Summary
While an open-world game definitely needs to have an engaging setting and plenty of activities to keep the player occupied, it should also have a satisfying combat system that manages to feelboth fun and challengingat the same time. In the case of first and third-person shooters, this means making the guns themselves as believable as possible, but considering there are so many factors that go into this, it can make it a pretty difficult task for developers to make the moment-to-moment gunplay in their games as exciting as they would like.
Luckily, there have been a handful of open-world titles over the years that feature some amazing gunplay, which results in the combat encounters being much more intense and enjoyable overall. Those who are sick of their weapons feeling like pea-shooters have plenty of options available, most of which offer fluid and fun gunplay to make each encounter as exciting and intense as it can be.
Updated on June 26, 2025, by Mehrdad Khayyat:The number of open-world shooter games has increased significantly in the current generation of consoles, but not all of them manage to deliver satisfying gunplay along with all other crucial aspects expected from an open-world experience.
With that said, there are games out there that do excel in gunplay even if they fall short in delivering the same level of detail in other parts of the gameplay. After all, weapons are the most important part of a shooter experience, and they must look and feel great, a task that these games perfectly nail, either through detailed visual and sound design or satisfying animations.
Although it didn’t repeat the success of its predecessor, Rage 2 still delivers that joyful gunplay expected from an id Software game. Aside from the smooth and fancy-looking equip and reload animations, Rage 2 is quite successful in designing heavy weapons, especially shotguns, and rocket launchers.
The open-world aspect of Rage 2 couldn’t help it grow with all the repetitive missions and unrewarding exploration, but the gunplay still managed to keep the game enjoyable for players looking for a fast-paced and chaotic shooter rather than a compelling story or a diverse world.
An open-world experience that players waited for so long probably did not meet the expectations at launch, but CD Projekt RED never stopped cooking! Today’s Cyberpunk 2077 is an iconic open-world experience that never disappoints players regarding combatting diversity.
Cyberpunk 2077 knows well how to go creative with weapons. Not only does it offer the common weapon types in slick cyberpunk design, but it also introduces somefuturistic guns with auto-targetingthat immerse players in cutting-edge technologies. This diversity in weapons comes with significant attention to detail, so that the player feels different when using each weapon. Like, who can ignore the joy of equipping Johnny Silverhand’s iconic pistol with that sick reload animation?
As Vito makes his way through the crime-ridden streets ofEmpire Bay inMafia 2, he’ll come across quite a few deadly weapons that he can pick up, including more than a few variations of the classic 1950s Tommy Gun. While the regular pistols can feel a little lackluster to shoot, the magnum that players can unlock in Chapter 4 is much more satisfying to use on enemies, having a huge blowback to every shot that makes it feel truly unstoppable.
While there are only four machine guns and rifles in the game, each of them feels very distinct and unique, but the Thompson 1928 is by far the most fun to use since it’s able to spit out nearly an entire magazine at lightning speed while packing one heck of a punch when it comes to recoil. Because the enemies aren’t always locked on to Vito when they’re firing at him and are slightly inaccurate with their shots, it also helps to make gunfights feel extremely fun and realistic, which really adds to the immersion of the experience.
If this list was supposed to be ranked specifically based on the detailed design of weapons, Star Citizen would end up in no place other than the top 3. Attention to detail is in the DNA ofStar Citizen’s development philosophy, and that’s the main reason why players love FPS activities in this game.
Every weapon in Star Citizen comes from a certain manufacturer, and it is easy to spot the shared design language between weapons of the same brand. The way a weapon looks is already a big part of enjoying gunplay, and Star Citizen ticks that box. With Alpha 3.23, Star Citizen also received a massive gunplay update, which changed the way characters hold weapons, the ADS animation, and the overall recoil.
While Metro Exodus is not a fully open-world game like most of the titles on the list, the gunplay is too satisfying to be left out. Taiga, Vulga, and Caspian are three major open-world areas in Metro Exodus where players can explore the wilderness at their own pace and harness the true power of their weapons whenever they are threatened!
What makes the gunplay in Metro Exodus feel great is the fact that it takes some of those iconic Russian weapons and lets playersmodify them with handmade attachmentsthat can only be found in a post-apocalyptic world. Not only this does give each weapon an unforgettable look, but it also adds up to the immersion. And why not talk about the smooth and realistic hand animations? Players can see the reaction of Artyom’s hands and arms to every weapon kick, making the weight of guns even more sensible.
Players will be able to get their hands ona plethora of weaponsduring their time scouring the vast open world ofGhost Recon Wildlands, and it’s clear that the team at Ubisoft spent a lot of time and effort making each of them as close to their real-life counterparts as possible. While the assault rifles all have fast fire rates that can melt enemy health bars, they also suffer from some serious recoil, which keeps them feeling balanced but still very powerful to use.
The light machine guns, which can usually be found hidden away in chests, provide a nice sense of risk versus reward since, while they’re very strong, it can be pretty difficult to keep the crosshair down, so they can take quite a lot of practice to use effectively. The sound of the guns is also on point, with the noise of a bullet whizzing past or ricocheting off a wall sounding extremely realistic, resulting in some fast-paced, intense gunfights that feel amazing to be a part of.
Anyone who has ever played theMetal Gear Solidgames will know very well just how much of a gun-nut Hideo Kojima is, oftendedicating entire scenesin his games to showing off a single weapon or attachment. He doesn’t reserve this passion just for the cutscenes, though, as the same amount of attention to detail has been granted to the weapons in-game, too, especially inMetal Gear Solid 5, where the guns manage to feel eerily realistic.
Because Snake is going to be sneaking his way around enemy targets for most of the game, it means that he should only really be using guns when they’re absolutely needed, but despite this, they feel extremely powerful and sound absolutely amazing when pulled out. Because the open areas of Afghanistan and Africa featured in the game are so quiet, it allows each bullet to roar through the sky like a cannon, and actually firing the weapons feels just as satisfying since the recoil makes it feel like every shot is just as deadly as it sounds.
The Borderlands series is known for its diversity of weapons, and Gearbox never runs out of ideas to add more creative guns with each new entry. Borderlands 3 was the peak of gunplay in the series, as both the variety of weapons and the way they feel improved significantly.
Similar to Star Citizen, Borderlands 3 also has its weapon coming from multiple in-game manufacturers, but that’s not all. Players can fully modify weapons and evenlook for rarer versionsof them, as all of them will enhance weapons to a certain degree, helping the hunger for discovering new weapons grow in players as they make progress.
Rockstar is often heralded as being one of the greatest developers in the industry when it comes tosmall details in its games, and they went above and beyond inRed Dead Redemption 2to make everything, especially the guns, feel as real and believable as possible. The weapons in this game aren’t just re-skins. Instead, players will immediately be able to feel the difference between a pistol and a revolver thanks to the sound and kick of the weapons, and this goes double for the rifles and shotguns.
What really helps to take the gunplay ofRed Dead Redemption 2up a notch is the fairly unique combat system that the game includes. While it does follow a pretty straightforward third-person shooter formula, every character, including Arthur and his enemies, is made to be very inaccurate, especially if they’re firing on the move, and this makes each and every gunfight incredibly unpredictable. Pair this with a frankly absurd amount of customization options, and it makes the guns fun to use and tinker around with.
While the firstDivisiongame received a lot of positive reviews for its immersive open-world and addictive looter shooter gameplay, what a lot of fans also came to admire was the weapons themselves, which felt absolutely amazing to use. The developers doubled down on this in the sequel, especially now that the enemies arefar less bullet-spongy, which means that the large arsenal of pistols, rifles, and shotguns feels much stronger and a lot more reliable to use this time around.
The clever AI enemies are still far from easy to take down, though, with many of them waiting to choose the right exact moment to pop out of cover to fire at the player and their team. Because of how easy it can be to lose accuracy, it means that gunfights can quickly get out of hand for anyone who decides to blind-fire their way through an encounter. With that being said, it doesn’t matter if the player decides to pick off enemies from afar with a rifle or punish opponents up close with a devastating double-barreled shotgun; all the guns feel incredible to use without being too unfair or unbalanced.
