First-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre centered on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through a first-person perspective; that is, the player experiences the action through the eyes of the protagonist. The first-person shooter shares common traits with other shooter games, which in turn fall under the heading action game. From the genre's inception, advanced 3D or pseudo-3D graphics have challenged hardware development, and multiplayer gaming has been integral.

The first-person shooter has since been traced as far back as Maze War, development of which began in 1973, and 1974's Spasim. After early, more playful titles like MIDI Maze in 1987, the genre coalesced into a more wantonly violent form with 1992's Wolfenstein 3D, which has been credited with creating the genre proper and the basic archetype upon which subsequent titles were based. One such title, and the progenitor of the genre's wider mainstream acceptance and popularity was Doom, perhaps one of the most influential games in this genre; for many years, the term Doom clone was used to designate this genre due to Doom's influence. 1998's Half-Life—along with its 2004 sequel Half-Life 2—enhanced the narrative and puzzle elements.