FPS recommendations

[Moniker]

Ya, I know there's a very long FPS thread. But I've run through my backlog of FPSes, and need something to fill the void. As a guide, here are my favorites in the genre:

1. Half-Life 2
2. Brutal Doom 1/2
3. Quake
4. Painkiller BE
5. Borderlands 1/2

So I guess I'm most interested in creative weaponry and well-constructed enemy combos. In other words, shooters with something of an old-school vibe. I've got the Serious Sam series.. it just hasn't clicked yet. Any other recs?

[TLB]

BULLETSTORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRM

Try Max Payne (particularly 3 for the most arcadey experience; even comes with arcade challenges).

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Descent 1 & 2 were always my fave FPSes. Bit of a shmup-vibe when dodging enemy shots, too.

[mesh control]

BLOW OUT SOON, FELLOW STALKER.

[Stormwatch]

Marathon series.

Max Payne

Not an FPS.

[louisg]

Heretic 1 is surprisingly good. Unlike Doom, you should save at the beginning of each level (Doom always hides a shotgun so you can recover). But, other than that, the game balance is good. It's basically Doom with more complex geometry and an inventory system. I really enjoyed that one and ended up playing it a lot.

Descent 2 is neat also. I like that it has the guide bot.

Some people also like Powerslave, but I thought it was just so-so. And I'd almost recommend Duke 3d (if you can stomach some very immature attitudes on the part of the game designers), but I feel like the single player campaign can be really cheap at times in everything but episode 1. Play episode 1, though, if you haven't.

And, if you need an arcade FPS game, try GunBuster by Taito. It starts out like a gun game but quickly turns into a free-roam arena FPS. It was very ahead of its time.

[Softdrink 117]

If you haven't played it yet, Black Mesa is phenomenal. It's an improved remake of the first Half-Life. The only real 'problem' is that the devs haven't finished Xen yet, so they've decided to release it as a separate expansion. But since the game is free and based on the Source SDK, that's an inconvenience at worst.

[Skykid]

One of my all time fave overlooked FPS's:

Exhumed



PSX version.

Go Karnak.

[Ed Oscuro]

One of my all time fave overlooked FPS's:

aka PowerSlave

Agree with louisg, though I've not spent tons of time with it, the PSX control scheme makes it sub-optimal there. I think there are Saturn and possibly PC versions as well though.

Personal recommendation - the expansion packs for Quake, especially Scourge of Armagon.

I've played loads of these and can't remember many worth wasting time on - Deus Ex (the original as well as Human Revolution) is pretty interesting though.

Also, if you want to play something really obscure but groundbreaking at its time - Strife for PC, and even more obscure yet groundbreaking - Midwinter.

Both System Shock games as well (although I still haven't gotten around to playing the original).

[TransatlanticFoe]

Soldier of Fortune. You get to shoot people in the balls. Also, you can get the DC version and have a powernap whilst each stage loads.

[Skykid]

Soldier of Fortune. You get to shoot people in the balls. Also, you can get the DC version and have a powernap whilst each stage loads.

SoF was a guilty pleasure of mine. I used to enjoy dismembering people with shotguns... and then shooting them in the balls.

Agree with louisg, though I've not spent tons of time with it, the PSX control scheme makes it sub-optimal there. I think there are Saturn and possibly PC versions as well though.

The Saturn version looks like total ass, which is why I couldn't hang with it. Exhumed (let's call it that, because Powerslave is a stupid name) is a very good FPS, you just need to give it time before the stage design blossoms in-line with your increasing powers, eventually allowing you to fly and visit previously out of reach areas on your icon recovery sub-missions. 'Not giving it much time' is usually why people have lesser opinions of it.

[Ed Oscuro]

I just ain't a sucker for games with lousy intro sequences, I guess I'll give it a go again sometime soon. And yeah, Powerslave was a ridiculous name, especially since it's just a reference to the Iron Maiden album but has not a drop of Iron Maiden within. Looked at Wiki again, the use of the engine for Saturn versions of some other games is interesting, but apparently the PlayStation version is best of all the versions in general for content.

I also wonder about this line from a review of Soldier of Fortune. When I played the game, maybe I just was too businesslike, but I never saw (or heard) this happening. Enemies tended to die pretty quick. I would've heard it too, since I was playing on a recent rig with my usual headphones.

[ancestral-knowledge]

it really depends...

Do you want a skill based shooter for multiplayer or the casual 10h-plough-through-stsorymode-braindead-youcannot-loose one?

As for the latter Far Cry 3 is excellent.

[Skykid]

I also wonder about this line from a review of Soldier of Fortune. When I played the game, maybe I just was too businesslike, but I never saw (or heard) this happening. Enemies tended to die pretty quick. I would've heard it too, since I was playing on a recent rig with my usual headphones.

I played the DC version and there were definitely multiple avenues of masochism available to the player. You could take a couple of limbs off and then go for a head shot at speed, and mix it up a bit. I do seem to remember instances of crippled enemies writhing in agony too.

[Moniker]

it really depends...

Do you want a skill based shooter for multiplayer or the casual 10h-plough-through-stsorymode-braindead-youcannot-loose one?

As for the latter Far Cry 3 is excellent.

Bummer. The Far Cry series seems to be perpetually stuck b/w excellence and indolence. As for your (probably sarcastic) question, I don't care for deathmatch multiplayer games - I prefer team-based FPSes, eg. TF2, Battlefield, MNC, &c. Most of all, I like a challenging, linear, single player game. Although, alinearity done right can be fantastic (Deus Ex).

Has anyone played Spec Ops: The Line? Review opinions appear very much split.




(Also downloading powerslave and midwinter.. I <3 you, abandonia!)

[TransatlanticFoe]

I also wonder about this line from a review of Soldier of Fortune. When I played the game, maybe I just was too businesslike, but I never saw (or heard) this happening. Enemies tended to die pretty quick. I would've heard it too, since I was playing on a recent rig with my usual headphones.

I played the DC version and there were definitely multiple avenues of masochism available to the player. You could take a couple of limbs off and then go for a head shot at speed, and mix it up a bit. I do seem to remember instances of crippled enemies writhing in agony too.

I never had someone gurgling on the floor but not dying (I do remember having to put either a dying team member or an enemy out of his misery to finish a stage in Cannon Fodder though) but it was quite fun, in an extremely sadistic way, to get someone hopping then blow off the standing leg.

There was also a nice touch where you could bring down helicopters by sniping the pilot.

[Ixmucane2]

After liking Doom and Doom II, I liked Unreal and Unreal Tournament; there's a bit more running and sniping and different weapons, but the general experience is quite similar.
I second the Heretic recommendation; I found it quite similar to Doom.
I think the old school of straightforward single-player FPS games ends with the Unreal series; the next important FPS franchise, Half-life, was already completely devolved into the modern railroaded action-adventure style.

[Leader Bee]

What about AvP from Rebellion? The PC original that is, I understand there was a new one in the last 2 or 3 years which is nowhere near as good.

[Zeether]

Serious Sam. The third game is amazing and pokes fun at modern FPS cliches, plus the whole series is rife with great classic style FPS gameplay.

Also, Outtrigger is like Sega Quake and is great fun, especially if you get the Dreamcast keyboard and mouse.

[Ed Oscuro]

What about AvP from Rebellion? The PC original that is, I understand there was a new one in the last 2 or 3 years which is nowhere near as good.

Yeah, there was AvP, then AvP 2 around 2002 (which I never played), and then the latest which was seen as anachronistic but adding some "newfangled" elements that didn't fit well (QTEs?)

The original was brilliant, lots of fun. Had an Atari Lynx ROM version for a while (never played it though lol)

[Mortificator]

AVP 2 has a different feel to it, but is still very good. Marine's the highlight, but Aliens now go through the lifecycle, and Predator's energy sift eliminates those times in the original where you'd stand around waiting for your batteries to recharge.

The expansion, though, is an uninspired cash-in.

Speaking of FPS games, I'm looking forward to the ROTTmake.

[lilmanjs]

Call of Duty. After that it got worse. The first is still amazing.

[KAI]

Golden Eye and Black.

[PinkSweets]

Prey is probably my favourite FPS that I have played. Highly recommended.

[Obiwanshinobi]

PC:

XIII
Iron Storm (the first one, no idea about the port/remake/port)
Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi
Project I.G.I.
Aliens versus Predator 2
Tron 2.0
Chaser


Consoles:

Urban Chaos: Riot Response
Dead Space: Extraction (the PAL version in 60 Hz mode never glitched on me and I very much feel like replaying it on unlocked difficulty levels as well as getting busy to the arcade challenges one of these days)

Comes from a person who is not really into the genre. The aforementioned just happen to be the games I either finished or intend to revisit.

[Acid King]

Second the Rebellion Alien Vs Predator game and especially Solider of Fortune. I played the shit out of Soldier of Fortune in college, both death match and single player. That game is just plain fun as hell, especially when you adjust the difficulty. You can make the game dump a tremendous amount of enemies at you and the feeling of chewing through dozens of enemies, leaving them in pieces on the ground, is as visceral as action games get.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Speaking of what's left of enemies (and "you") when the killing's done, I disliked back in the day how the ragdoll was either non-existent (SoFII) or comically overdone (NOLF2, also, ridiculous gore). The generation of multiplatform games when it meant PS2 (see "List of RenderWare games") was also awkward in this respect. Some of the games most praised for "the graphics" resorted to conventional animations (Black, Project: Snowblind) that looked as if the games ridiculed your efforts.
First FPS where ragdoll worked for me was Chaser. First and - to be honest - last one where death animations looked, well, convincing (as if the guys actually shuffled this mortal coil) was Project I.G.I. (I realised it very recently).
Death scenes in Project I.G.I. did for me what the original Burnout car crash scenes did. Can those look more realistic in games? Sure thing. Do I crave this kind of realism? Not really.

[Mischief Maker]

Serious Sam The First Encounter and The Second Encounter.

Play through TFE and start a new game of TSE at the same difficulty level and after a brief into segment the difficulty will immediately pick up where TFE left off.

Also, DO NOT QUICKSAVE! Turn autosave on instead, it breaks the game into discrete skill-test chunks.

I prefer Serious Sam over Painkiller because painkiller dribbles its demon hordes out 10 or less demons at a time. Serious Sam is probably the only game where you get charged by hundreds of enemies, unload on them with a minigun, and there's a target for every bullet.

Another recommend for the original PC version of Aliens vs. Predator. It's one of the few scary games I've played where the scares are not arranged setpieces that are only scary once, nor are they based on turning your in-game avatar into a crippled retard scrabbling for ammo and healing jelly. In AvP you're as fast and nimble as Duke Nukem, and your default gun is an assault rifle with pinpoint accuracy and an underslung grenade launcher.

AvP always scary to play as the marine because the location of (some of) the Aliens are randomized every level, and your ability to detect aliens in the dark environs can easily allow them to sneak up on you. Especially in Director's Cut difficulty they'll be on you and rip your face off before you have a chance to blink, and even if you do manage to kill them at point blank they'll spray you with acid. No sitting in a corner and sucking your thumb until you're back at Max Health in this game!

It was re-released recently patched to run on modern PCs under the title Aliens vs Predator Classic 2000 and it more than worth the measly $5 asking price. Be warned that Alien mode seems a little bugged (the auras are constantly changing color and I'm always instantly spotted no matter the lighting) and Predator mode was always crap. Oh well, they were always sideshows to Marine mode.

I knew the Aliens vs Predator Next-Gen reboot was going to be garbage based on trailers that showed someone playing a marine getting jumped by an Alien and pushing it off through a QTE.

[Ed Oscuro]

Serious Sam is probably the only game where you get charged by hundreds of enemies, unload on them with a minigun, and there's a target for every bullet.

KISS Pyscho Circus aimed at this as well but there are fewer enemies in generally smaller areas. Still enjoyable, as is the http://www.oldmanmurray.com/longreviews ... view of it.

[Hagane]

For single player experiences I liked F.E.A.R. 1 and 2.