The first PlayStation was incredibly important to both gaming as a medium and the industry. Sony took a big gamble by entering the space dominated by Nintendo and Sega, but the company managed to knock it out of the park on its first try. Many of the games have become timeless classics, but a lot of them have not aged well, either. Third-Person shooters in particular were hard to make.
3D game design was in its infancy and developers were trying different ways to make it work. The lack of dual-analog control also made moving around in a 3D space a lot harder, though a DualShock controller would come out later in the console's life. To commend the games that did it right, this list will rank third-person shooters based on how they play today. Few games did it right, so only the last few are truly timeless.
7 Tomorrow Never Dies
PlayStation owners never got a Bond game anywhere near the level of GoldenEye 007. The system certainly was not lacking in titles based on the secret agent's adventures. Tomorrow Never Dies from 1999 is based on the film of the same name.
Players control Bond from the third-person perspective. Reviews were already mixed upon release, so it is not as if the game has gotten better with time. It is more enjoyable when it is not being compared to GoldenEye, however, which is easier to do with the passage of time. The game is short, so even if it does not fit one's fancy, the adventure will be over before they know it.
6 Die Hard Trilogy
Die-Hard Trilogy is a step above a lot of other games simply because it is essentially three games in one. The game takes players through the three movies in the movie trilogy. The levels based on the first movie play as a traditional third-person shooter, while the second and third films are an on-rails shooter and driving game, respectively.
The shooting and movement is admittedly heavy, but there is so much more to experience if players do not like this part of the game. There was eventually a sequel with a similar structure, Die Hard Trilogy 2: Viva Las Vegas.
5 Army Men 3D
This series started out as RTS games for Windows. In a classic move many franchises did, the third game in the franchise was dubbed "3D" and moved in a different direction. Army Men 3D is a third-person shooter.
Despite the concept, the game plays like a military shooter of the time. It doesn't do anything extraordinary, and it plays like one would imagine a third-person shooter would. The fact it does not do anything out of the box helps it age better. There are no gimmicks here other than the aesthetic.
4 MDK
The PlayStation version of MDK is admittedly not the best way to experience this 1990s third-person shooter. It is still a great game despite its technical setbacks. The shooting and movement is faster than most other games of the era.
The levels are creatively designed, and the overall aesthetic is interesting, even with the graphics of the time. If MDK is too far back in time for some players, then a sequel came out a few years later from developer BioWare. It came out on many platforms, including PS2 and the Nintendo Wii.
3 Syphon Filter
Metal Gear does not make it on this list because it is more of a stealth game than a third-person shooter. Syphon Filter often draws comparisons to it, but definitely feels more like a third-person shooter with stealth elements rather than a stealth title. It is certainly a standout exclusive in the PS1's catalog.
There is a focus on narrative most other games did not consider important, with memorable characters and events that influence future aspects of the story. The original PlayStation saw two sequels and then the PS2 had Omega Strain, a cooperative shooter with progression mechanics that were ahead of their time. Two PSP games ended the franchise. Fans hope for a revival sometime in the future.
2 Apocalypse
Celebrities lending their voice and likeness to games is nothing new, as evidenced by Apocalypse, which stars Bruce Willis as the protagonist. It clearly takes a page out of the Die Hard book with most of Bruce Willis' dialogue consisting of one-liners. Players have no camera control and the protagonist controls as if they are playing a twin-stick shooter.
This format helps the game age better than a lot of other titles. The muddy graphics and dialogue do not age well, however. The use of licensed music is pretty unique from the time, but less surprising coming from Neversoft, who would shortly afterward go on to make the legendary Tony Hawk's Pro Skater franchise.
1 Dino Crisis 2
The first Dino Crisis and the Resident Evil franchise do not make the list because they are more traditional survival horror games. Dino Crisis 2 changes a lot about the format and plays like an action game.
There are some light puzzles, but players are never short of ammunition and enemies rush the protagonists once they enter a room. There is even a scoring system that turns into currency to buy new weapons and upgrades. The core gameplay and shooting are similar to its predecessors, which helps it age excellently.