Best Underrated Top-Down Shooters On Steam

The issue with first-person shooters is that players can’t see all that juicy action with a limited field of view. That’s a shortcoming that

top-down shooters

don’t have, and for some players, they might offer a more preferable view of all the flashy violence. A quick glance at games like


Enter the Gungeon

,



The Ascent

,

or


Hotline Miami


proves this point well enough. But as popular as those titles are, some

top-down shooters

don’t exactly get the bird’s-eye view recognition that they deserve. Some of them are due to being indie titles, while other cases boil down to player preference. Still, that doesn’t mean these following shooters offer a lesser experience.

Fans of shooter games ought to broaden their perspective by playing lesser-known

top-down shooters

. After all, there are so many games on Steam that some of them are bound to slip under the cracks. Players who decide to try out games that don’t have the biggest following but showcase a lot of heart will be more than pleased by what’s on offer in certain games that make the most of a top-down perspective. More often than not, the action in these games is in a class of its own and does a great job of letting players come to grips with the combat in their games before letting loose in the most action-packed manner possible.

Updated on November 2, 2023, by Ritwik Mitra:




Top-down shooters

are a lot of fun to play through if these games nail what makes this viewpoint so special. Bursting into rooms and peppering enemies with bullets makes for a fun time no matter what, and it’s easy to see why so many people love these games to bits. While the usual suspects will definitely come to mind when people mention these

top-down shooters

, there are more names that are relatively obscure in comparison. However, just because these games aren’t popular, doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve a mention in their own right.

19


Otxo

Fans of

Hotline Miami

will absolutely love what

Otxo

brings to the table. The monochromatic art style makes the game’s violence more eye-popping than ever, and players will really have to think about their loadout before embarking on one of the many runs that this roguelike will entice them with. It can seem somewhat unfair to try and beat this game at times, especially with its many challenging boss fights, but

Otxo

really excels in making players feel like they’re getting better at the game with each successive run.

The very act of reloading itself becomes something that players can spend hours pondering over, trying to make this break in their shooting as beneficial as possible. It’s just one of the many small ways that

Otxo

immerses the player, giving them an intense sense of satisfaction when a boss that felt hard as nails early on turns into a laughing stock in no time flat.

18


Wizard Of Legend

• Release Year:
  
  
  2018
  
• Platforms:
  
  
  PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Mobile
  

• 
  
  Steam Page
  
  

The arcade combat of

Wizard of Legend

is a blast, with players using a variety of spells to rain down a ton of pain on their enemies. The music is also great and something that players will love in this intense roguelike title that is most certainly one of Steam’s most underappreciated indie gems.

If there’s one thing that

Wizard of Legend

can be criticized for, it’s the lack of content. Just when things get good, players will have experienced everything the game has to offer, which is a downright shame.

17


Tiny Rogues

Early Access can be both a boon and a curse, with developers using this medium to fund the development of their titles while players get to enjoy a taste of a video game that can potentially leave them salivating for more. While there are instances when the promises of Early Access don’t bear any fruit, many titles have managed to use Early Access to elevate the quality of their titles, and

Tiny Rogues

seems to be a great example of the latter scenario.

This bullet-hell roguelike can be pretty overwhelming early on, but it won’t take long for players to get into the groove of things. The game already has a wealth of content, with its selection of weapons being massive, so it’s easy to see why many fans can’t wait for a proper 1.0 release to wow them!

16


Westerado: Double Barreled

• Release Year:
  
  
  2015
  
• Platforms:
  
  
  PC, Xbox One
  

• 
  
  Steam Page
  
  

An open-world western top-down shooter with a classic revenge plot and procedurally-generated elements,

Westerado: Double Barreled

is one of the most underrated indie games of all time. Not many people have heard of this title, which is a shame since it brings a lot of innovative elements to the forefront and makes for an open-world title that is genuinely replayable.

The amount of urgency players have in the main story is pretty incredible, with the identity of the killer who burned down the player’s ranch and murdered their family changing with each playthrough. Players can ideally kill anyone and everyone they want in the game, which is truly remarkable in its own way.

15


Grand Theft Auto 2

• Release Year:
  
  
  1999
  
• Platforms:
  
  
  PC, PlayStation, Dreamcast, Game Boy
  

• 
  
  Steam Page
  
  

Before the

series

adopted the over-the-shoulder perspective and shifted to 3D, the

Grand Theft Auto

series was more arcade-y in nature. The games featured a top-down perspective where players had to accomplish a bunch of missions and rack up the highest scores possible as they caused mayhem and destruction in these worlds.

Grand Theft Auto 2

is a blast to play through, and exploring this game’s version of London is pretty fun in its own right. The gameplay may be slightly dated but gets the job done, and players will love checking out the history of what is now the most popular open-world franchises of all time! Fans can’t wait for the sixth title to come out, and they can definitely satiate themselves for the time being by playing this game instead.

14


Neon Chrome

• Release Year:
  
  
  2015
  
• Platforms:
  
  
  PC, PlayStation 4, Vita, Switch, Xbox One, Mobile
  

• 
  
  Steam Page
  
  

If players want to try out a game where weapons feel extremely powerful and upgrades improve one’s effectiveness in meaningful ways, then

Neon Chrome

is the way to go. This roguelite title is absolutely oozing in style, with the neon cyberpunk aesthetic being a blast to look at in every way. The striking art design of this game is more than enough to convince most people to check this game out for themselves!

The sheer amount of destruction that players can inflict on their enemies is truly amazing and does a great job of showing just how visceral the combat of this game really is. It’s impossible for players to not be satisfied while playing this game, especially with their expanded weaponry. If players need another reason to check out this shooter, then players will be elated by the fact that

Neon Chrome

supports co-op gameplay as well!

13


Nuclear Throne

• Release Year:
  
  
  2015
  
• Platforms:
  
  
  PC, PlayStation 4, Vita, Switch, Xbox One
  

• 
  
  Steam Page
  
  

Nuclear Throne

is a

post

-apocalypse game that takes place in the aftermath of a nuclear winter. It does break away from the cliche by disregarding the notion of humanity saving the world from its mistakes. Instead, this game is about mutants who will be doing the saving.

This allows for even more freedom since mutants can simply collect radiation and mutate into something more powerful. Along the way, they get to test out a plethora of guns in this frenetic and high-octane bullet-hell shooter. If that doesn’t

sound

good enough, then the music during the shootouts surely will.

12


Brotato

Brotato

is one of the highest-rated games on Steam, which is proof enough of just how great this title really is. It was in early access for a year before seeing a full release recently.

The premise is simple enough—players control Brotato, an upstanding citizen of Potato World. But his spaceship crashed on an alien planet, and they’re not fond of French fries. So Brotato must survive by shooting waves and waves of aliens.

11


Red Hot Vengeance

Ever wanted to see the unholy lovechild of

Superhot

and

Hotline Miami

? That would be

Red Hot Vengeance

. It’s a game with a stickman art style and visuals, and the only other color apart from black and white is red— hopefully, because of the blood of all the enemies.

In this game, players are vengeance made manifest as a betrayed hitman as they take on a violent gang by being more violent. It’s one of the smoothest gun carnage experiences in a top-down shooter, courtesy of the light graphics. After the story, there’s still plenty of fun to be had since the game has a level editor, and it’s also free.

10


Snake Force

Snake Force

offers something more unique compared to other formulae. It’s an amalgam of

a top-down shooter

, FPS, and the game

Snake

from those old Nokia cellphones (ask some millennial grandpas about it, they know it). Players will start as a lone gunman in FPS view.

Once they have secured and rescued their soldier bros, it’s time to bring out the gun-toting snake in a top-down view. Such a novel idea deserves to be experienced and seen first-hand, as words do it no justice. In any case, it’s a fun game with a cute aesthetic and awesome execution.

9


Akane

• Release Year:
  
  
  2018
  
• Platforms:
  
  
  Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PC
  

• 
  
  Steam Page
  
  

It’s easy to see where the inspiration from

Akane

came from. It’s a Cyberpunk action game that took a healthy serving of inspiration from genre staples such as


Ghost in the Shell


and

Akira.

The music and the cityscape alone are enough to attract anyone looking for a definitive cyberpunk game.

Players take control of the titular character in a

Kill Bill

-esque plot as they fight their way out of Mega-Tokyo against cyber-Yakuza using the coolest weapons known to mankind (like the katana). There’s no shortage of blood, death, and neon lights here.

8


Synthetik: Legion Rising

• Release Year:
  
  
  2018
  
• Platforms:
  
  
  PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One
  

• 
  
  Steam Page
  
  

Don’t be fooled by the 16-bit visual style.

Synthetik

is a shooter game so loud and bombastic that the gunfire is almost palpable. The audio, the animations, and the general gameplay all work together here to offer one of the most intense shooter highs that even FPS games can’t reach. The game is also a roguelike, so be prepared for that.

There’s not much of a story here, like with most top-down shooters. Players are merely dumped into dangerous sci-fi military facilities where they must shoot their way to their goal, which is to free the world from the Machine Legion and their gods. It’s a pretty good excuse to start shooting up objects and feature the game’s primary strength.

7


Helldivers Dive Harder Edition

Was

Synthetik

too absent for Sony’s consoles? Worry not, because

Helldivers

is there for PlayStation devices, and they offer something equally intense. This twin-stick shooter is all about protecting Earth and defeating the enemies of mankind in an intergalactic war.

Players thus assume the role of Hell Divers, which is an elite team usually deployed into hostile zones for search and rescue operations. But during one of the dives, they uncovered something sinister that could threaten Earth’s future. That’s nothing some explosives and a few tons of lead can’t handle.

6


20 Minutes Till Dawn

• Release Year:
  
  
  2022 (early access)
  
• Platforms:
  
  
  PC, Mobile
  

• 
  
  Steam Page
  
  

But enough of sci-fi top-down shooters. How about something with a Lovecraftian theme and some anime girl protagonists? Because that’s what

20 Minutes Till Dawn

offers. The premise is simple: nasty Lovecraftian creatures keep bumping in the night, and it’s up to some anime 16-bit anime girls (called Heroes) of different vocations to gun them down.

Each hero comes with a unique selection of strengths, and preferred weapons, or abilities. Build diversity is quite strong here, and the action will certainly sate players who have grown accustomed to bullet-hell challenges brought about by games like

Enter the Gungeon

.

5


Foxhole

• Release Year:
  
  
  2017 (early access)
  
• Platforms:
  
  
  PC
  

• 
  
  Steam Page
  
  

For those craving some WW2 action,

Foxhole

offers a unique view on wargaming. Instead of dying on the ground as a common footsoldier in a claustrophobic view, they instead get to see their soldier die from atop. Even better,

Foxhole

is a massively multiplayer game with a persistent world.

Each soldier is controlled by a player who must take a specific role during the battle from storming the bunkers to driving the tanks. Such an ambitious project is not yet complete as the game is under early access, but any war game fan ought to take a look at this one. It’s like

Company of Heroes,

Foot Soldier edition.

4


Ruiner

Before cyberpunk became way too popular as a theme and setting in video games, titles like

Ruiner

took some creative risks. After all, that video game genre was ahead of its time back then and hasn’t found its proper audience just yet, hence why it went by mostly as a sleeper hit.

Still,

Ruiner

is worth it alone for the aesthetics. This twin-stick shooter game is a cool adventure game that revolves around the most philosophical and thought-provoking core ideas of the cyberpunk setting. It also helps that the action is fast, stylish, and unrelenting. Had it been released today, it would have been more popular.

3


Voidigo

• Release Year:
  
  
  2021 (early access)
  
• Platforms:
  
  
  PC
  

• 
  
  Steam Page
  
  

All these twin-stick top-down shooters are rather serious and gritty, so here’s something to balance out the themes a bit.

Voidigo

is vibrant, chaotic, and colorful, though it does have a focus on boss fights and dynamic combat. Also, the game is a rogue-lite (semi-roguelike) so expect some degree of difficulty that’s different from the more straightforward games.

But that only means the game’s visual style will help players stay motivated or distracted enough to keep trying. Again, the story is mostly cookie-cutter and is but a mere excuse for players to try out builds and fight the game’s

piñata

-like enemies. To be fair, the game doesn’t really need context, especially once players see it in action.

2


Star Valor

Of course, there’s a space-themed top-down shooter here. It’s one of the ripest settings for top-down shooting, after all.

Star Valor

fills in that category. It didn’t get as much buzz compared to bigger-budget releases, but this game is easily one of the best space RPGs of the decade.

Its impressive Steam review stats say so.

Star Valor

is similar to games like

X4: Foundations,

where players can choose who they want to become in the vast expanse of space. They can be pirates, bounty hunters, merchants, miners, or business magnates if they like. All those possibilities are in the comfort of top-down shooting.

1


Brigador: Up-Armored Edition

Similar to

Ruiner

,

Brigador

unleashed itself in the gaming

industry

way before cyberpunk became popular enough to be mainstream in gaming. The popularity results were similar.

Brigador

mostly went under the radar, but this game certainly deserves more acclaim based on its soundtrack and visuals alone.

Players pilot a mech on an urban rampage to take down the oppressive cyberpunk autocracy. It doesn’t get much simpler than that, but cruising through a cyber dystopia’s streets in a vehicle while being blasted by both synth-wave symphonies and gunfire alike was somewhat ahead of its time.

More: Best Tactical Shooters Of All Time, Ranked