As a guy who has played Half Life 2 for several times, I can attest how close the game feels like CoD's daddy. You even have a couple of "RAMIREZ GET THE ROCKET LAUNCHER" moments
. Or the grenades that go BEEP BEEP BEEP and flash brightly and don't detonate until you leave the area/throw it back at the enemy (as in, they take a lot to explode).
The fact that the game is loved even by the people who hate modern shooters says a lot about the audiences.
Like TotalBiscuit and several other people themselves said in here, shooters were already a stupid genre. People only like to fondly remember Doom as if that's the only thing that counts as a shooter. Well, there was Virtua Cop/House of the dead type of games where you just shot stuff on screen (and no, it's not much of a different genre from Doom as Doom is different from Rainbox Six). Even the Doom-type or the Half Life type or the Serious Sam type of shooters weren't as brilliant as people make them.
I'm sorry, but I refuse to accept discussions about the "decline" from retards. I mean look at that fucker go, he still hasn't finished Seppuku Station in 15 minutes on the "I have no fear" (normal) difficulty
. Trust me, it takes under 10 minutes if you're a newbie to shooters, talking or no talking (even though I have the impression that he does the commentaries afterwards), speedrunners can finish it in a minute or two. His comments are also dumb.
Like being impressed that OH I'VE BEEN ATTACKED IN 3 SECONDS, nevermind that the so-called attack is something only a mentally challenged person would be unable to deal with. He showed in the fucking video, you slash once at him and he's dead (or you slash twice if you don't play on pussywhipped difficulty and get two ninjas to attack you).
Or his comments health and survival. Nigga there is ammo and medkits scattered virtually everywhere on the floor, what are you talking about!
Oooh, the ceiling fan is deadly
.
Man, praising single-player campaigns in shooters for its "survival" difficulty and so on is silly. Not only are the elements of survival, maze-like levels and resource management done better in other genres (survival horrors, dungeon crawlers like Infinitron just mentioned), they don't necessarily fit within the genre either. The entire keycards/skulls/keys was just a dumb halt into the real meat of the game, basically Romero dangling his dong in front of you and making you his bitch.
You guys are deluding yourself. I remember when I saw
this trailer with my friends - all of us were in awe on the flimsiest of things, like using a canon, squishing bugs or riding bikes/donkey.
I've played all the Modern Warfare games and Black Ops and it's not as much story as people make you believe. It's more about replicating cool action/stealth sequences from Hollywood blockbusters than it is about story. The only big story moments you ever get is when you get shot in the face or you do evil shit (torturing a guy by placing glass in his mouth then punching him, killing civilians at the airport) or seeing stuff blow up
. It's still "badass", only it's a child of modern badass with people saying "Tango Down" rather than corny Army of Darkness references. The fucking series ends with the main character (a dude with a big mustache and a fisher hat) sitting and having a smoke, that's how "serious" it is.
Not that the older games weren't more fun, they were. People do have a point like how many weapons feel same-y or that there's ZERO enemy variety, or there are no more fun secrets and easter eggs. Even regen health doesn't really help (see, Doom-like games were never really that hard unless you played on highest difficulty setting or you weren't accustomed to the controls, getting hit in there was not only harder to do, but didn't also bug you as fast as it does in modern shooters where sitting in the line of fire 5 seconds can mean your death).
It's like with the GTA-type of games. People don't care for stories or complex RPG-like systems or realistic police wanted levels, they want to blow stuff up and have fun doing various ridiculous shit. Those that do these things correctly lready transcend the "shooter" archetype anyway (Deus Ex,SWAT 4,System Shock etc.)