FPS essentials

[Ivan]

dat feel when you realize you've already experienced the best and are now just soliciting for a new fix

 

[Glop_dweller]

Blood; that's it. Blood is the best shooter I have ever seen. The rest pales. It's the only shooter that feels wrong not to have installed on every computer or device that I have that can run it.

*I don't run a PC without Blood and Fallout [1].

 

[Rean]

Fisting because I also remember really liking Jericho and wondering why on earth it had been so panned in the gaming press. Looking at it now, it's a title that appears to have been liked a lot more by the people that played it than the reviewers. (Small sample sizes but the user reviews on MC and on Google are a lot higher than the critic's scores.) Can't really remember much about it now, but it was about 14 bloody years ago I played it. I do remember finishing it and being sad it wasn't going to get a sequel though.

I don't get the hate for Jericho at all. I've finished the game 3 times (now getting an itch to play it again) and I'm not even viewing it through a nostalgia-lens. I see it as what it is, a flawed masterpiece. It could clearly benefit from 4 more hours of gameplay and a whole bunch more content, but what content is there is really fucking good. High-octane journey through the depths of depravity and despair where the only sure outcome is your death? Sign me the fuck up. I know I'll never forget the Roman-like demonic vomitorium stage.
The member-switching mechanic was smooth as hell and integrated really well with making you utilize different strategies to both fight and progress. I haven't seen this replicated anywhere else to this day.
GREAT game.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

There's always Hedon and more Half-Life mods.

 

[Morenatsu.]

EXPLODING LIPS

 

[toughasnails]

I won't repeat or expand on what was already mentioned.
I'll add Turok 1 and 2, Chronicles of Riddick since you said that some stealth is OK, Alien Trilogy. Since console only shooters are OK (you listed Resistance 3 and Timesplitters) I'll add Black, Darkwatch, Alien Resurrection (ignored on release but came to be seen as cult classic ahead of its time in recent year, p good and tough as nails horror FPS), Perfect Dark (p much NOLF's console sister).

 

[Greek Anime God]

- Clive Barker's Jericho

Dude, no. Jericho is not even competent let alone good.

I liked it.

I liked that it managed to make the story fit the gameplay involving switching between characters. The characters themselves also had some personality and weren't too samey. Why isn't this game being sold digitally anymore?

 

[Dayyālu]

Fisting because I also remember really liking Jericho and wondering why on earth it had been so panned in the gaming press.

Jericho is a mess. An interesting mess, but a mess nonetheless: the team/power setup is flat out annoying at times and the enemy design often dogshit (I still remember the crappy Nazi enemies, by the Gods that was a shitheap). It would have been a better shooter if you were dumped all the powers on a single character and you could juggle them and suit your gameplay needs as you wanted. Also, it's blatantly unfinished - much like Undying - the end boss is a disgrace and the plot goes nowhere.

I won't say that Jericho is bad: it's simply a mess that could have been great with more care given to the enemy roster, dumping the entirety of the squad/possession gimmick and, well, finishing it properly.


You are Empty is decent slavjank. It's a genre you get trained to recognize, much like Vivisector or utter shit Russian FPS games, with the difference that decent slavjank shooter are ukrop while shit ones are russkie. I won't call it even borderline great, it's functional and fun for what it is. At that point you can call Wolfesten 2009 and Singularity or Timeshift great too, they're all more professional and better built than You Are Empty. Comparing it to HL1 or RTCW is a bit naive, but I guess tastes.

I, for once, must be the only man that found DUSK utterly boring, but I dropped it quite fast. I have a strong resilience for retroshooters - even if I no longer have the time to enjoy them properly - but DUSK had some really crappy initial levels married with shit graphics that the author was insanely proud of. Looked like puke, and when it ain't done by technical limitation but because the author wants to my mind starts to wonder. Tastes again, I guess.


It's always fun to remember the worst shooters I've ever played. Blood II, Quake II, russian slavjank like Stalin's Subway....

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Though it's a 1st-person fantasy shooter with some ranged magic attacks, I have fomd memories of the first "FPS" I ever played in the early 90s - Catacomb 3D. I wonder if it's still worth playing today. There's just something about those giant bloodshot EGA eyeballs chasing you around in the mazes that has a charm no modern game I've played can match.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Though it's a 1st-person fantasy shooter with some ranged magic attacks, I have fomd memories of the first "FPS" I ever played in the early 90s - Catacomb 3D. I wonder if it's still worth playing today. There's just something about those giant bloodshot EGA eyeballs chasing you around in the mazes that has a charm no modern game I've played can match.

That really depends on if one minds slow keyboard controls. I played it not too long ago and the defining flaws of the game are one music track and the awkward controls, takes a while to turn around and I think it might not have strafing. The sequels are a lot of fun if you like Wolfenstein-style FPS games though.

 

[toughasnails]

Jericho felt like a co-op game that was redesigned as a singleplayer one. This was before L4D so maybe a big budget co-op FPS was considered a risky endeavor.
it doesn't allow you the sort of control you have in a singleplayer tactical FPS, it expects you to switch between squad members all the time, at the same time their AI is godawful and just not fit for what the game throws at you. There are moments when it really feels like playing a L4D-like game by yourself. Also the level design often wasn't a good match for the enemies and their numbers.

it could've been a great co-op FPS or a great single player squad tactics FPS if that aspect was properly fleshed out.

 

[what am i doing]

E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy dips a bit into the category you don't want (first person RPG, mostly in terms of character building rather than story/dialogue) but it's first and foremost a shooter, and a really good one, and I will never not shill for it when I see a chance.

You can actually ignore all character building aspects of the game entirely, if you want - it's technically viable to complete the game while remaining effectively level 1, though you do miss out on fun abilities and upgrades that way. You can similarly ignore basically all dialogue.

 

[Strig]

Jericho was a rubbish console port with obnoxiously intrusive QTEs, at best mediocre gunplay, boring enemies (not visually but gameplaywise) and extremely boring levels. The story was a bit on the 'tarded side but I could excuse it if the rest was fun. I understand how people could enjoy it but it wasn't a good game. Hell, I enjoyed Eradicator and I would never sumbmit it as my pick for the FPS Hall of Fame. Or even the FPS Hall of You Should Casually Play This.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Though it's a 1st-person fantasy shooter with some ranged magic attacks, I have fomd memories of the first "FPS" I ever played in the early 90s - Catacomb 3D. I wonder if it's still worth playing today. There's just something about those giant bloodshot EGA eyeballs chasing you around in the mazes that has a charm no modern game I've played can match.

That really depends on if one minds slow keyboard controls. I played it not too long ago and the defining flaws of the game are one music track and the awkward controls, takes a while to turn around and I think it might not have strafing. The sequels are a lot of fun if you like Wolfenstein-style FPS games though.

Back then, I think I only played FPSs with KB movement and maybe even just CTRL for fire. It was the shareware version that first time but I liked the game so much I think I got the full version. Trying to think of the first FPS I played with mouselook; it was likely Quake for the Stealth II with Rendition's Verite chipset. Ah, the memories, of playing all these old games on original hardware!

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Back then, I think I only played FPSs with KB movement and maybe even just CTRL for fire. It was the shareware version that first time but I liked the game so much I think I got the full version. Trying to think of the first FPS I played with mouselook; it was likely Quake for the Stealth II with Rendition's Verite chipset. Ah, the memories, of playing all these old games on original hardware!

I don't think Catacomb 3D had a shareware version, just a commercial release and one through a disk magazine. Catacomb Abyss on the other hand, was shareware but I don't think there was any difference between the shareware and commercial version, but there were two sequels you could buy. I wonder if the two have mixed together in your memory?

 

[Lemming42]

Catacomb 3D. I wonder if it's still worth playing today

Short answer is "no" IMO, but it wouldn't hurt to try it out again. Pretty short game, can be beaten in under an hour unless you get properly lost in the teleporter maze midway through. Just be careful of repetitive strain injury from having to click 100 times in 10 seconds to auto-fire fireballs.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Back then, I think I only played FPSs with KB movement and maybe even just CTRL for fire. It was the shareware version that first time but I liked the game so much I think I got the full version. Trying to think of the first FPS I played with mouselook; it was likely Quake for the Stealth II with Rendition's Verite chipset. Ah, the memories, of playing all these old games on original hardware!

I don't think Catacomb 3D had a shareware version, just a commercial release and one through a disk magazine. Catacomb Abyss on the other hand, was shareware but I don't think there was any difference between the shareware and commercial version, but there were two sequels you could buy. I wonder if the two have mixed together in your memory?

Very possible. But I know for a fact that whatever I first played was downloaded legally from a BBS and it was shareware so it was likely Catacomb Abyss or one after that and not Catacomb 3D, then I later tracked down a full version or maybe it was then when I played Catacomb 3D so who knows for sure really? They all had the same engine and looked similar so yeah; could have all been mixed in my mind. I think I then discovered Wolfenstein 3D after these, which was the first time I thought "So this is what they mean by First Person Shooters."

 

[Mexi]

It's an exclusive so very few here probably played it, but Resistance: Fall of Man was one of the best FPS games I've ever played. Great storyline, great graphics, amazing atmosphere, and the online was ridiculously fun. I would stay away from the sequels. My friend had Resistance 2, and I felt like I was playing a CoD clone, and I've heard that the final game sucks.

I mean fucking 1950's game with aliens. It was fucking awesome! Very underrated game.

 

[Strig]

It's an exclusive so very few here probably played it, but Resistance: Fall of Man was one of the best FPS games I've ever played. Great storyline, great graphics, amazing atmosphere, and the online was ridiculously fun. I would stay away from the sequels. My friend had Resistance 2, and I felt like I was playing a CoD clone, and I've heard that the final game sucks.

I mean fucking 1950's game with aliens. It was fucking awesome! Very underrated game.

I always wanted to play it but, well, it's a console exclusive so I probably won't. I remember it had an excellent website with, I believe, a radio dial you could activate. For some reason I downloaded and still have the message it played, it's been just sitting there since december 2006:

https://vocaroo.com/1oSODs9CBH6n

 

[Mexi]

It's an exclusive so very few here probably played it, but Resistance: Fall of Man was one of the best FPS games I've ever played. Great storyline, great graphics, amazing atmosphere, and the online was ridiculously fun. I would stay away from the sequels. My friend had Resistance 2, and I felt like I was playing a CoD clone, and I've heard that the final game sucks.

I mean fucking 1950's game with aliens. It was fucking awesome! Very underrated game.

I always wanted to play it but, well, it's a console exclusive so I probably won't. I remember it had an excellent website with, I believe, a radio dial you could activate. For some reason I downloaded and still have the message it played, it's been just sitting there since december 2006:

https://vocaroo.com/1oSODs9CBH6n

Yeah, part of their advertisement was a bunch of mysterious stuff. IIRC, some of it was coded, and some people on the PlayStation forum decoded the messages. Very fucking cool game, and I'm sure they probably fucked it up in the sequels because oftentimes your imagination is far better than anything someone could write. In-game, there would be these elite super soldiers that would litter the battlefield, and the game doesn't even explain who they are or why they're following the main character around (if they are). Anyways, crazy deep lore.

I played the second game at a friend's house, and it played like a bootleg CoD. Completely turned me off of the series.

 

[Vlajdermen]

It's an exclusive so very few here probably played it, but Resistance: Fall of Man was one of the best FPS games I've ever played. Great storyline, great graphics, amazing atmosphere, and the online was ridiculously fun. I would stay away from the sequels. My friend had Resistance 2, and I felt like I was playing a CoD clone, and I've heard that the final game sucks.

I mean fucking 1950's game with aliens. It was fucking awesome! Very underrated game.

The third game is good. Not the best, the levels are too short and linear, but the weapon and enemy variety is great. It's also one of the very few console games that made trophy hunting fun. It's more than just "shoot 50 enemies in the legs", there's skill and creativity to it.

I haven't played Fall of Man yet, I'll certainly check it out. I agree the second game was shit.

 

[Riskbreaker]

. Hell, I enjoyed Eradicator and I would never sumbmit it as my pick for the FPS Hall of Fame. Or even the FPS Hall of You Should Casually Play This.

Eh, I'd say it's worth a try at the very least. Just for the uniqueness of it, it probably has more gimmicks per square meter than any FPS released around that time.
Would that the environments and enemies were more interesting - you are fighting bland robots in bland futuristic industrial environments.

 

[Louis_Cypher]

Ages back I tried to make a personal list of the history of shooter games, for my own use, since while I don't possess great skill at shooters, they have been with me my whole gaming life. I remember the hype surrounding big releases like Quake and Unreal, as well as the sheer relish of shooters set within my favorite settings like Star Wars and Star Trek. The list isn't complete, you can probably find much better ones, it's also weirdly organized into periods around major graphical leaps, but I tried to list some major releases I remember, and milestones, and who made what, with what engine. Here is the list from an old .txt, for anyone interested (I'm not saying all these are "essential", just a bit of reference):

--------------------------------
Wolfenstein/Doom/Heretic/Dark Forces Era
--------------------------------
1992: Wolfenstein 3D
1993: Doom ((id Tech 1))
1994: Doom II ((id Tech 1))
1994: Heretic ((id Tech 1))
1995: HeXen ((id Tech 1))
1995: Star Wars: Dark Forces ((Jedi Engine))
1995: Duke Nukem 3D ((Build Engine))
1996: HeXen 2 ((id Tech 1))

------------------------------------------------------
Quake-Engine/Quake II-Engine/Turok/Jedi Knight/Half-Life Era
------------------------------------------------------
1996: Quake ((id Tech 2))
1996: PowerSlave ((Build Engine))
1997: Blood ((Build Engine))
1997: Quake II ((id Tech 2))
1997: Goldeneye 007
1997: Star Wars: Dark Forces II - Jedi Knight ((Sith Engine))
1997: Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
1998: Delta Force
1998: Half-Life ((GoldSrc Engine based on Quake))
1998: Heretic II
1999: Kingpin ((id Tech 2))
1999: Aliens versus Predator
1999: System Shock 2 ((Dark Engine of Thief Series))
1999: Delta Force 2
1999: Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear
2000: Soldier of Fortune ((id Tech 2))
2000: Serious Sam

---------------------------------------------------------------
Unreal-Engine/Quake III-Engine/Return to Castle Wolfenstein/Star Trek Era
---------------------------------------------------------------
1998: Unreal ((Unreal Engine))
1998: Star Trek: Klingon Honor Guard ((Unreal Engine))
1999: Unreal Tournament ((Unreal Engine))
1999: Quake III ((id Tech 3))
2000: Deus Ex ((Unreal Engine))
2000: Star Trek: Elite Force ((id Tech 3))
2001: Serious Sam 2
2001: Clive Barker's Undying ((Unreal Engine))
2001: Return to Castle Wolfenstein ((id Tech 3))
2001: Aliens versus Predator II ((Lithtech Talon))
2001: Max Payne
2001: Halo
2001: Red Faction
2002: Soldier of Fortune II ((id Tech 3))
2002: Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
2003: Call of Duty ((id Tech 3))
2003: Star Trek: Elite Force II ((id Tech 3))
2003: Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
2003: Call of Duty ((id Tech 3))
2003: Max Payne 2
2004: Halo 2
2004: Far Cry ((CryEngine 1))

-------------------------------------------------------------
Unreal II/Source-Engine/Doom III/Gears of War/Borderlands Era
-------------------------------------------------------------
2002: Unreal Tournament 2003 ((Unreal Engine 2))
2003: Unreal II ((Unreal Engine 2))
2003: Deus Ex: Invisible War ((Unreal Engine 2))
2004: Doom 3 ((id Tech 4))
2004: Killzone
2004: Unreal Tornament 2004 ((Unreal Engine 2))
2004: Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines ((Source Engine))
2004: Half-Life 2 ((Source Engine))
2004: Painkiller
2004: Star Wars: Battlefront
2005: Call of Duty 2
2005: Quake 4 ((id Tech 4))
2005: F.E.A.R ((Lithtech Jupiter EX))
2005: Star Wars: Battlefront II
2006: Call of Duty 3
2006: Prey ((id Tech 4))
2006: Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter ((Diesel Engine for GRAW))
2006: Gears of War ((Unreal Engine 3))
2006: Lost Planet
2006: Resistance: Fall of Man
2006: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas ((Unreal Engine 3))
2007: BioShock ((Unreal Engine 2.5))
2007: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
2007: Crysis ((CryEngine 2))
2007: The Darkness
2007: Clive Barker's Jericho
2007: Portal ((Source Engine))
2007: Unreal Tournament 3 ((Unreal Engine 3))
2007: Call of Duty 4
2007: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
2008: Dark Sector
2008: Far Cry 2
2008: Gears of War II ((Unreal Engine 3))
2008: Resistence 2
2008: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 ((Unreal Engine 3))
2009: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
2009: Killzone 2
2009: Wolfenstein ((id Tech 4))
2009: Borderlands ((Unreal Engine 3))
2010: Aliens vs. Predator
2010: Bioshock 2
2010: Medal of Honor
2010: Metro 2033
2011: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
2011: Portal 2 ((Source Engine))
2011: Brink ((id Tech 4))
2011: Gears of War III ((Unreal Engine 3))
2011: Killzone 3
2011: Resistence 3
2012: Borderlands 2 ((Unreal Engine 3))
2012: Far Cry 3
2012: Spec Ops: The Line ((Unreal Engine 3))
2012: Aliens: Colonial Marines ((Unreal Engine 3))
2013: BioShock Infinite ((Unreal Engine 3))
2013: Call of Duty: Ghosts
2014: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel ((Unreal Engine 3))
[INCOMPLETE]

-------------------------
id Tech 5/Unreal Engine 4
-------------------------
2011: Crysis 2 ((CryEngine 3))
2011: Deus Ex: Human Revolution
2011: Rage ((id Tech 5))
2013: Crysis 3 ((CryEngine 3))
2013: Killzone: Shadow Fall
2014: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
2014: Far Cry 4
2014: Wolfenstein: The New Order ((id Tech 5))
2015: Wolfenstein: The Old Blood ((id Tech 5))
[INCOMPLETE]

---------
id Tech 6
---------
2016: Doom ((id Tech 6))
[INCOMPLETE]

Here is also an incomplete list of some of the more prolific or interesting game engines used, and devs, including a few games that were were notable:

---------------
Shooter Engines
---------------
id Tech 2 (Quake, Quake II, Half-Life)
id Tech 3 (Quake III, Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force, Solider of Fortune 2, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Star Wars: Jedi Outcast, etc)
Unreal Engine 1 (Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Star Trek: Klingon Honor Guard, Deus Ex)
Unreal Engine 3 (Gears of War Trilogy, Spec Ops: The Line, Borderlands, etc)
id tech 6 (Doom 2016)
Build Engine (Blood, Witchhaven, Shadow Warrior, Powerslave)
Sith Engine (Star Wars: Dark Forces II - Jedi Knight)

----------
Developers:
----------
id Software [[Doom, Quake, Rage]]
Epic Games [[Unreal, Gears of War]]
Valve [[Half-Life, Portal]]
Gearbox [[Half-Life expansions, Brothers in Arms, Borderlands]]
LucasArts [[Dark Forces]]
Raven Software [[Heretic/HeXen, Soldier of Fortune, Star Wars, Star Trek]]
Crytek [[Far Cry, Crysis]]
Bungie [[Marathon, Halo, Destiny]]

Also, here for reference are some of the major retro revival releases, which revive everything good and imaginative before military shooters took over:

-----------------------
id Tech 7/Retro Revival
-----------------------
2014: Ziggurat
2016: Doom ((id Tech 6))
2018: Project Warlock
2018: Dusk
2019: Amid Evil
2019: Ion Fury ((Build Engine))
2020: Doom Eternal ((id Tech 7))
2020: Hellbound
2021: Arthurian Legends
20??: Dread Templar
20??: Wrath: Aeon of Ruin ((id Tech 2))
20??: Prodeus

It's a big genre. It's hard to pick essentials. So I'm going to just pick out ones I think were imaginative and immersive rather than good in every respect. This means there will be a lot of boomer shooters listed, because they just contained insane conceptual ambition compared to later shooters; satanic invasion forces, alien invasion fleets, hell dimensions, fortresses on lava planets, and frozen million year-old citadels. Even in such a prolific genre as shooters, the entire "boomer shooter" aesthetic died for more than a decade, when games started chasing Hollywood, so I'm totally in awe of what Doom 2016 represented. In terms of atmosphere, setting, etc, I would say people should check out:

• Doom
  
• Doom II
  
• Heretic
• Hexen
• Dark Forces
  
• Quake
  
• Powerslave
  
• Blood
  
• Quake II
• Dark Forces II - Jedi Knight
  
• Turok
• Half-Life
• Aliens versus Predator
  
• Unreal
• Klingon Honor Guard
• Clive Barker's Undying
  
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein

The revival so far:

• Doom
• Dusk
• Amid Evil
• Doom: Eternal
• Arthurian Legends

Remember they are selected for imagination and atmosphere. I'll stop around there, at the era of Quake III and Unreal engines, and a few modern revivals. It's not definitive. I have never played Marathon for example, but that might be another good addition. Those games however, are examples of true geek culture, before the industry was taken away from the Trekkies, Tolkienists and Metalheads who created the games industry, i.e. they still feature hyper imaginative settings, atmosphere, dark fantasy and science fiction concepts, rather than the plebeian fascination with limited real life. They take joy in exploring alternate dimensions, alien empires, hell worlds, and the vast cosmos, with heroic protagonists. Heretic and Hexen for example evoke the kind of arcane dimension found in many a dark multiverse.

 

[Mexi]

Uh, I remember Turok. Game was ridiculously fun, but holy shit, that game was hard! I've never played it as an adult, but as a kid, I had to use codes to beat the game. The final boss was fun as hell. Other than R: FOM, I think the other best experiences I had with FPS's was Goldeneye, Quake III: Arena, and SWAT: 4. Off the top of my head (just purely FPS-shooters), I think these were the games I've played the most hours of.

 

[Morenatsu.]

how dare you make a giant list with no Sin