Action Games

Action game is a video game genre that focuses on physical challenges and requires the player to have fast reaction-time and good hand-eye coordination. In this game genre, typically, the players will control a character to overcome all the game's quest, fight against enemies, gather objects, etc. in order to level up. In addition, this game genre includes a variety of subgenres like Action-adventure games, Beat 'em ups, Fighting games, Maze games, Shooter games, Survival games, and more. In order to learn more about this so popular game genre, let's continue reading this article below!

What is an action game?

Action game is a video game genre that includes any game in which the players have to overcome all the game's challenges by physical means and requires them to have high reaction speed and good hand-eye coordination. This game genre sometimes can mix with some other elements such as races, puzzles, collecting objects, planning tactical or strategy, etc. but they are just the additional factors, not the central to the genre.

In general, all the games have action elements inside, we call them Action Games. These action elements are features in the game. For example, you control a character to do a quest in the game, in addition to controlling the character, you also face the enemy in the road, and you have to fight with them ... so we call it action game. Action games are a broad concept, maybe it will include many different types of games in it. But action games have one thing in common, which is the element of action in the game.

History

Action games have been around for a long time, and I do not know what the first action game was. But we can refer to the history of Video Games. That was around the 1950s, when video games were developed. And the most obvious is the emergence of arcade games, the action factor has appeared from this moment, accompanied by it is extremely attractive role-playing game. In addition, the major turning point of action games may be in 1978, when Space Invaders - a remarkable shoot 'em up game was released. And from that time, action game dominated all the game industry with the release of many familiar names in this industry such as Asteroids (1979), Pac-Man (1980), Donkey Kong (1981), and Robotron: 2084 (1982).

Game design

• Level

Usually, we can see that an action game consists of a series of levels and the players will advance through an action game after completing all these levels. In fact, each level includes a variety of challenges that require the players to overcome; many levels have the same theme, graphics, or enemies will be grouped and called a world. In addition, levels may be linear or nonlinear, however, the player still needs to overcome all the quests to complete a level. For exploration levels, the player also needs to search for an exit and this exit may be hidden or guarded by powerful enemies.

• Character abilities

As mentioned above, in an action game, the player usually controls a single avatar or character (maybe the protagonist of the game) to navigate the environment. This character will be equipped with lots of weapons, the range of defenses and attacks, abilities of shooting, punching, attack, etc to take down the enemies. There are even some characters own powerful attacks that can destroy all enemies within a limited range, but they are very rare. In addition, most of the action games allow players to upgrade their characters' skills, abilities, and weapons by using earned money or points from many previous battles against the enemies. When they win these battles, they can earn rewards of the game and use them to purchase the upgrade.

• Obstacles and enemies

Two important things in the game design of action games are obstacles and enemies. These things are the indispensable parts in a typical action game. For a navigating space action game, the player in this game usually encounter obstacles, traps, and even enemies. The enemies can attack the player or even pursue to kill them. In addition, at the end of a level or a group of levels, usually, the player can encounter a boss. It will be much more difficult to take down this boss because he is so more powerful than a regular enemy and the players need a special weapon or attack method to be able to kill him.

• Health and lives

Health and lives also are the common elements in action games. In fact, many action games equip a certain number of hit-markers of the health or lives of the player in the game. When the player is attacked by enemies or other hazards, this health will be depleted until running out of health and die. When beginning a new life, the player will resume the game from the same location they died, checkpoint, or the start of the level. In addition, they also can earn more lives when completing all the game quest, reaching a certain score, or finding out an in-game object.

• Graphics and interface

Depending on each game, action games come with various types of graphics and interface, however, this game genre usually takes place in either 2D or 3D graphics. For 2D action games, they usually allow the player to explore the game world from a side or top-down view while 3D games typically allow the player to navigate the environment from the first or third person perspective.

About interface, action games often show all the things that the player needs to know such as health or ammunition in a single screen. In addition, sometimes these games also offer a mini-map to show the panoramic surroundings.

Subgenres

As I also mentioned above, action games are a broad concept and consist of a large variety of subgenres. Let's learn more about these sub-genres by reading below:

• Action-adventure: This is a typical genre of action games that simply mix the elements of both action and adventure genres.
• Beat 'em ups: These games are also an interesting subgenre of action games that involve fighting through a side-scrolling stage. In this genre, the characters usually have martial arts or close-range attacks to take down the enemies.
• Fighting games: The name told us about this genre. In fact, fighting games feature combat between two factions and usually use martial arts moves or special combo to attacks the enemies.
• Maze games: This game genre focuses on navigating the maze to avoid or chase the enemies.
• Platform games: This game genre is mainly about jumping between various platforms that each of them has a different height and avoid the obstacles. Some games also mix the element of battling against enemies to increase the challenge of the game.
• Rhythm action games: This game genre mainly revolves around music and rhythm and challenges the sense of the player's rhythm.
• Shooter games: Shooter games are a sub-genre of action games, however, it is quite large and also consists of many other small sub-genres. In this game genre, the player will take action at a quite long distance by using a ranged weapon (usually are many different types of gun)
• Survival games: This game genre is also quite large and adored by lots of players. Starting in a hostile open-world environment with minimal resources, this game genre requires the player to collect resources, craft tools, weapons, build the shelter, etc. to survive as long as possible. The typical theme is the apocalypse world.

What do we have at Freegames66

On Freegames66, you can find thousands of the best action games from all the sub-genres from Action-adventure, Beat 'em ups, Fighting games, Maze games, Rhythm action games, Shooter games to Survival games. All of these games are free to play and require nothing more than a web browser. Moreover, being selected carefully and have been played by our staffs, so we can assure you that all action games on Freegames66 are great games to play and enjoy. All action games in our collection are selected ones and divided into various sub-genre, so, you can find the best game based on your hobby easily.

In addition to a huge number of action games, on Freegames66, you also can find tips and tricks, walkthrough, and information about each game to know more and play your favorite game better.

Now, it is the time to immerse yourself deeply in the stunning world of action games. Let's choose your favorite game and enjoy it. Ah, don't forget to press CTRL+D to bookmark our site on your browser, this can help you to enjoy more interesting action games easier!