Shooter expert Daniel presents hand-picked insider tips that promise authentic flair in modern military settings.
As a fan of credible military scenarios, I’m always on the lookout for promising games away from the obvious candidates like Battlefield 6 or Arma 4.
Where can I get this brilliant special forces atmosphere, authentic war equipment and tactical challenge instead of a dull run-and-gun game?
Here are seven titles that rank high on my personal watch list!
- Bellum
- Black Vultures
- Wardogs
- ’83
- Beautiful Light
- Wraith Ops
- Reaper Actual
Bellum
The Milsim Youtuber Karmakut once had enough of half-baked tactical shooters that languish in Early Access and have little to offer apart from big promises. That’s why he founded his own studio and started developing Bellum.
His vision: a realistic team shooter with a focus on squad coordination and teamwork and a functional platoon command system. The weapons behave like their real-life counterparts, wounds have to be healed and the side with the better strategy and enemy reconnaissance wins.
The Unreal Engine 5 is used as the technical foundation and ensures a great lighting atmosphere and accurate ballistics simulation. The test phase begins in August 2025 for founders who have pre-ordered the game.
Black Vultures
The shooter Black Vultures: Prey of Greed aims to shake up the genre with a new formula that is rarely seen: Instead of two factions, it pits three parties against each other in an asymmetrical conflict to capture important resources on the battlefield.
This is where the formulas of Battlefield and Escape from Tarkov come together: a ticket system limits the teams’ respawns, while players must secure valuable loot containers and bring them to their exfil point.
Black Vultures promises authentic weapons with in-depth customization options, a focus on team play in the squad and a grim military setting in a war-ravaged city in Eastern Europe. The first playtests are already taking place on Steam.
Wardogs
Bulkhead, the makers of the WW2 shooter Battalion 1944, are back in the world of multiplayer shooters with Wardogs. This time the studio has opted for a modern military setting and is directly attacking Battlefield territory: In addition to nasty infantry combat, there will be artillery, destruction, vehicles, helicopters and large maps.
Details on the gameplay are scarce so far. According to the developers, Wardogs is intended to “redefine the rules of warfare” and enable land, sea and air combat for 100 players. Tactics and team play are to play a greater role than a quick trigger finger. A kind of base-building system is also planned.
First gameplay scenes from Wardogs show modern military equipment such as sniper and assault rifles, an AH-6 Little Bird helicopter and even armored vehicles. Players take on the role of mercenaries and money is an important resource at the heart of the game.
’83
Some of the developers of the acclaimed WW2 shooters Red Orchestra and Rising Storm are developing the hardcore shooter ’83, which is (unsurprisingly) set in 1983, under the umbrella of the new studio Blue Dot Games. The scenario: Tensions between NATO and the USSR escalate and war breaks out across Europe.
The 40v40 battles are fought with classic equipment from the Cold War era: AK-47s and M16s are featured, as well as the legendary T-55 main battle tank. The developers promise believable gunplay: continuous firing for too long overheats the barrel and remaining cartridges in the magazine are lost when reloading.
The stated aim of ’83 is to pack the tactical demands of games like Arma into compact rounds of 30 to 40 minutes and strike a balance between deadly yet accessible combat. As in previous Battlefield installments, there is also a commander role.
Beautiful Light
Admittedly: Beautiful Light is not strictly speaking entirely realistic, as supernatural dangers certainly lurk in the deadly open world of the extraction shooter. Grotesque monsters and dangerous anomalies give the tactical shooter a clear stalker feel, yet the gameplay remains grounded, methodical and tactical.
As one of three operators in a special ops squad, the player infiltrates the mission area to recover an artifact – but enemy squads are also after it (and then there are the gruesome creatures everywhere). Beautiful Light is effectively a hunt showdown in a modern military setting.
The developers promise weapons and attachments based on real-life models, hardcore shooter mechanics and even the HUD is realistically integrated into the game in the form of a military interface on a display on the character’s forearm. Tactical aids such as night vision devices also play an important role.
Wraith Ops
A multiplayer shooter like the good old days of CoD 4: Modern Warfare, but with modern features and comfort functions – that’s exactly what the tactical shooter Wraith Ops wants to be. The developers even speak of a “return to the basic virtues of the genre”.
With over 60 authentic weapons and tons of accessories, Wraith Ops aims to be a paradise for weapon tinkerers and also simulates a ballistic and penetration system designed for quick kills. On gritty maps, the game stages fast-paced arena battles of up to 12v12 players between rival military companies.
The fact that the makers also promise no aggressive monetization and no Pay2Win, but instead dedicated community servers, should tick off several checkboxes, especially for veteran shooters.
Reaper Actual
Instead of just one match on a single map, Reaper Actual simulates an entire persistent island world – full of hundreds of players fighting non-stop for supremacy as paramilitary operators. This MMO approach is no coincidence: two of the lead developers worked on Planetside 2 before Reaper Actual.
One of the features is a dedicated military base that each player can set up individually in order to set off on missions with the squad and complete quests for one of the five NPC factions. Land, air and sea vehicles help to get from A to B quickly in the open world and to transport captured crafting resources.
PvE and PvP battles will constantly mix dynamically – for example, when one squad is tasked with killing a VIP and another squad is given the mission to protect him at the same time.
