David Szymanski, the creator of Dusk and Iron Lung, says the late 1990s to mid-2000s were the “golden age” of first-person shooters because the genre offered unusually broad creative variety. Speaking about his Steam library, he contrasted that period with eras dominated first by Doom-like games and later by Call of Duty-style conventions, arguing that freer design produced more distinctive experiences.

Szymanski is currently playing the 2007 shooter Instinct, whose simple, slow-paced design he finds appealing. He cites games including Halo, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, Far Cry, Serious Sam and Painkiller as examples of the era’s diversity; Doom remains his oldest installed game and his choice for the best FPS. His highest Steam playtime is 324 hours in Counter-Strike 2, while he spent 186 hours in Elden Ring, and he keeps Infra installed as a recurring comfort game.