E3 2017: Our Favorite Shooters

It was a good E3 for shooter fans. We got to see more multiplayer from Star Wars Battlefront II and Call of Duty: WWII, and we also got some nice surprises.

For a more comprehensive look at what was announced at this year's show, take a look at all the news and announcements from each press conference. You can also check out our lists of all the games at E3 coming out in 2017 and 2018 to see what you'll be playing n the near future.

For our complete coverage, head to GameSpot's E3 hub for all of our news, videos, and impressions.

Following a multiplayer reveal during Sony’s E3 conference, GameSpot got a chance to try out Call of Duty: WWII's multiplayer. It isn’t as movement-focused or vertical as its recent predecessors, but it doesn’t feel slow or sluggish. Team Deathmatch is still fast-paced and all about quick reactions, and the weapons have a satisfying weight to them. That said, the new War Mode is an opportunity to slow it down and try out deeper strategies that fit well with the World War II setting. The beta starts in August for those who can't wait to try it out.

We also got a look at simple changes to overall CoD gameplay. Health packs replace health regeneration for the first time in the franchise, and a greater emphasis on squad relationships means that a squadmate can be the one to toss you a much-needed health pack. It creates a unique kind of vulnerability that's been missing from Call of Duty for a while, which makes us all the more interested in playing the single player come November.

Destiny 2 seems to be fixing the original’s smallest mistakes in ways that hugely impact gameplay. Things like not having to go to orbit in order to change destinations and the addition of more fleshed-out and populated locations makes us want to return to its world, and seeing it in action--in 4K on PC, no less--has guaranteed that we’ll be coming back for more.

The demo we played at E3 didn’t have any of those small changes, but it did have the same excellent shooting that we love about Destiny. We're also impressed by the new weapon categories; dividing them into kinetic, energy, and power opens up the loadout variety a ton. Scout and assault rifles were both primary weapons, for example, but now you can equip a scout rifle on kinetic and an assault rifle on energy.

There's also a bigger emphasis on story within the game, which was lacking in the first--you won't have to go into an app in order to study up on the game's lore this time around, and hopefully that will keep us invested through the grind.

The gameplay sequence shown during Ubisoft’s press conference was playable here at E3, and we had a taste of the Guns For Hire companion system. Choosing Nick Rye to support the liberation of the small town, for example, came in the form of airstrikes. A loadout that included a silenced uzi, assault rifle, and a few grenades gave us more than enough firepower to take back the territory, but we were still vulnerable and couldn’t take too much damage. The thrill of jumping through windows, checking flanks, and popping off foes by peeking around corners reminded us how fun Far Cry games can be.

Aside from this companion twist to alleviate a bit of the lonesomeness of previous Far Cry games, it felt similar to its predecessors. But why fix something that isn’t broken? The captivating thing here is the vastness of Montana where everything feels like home, yet uncomfortable. There weren’t any additional story bits to pick up from the playable sequence, but it’s easy to see how the premise of taking down a deranged cult lends itself to the Far Cry formula.

Metro Exodus wasn't what we were expecting from E3 2017, but a gameplay reveal trailer was enough to get excited. For the first time in the Metro series, Exodus will feature an open world. The footage released during the conference shows the player-character moving through a collapsed tunnel filled with skeletons before emerging into the open world and fighting a mutated rat creature using explosive crossbow bolts.

Sure, we don't know much about Metroid Prime 4, but it was one of the biggest surprises of E3 2017, and we're hyped. We assume it's a shooter in keeping with the Prime series, which earns it a spot on this list.

Splatoon 2 is the Switch-exclusive sequel to the hit Wii U third-person shooter. It features a new campaign, weapons, maps, and modes. We got to play the new four-player co-op mode, Salmon Run, during E3, which got us even more excited to get our hands on the game.

2015's Star Wars Battlefront was a fun game that captured the spirit of the Star Wars franchise and gave players an opportunity to be a hero--or a villain--and live out their fantasies. However, it lacked depth and there was no single-player whatsoever, both points frustrating fans who wanted more. EA is listening to the feedback around the first game, as the sequel has a campaign and the multiplayer is expanded and improved upon in meaningful, significant ways.

The campaign stars an all-new hero, Iden Versio, who fights for the Empire. This is a story of the bad guys, and it's pretty cool to think about the storytelling opportunities. The multiplayer, meanwhile, which is the bread and butter of the franchise, looks like it corrects the issues of the original and pushes things forward in a way that fans will be excited about. Weapons feel weightier and lack the same-ness that plagued the original.

The map design, at least what we got to play at E3, is smart and alluring. And the new characters--Rey, Darth Maul, and Yoda, to name a few--are exciting additions to the roster. Another bright spot? The multiplayer DLC is all completely free.

Wolfenstein: The New Order was one of our favorite first-person shooters of this generation with its violent drama, bits of comic relief, and great level design. So we were eager to get our hands on the sequel after watching its wild reveal trailer during Bethesda’s press conference. Having played through an early mission at E3, it's clear that Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus doesn’t stray away from its established formula, nor does it need to.

BJ Blazkowicz is gets by on a wheelchair, but that doesn’t stop him from fighting. It seems that the Nazis have found the makeshift hideout, a U-boat obtained by the Kreisau Circle resistance group. By activating electric fields that work as traps, you can avoid firefights. The mission left us hanging as BJ is captured by an old nemesis, Frau Engel.