Players need to consider their environment, other opponents, team-mates, mission objectives, which weapon to use and how much health they have got. While the main aim of most of these games is to shoot enemies in the head to kill them, there are many other things also going on. They usually offer players a range of weapons, each of which behaves differently and require practice to use efficiently. Often called shooter games, or shooters, they test the player's spatial awareness, reflexes, and speed against computer characters and human other players in online games.

Like the instinct of children to pick up sticks for imaginary gun-play, this offers players a chance to step into dangerous situations that raise the adrenaline and require high levels of skill and precision.

Video games have had a long history of including shooting play.