale — the quality of your initial loot, the position of the ring that pushes players to keep moving, and other luck-based factors — there are plenty of elements that let beginners pull off wins against experienced players. As a result, even newcomers will spend more of their time actually controlling their character and having fun.
Recommended Settings
Since the October update, turning vertical sync off has been making the framerate unstable. Setting it to "Adaptive" stabilizes things.
Setting "Texture Streaming Budget" to "None" buys you extra framerate, but the visuals come out a bit flat.
Unless you're in a situation like "I'm not even hitting 144 fps," I'd recommend staying at "Low" or above for the rest.
Lightness of Operation
★★★★
When a lot of players are being rendered on screen at once it does get heavy, but overall it's relatively light and easy to jump into casually.
In the author's environment it runs at roughly 144 fps the entire time.
Release date: February 4, 2019. Price: free-to-play.
Download here
2. VALORANT
VALORANT released relatively recently. Players split into attackers and defenders for 5v5 team play, each picking a character with their own ability set. Outside of certain characters' special abilities, there's no respawn (revive), so you have to act carefully. The game was designed with the esports scene in mind — abilities aren't overpowered, so you can really focus on the gunplay. Because of that, ranked mode features extremely high-level play, while modes like Spike Rush let you mess around more casually.
Recommended Settings
Setting "NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency" to "On + Boost" reduces input lag.
Even with textures and similar settings on "High," the game didn't get heavy, so you can leave them up without any real issues.
Lightness of Operation
★★★★★
Even on older-generation graphics cards you can hit not just 60 fps but 144 fps. In the author's environment, it runs at a constant 144 fps.
Release date: June 2, 2020. Price: free-to-play.
Download here
3. Rainbow Six Siege
A transparent poison needle that pins enemies in place; a gadget that force-rings nearby smartphones so you can use the sound to find people; a sonic burst fired into the ceiling that wipes out vision; a light machine gun with a bulletproof shield mounted on the front. Pick a character who can use one of these special abilities — called gadgets — and split into attack and defense for hardcore 5v5 shooting with no respawns. The esports scene is alive and well, with offline world championships (one was even held in Aichi Prefecture in Japan). One signature feature of the game: wooden walls and floors can be destroyed, which means you can move through unexpected places or carve out your own advantageous shooting position. The action mostly takes place indoors. Attackers use ground-running drones to spot enemies inside the building, then break through walls to corner and eliminate defenders who have nowhere left to run. Defenders set up traps and shields to stack the odds in their favor before the attackers ever come in. It's not just pure gunplay — knowing the maps inside and out converts directly into kills, so even players whose aim isn't great can pick up easy frags in some situations. That said, the game has been out for 5 years now, so you'll often run into opponents with a mountain of accumulated knowledge. Early on, just relax with a "I'll learn by dying" mindset and try to enjoy the game.
Recommended Settings
Texture "Medium" — the game had headroom to spare while still hitting 144 fps, so it's set there. Shadow "Medium" — at "Low," shadow rendering is skipped and it becomes harder to spot the shadows of enemies.
Lightness of Operation
★★★★
Framerate fluctuates a bit when players cluster up or gadgets get used, but if you turn settings down you can hold 144 fps.
In the author's environment it generally stays at 144 fps.
Release date: April 7, 2015. Price: 3,960 yen (about 36 USD).
Download here
4. Escape from Tarkov
An almost real-world?-feeling super hardcore sandbox FPS. Your goals: explore the map, gather supplies, take down enemies, complete NPC quests, and upgrade your weapons. You spend hours kitting out your gear, deploy, and five minutes in — while looting — a sniper across the map clips your head and one-shots you. Everything you brought is gone forever. That's the kind of thing that happens in the world of Tarkov. Your current location and the rounds left in your gun are obviously not displayed on the HUD. You have to play over and over again to memorize the maps, and you have to manually pull the magazine to check your remaining ammo. It's a game that makes you re-realize, with deep gratitude, just how forgiving every other game has been up to this point. And yet — the absurdly deep gun customization, the realistic surround audio, and the tension of dying in a single shot have earned it strong support from the military-enthusiast crowd.
As of October 2020, since the game is still in beta, the slow matchmaking and unstable performance are noticeable, but for players who want a realistic world, there's nothing else out there that compares.
Recommended Settings
PostFX is a feature that lets you apply filters over the screen. You can change the color tone to your liking, or make enemies hidden in the dark easier to spot.
[twenty20 img1="4964" img2="4965" direction="horizontal" offset="0.5" align="right" width="100%" before="PostFX off" after="PostFX on" hover="true"]
It can change the atmosphere of the game dramatically.
Lightness of Operation
★★
Unless you have a high-end rig, hitting 144 fps is going to be tough. You can keep it above 60 fps.
Release date: July 27, 2017. Price: 44.99 USD (about 4,500 yen).
Download here
Summary
Even when we lump everything together as "FPS," there are all sorts of subgenres. Try a few different titles, and hopefully you'll find one that fits you. If any of these caught your interest, give them a play!
