Tactical shooter

Tactical shooters are an offshoot of the first-person shooter (FPS) genre of video games that generally try to realistically simulate combat with modern, recent-historical, or very-near-future weapons. This may come in the form of police fighting terrorists or other criminals, military combat in the recent past or hypothetical near future, and so on. The emphasis is on realistic modeling of weapon effects, terrain, and character capabilities, which lead to the possibility, and necessity, of more advanced tactics being used in play than the more conventional FPS "shoot everything that moves" game style. Thus, Wolfenstein 3D is not considered a tactical shooter, although it involves military combat, because it grants the player character unlimited physical stamina and an unrealistic resistance to bullets.

Popular and influential tactical shooters include the Delta Force series, SWAT 3, Rainbow 6, Operation Flashpoint, and the U.S. Army sponsored-and-created America's Army.

In multiplayer games, the term can have a different, somewhat looser meaning. A multiplayer tactical shooter focuses on team cooperation to achieve objectives, rather than simply eliminating the enemy (as in traditional deathmatch games). The tactical emphasis is thus on joint goals and assisting team members, rather than on overcoming realistic individual limitations. Under this definition, Counter-Strike is a multiplayer tactical shooter, even though it is arguably not one in the broader sense.

Realism is often the defining difference between a tactical shooter and the first-person shooter genre at large. Most tactical shooters feature character models that experience wounds, have imperfect aim, cannot carry unlimited ammunition or weapons, and that take time to perform in-game tasks.

Tactical shooters involving military combat are sometimes known as soldier sims.