The most popular first person 3D games

Tank controls + polar bears + Cold War vibes = Arctic Fox. In this early vehicular combat sim, you're piloting a futuristic snow tank across an icy wasteland to stop some aliens or Russians or alien Russians. The plot is thin, the enemies sparse, and your tank controls like a drunk walrus on skis. But in 1987, this was high-tech stuff. There’...

Deus Ex is a critically acclaimed action role-playing video game developed by Ion Storm and published by Eidos Interactive. It was released in 2000 and was designed by Warren Spector, combining elements of first-person shooters, stealth games, and role-playing games. The game is set in a dystopian future where society is fraught with conspiracy the...

Amerzone is like stepping into a dream where logic is optional and atmosphere is everything. You play a journalist unraveling the mystery of a dying explorer’s last journey, which involves a lost civilization, mystical eggs, and a whole lot of lush, surreal landscapes. The gameplay leans heavily on point-and-click exploration with puzzles tha...

Released in 1987, this is less of a simulator and more of a fever dream where you pilot a flying box over a grid pretending to be terrain. 3-D Helicopter Simulator was ambitious for its time, with wireframe graphics that suggest a helicopter-shaped object doing helicopter-shaped things. You’ll take off, hover awkwardly, and then promptly cras...

Gateway to the Savage Frontier is a Dungeons & Dragons computer role-playing game released in 1991. It was developed by Beyond Software (later known as Stormfront Studios) and published by SSI (Strategic Simulations, Inc.) as part of their "Gold Box" series; a lineup of D&D games known for their tactical combat and deep adherence to Advance...

F-15 Strike Eagle III is a combat flight simulation video game released in 1992. It was developed by MicroProse and is the third installment in the F-15 Strike Eagle series. The game was designed for various computer platforms of that era, including MS-DOS and Amiga. F-15 Strike Eagle 3 is a military flight simulation that puts playe...

Alien Trilogy is a first-person shooter video game released in 1996 for various platforms, including the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and MS-DOS. Developed by Probe Entertainment and published by Acclaim Entertainment, the game is based on the first three films in the Alien franchise. The game's narrative loosely follows the storyline of these mo...

MechWarrior (1989) was one of the first games to put players inside a 3D cockpit of a giant mech, but it wasn’t just a combat game, it was also an open-ended mercenary RPG, with strategy, politics, and personal revenge at its core. You play as Gideon Braver Vandenburg, heir to the House of Andurien. Your family is betrayed and murdered i...

Deathtrack is an abandoned racing vehicular combat game set in a post-apocalyptic North America. Deathtrack is a mix of high-speed racing and combat and was developed by Dynamix and released by Activision in 1989 for DOS.

Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen is a role-playing video game developed and published by New World Computing in 1992. It's part of the long-running Might and Magic series. In Clouds of Xeen, players explore the world of Xeen, which is composed of four elemental realms: air, earth, fire, and water. The game features a first-person perspective and ...

Armored Fist is all about tanks. Big, heavy, no-nonsense tanks. It's essentially a driving sim for people who think speed is overrated and armor is fashion. Missions involve slow, deliberate destruction, long-distance sniping, and surviving Soviet counterattacks in glorious VGA. The physics are more optimistic than realistic, and the enemy AI often...

If you like your RPGs verbose, Betrayal at Krondor is basically a fantasy novel you play. Set in Raymond E. Feist’s Midkemia, the game oozes with narrative depth, detailed characters, and the occasional goblin ambush. The combat is turn-based, the exploration is first-person, and the dialogue reads like a medieval soap opera written by someon...

Might and Magic V: Darkside of Xeen is a role-playing video game developed by New World Computing and released in 1993. It is the fifth installment in the Might and Magic series and forms the second half of a larger story arc that began with Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen. The plot focuses on the player's quest to stop the evil overlord Sh...

Whale's Voyage is an abandoned science fiction first-person view party-based RPG, developed by neo Software Produktions and released by Pro One Software in 1993. Whale's Voyage is currently abandonware and it was published for PC (DOS) and Amiga.

The Typing of the Dead is a distinctive video game, essentially a typing adaptation of the classic rail shooter arcade game, The House of the Dead. Initially debuting in 1999 as an arcade machine, it later became available on other platforms as well.In The Typing of the Dead, players wield a keyboard to dispatch approaching hordes of zombies and ot...

Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed is a CRPG developed by SSI Strategic Simulations Inc. and released in 1992 for DOS only. Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed is the sequel to Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday and it's based on a campaign setting created by TSR in the late 80s. The game uses the Gold Box engine, common to much of the RPGs developed by SSI.