Vapourware 2000s First-Person FPS Shooter Games

[Iucounu]

Ghost Recon (2001)

Including the add-ons Desert Siege and Island Thunder.

 

[pOcHa]

lol, made me google wtf is Gaylo

 

[Ash]

2000s FPS are ALL TRASH. Growing up being blown away by the games of the 90s on PC & console, including the many great FPS, I was a hopeful seeker of new experiences thoroughly addicted, which led to a road of suffering through all the shite of the 2000s. All the time spent playing retard-tier 2000s FPS is one of my biggest gaming shames & regrets. The people championing them in this thread I assume either don't know better or are simply retarded.

Something I find fascinating is there is not a single FPS in the 2000s that meets 90s gameplay standards. Just endless linear, repetitive, braindead shit. You'd think there would be one exception, but no, all the glory completely abandoned. There is but one exception that came close, and that is the Stalker games, though they're still not quite my ideal. Yet they're the only ones I consider remotely monocled of that decade, and worthy of a gaming historian's time.

90s FPS glory:

-Genuine Challenge
-Resource management (health, armor, ammo for 10+ guns, often minor inventory)
-Non-linear level design that requires a little brainpower to navigate, as well as allows for multiple approaches.
-Environmental hazards and puzzle elements
-Platforming and climbing
-projectile-based combat. 2000s on the other hand all hitscan hell.
-Notable degree of environmental interactivity.
-Huge enemy rosters with diverse behaviors, not just all human enemies and maybe a few extras if you're lucky.
-Sometimes even entire optional/secret levels.
-Swimming, or even freeform flying.

(this is of course without going into the other side of the monocle coin with 90s realism-based tactical shooters, like System Shock, Deus Ex, Rainbow 6 or whatever).

Each 90s game had a twist on this formula, either small or a big twist, but retained the core standards defined by the mighty doom (for the most part).
Quite the design formula that made FPS a great genre. Prestigious. Actually demanded something from the player, moderately deep gameplay. FUN in abundance. All turned into linear shooting galleries with zero substance, graphics & realism emphasis over gameplay, laughable attempts to tell a story. To enjoy this shit you have to have a simple mind.

Certain ignorant people love to blame consoles for the decline, but that's horseshit when PC devs were largely the trend setters of the genre (Valve, id & Ion Storm were basically considered the kings), 90s console FPS were largely great too (NOT Goldeneye though it was ok at best), and there's not a single 2000s PC FPS that retained old gold standards, whether multiplatform or designed specifically for the PC. Doom 3, Half-Life 2, Unreal 2, Call of Duty, Quake 4, Bioshock, just endless SHIT.

Outside of Stalker, I cannot happily recommend a single 2000s FPS among all the trash I played. I could recommend a select few in the 7-8/10 (at best) range, but why bother when there's many better games to play?

And yes, Deus Ex is technically a 2000s game, but fuck off that game is 90s through an through, pretty much the culmination of a particular breed of 90s design standards, spent the majority of its dev time in the 90s. It's the ultimate end-game 90s game to top off the golden decade.

The decline was so bad that the 2000s was Third Person Shooters's decade. There are many legit good TPS in the 2000s by comparison, before Epic games ruined it all towards the end of the decade with Gears of War. I consider them far more worthy to talk about:

Duke Nukem: Zero Hour
The Punisher
GUN
Dead Space
Max Payne
Max Payne 2
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 5
The Saboteur
Destroy All Humans 2
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Shadowgrounds
Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction
Red Dead Revolver
FF7: Dirge of Cerberus
The Suffering
The Suffering 2
Syphon Filter 2
Mafia
Mafia 2

Even the fucking 50 Cent game was more interesting than the majority of 2000s garbage FPS.

Sure some of these are rather mediocre too but 2000s TPS > 2000s FPS. FACT.

 

[DicLupa]

What was that shooter where you played a guy who went into hell or something that comes back. Final boss is a demoness.

I remember it being fairly entertaining despite being second rate ghetto shit.

Requiem: Avenging Angel? IIRC you're an angel protagonist and the first level is set in Hell, before you go to the sci-fi future 'real world' in order to stop some Hell plot. Now that I think about, the setup is similar to Blood 2, but a lot more self-serious. I never got far with it, but I assume you figh Lilith by the end.

Had a decent grimdark tone and some cool JK-esque powers (turn enemies into pillars of salt!), but not much else of note and had some stupid difficulty balancing. I wouldn't mind another crack at the concept.

 

[KIss My Ass]

Titanfall 2 is pretty awesome.

 

[Ash]

Were talking 2000-2009 boyo. The 2010s despite also being laden with trash did probably fare better for FPS.

 

[Lyric Suite]

What was that shooter where you played a guy who went into hell or something that comes back. Final boss is a demoness.

I remember it being fairly entertaining despite being second rate ghetto shit.

Requiem: Avenging Angel? IIRC you're an angel protagonist and the first level is set in Hell, before you go to the sci-fi future 'real world' in order to stop some Hell plot. Now that I think about, the setup is similar to Blood 2, but a lot more self-serious. I never got far with it, but I assume you figh Lilith by the end.

Had a decent grimdark tone and some cool JK-esque powers (turn enemies into pillars of salt!), but not much else of note and had some stupid difficulty balancing. I wouldn't mind another crack at the concept.

Ho yeah that one.

All i remember was decent but a bit wonky level design and unever combat. Definitely had a sense the game was ghetto stuff but it was also knewl enough.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Anyone saying Serious Sam sucks should have his cock chopped off with an axe.

Serious Sam introduced the idea you could have a pure run and gun shooter without level design. That always bothered me, even if the game was fun.

 

[Vlajdermen]

Anyone saying Serious Sam sucks should have his cock chopped off with an axe.

Serious Sam introduced the idea you could have a pure run and gun shooter without level design. That always bothered me, even if the game was fun.

Arcade run and gun games existed before FPS and before Serious Sam, someone was gonna connect the two genres eventually. You have to admit they're a natural fit. As for the fact that nobody ever pulled it off as well as the original Serious Sam... it is a shame, but it's no skin off Serious Sam's nose.

 

[Ash]

Arcade run & gun (side scrolling shooters) had level design too. Unless you're talking about Shmups, those don't really qualify as having level design. But they've always been rather niche anyways. And thankfully, SS too is niche. Like Lyric Suite, I don't want that becoming standard, even if it has some merit. the only arena FPS I ever truly enjoyed was Doom Eternal, because it goes above & beyond the usual arena shooter + includes minor explore/challenge segments between the arenas.

 

[Vlajdermen]

Serious Sam had level design too if you wanna be that strict about it. Granted, there was room for improvement, but there was more to it than just giant boxes and funnels that the haters remember it for.

Now that I see your edit, I agree Doom Eternal's extras were cool, though I still hold Sam TSE as the superior game. Eternal had its own set of issues to work out.

 

[Ash]

True. Depending on which SS we are talking about anyways.

I'll stop spamming, I promise: BioShock (2007) or, the best* FPS ever!

*According to IGN, Gamespot and such.

bioshock isnt a good game if you compare it to system shock

WRONG. Bioshock isn't a good game, period. Comparisons to SysShk isn't even necessary. a game featuring God mode as the intended way to play, then pointless scavenging & shitty combat on top of that is not a good game.

 

[Avonaeon]

Bulletstorm

Good game, but 2011

I'll throw in another:
XIII (2003)

 

[Ash]

Bulletstorm was 2011. and also shit.

Ha ha look how cool we are parodying modern dumb shooters....while being a dumb modern shooter ourselves. Parodies as a video game design concept is dumb as shit, as you become the thing you are parodying unless it's just a short segment of a larger game. This also applies to music parodies (fuck weird Al, it just adds more poison to the well, music is not supposed to be comedy imo, outside of very niche instances not played on the radio like Al was), but does not apply to movies (e.g a horror becomes a comedy, solely a genre swap, such as Scary Movie). Literature I'd say similar: short stories or comics is fine. A full novel being a parody is dumb.

Anyway, BS is linear without exception, the story is bland and edgy to a cringey degree, regen health is present, not much enemy variety...it's a call of duty campaign with the silver lining of the score/gory kill system and multiple weapons w/upgrades. Ultimately it's shit. Go replay it as I tried to a couple years back for some dumb reason and you will feel like a brainless moron. My first playthrough I also felt that way mind you but pickings were slim in 2011.

I am fine with linear, edgy, whatever, don't get me wrong, but it's just not a good example of linear like say Half-life, Super Mario Bros & Resident Evil 4 are.

 

[Spacer's Nugget]

Ash Chill, bro.

 

[Iucounu]

90s FPS glory:

-Genuine Challenge
-Resource management (health, armor, ammo for 10+ guns, often minor inventory)
-Non-linear level design that requires a little brainpower to navigate, as well as allows for multiple approaches.
-Environmental hazards and puzzle elements
-Platforming and climbing
-projectile-based combat. 2000s on the other hand all hitscan hell.
-Huge enemy rosters with diverse behaviors, not just all human enemies and maybe a few extras if you're lucky.
-Sometimes even entire optional/secret levels.
-Swimming, or even freeform flying.

Sounds interesting if true. I've never played any 90s FPS games, but you may well be right about the 00s. My first FPS was Ghost Recon (tactical, open non-linear levels), after that I didn't find anything remotely similar until Crysis and Stalker.

 

[Bad Sector]

Since it is impossible to make the game play like original Doom, you might as well accept it as a horror/survival game competent half-life clone [...].

It can be both, but TBH IMO Doom 3 is only skin-deep into both being a survival game (it isn't like you are ever near running out of resources) and even Half-Life 1 had way more scripted scenes than Doom 3. I'd agree that it is much better at horror though, even if it becomes repetitive (i am of the opinion that the game is too long for its own good). FWIW i've only finished HL1 a handful of times but i have finished Doom 3 multiple times, including the BFG edition and even the xbox port (which has slightly different maps).

Serious Sam introduced the idea you could have a pure run and gun shooter without level design. That always bothered me, even if the game was fun.

The first Serious Sam had some level design in that there were often cases where you had to complete "objectives" (like that one where you fill a spike hole with sand or something) with subobjectives that could be done in any order or had to explore the environment for something like a button or object. However in later games they focused more on the arenas.

Theoretically SS3 tried to bring back some of the exploration but it was done in a more "linear" way (if that makes sense) than the first game had and other issues of the game counterbalanced any improvement on that area. FWIW i haven't played SS4 to know how it fares there.

 

[Hobo Elf]

What was that shooter where you played a guy who went into hell or something that comes back. Final boss is a demoness.

I remember it being fairly entertaining despite being second rate ghetto shit.

Requiem: Avenging Angel? IIRC you're an angel protagonist and the first level is set in Hell, before you go to the sci-fi future 'real world' in order to stop some Hell plot. Now that I think about, the setup is similar to Blood 2, but a lot more self-serious. I never got far with it, but I assume you figh Lilith by the end.

Had a decent grimdark tone and some cool JK-esque powers (turn enemies into pillars of salt!), but not much else of note and had some stupid difficulty balancing. I wouldn't mind another crack at the concept.

Requiem was a neat game. Replaying the game recently made me wish for a proper Deus Ex style game but with angelic powers instead.

 

[kangaxx]

Project IGI and Operation Flash point, no?

 

[Lemming42]

The biggest problem of Doom 3, the tiny, cramped levels where you have no room to gun and run even if you mod the game to increase the pitiful running speed, cannot be fixed. Since it is impossible to make the game play lile original Doom, you might as well accept it as the horror/survival game they were trying to go for originally.

It's definitely not meant to play like the original Doom but BFG edition doesn't feel like survival horror. Enemies are plentiful, the pace is constant.

My memories of the original Doom 3 are hazy, and I'm not sure exactly what changes BFG Edition makes - does it add more enemies? BFG Edition felt closer to, say, Half-Life than any kind of survival horror thing. Pretty much constant action and forward momentum.

In any case, I enjoyed BFG Edition, and would describe it as a fairly fast-paced corridor shooter.

I'd also add Quake 4 (2005), Prey (2006), and Wolfenstein (2009) to the list.

Quake 4 is fine but it's the very definition of mediocre, IMO. There's nothing wrong with it, but like... you know, it's just Quake 4. It's Ravensoft in full-on "we make games that aren't technically bad" mode.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Unless you're talking about Shmups, those don't really qualify as having level design

This wasn't true at all until the Danmaku (bullet hell) masturbation that happened after Cave kind of took over the genre in the mid 2000s.

Earlier shmups (especially horizontal, but many vertical shmups as well - for example, Mahou Daisakusen/Sorcer Striker) had very intricate levels full of obstacles that the player had to navigate in addition to enemy ships and bullets, and devious enemy placement that required both strategy and memorization.

Even as recently as 2004 shmups had excellent level design - play Gradius V on the PS2 for a great example.

 

[Bad Sector]

My memories of the original Doom 3 are hazy, and I'm not sure exactly what changes BFG Edition makes - does it add more enemies?

From a gameplay perspective the main difference is that you have more ammo etc in the levels and some areas are a bit brighter. However the latter is actually more of a technical consideration because the game casts less shadows than the original as PS3 was not able to handle the fillrate the original game needed for the shadows.

But despite the BFG in the name the game is largely a downgrade from the original, with worse graphics (in fact often the brighter lights expose areas that were meant to be pitch black not only for the atmosphere but also to mask seams in the environment art), worse UI, worse item placement (e.g. the ammo issue i mentioned above as well as other resources), worse atmosphere (the flashlight mentioned previously and how it affects not only the visual side but also the fact that no longer you have to juggle between it and your weapon, which in the original increases tension as you have to make split second switches or just assume that the enemy is still where you are literally shooting in the dark), etc.

One positive thing though is that it adds support for a 120Hz mode so if you have a high refresh rate monitor it can feel smoother.

 

[Ash]

90s FPS glory:

-Genuine Challenge
-Resource management (health, armor, ammo for 10+ guns, often minor inventory)
-Non-linear level design that requires a little brainpower to navigate, as well as allows for multiple approaches.
-Environmental hazards and puzzle elements
-Platforming and climbing
-projectile-based combat. 2000s on the other hand all hitscan hell.
-Huge enemy rosters with diverse behaviors, not just all human enemies and maybe a few extras if you're lucky.
-Sometimes even entire optional/secret levels.
-Swimming, or even freeform flying.

Sounds interesting if true. I've never played any 90s FPS games, but you may well be right about the 00s. My first FPS was Ghost Recon (tactical, open non-linear levels), after that I didn't find anything remotely similar until Crysis and Stalker.

Make playing the following 90s greats

Duke 3D
Shadow Warrior
Blood
Quake
Doom 1/2
System Shock 2
Deus Ex

An absolute priority for peak first person gaming, then branch out from there once you have more acquired taste & understanding (Arx Fatalis, Unreal, Half-Life, Turok 1 & 2, Doom 64, Quake 2, Heretic, Descent, Ashes 2063, System Shock 1 and on and on).

Half-Life would be in the required playing list but it has a habit of making people retarded, resulting in them desiring realism, graphics, set pieces & storytelling over monocled engaging deep gameplay (this is relevant because gameplay is ~95% of most game's running time, therefore if it is shit and you enjoy it you should be questioning your life choices or reevaluating your intelligence). It is required playing because it did those things very well while still offering a *decent* gameplay experience, but not required before experiencing the real deal and gaining perspective.

 

[schru]

I object to playing System Shock 2 before System Shock. Playing the original first provides a more interesting perspective on the sequel, and the latter is often treated as if Shodan were unique to it or developed better in it, while in fact it's more like SS2 only offered a rehash of the character.

 

[Lemming42]

Wrote about it in the System Shock remake thread a while back but SS2's treatment of SHODAN is actually fucking awful IMO. Completely gutted everything that made the character so unique and fascinating in SS1 and remade it into something profoundly generic and uninteresting. And the less said about the entire ending, the better. Really wish they'd just made an entirely new IP with no relation to System Shock, as they apparently originally planned.

On an unrelated note, I wonder what people in this topic think the most damaging FPS of the 2000s was. The fact that I genuinely ran out of games to recommend after 2005 makes me think that something happened around then that caused a disastrous influence on the genre. I'm thinking Call of Duty 2, which has often been implicated as the harbinger of dogshit for numerous reasons (regenerating health, heavy scripting, very boring ultra-railroaded levels, and so on).

But I'd also be surprised if Call of Duty 2's influence was so immediate that it killed the genre stone dead within a year. I suppose there are also a number of wider industry trends to consider, like the shift to console-first/multiplatform design.

I did try to replay CoD2 last year and I couldn't even get past the Russian missions. Just a truly, utterly, enormously boring game.