Bang! The FPS Megathread

[Gorse]

Hot off the heels of the PSX JRPG thread comes this one about everyone's favourite genre: rooty-tooty-point-and-shooties! What's your top first-person shooter, and why do you like it so much? Any recommendations for the class? Do you prefer single-player boomer shooters or multiplayer millennial munchers? Mark your answer with a bullet in the replies below!

Personally, I'm a sucker for late-90s 3D shooters with a sci-fi flair. My two favourite titles are the original Half-Life (+ Opposing Force and Blue Shift) and System Shock 2, but I'm also very partial to the original Marathon. I like games where you're trapped in a dark, secluded space, completely alone save for millions of bloodthirsty aliens that crave your trachea as their midday luncheon. If you know of any other neat titles that suit this vibe, do drop a line!

On the multiplayer side of things, Team Fortress 2 is one of my favourite games ever – I have a ton of good memories on maps like 2fort, Turbine, and Dustbowl, and seeing Meet The Pyro immediately after it came out is an extremely-cherished adolescent memory. I also (and please don't pass this around, or you'll ruin my hipster cred) enjoyed Call of Duty: Warzone in its heyday as a fast and frenetic battle royale, and got quite a bit of fun from the Paladins beta in the late 2010s. All of these games come recommended from me!

 

[DarcyT]

Serious Sam (yes, all of them).

I have played so much of the series that I don't even think I can rationally argue in its favour anymore, they just are my life now.

The console versions are...fine. I'd say they're better than they get credit for, but the PC versions are the way to go. Especially a high powered PC, 'cause those enemies are going to start piling up, and the performance is gonna take a hit.

People have compared the gameplay and combat to Smash TV, which I do agree to some extent, but I feel the level design mixes up a lot more than the twin stick game (as it would have to).

The energy of the game is basically like a Looney Tunes cartoon. While Sam Stone's personality is compared to Duke Nukem's, I feel like the tone of the characters in Serious Sam is way more goofy, and for me that's a good thing. It's an attitude that doesn't ever date, because it was never cool to begin with.

I wanna also point out that the HD versions of the first two games we're Devolver Digital's first foray into the game industry (a little under three years before Hotline Miami to be exact). But, still to this day, I'd always recommend the originals, with their simplified textures.

...So I still haven't said what I like about it. I dunno, the fast gun-blasting combat, the massive open arena-style levels, the ingenious enemy design (I'm looking at you headless kamikaze), the adrenaline-fuelling soundtrack, all boiling up to some memorably tough bosses (at least some of them are).

Thing is, it's repetitive...realllly repetitive. If you play one level, you've basically played them all, the saving grace being that it's quite short, ending in approximately 4-6 hours. I feel like it's the doom 1 and 2 idea of "it's the same thing, but the levels are different, so it's perfect". Also, don't go in expecting a story. Yeah, there were absolutely fps games during the same era with brilliant stories, but this was deliberately a response to the genre moving to a more story-focused direction, by having just you, essentially a sandbox, and a bucket load of enemies...

...and I mean a bucket load. It's not uncommon for 30 enemies+ at a time to try and get all up in your face. So how is that fair? Simple really, the game give you lots of guns too. Enemies are fairly weak (on lower difficulties) and you can blow them to smithereens quite easily, which means it's going to be a lot of explosions and body parts flying around.

The long and short of my love for this game is this; if you want a deep, atmospheric and meaningful shooting game, then don't get this (I mean, still do, but whatever). If you want to shoot everything that moves and blow the ever-loving shit out of stuff for a weekend, then why are you still reading this? Go, buy. Then check out the fan mods.

 

[DarcyT]

...I don't know if there is a character limit on this site, but it may be a good idea to look in to...

 

[Lee__Kanker]

duke nukem doesn't hold a candle to

 

[DunkeyKong]

Half Life Series is just that good, even the VR one
I wonder how Half Life 3 would look like
Also I think Unreal Tournament deserve a shout, I suddenly remember it after seeing this post

 

[It's Thinking 2]

Hexen. Had it on N64. Played it with my friend, his brother, and my sister. Good times. (Goldeneye too, but everyone knows that one. )

 

[PhrawzT]

Also I think Unreal Tournament deserve a shout, I suddenly remember it after seeing this post

The original Unreal Tournament is still one of my favorite FPS games of all time. Capture the Flag mode was the best.

 

[akumajobelmont]

I really can't go past Exhumed/Powerslave on the Saturn, Quake and DOOM. I'll revisit them time and time again.

I also love Heretic & Hexen. Not the biggest fan of either of the sequels, though.

Zero Tolerance is also an absolute favourite. It has a unique vibe, I love the music and sound, and the visual design/colours are tops.

I dug Unreal Tournament, but I grew up with the average Dreamcast version. I much prefer the PC originals now, but I have a soft spot still for UT DC. In the same vein, my original Half-Life 2 experience was the OG Xbox. I played that many times over, it blew my mind.

Also, I never had them at the time, but in more recent times, I really adore the Nightdive Turok remasters.

And I have also loved every Halo game by Bungie.

 

[BinaryMessiah]

Unreal Tournament on PC was my first FPS. I had to play it windowed mode in 320x240 resolution and even then the game ran at 30FPS on my underpowered family PC at the time. I love single-player shooters the most. Syphon Filter was my first third person shooter and I play it annually (1 and 2). I'm a sucker for the genre and just love the games feeling good. It doesn't really have to have a good story. Postal: Brain Damaged is a surprisingly great boomer shooter and right now I'm playing through Warhammer: Boltgun.

 

[Settyness]

Zero Tolerance is also an absolute favourite. It has a unique vibe, I love the music and sound, and the visual design/colours are tops.

I had this on my SEGA Genesis! I played the hell out of it, but never beat it. There was a cancelled sequel called "Beyond Zero Tolerance" with an accompanying prototype ROM floating around.

Unreal Tournament on PC was my first FPS.

Same! For me it was Unreal GOTY and it was around when UT 2004 was popping off. I got a computer somewhat later than most families and was always 5 years behind on specs.

I'm sure some of you can guess my favorite FPS by my signature.

 

[ALLGASNOBRAKE]

what's the general feeling FPS players have with Deadlock? i'm not a big fan of MOBA's but Valve really went and made the FPS mechanics feel real solid and pretty fun and i find myself going back to the game at least once a week for a fix. integrating a player submitted hero build list right into the game was also a cool af side feature i never thought would get me back into playing some MOBA's again too

 

[VampireLord1024]

I liked Half-Life 2 and Fary Cry 3: Blood Dragon.

 

[Settyness]

what's the general feeling FPS players have with Deadlock?

I have mixed feelings. One one hand, it is really addictive and generally pretty fun. On the other, I hate learning and memorizing builds for every season and I hate playing sweaty. I mostly play bots, just to get that MOBA fix out of the way, but anything more gives me League of Legends flashbacks. I think it needs a major balance patch, there are some heroes that are just unbelievable.

 

[Knighthart]

what's the general feeling FPS players have with Deadlock?

It's a pretty good action moba, but hardly a shooter in my eyes. At first glance you'd think it'd be a fairly aim-dependent game due to all the movement mechanics given to the player, it's just really not. Even Gigantic is far more of a shooter- a good chunk of your mindset for improving at that game is left thinking about how to better hit your shots, despite sticking pretty strong to the moba formula. Can't really say the same about Deadlock in the slightest. Even the 'race to shooting spirits' mechanic for example, as you'd imagine would be there to bring the competitive shooters something to grasp at; ends up being pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme of battles.

That said, as a moba it's really found its place in the genre. Even once the hot interest on the game dies off, I'd imagine it'd be a really popular game to stay. It's creative, stylish despite the early assets, all while still feeling good and responsive to play. Even if you can probably just play it with your mouse on your leg or on a trackpad or something.

 

[Nachzehrer]

My favorite FPS games are:
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat
F.E.A.R. and F.E.A.R. Extraction Point
E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy
Arma 3
Halo MCC
Left 4 Dead 2
Call of Duty: World at War
Killing Floor

Of course I'm not just going to make a list and leave it at that. I also want to write a little about these games.

I like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. a lot for it's AI and Atmosphere. I do not play S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for the gunplay, although I find it to be great once you get used to it and pick up a rifle more accurate than the starter ones. What I enjoy a lot about the AI is that it behaves differently each playthrough, you will never have the AI behave exactly the same way twice each playthrough, especially the random NPCs that roam around the world. Enemies will use a variety of tactics to defeat the player, sometimes they will hold angles on you, sometimes they will supress/distract you while another enemy attempts to flank you, sometimes you get ambushed. It's great! I have a thing for games with a strong oppressive and dark atmosphere. I like dark things in general which shapes my taste in games, movies and music a lot. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. feels lonely, alien and hostile most times, and then you encounter a friendly camp of NPCs gathering around a campfire. Drinking, playing guitar, eating, telling stories and jokes. It makes the game extremely comfy to me. Then you leave the camp and find yourself back on hell on earth, wondering if you ever see those NPCs alive ever again.

I like F.E.A.R. for the same reasons as Stalker, as well as loving the gunplay way more than Stalker's. What a funny coincidence that both game's title's are acronyms too. The AI is amazing, it's less complex as people usually think but it doesn't matter, because the devs have coded the AI to be great and to also give you the feeling that it is. Enemies will give eachother orders, call-outs, throw down objects to create cover, flank you, chat with each other. I love it. The spooky atmosphere and dark story and the gunplay. OH THE GUNPLAY! Every gun is so fun to use. The dual pistols are fun and perfectly usable for the entirety of the game. the assault rifle feels like a real workhorse, the scoped rifle is extremely good which is balanced by how little ammo you get, it's fun to use the nailgun to nail enemies to the wall or use the energy rifle to turn enemies into skeletons. Oh and of course I'm going to mention the shotgun. I LOVE it when games have a great shotgun. Pop a slow mo and strafe run towards the nearest enemy to shoot him point blank and watch his entire body turn to red mist, amazing! I don't think any game has a better shotgun than F.E.A.R. but most games in my list come quite close actually.

I feel like I've already written too much now so I will leave it at that. Maybe I'll write about the rest of the games on this list later. Makes for enough things to write about to keep the conversation going.

 

[Waffles]

Strife remains the ONLY game to have convinced me to buy the whole thing from the shareware.

Let that speak to its merit:

 

[dropsmegamega]

I am starting to delve more into the FPS genre, lately I attempted to play KISS psycho circus, but couldn't get into it, and Platformer/FPS hybrid Mcgee's Alice, but even though I finished it I can't say I liked the gameplay.

For now the ones I enjoyed the most were: the two Serious Sam Encounters, No one lives forever 1, the original XIII and The Wheel of Time(oddly enough). I usually don't enjoy much sci-fi aesthetics which may be the reason I still haven't touched classics like Half-life and System Shock, but I'll definitely play then eventually.

 

[It's Thinking 2]

Star Wars Dark Forces has that expanded universe feel to it.

 

[Strategist]

Not a huge fan of FPS games, but System Shock 2/Bioshock has that RPG flavor that I enjoy with a good story and horror elements.

I've also liked the original Deus Ex and Vampire The Masquerade. More RPGs than FPS, but they still count I think.

 

[Mopeybloke]

My favourite FPS is Quake, and I play the new [and old] custom maps often. I'm glad the mapping community is still going. I know that's probably weird, but I haven't touched the multi-player mode ever. Actually I played co-op once for a failed speedrun.

 

[Nachzehrer]

My favourite FPS is Quake, and I play the new [and old] custom maps often. I'm glad the mapping community is still going. I know that's probably weird, but I haven't touched the multi-player mode ever. Actually I played co-op once for a failed speedrun.

I've only played the main campaign. What custom maps could recommend for someone who hasn't played any?

 

[Mopeybloke]

I've only played the main campaign. What custom maps could recommend for someone who hasn't played any?

If I may ask, are you willing to install a source port, or do you want to stick with the remaster by Nightdive Studios? There is much you can play on their engine, but it isn't as compatible as many of the community's ports.

 

[Nachzehrer]

If I may ask, are you willing to install a source port, or do you want to stick with the remaster by Nightdive Studios? There is much you can play on their engine, but it isn't as compatible as many of the community's ports.

I'm willing to install sourceports. I've done so before.

 

[Mopeybloke]

@Nachzehrer Okay. I recommend you vkQuake because it is the most up-to-date QuakeSpasm fork. vkQuake has a mod browser, meaning you can load the mods below without using the console. No individual map browser though.

Big mods with many maps:

Arcane Dimensions expands on the fantasy and dimensional travel aspects of Quake. It also eliminates most hitscan attacks [not shamblers though], has new models for weapons and enemies, as well as 3 new weapons and dozens of new enemies. Place the files on a folder labelled AD in your Quake folder. Cycle through the all the HUD styles with the H key.

Alkaline expands greatly on Quake's military base theme with many appropriate enemies for those settings. Also new weapons! Pain skins! The axe looks like it came from Ikea!

Re:mobilize adds new platforming movement options: light hooks, trampolines, and you can scale wire meshes. Also has new enemy styles courtesy of the progs_dump mod. For the first person platforming connoisseur.

But I just wanna play standalone, vanilla maps!

The Horde of Zendar: non linear, Dark Souls inspired, with big encounters and many secrets.
Day of the lords: You must defeat the four lords and collect the runes to beat this map. Big, non linear.
Ceremonial Circles: The oldest map here, from 2001. It's great at using enemies in different elevations. I replay this often.
Binding Tower: Non-linear, some lore, and good looking forest area for Quake.
Behop Ranger and the Spicy Wizards: Tough combat map that also looks great. It can be played vanilla, or with Arcane Dimensions for different monster spawns. Place this on the id1/maps folder [create it you if you haven't]. To load this with Arcane Dimensions, load the mod before loading the map.
A verdant Dawn: Big map with hundreds of enemies. This is here for challenge and looks.
Awoken Madness: Same as above, but looks more Spartan and has trick jump secrets.

Other things I recommend are all the maps from Simon O' Callaghan. There are plenty in the Arcane Dimensions mod. The 3 big mods I listed above have hubs that lead to standalone maps, so you can play them at your own pace too.

 

[Nachzehrer]

@Nachzehrer Okay. I recommend you vkQuake because it is the most up-to-date QuakeSpasm fork. vkQuake has a mod browser, meaning you can load the mods below without using the console. No individual map browser though.

Big mods with many maps:

Arcane Dimensions expands on the fantasy and dimensional travel aspects of Quake. It also eliminates most hitscan attacks [not shamblers though], has new models for weapons and enemies, as well as 3 new weapons and dozens of new enemies. Place the files on a folder labelled AD in your Quake folder. Cycle through the all the HUD styles with the H key.

Alkaline expands greatly on Quake's military base theme with many appropriate enemies for those settings. Also new weapons! Pain skins! The axe looks like it came from Ikea!

Re:mobilize adds new platforming movement options: light hooks, trampolines, and you can scale wire meshes. Also has new enemy styles courtesy of the progs_dump mod. For the first person platforming connoisseur.

But I just wanna play standalone, vanilla maps!

The Horde of Zendar: non linear, Dark Souls inspired, with big encounters and many secrets.
Day of the lords: You must defeat the four lords and collect the runes to beat this map. Big, non linear.
Ceremonial Circles: The oldest map here, from 2001. It's great at using enemies in different elevations. I replay this often.
Binding Tower: Non-linear, some lore, and good looking forest area for Quake.
Behop Ranger and the Spicy Wizards: Tough combat map that also looks great. It can be played vanilla, or with Arcane Dimensions for different monster spawns. Place this on the id1/maps folder [create it you if you haven't]. To load this with Arcane Dimensions, load the mod before loading the map.
A verdant Dawn: Big map with hundreds of enemies. This is here for challenge and looks.
Awoken Madness: Same as above, but looks more Spartan and has trick jump secrets.

Other things I recommend are all the maps from Simon O' Callaghan. There are plenty in the Arcane Dimensions mod. The 3 big mods I listed above have hubs that lead to standalone maps, so you can play them at your own pace too.

Awesome! Thanks for the huge list. That'll keep me occupied for a while.