Best Shooter 2016: Titanfall 2

Chris Thursten: Who saw this coming? Given a second stab at a set of ideas that never quite came to fruition in the promising but flawed first game, Respawn burst in from left-field to deliver by far the best shooter campaign of the year. Titanfall 2 Origin CD Key demonstrates a Valve-style willingness to tinker with the game's basic formula, remixing shooting, parkour and mech combat in a different way in each mission. The standout levels—Into The Abyss and Effect and Cause—match visual spectacle with brilliant sci-fi high concepts that would not be out of place in a Half-Life sequel. Yes, it's really that good.

Tom Senior: The interplay between titans and lone pilots creates the most tactically interesting and intense combat moments of the year. Nowhere else can I wrench a battery out of the back of a titan, hop onto the back of a friendly titan, slide-machinegun an enemy pilot and re-mount the enemy titan and drop a grenade into the battery slot I just vacated. The movement systems that enable this are extraordinarily robust and intuitive, and easily some of the best I've ever encountered in an FPS. The feeling of chaining a series of heroic maneuvers into a multi-pilot or titan takedown is hard to describe. There is almost no friction between thought and action in these moments, only the excitement of carving a path through a frenetic warzone driven by beautifully designed class, movement and weapon systems. It has been a great year for shooters, but Titanfall 2 destroys the competition.