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Looter shooter (also calledloot shooter) is asubgenre ofaction role-playing games that incorporatesshooter gameplay andprocedurally generated weapons and equipment. A main goal of games in the genre is obtaining better items throughgrinding for random drops, typically with rarities ranging from common to legendary.^[1] One of the first looter shooters was the 2007 gameHellgate: London, but the genre only became popular withBorderlands in 2009, and even more so withDestiny in 2014. It now encompasses some of the most successfulAAA games. Looter shooters are oftengames as a service, but this model emphasizes that players ignore other games, and can lead to playerburnout.^[2]

Early shooter-based action RPGs includeStar Cruiser (1988),^[3]Strife (1996),System Shock 2 (1999), theDeus Ex series (2000 onwards) byIon Storm,Irem'sSteambot Chronicles (2005),^[4]Square Enix'sthird-person shooter RPGDirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (2006),^[5] and theMMO vehicular combat gameAuto Assault (2006) byNetDevil andNCsoft.^[6]

Hellgate: London (2007) was one of the first looter shooters, combining elements of role-playing games withfirst-person shooters and promoting itself with features equivalent to the current label of "games as a service", with developers continually providing new paid post-release content. However, the game suffered from lackluster gunplay and met with mixed reviews,^[7] not achieving significant popularity. This changed upon the release ofBorderlands, which had more compelling gameplay due toGearbox Software's experience making shooters. It created the mold of the genre despite not being its first entry.Borderlands 2 (2012), which had higher quality and sold even better than the original, expanded the genre's reach further.^[8]

This was followed by the release ofDestiny in 2014, which also used microtransactions, and marked a shift in the genre by introducing elements ofmassively multiplayer online game (MMOs). Although the game called itself a "shared-world shooter" rather than an MMO, it featuredraids,clans, equivalent to MMO guilds, and a centralhub world.Destiny also introducedPvP modes in addition to the typicalPvE experience.^[8]

The Division (2016), a large commercial success forUbisoft, had an uncommon amount of realism for a looter shooter game, although it was decried as formulaic by critics.Alienation (2016) was unique due to itsisometric viewpoint andtwin-stick shooter gameplay.Destiny 2 (2017) expanded on the previous game's story mode, becoming a title widely considered better than the first.Remnant: From the Ashes (2019) was notable for itssoulslike gameplay, though only experiencing an average reception from critics and fans.Anthem (2019), aBioWare-developed title set on an alien planet and featuring flight-capablepowered armor, was hyped as a sea change in the genre, but became a critical andcommercial failure, blamed on development issues such as multiple shifts in direction and forced usage of theFrostbite Engine.^[8]Electronic Arts ultimately opted to end further development and stop content updates after only two years, rather than proceed with a planned "Anthem 2.0" rework.^[9]

Outriders (2021) was notably not a live service title, released as a complete standalone game.^[8] With average reviews from critics, it is unclear if the game was profitable.

Extraction shooters are a subgenre of this type of game that blend first or third-person shooter action with strategic missions where players must retrieve valuable items while facing both other players and environmental hazards. A player begins in a map's starting point and must scavenge for better gear while other players are doing the same. Enemies patrol the map also, sometimes in areas where the most valuable loot can be found, acting as obstacles and noise makers (alerting players to each other from the noise of combat). Players can get loot by exploring the map, and eliminating other players. Players can receive quests or tasks to perform to get loot and other rewards. In order to keep any acquired gear, the player must successfully extract from the map. Death means the player loses any gear they've gathered and any gear they brought into the map. Examples of this includeEscape from Tarkov,Hunt: Showdown,Helldivers 2, andDelta Force. Some shooters that don't fall strictly into this genre but feature it as a game mode include the upcomingOff The Grid, the already releasedDMZ Mode fromCall Of Duty: Warzone, andThe Division 2.

• Looter shooters
• Video game genres

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