FPS essentials

[Parsifarka]

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

I played it a few years ago for the first time and it feels like little more than a tech demo, it's still entertaining but not worth much consideration beyond a historical perspective. You can breeze through it in half an afternoon anyways.
However, I found the sequels (Catacomb Adventure Series) to be actually interesting games in their own right: the environments are more fleshed out both visually and by adding some flavour text and the enemies are more dangerous and placed cleverly, making for challenging and engaging experiences.

PS: On the other topic of the thread, Jericho sucks. I played through it because I'll play and watch anything inspired by the works of Clive Barker, but just like Hellraiser 8 sucks and I still had fun with it, so does Jericho... albeit it actually felt like a chore most of the time: it's a game painfully castrated by being released in the outdated hardware of consoles, none of the nice ideas it has are given the proper space to develop as you walk through corridors divided by mind-numbing QTEs repeating the dull act of killing. Loved the design of the female characters clad in black leather, though.
It's great to be fond of it, I wish I were as I am of Undying, but truth is the game is a mediocre corridor popamole only lifted up occasionally by its aesthetics.

 

[Strig]

how dare you make a giant list with no Sin

Absence of Sin is the sin, so it is present in spirit if not the body.

 

[Morenatsu.]

Undying be like, imagine making a hub-based game and then locking all the doors so its linear lmaooo

 

[Black Plague]

1996: HeXen 2 ((id Tech 1))

1997: HeXen 2 ((Quack engine))

 

[Strig]

I would consider Shogo: MAD essential despite the myriad of issues it had, but I think it deserves a spot for being unique and charming. And I woke up today to a certain song playing loudly in my head for some reason, and it happens often enough that I consider myself haunted.

 

[Riskbreaker]

The mech sections in Shogo are great indeed. They look good, especially the ones set in cityscapes, you get the sense of your mech's size. The on-foot ones feel pretty half-baked by comparison, almost on Blood 2's level. They are pretty underwhelming looking and, while the weapons do feel good, those aspects of shooting that kinda work in mech sections - the critical hit mechanic - make them into frustrating, save-scumming mess. It ain't fun if any random shot from any random grunt can potentially get you from near full HP to dead.

 

[JarlFrank]

The Wheel of Time FPS is kinda interesting.

 

[Morenatsu.]

The mech sections in Shogo are great indeed. They look good, especially the ones set in cityscapes, you get the sense of your mech's size. The on-foot ones feel pretty half-baked by comparison, almost on Blood 2's level. They are pretty underwhelming looking and, while the weapons do feel good, those aspects of shooting that kinda work in mech sections - the critical hit mechanic - make them into frustrating, save-scumming mess. It ain't fun if any random shot from any random grunt can potentially get you from near full HP to dead.

The on-foot segments are worse than Blood 2, for opposite reasons. Instead of endless damage-sponges forever and ever that require you to unload your entire inventory many times over, it's a game where one gun, the assault rifle, is infinitely superior to all the others because it can stun-lock absolutely everything, so every encounter just comes done to shooting first. And health doesn't matter, because every enemy shot can potentially kill you instantly regardless of health, but your own shots can instantly heal you, too. These kinds of problems are present with the mechs, too, but to a much lesser degree. At least there weren't any copy-pasted train levels? But in the end it all felt a lot less substantial than Blood 2, somehow.

 

[Avonaeon]

Unreal Tournament should be in the top category, imo. If you're gonna add Quake, add Arcane Dimensions as well.
Also, haven't seen Kingpin mentioned. Had some good level design and a pretty unique atmosphere.

 

[Marquis de Lirium]

Unreal Tournament should be in the top category, imo.

• No multiplayer-only shooters.

(Yes, you can play UT without human opponents, but I still think Arena shooters should count as mulltiplayer-only).

 

[Riskbreaker]

There was a number of sweet fanmade singleplayer campaigns for UT back in the day. Such as Operation Na Pali which was an attempt at full scale Unreal sequel. I recall it being kinda uneven, especially towards the end, but it was impressive for sure and the guys behind it pulled out some neat tricks. And it had some damn fine looking maps, I think they used buncha resources from the above-mentioned WoT game for some of them.

 

[Strig]

Unreal Tournament should be in the top category, imo. If you're gonna add Quake, add Arcane Dimensions as well.
Also, haven't seen Kingpin mentioned. Had some good level design and a pretty unique atmosphere.

As much as I like UT I would have to agree that arena shooters don't belong on this list. The core gameplay is definitely different enough to warrant a separate catergory for them. As for Kingpin — how could I forget this gem. The fact that it has voice lines like "fuck you, you fuck" is hilarious in and of itself. All this grotesque ghetto bollocks kept me entertained for weeks.

The on-foot segments are worse than Blood 2, for opposite reasons. Instead of endless damage-sponges forever and ever that require you to unload your entire inventory many times over, it's a game where one gun, the assault rifle, is infinitely superior to all the others because it can stun-lock absolutely everything, so every encounter just comes done to shooting first. And health doesn't matter, because every enemy shot can potentially kill you instantly regardless of health, but your own shots can instantly heal you, too. These kinds of problems are present with the mechs, too, but to a much lesser degree. At least there weren't any copy-pasted train levels? But in the end it all felt a lot less substantial than Blood 2, somehow.

Between the sponge blobs of Blood 2 and absolutely random nature of Shogo I always kind of liked the latter more. I mean, sure, the system's not fair, but because it affected both the player and the rogues gallery I didn't really mind. Life's not fair either, innit?

 

[Riskbreaker]

Kingpin aka that game where, the first time you play it, even the wee fucking rats will have their way with your posterior!

 

[jebsmoker]

you've got doom 1 on the top, which is where it belongs, but you don't got half life 1 or quake 1 alongside it?

c'mon bruh

 

[Morenatsu.]

Kingpin is visually cool, but mostly underwhelming otherwise.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Vietcong 1

 

[toughasnails]

The on-foot segments are worse than Blood 2, for opposite reasons. Instead of endless damage-sponges forever and ever that require you to unload your entire inventory many times over, it's a game where one gun, the assault rifle, is infinitely superior to all the others because it can stun-lock absolutely everything, so every encounter just comes done to shooting first. And health doesn't matter, because every enemy shot can potentially kill you instantly regardless of health, but your own shots can instantly heal you, too. These kinds of problems are present with the mechs, too, but to a much lesser degree. At least there weren't any copy-pasted train levels? But in the end it all felt a lot less substantial than Blood 2, somehow.

It wasn't so offensive with mechs bc of their huge health pool. You can't get killed by single shoot there. I don't remember if you had regular health pick-ups for mechs since I've played the game so long ago. I guess they could have left the critical hits for mechs as a way to heal up and I suppose as a nod to Japanese games which is probably what they were supposed to be. They make no sense in on-foot stages, it's one of those things where you ask yourself how could someone ever think that it would be a good idea or how it could've survived the whole development...

 

[Avonaeon]

SWAT 4

I actually think SWAT 3 is the superior experience. Voice command system feels more tacticool, and I think the art style holds up better than SWAT 4. That being said, SWAT 4 is still awesome.

 

[anvi]

Unreal Tournament 2004, Arma 2

 

[Vlajdermen]

Unreal Tournament 2004, Arma 2

No multiplayer-only games, faggot. I make that clear as day and I still have to put up with this bullshit.

 

[anvi]

Unreal Tournament 2004, Arma 2

No multiplayer-only games, faggot. I make that clear as day and I still have to put up with this bullshit.

I didn't read the op vaginaman.

 

[Vlajdermen]

I didn't read the op vaginaman.

Then get the fuck off my thread

 

[anvi]

I didn't read the op vaginaman.

Then get the fuck off my thread

Fuck you and your shit taste! Cocksucker.

 

[anvi]

I didn't read the op vaginaman.

Then get the fuck off my thread

You avoid multiplayer because you are no skill piece of shit? As well as being a childish aspie piece of shit? Wow. No wonder you love shooting so much. I bet I know what you are really looking for.

 

[Vlajdermen]

If that bothers you then go away, I'm not gonna butcher my query just to avoid hurting your feelings.