Since you mentioned Gears, I'm assuming you mean shooters in general and not just FPS games. And since everyone typically recommends the same things, I'm going to recommend some off the beaten path that
in my opinion are just as good, if not better than the more popular games.
Vanquish
A collaboration between Platinum Games and Shinji Mikami, Vanquish is a super fast-paced third-person shooter with a lot of depth. The story is nothing to write home about, but the gameplay is incredible and never gets old. Most of the game you'll be rocket-sliding around the levels, blasting enemies while vaulting through the air, headshotting the bad guys in slow motion, and repeatedly punching bosses in the face. Vanquish is easily one of the most purely FUN shooters I've ever played.
Warhammer 40K: Space Marine
Part shooter and part hack and slash, Space Marine is a real breath of fresh air to the shooter genre. Eschewing cover mechanics, instead the game makes you stomp into the thick of battle, blasting apart and ripping to shreds every enemy horde that stands in your way. In the 40K fiction Space Marines are supposed to be
massive, and they really do a good job of communicating that to the player in the gameplay itself, which is super satisfying by the way. Every footstep has the impact of a wrecking ball, and even your weakest gun feels like cannon. The story is pretty good for what it is, the only major problem being that the game ends on a cliffhanger, and there most likely will never be a sequel. Oh well. Great game regardless.
Binary Domain
Binary Domain was Sega's attempt at creating a big blockbuster shooter franchise, which backfired on them pretty bad as it only sold about 20,000 copies in the US. Which is a minor gaming tragedy, as the game is actually really good. I'm not going to sit here and tell you the shooting is great or that it's really innovative or something, because it isn't. The shooting is serviceable. It's workmanlike. It gets the job done without causing frustration. Although, having said that, shooting the robot enemies in this game is really satisfying because when you shoot them sparks and shards of their armor just come
flying off them. The game also has pretty great boss fights, which shooters typically don't do very well. Regardless, the shooting isn't the star of the show in this game. In addition to being a shooter, it also features some Bioware-style conversation and choice mechanics. Which wouldn't matter much if the characters weren't mostly awesome, and the story wasn't good. Thankfully, the story
was good. Surprisingly so, even. And the characters
are (for the most part) fun and memorable.
