Best Shooter Games Like Left 4 Dead 2

The best shooter games like Left 4 Dead 2 are Back 4 Blood, Killing Floor 3 and Deep Rock Galactic. Below are 9, each with the reason it is here — and, at the end, what filtering to shooter costs you.

Why Shooter Is a Good Answer for Left 4 Dead 2

Filtering to shooter means you want the guns to be the answer. It is the right filter when what you liked was the feedback — the sound, the recoil, the way enemies react.

What you get: Moment-to-moment feel, and the shortest distance between picking a game up and enjoying it.

What made Left 4 Dead 2 worth playing in the first place is covered on the full list. This page is the shooter part of that answer, and only the shooter part.

9 Shooter Games Like Left 4 Dead 2

  1. 1. Back 4 Blood

    By the original Left 4 Dead team, with a card system layered on.

  2. 2. Killing Floor 3

    Wave-based co-op survival with the same close-quarters panic.

  3. 3. Deep Rock Galactic

    Four-player co-op with a director that escalates, and the best community in the genre.

  4. 4. Helldivers 2

    Co-op against overwhelming numbers, and friendly fire keeps you close.

  5. 5. World War Z

    The closest direct copy of the four-player campaign structure.

  6. 6. Vermintide 2

    Left 4 Dead with melee and rats, and it is excellent.

  7. 7. Darktide

    The current version of that formula, with better shooting.

  8. 8. GTFO

    If you want the tension turned all the way up and stealth to matter.

  9. 9. Payday 2

    Four-player co-op where the plan falling apart is the fun.

What This Filter Leaves Out

Variety. Shooters commit hard to one loop, and the ones that try to be something else usually do the something else badly.

The full list is on games like Left 4 Dead 2 — 9 picks, no genre filter.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best shooter game like Left 4 Dead 2?

Back 4 Blood. By the original Left 4 Dead team, with a card system layered on.

Are all of these on the Xbox 360?

No. Left 4 Dead 2 released on the Xbox 360, but a recommendation is only useful if you can play it, so the picks above span platforms and eras. What they share is the genre and the reason.

What makes a shooter feel good?

How the guns sound and how enemies react to being hit. A shooter with mediocre levels and superb weapon feedback is more fun than the reverse, every time.

Do these need to be played online?

Each pick says. Several of the best shooters ever made are single-player campaigns, and a few of the co-op ones are genuinely worse with bots.

How are these chosen?

By hand. Each pick was written for the full Left 4 Dead 2 list first, on what the game actually does, and this page is the part of that list that is shooter — never a genre tag lookup, which is how "best racing games like Super Mario 64" used to be a page on this site.

Other Angles on Left 4 Dead 2

More Shooter Games Recommendations

Or read the shooter guide for where to start in the genre generally.