Call Of Duty was arguably what blew up the Shooter genre and made it into the phenomenon it has become today. Call of Duty’s structure includes a single player story experience where you play as a soldier in the past, present or future, finding conflict throughout the world. Though single player is imaginative, multiplayer is by far the most popular game mode. Multiplayer is an online game mode where you play as your own soldier, killing other players around the world and leveling up your character while earning new weapons and camos as a reward for achievements or victories. Call of Duty’s last game mode is the most recent addition. Starting with game developer Treyarch`s “Nazi Zombies”, in 2008s Call of Duty: World At War, it gave a new twist other than multiplayer in Call Of Duty and was a new thing for fans to come back to and stay interested with. Even though it is a pioneer of the genre, Call Of Duty is old now. It’s the  “same thing” every year, and the lack of innovation in the layout of the game of game modes or the added microtransaction system has tarnished the game for many longtime fans. This has added a new opportunity for new shooting games to get on the map. Games like Overwatch and Tom Clancy’s: Rainbow Six Siege has flourished from the recent unsuccessful attempts at new Call Of Duty games.

This new generation of games makes you think, use teamwork and strategies and have imaginative competitive modes which allow you to see improvement during your time playing. Overwatch, a more recent phenomenon, can be intimidating at first. There is currently a roster of 26 “heroes” (or characters) to choose from, including damage dealers, tanks, defenders, and support heroes. The game puts you through a tutorial to learn some of the heroes abilities and what’s unique about them. Each hero has a skill gap which can be very rewarding learning these more difficult heroes and covering the gap. You then can play quick play, which is a less serious game mode for people to just have fun on and is great for new players to the game. Once players reach level 25 through quick matches, they can partake in “placement matches” to see where they rank in competitive play. This makes it so you have a way to learn the game and find the heroes you enjoy playing. The placement matches calculate your skill and the wins you received while playing your matches, taking that information to place you where it thinks you belong in their ranking system after 10 matches. You then can work up the “ladder”, as it shows you your progression throughout time. Other game modes, which include an arcade mode, and other custom games made by Overwatch’s developer Blizzard are a great way to spice things up and keep the game interesting. The game has been so popular, it is now fostering a growing Esports league. The “Overwatch League” includes 12 teams in two divisions, the Atlantic and Pacific. With teams from the US, South Korea, London and China, the league gives you someone to root for. You can buy your favorite player’s jersey and even have them on your Overwatch League fantasy team. Overall Overwatch is a growing team based game for either the casual or competitive gamer. It is definitely a nice change for some longtime COD fans looking for something new.  

Tom Clancy’s: Rainbow Six Siege is another newer game which is making a splash in the genre. It is a “one life” shooter game where you and a team of four others either attack or defend objectives such as a hostage or a bomb. The game is deep with strategies, as there are many different ways to set up your defense or plan your attack on the objective. On defense, you can use reinforcements on otherwise easily destructible walls, put down barbed wire to slow down your attackers, or even set up cameras, traps, and gadgets to stop the attackers and their drones. The game is not only dynamic on the defense either, attackers start out with drones to scout out their objective and find their enemies. On attack, different “operators” (the name of the characters in the game), have gadgets to help them on their siege of the objective. Gadgets help find electronics, like cameras, which might give away the position of the attackers. Other operators have special breaching charges to get through those pesky reinforced walls. Playing Rainbow Six requires one major component, Teamwork. You will benefit with the game using teamwork, as having communication to say if you’re getting flanked or just needing a reinforcement on an important wall or hatch could decide if you win or lose the game. The game gives a casual and competitive aspect of the game, so it can appeal to all types of gamer. Overall, Rainbow Six Siege gives a more realistic view of the shooter genre and delivers when it comes to having your heart race. It is a nice game for the COD gamers who are sick of the new futuristic, space jumping aspect of COD.

Finally, these games are a nice new change to the shooter genre and could be relevant for a long time. For COD, the future is not looking great, between microtransactions and stale content, there is plenty of room for new players to control the market and Overwatch and Rainbow Six seem to be the ones to do it.