Multiplayer games have evolved over the past 2 decades. I don’t just mean bigger servers and fancier graphics, but the social and communal evolution that comes from the fact the amount of players is objectively higher than ever. With millions of players connecting, issues with things like balancing, SBMM and genre saturation have skyrocketed. For every player wanting Arc Raiders to be PvE only, there’s a sweaty lad wanting to murk unsuspecting noobs…

I’m getting on a bit now. I enjoy the adrenaline of something competitive in small doses, but in general I’m more likely to jump into a new co-op game than a new competitive shooter. Valorant, The Finals, Arc Raiders, Marathon and more all go over my head, not to mention industry titans like Overwatch, CS, LoL and Dota.

So, is there space in the industry for a “quick fun match” anymore? As it happens there are 3 amazing spaces for that, they’re just a decade old…

1. Halo: The Masterchief Collection

Halo has always toed the line between casual and competitive. There’s an e-sports scene and I would never claim the game has a low skill ceiling, but in general the MCC games reward opportunistic, creative and fun gameplay more than any singular meta. The fact that progression is largely led by player choice means players aren’t spamming certain playstyles to achieve battle pass progress and the like.

The MCC Halo games still feel like you’ve set up a LAN party and are spending the night pissing about with mates. You’ll have matches with “That BR guy” wrecking you, for sure, but the game as a whole doesn’t necessarily suffer for that. You still get an array of weapons, whacky vehicle moments and that classic announcer voice.

All it takes for a match of Halo to have been fun is one or two Double Kills or a clutch objective capture, and then suddenly everything else doesn’t matter so much. I don’t think, outside of competitive SWAT (I got to Platinum, are you proud of me papa?), I have ever really paid attention to my K/D in Halo, and I never felt less important or valuable to the team in spite of that.

Most importantly, I never had less fun in spite of that.

2: Star Wars Battlefront 2 (2015)

If you can ignore a little (sometimes a lot) of racism in your global chat, then SWBF2 from 2015 remains one of the best shooters for casual players. There’s definitely more sweats than Halo MCC, but the matches are far bigger and you get to pilot an AT-ST so really, who cares?

The game is authentic.

With smooth FPS and great graphics even on older systems SWBF2 is the quintessential Star Wars shooter experience. The sound effects slap, the vehicles are great and I even generally get to play a hero once or twice a game despite being far from a great player.

There’s so much to enjoy about SWBF2 that isn’t simply “Murk the enemies and win the match”, and that makes it enjoyable in almost all scenarios. From hearing the proper engine noises of a TIE Fighter to laying down suppression with a Heavy in turret mode, the vibes are immaculate.

There is a bug (which will never be fixed) where after an objective is completed in Galactic Assault all player’s aim will be locked straight ahead (Some players will say this is someone hacking. It is not) leading to the mass suicide of both teams…but outside that little annoyance the game is perfectly playable in 2026.

3: Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare 2

No, this is not a joke entry. PvZGW2 is one of the best Hero Shooters of all time, and preceded many of the heavy-hitters in the genre. It manages to have a diverse cast of heroes with not only one set of abilities, but at least 2 for every class.

Not only that, but the plants classes and zombies classes aren’t direct reskins or mirrors, so that doubles the class variety as well.

Not only that but every class has different variants that change their base weapon. You can get an overheating gatling gun as a soldier or a semi-automatic camo DMR. That’s just 2 of the choices of just 1 of the classes of just 1 team.

The unlock system is a bit…egregious. It’s all built around packs and random chance. BUT, with the game so old now there’s very little predation going on. You can unlock classes pretty quickly and there’s plenty of ways to make enough silver to do so.

Just like the other two examples in this list, PvZGW2 is more than the sum of its parts. Yes, its a shooter, yes it has a load of abilites and mission types. But, really, it’s the style, humour and emergent gameplay that make it perfect for casual players.

I once spent a match being an artillery Chomper, with my partner in a Garlic Drone to provide me bearings to shoot on. If that sentence doesn’t actively interest you I don’t know what else to say, really.

The playercount in GW2 is far more time-dependent than the other two examples, but when you find a full lobby and stick with it for a few games it’s easy to lose hours to this weird little shooter. Plus, even if there aren’t any players there are technically a bunch of singleplayer / co-op missions and activities too!

The loudest audience aren’t always the biggest

In a world with millions upon millions of people playing and discussin videogames, it’s easy to feel left behind if you’re from the LAN gaming era. It’s no surprise that an audience brought up on predatory FOMO systems and competitive-focused adrenaline rushes doesn’t encourage the industry to make casual games – but the ones from years gone by are still there.

The main thing stopping these sorts of games from living on is server shutdowns and lack of a community, but MCC, SWBF2 and PvZGW2 are all exceptions to those problems and the communities are ready to welcome you home.