Shooters with good hub/non-linear level design?

[Great Deceiver]

Turok 1 and 2 would be to your liking, methinks.

Console version of Powerslave/Exhumed, which was ported to PC some time ago by Kaiser of Doom 64 EX/Turok HD fame (port was latter taken town due to legal issue, but it is rather easy to find) might be worthy of your attention. Game is basically FPS metroidvania: you acquire abilities throughout the game (like increased jump height, floating etc), and with said abilities you'll oft return to earlier maps in order to access passages to new ones or to collect previously inaccessible power-ups.

I've been trying to play Powerslave EX (I've tried 1.0.0, 1.0.1 and the unofficial 1.0.2), but for some reason my mouselook is fucked up - when I move the mouse, it's all jittery and basically constrained so that almost no motion at all gets parsed. It's difficult to explain, but basically it doesn't work at all. Gamepad works fine, but I really don't want to play with a gamepad.

Has anyone experienced anything similar?

 

[Count Grishnak]

i had a similar mouse issue with doom64 ex. for that game, it was solved by installing doom64-sdl fix. I assume theres something similar for powerslave ex.

 

[Ash]

Turok 1 and 2 would be to your liking, methinks.

this this and more this. Console shooters for the monocled.

Turok 2 in particular ticks every one of these boxes:

To be more precise, here is what I want:
- Non-linear levels that can/must be revisited to complete some objectives;
- If the game features some sort of character progression, the levels should have additional ways to explore and/or finish them;
- Optional: futuristic setting;
- Optional: first person perspective;
- Pre-2006, please, or something that doesn't require a high-end rig.

Honestly, it's top 10 shooter material up there with the PC classics.

I'd say pass on Hexen 2 despite the recommendations. Hexen 1 is good (but not great), but Hexen 2 is...well watch gggmanlives review.
I second most other recommendations in this thread though.

If you don't mind a minor infection of popamole into your game experience, don't overlook Wolfenstien 2009 which was hub-based and one of few modern singleplayer shooters I can actually stand.

A surprisingly overlooked one, but Quake 2! It's hub based though structured in a way that it's not really free-roaming though. There's multiple hubs and branching paths but the designers valued their pacing of non-stop action, so it's pretty much always clear where to go. Play it on the secret Hard+ mode even if you have never played the game before for the game to be able to offer even an acceptable level of challenge.

 

[Great Deceiver]

i had a similar mouse issue with doom64 ex. for that game, it was solved by installing doom64-sdl fix. I assume theres something similar for powerslave ex.

I've tried your suggestion, but unfortunately the Doom 64ex fixed DLL doesn't work on Powerslave EX. Oh well. Thanks anyway!