First-person shooter in the context of Graphics processing units

An online game is a video game that is either partially or primarily played through the Internet or any other computer network available. Online games are ubiquitous on modern gaming platforms, including PCs, consoles and mobile devices, and span many genres, including first-person shooters, strategy games, and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG). In 2019, revenue in the online games segment reached $16.9 billion, with $4.2 billion generated by China and $3.5 billion in the United States. Unlike purchased retail games, online games have the problem of not being permanently playable, as they require special servers in order to function.

The design of online games can range from simple text-based environments to the incorporation of complex graphics and virtual worlds. The existence of online components within a game can range from being minor features, such as an online leaderboard, to being part of core gameplay, such as directly playing against other players. Many online games create their own online communities, while other games, especially social games, integrate the players' existing real-life communities. Some online games can receive a massive influx of popularity due to many well-known Twitch streamers and YouTubers playing them.

Shooter video games, or shooters, are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is on the defeat of the character's enemies using ranged weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range weapons, and can be used in combination with other tools such as grenades for indirect offense, armor for additional defense, or accessories such as telescopic sights to modify the behavior of the weapons. A common resource found in many shooter games is ammunition, armor or health, or upgrades which augment the player character's weapons.

Shooter games test the player's spatial awareness, reflexes, and speed in both isolated single player or networked multiplayer environments. Shooter games encompass many subgenres that have the commonality of focusing on the actions of the avatar engaging in combat with a weapon against both code-driven NPC enemies or other avatars controlled by other players.

A hero shooter is a subgenre of shooter games which emphasize "hero" characters that have distinctive abilities and/or weapons that are specific to them. This type of gameplay encourages players to choose heroes based on their strengths and the role they play in the team's overall strategy. A hero shooter can be a first-person shooter or a third-person shooter. The genre has become popular for its focus on teamwork and character variety.

Call of Duty is a first-person shooter military video game series and media franchise published by Activision, starting in 2003. The games were first developed by Infinity Ward, then by Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games. Several spin-off and handheld games were made by other developers. The most recent, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, was released on November 14, 2025.

The series originally focused on a World War II setting, with Infinity Ward developing Call of Duty (2003) and Call of Duty 2 (2005) and Treyarch developing Call of Duty 3 (2006). Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007) introduced a modern setting and proved to be the breakthrough title for the series, creating the Modern Warfare sub-series; a Modern Warfare remastered version was released in 2016. Two other entries, Modern Warfare 2 (2009) and Modern Warfare 3 (2011), were made. The sub-series received a reboot with Modern Warfare in 2019, Modern Warfare II in 2022, and Modern Warfare III in 2023. Infinity Ward has also developed two games outside of the Modern Warfare sub-series, Ghosts (2013) and Infinite Warfare (2016).

Doom is a 1993 first-person shooter game developed and published by id Software for MS-DOS. It is the first installment in the Doom franchise. The player assumes the role of a space marine, later unofficially referred to as Doomguy, fighting through hordes of undead humans and invading demons. The game begins on the moons of Mars and finishes in hell, with the player traversing each level to find its exit or defeat its final boss. It is an early example of 3D graphics in video games, and has enemies and objects as 2D images, a technique sometimes referred to as 2.5D graphics.

Doom was the third major independent release by id Software, after Commander Keen (1990–1991) and Wolfenstein 3D (1992). In May 1992, id started developing a darker game focused on fighting demons with technology, using a new 3D game engine from the lead programmer, John Carmack. The designer Tom Hall initially wrote a science fiction plot, but he and most of the story were removed from the project, with the final game featuring an action-heavy design by John Romero and Sandy Petersen. Id published Doom as a set of three episodes under the shareware model, marketing the full game by releasing the first episode free. A retail version with an additional episode was published in 1995 by GT Interactive as The Ultimate Doom.

In video games, a power-up is an object that adds temporary benefits or extra abilities to the player character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a permanent benefit that can be used at any time chosen by the player. Although often collected directly through touch, power-ups can sometimes only be gained by collecting several related items, such as the floating letters of the word 'EXTEND' in Bubble Bobble. Well known examples of power-ups that have entered popular culture include the power capsules from Pac-Man (regarded as the first power-up) and the Super Mushroom from Super Mario Bros., which ranked first in UGO Networks' Top 11 Video Game Powerups.

Items that confer power-ups are usually pre-placed in the game world, spawned randomly, dropped by beaten enemies or picked up from opened or smashed containers. They can be differentiated from items in other games, such as role-playing video games, by the fact that they take effect immediately, feature designs that do not necessarily fit into the game world (often used letters or symbols emblazoned on a design), and are found in specific genres of games. Power-ups are mostly found in action-oriented games such as maze games, run and guns, shoot 'em ups, first-person shooters, and platform games.

In computers, lag is delay (latency) between the action of the user (input) and the reaction of the server supporting the task, which has to be sent back to the client.

The player's ability to tolerate lag depends on the type of game being played. For instance, a strategy game or a turn-based game with a slow pace may have a high threshold or even be mostly unaffected by high lag. A game with twitch gameplay such as a first-person shooter or a fighting game with a considerably faster pace may require a significantly lower lag to provide satisfying gameplay.

Overwatch (abbreviated as OW) is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment. Overwatch was released in 2016 with a successor, Overwatch 2, released in 2022. Both games feature hero-based combat between two teams of players fighting over various objectives, along with other traditional gameplay modes.

Released in 2016, the first video game in the series lacked a traditional story mode. Instead, Blizzard employed a transmedia storytelling strategy to disseminate lore regarding the game's characters, releasing comics and other literary media, as well as animated media that includes short films. The game enjoyed both critical and commercial success, and garnered a devoted following. The fan community around the franchise has produced a large amount of content including art, cosplay, fan fiction, anime-influenced music videos, Internet memes, and pornography.

Nuclear Dawn is a hybrid first-person shooter real-time strategy multiplayer video game. It was originally announced in February 2006 as an amateur mod for the Source engine, but in April 2009 was revealed to have become Source-based project for Windows and Mac OS X. It was released on 26 September 2011.

A mini-map or minimap is a miniature map HUD element that is often placed at a screen corner in video games to help players in orienting themselves within the game world. They are often only a small portion of the screen and must be selective in what details they display. Elements included on mini-maps vary by video game genre, but most minimaps feature at least one or more of the following: the position of the player character, allied units, structures, enemies, objectives, and surrounding terrain.

Mini-maps have become common in real-time strategy and MMORPG video games because they serve as an indication of where the current screen lies within the scope of the game world. Most first-person shooter games also have some version or variant of the mini-map, often showing enemy and teammates locations in real-time.

Valve Corporation, also known as Valve Software, is an American video game developer, publisher, and digital distribution company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. It is the developer of the software distribution platform Steam and the game franchises Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Portal, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead and Dota.

Valve was founded in 1996 by the former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington. Their debut game, the first-person shooter (FPS) Half-Life (1998), was a critical and commercial success and had a lasting influence on the FPS genre. Harrington left in 2000. In 2003, Valve launched Steam, followed by Half-Life 2 (2004), the episodic sequels Half-Life 2: Episode One (2006) and Episode Two (2007), the puzzle games Portal (2007) and Portal 2 (2011) and the multiplayer games Team Fortress 2 (2007), Left 4 Dead (2008) and Dota 2 (2013).

Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, initially made for use in the 1998 first-person shooter video game Unreal. Originally developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of genres of games and has been adopted by other industries, most notably the film and television industry. Unreal Engine is written in C++ and features a high degree of portability, supporting a wide range of desktop, mobiles, console, and virtual reality platforms.

The latest generation, Unreal Engine 5, was launched in April 2022. Its source code is available on GitHub, and commercial use is granted based on a royalty model, with Epic charging 5% of revenues over US $1 million, which is waived for games published exclusively on the Epic Games Store. Epic has incorporated features in the engine from acquired companies such as Quixel, which is seen as benefiting from Fortnite's revenue.

XIII is a first-person shooter video game, loosely based on the first five volumes of the 1984 Belgian graphic novel series of the same name. Developed and published by Ubisoft, it was released in November 2003 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, and GameCube; an Xbox version of the game, released at the same time, was developed by Southend Interactive, while an OS X version was developed by Zonic, published by Feral Interactive, and released in June 2004.

Designed with a comic book-style, cel-shaded presentation, the game incorporates single-player and multiplayer game modes. The game's main story focuses on a confused and amnesic man who searches for his identity after being found stranded on a beach. He slowly finds himself caught up in a conspiracy by a group who aims to overthrow the government. The protagonist assassinated the President of the United States, and is wanted by the FBI.

XIII is a first-person shooter game developed by PlayMagic and published by Microids. It is a remake of the 2003 video game of the same name. The game was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in November 2020. Updated versions for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S were released in September 2022.

XIII received negative reviews from critics and players. It was criticized for its changes to the art style, game design differences from the original, and the game's numerous technical and audio issues. Microids issued an apology for the game's technical issues on launch and later released a major new update for the game in September 2022, this time developed by Tower Five, in an effort to improve the remake's quality.

Overwatch 2 is a 2023 American first-person shooter video game by Blizzard Entertainment. As a sequel and replacement to the 2016 hero shooter Overwatch, the game includes new game modes and a reduction in team size from six to five. The game is free-to-play on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S and features full cross-platform play. Overwatch 2 was announced in 2019; it released in early access in October 2022 before officially releasing in August 2023. The game was planned to feature more story-based cooperative modes, but these were scrapped in 2023 to focus on its player versus player (PvP) elements. Overwatch 2 received generally favorable reviews from critics.

Mercy is the call sign of Angela Ziegler, a character who first appeared in the 2016 video game Overwatch, a Blizzard Entertainment–developed first-person shooter, and the resulting franchise. Voiced by Lucie Pohl, she is a Swiss doctor who provided key medical support for the original Overwatch group. In-game, she is a support-class hero who can heal, buff, and resurrect teammates.

The character is one of the more popular in the game, being noted by Blizzard to be the most played support character during the game's beta. However, her resurrect ability has been criticized in competitive and professional play levels, given the swing in momentum the ability creates. Her gameplay mechanics have undergone various reworks and patches in an attempt by Blizzard to make her a more well-rounded playable hero.

Tracer is the call sign of Lena Oxton, a character who appears in Blizzard Entertainment's Overwatch franchise. The 2014 Overwatch Cinematic Trailer short was her first appearance overall. An April 2016 update for the crossover multiplayer online battle arena game Heroes of the Storm added her to its playable roster, marking her first inclusion in a video game. Shortly thereafter, she appeared in the first Overwatch game, a first-person hero shooter. She again appeared in its 2023 sequel, Overwatch 2.

In the Overwatch narrative, she is a peppy and energetic pilot of British origin. A damage-class hero in-game, Tracer has low health, but is highly mobile, being able to both teleport and time travel. Those abilities were caused by an accident that left her unable to maintain a physical form in the present until her friend and fellow Overwatch agent, Winston, invented the "chronal accelerator", a device that allows her to control her own time frame.

Reinhardt Wilhelm is a character who first appeared in the 2016 video game Overwatch, a Blizzard Entertainment–developed first-person shooter, and the resulting franchise. Conceived from a desire to include a fighter in a mech suit, the concept originated from the cancelled game Titan, and went through several iterations through development. Voiced by Darin De Paul, Reinhardt is an aging German soldier who fought during a robot uprising known as the Omnic Crisis. Forced into retirement due to his age, he returns to help after a second uprising occurs from the group Null Sector.

Reinhardt was well received, praised for both his personality and the anachronism of being a knight figure armed with a large hammer in an age of firearms and tactical gear, and how his character has matured over the course of the game's lore. He has also been the study of academic analysis into character design, observing how his appearance, movement, and hypermasculine aspects play into his character's overall presentation and make him endearing to players.