Recently I long for some good
single player fps games so here are my random-ish thoughts about what I played:
FEAR + 2 expansions
- These games have one of the best feeling of gunplay I know. Weapons are diverse and each feels different. Shotgun packs a punch and you can feel its power.
- AI - much has been said about the AI in FEAR games. It is remarkable and you can be sure enemies WILL use level design to surprise flank you or make good use of grenades. Because of this, fights are never boring.
- Enemies are not bullet sponges and they react to the situation. It was impressive to hear "They took out the heavy!", "We've got 2 men down!" but the icing on the cake was "He's in the cubicle!" when I actually just ducked in one!
- I liked that there weren't many mechs/bosses in the game.
- Graphic wise the game is perfectly fine. To be frank I'm impressed how well it aged.
- No backtracking.
I played on Hard and I think I overall used less than half of available medpaks. I tend to make rules for myself and playing FEAR I allowed myself to use a medpak only when I had 10 of them (maximum amount) and I found another one. I also almost never took advantage of slo-mo since it seemed to me as cheating. What I'm trying to say is that the game could be harder (maybe it is on higher difficulties, I don't know).
Titanfall 2
- A lot of weapons and they feel good albeit somewhat similar to each other.
- Graphic wise it is beautiful and plays smooth as butter on my not-so-modern system.
- One of the best designed levels in fps I played, utilizing cool mechanics.
- No backtracking.
Prey 2006
Disclaimer: I have finished Arkane's Prey several times and like it a lot, however for some reason I completely missed the original one.
- Very innovative (especially considering its release date)
- Contains quite a few puzzles and pretty interesting mechanics (eg. death, spirit-walk)
- Adaptive difficulty - while I had it turned off (and for some reason it turned itself back on after each restart), it's supposed to adapt the game difficulty (eg. amount of ammo and enemy health) to how well you do.
- Puzzles aren't too tedious or difficult.
- Just enough boss fights.
- Weapons - each feels very different and is unique in terms of looks and effects.
- No backtracking.
- Graphic wise the game is solid and it aged very well, IMO.
- At first I couldn't connect with the protagonist at all but after a bit I felt more comfortable playing a Cherokee while being a Middle-European guy
Overall I can recommend all 3 of the above.