First Person Shooters... & Blood

icemann on 19/5/2017 at 18:20

For me I took the first posts meaning as "the first FPS that you've stuck through with over the years more than any other". That's why Doom 1 & 2 were easily that for me.

Half-Life 1 had a good singleplayer mod scene for QUITE some time afterward also. For the second game it was more on the multiplayer end. Not that there wasn't any good SP mods.

I've yet to see any other game keep the content flowing as Doom has. It may have come out in the early 90s, but that's not stopped people from making more stuff for it, even today. Some of it's nostalgia sure, but then the source ports have turned the game into something greater, in terms of what your able to create in it compared to what it's original engine was capable of. With many of the other FPS games, mod creators have been restricted to purely what the limitations of the engine can do. With Doom you've got the source code available + numerous source ports which go off in numerous directions.

WingedKagouti on 19/5/2017 at 18:29

Best FPS ever? That's an easy one for me: Quake 1.

There have been plenty of extremely good FPS titles since Q1, but to me nothing compares to the overall combination of the gunplay, level design, weapon/pickup placement, and enemy placement. Every single gun felt satisfying to use, even if the Super Nailgun was a straight upgrade to the Nailgun. The levels were structured to make the most out of them in a way that minimized actual backtracking, even if you ended up in a location you'd been to previously. You also rarely had an arena to dodge around in, but were usually put in a tight space where dodging the wrong way could lead you into more trouble. Enemies were also placed in such a way that you always had a chance if you were playing on an apropriate difficulty, but on the other hand beyond the first few levels you'd also always be in enough danger to want to play well.

And enemies fighting each other (caused by 'friendly' fire) was a great feature (also present in the original DOOM games) that few FPS games have tried to replicate since then.

Starker on 20/5/2017 at 00:33

Quote Posted by Pyrian

Does Deus Ex count? Lol. Otherwise, while I've played Doom through a couple times, my most replayed FPS is Half-Life 1. I'm surprised to not see it mentioned yet. It was very smooth and had relatively realistic environments and coherent story for its time period.

Hmm... I thought about this and actually one of the things that put me off were the unrealistic environments. A lot of times, it felt like you were moving from a setpiece to a setpiece, especially the industrial areas full of areas with no seeming purpose other than to be some sort of a hazard course.

icemann on 20/5/2017 at 05:04

Quote Posted by WingedKagouti

Best FPS ever? That's an easy one for me: Quake 1.

Best part about Quake 1 was it's machinema scene. First game to really have a big community for that.

catbarf on 20/5/2017 at 17:47

Quote Posted by Sulphur

I'm actually a bit more surprised to not see any HL2 mentions. I didn't go gaga over it as much as others, but it has a fair amount of cachet with most of us, I'd think. I guess the thing is that 'best' usually translates to 'earliest memory of game that blew your mind' -- speaking for myself, at least.

You're probably right there. My first exposure to the FPS genre had to be Marathon, MDK, and Pathways Into Darkness on school computers back in the late 90s, System Shock 2 on my dad's computer, and Aliens vs Predator on the Jaguar. But I didn't really get into FPSes until Halo, and I think that was really the transformative experience for me, so it's the one that I would be instinctively inclined to call 'best', although I'm not sure if I can make that an objective claim as it's not a flawless game by any means.

Half-Life 2 has aged better than many of the 'best' FPSes, but it's not nearly as old as something like Marathon or Doom so that's not entirely fair.

Maybe I ought to try Quake 1, although I have to say I'm a little skeptical as I've heard similar praise heaped upon Unreal and Quake II and I just couldn't get into either of those.

Renzatic on 20/5/2017 at 17:55

I think Quake I and Unreal are "had to be there" type of games. They were amazing at the time, and those who played them back in the day love to revisit them for the nostalgic feels, but they haven't aged well enough to be enjoyable for people coming in fresh without leaning on a number of mods to bolster the experience.

Like if you've never played Quake before, I'd suggest hitting up Arcane Dimensions over the base campaign. It modernizes Quake without changing the core of what made Quake Quake.

Yakoob on 20/5/2017 at 18:03

Hmm tricky question. My real loves would go to SS2 and VTMB later but I'd hardly call those traditional fps.

I was actually not floored with Half Life but I gut sucked into the mods. If those count then I definitely sank the most nights to, no not CS, but Day of Defeat. The good old 3.1b days if anyone remembers. I also joined a realism unit and over a year climb to be a 2nd LT and head of the strategy department. We had over 50 members and 2 public servers, so it was quite a hoot. TFC was also a great break in between.

If mods don't count, then my other first big FPS addiction would actually be Tribes 2, a game I picked on a random whim that surprised me with its depth. Unreal tournament deserves a mention for solid mechanics and the assault mode. I best the dp campaign on it twice heh.

I missed most of the classics back in the day, doom quake duke or blood. But I recently relayed doom and it was inexplicably fun even with such dated graphics. I could see it being an all time favorite had I gotten into it in the heyday.

Quote Posted by catbarf

Maybe I ought to try Quake 1, although I have to say I'm a little skeptical as I've heard similar praise heaped upon Unreal and Quake II and I just couldn't get into either of those.

I only played it recently but I liked q2 more. In either case the gameplay is rock solid. I'D just knows how to nail that shooter mechanic fun factor.

Renzatic on 20/5/2017 at 18:04

Quote Posted by Yakoob

I only played it recently but I liked q2 more.

You're dead to me, Yakoob. DEAD! :mad:

Malf on 20/5/2017 at 23:43

I tell you what's really fun with Quake: Bot matches. If you can get it set up, Reaperbot and a good map rotation provides hours of fun. I think I made a guide over on Quake3World in the id Legends forum. I'll see if I can dig it up.

However, NEVER think you're good enough to take your Quake deathmatch skills online, unless you want to be at the receiving end of 20 years of experience playing the same maps. There are still Quake deathmatchers out there who've been playing since the very beginning, and they have a habit of showing up to school noobs. Guys who have every spawn rotation and the route to the best gun committed to muscle memory, so you'll just end up a smear on the wall.

PigLick on 21/5/2017 at 01:11

Quake2 doesnt get a lot of love, the single player was pretty meh, but online play was really good.
I was actually quite the boss at Quakeworld when it was popular, regularly got 1st place. (Australian servers mind you)