Story-based FPSes

Dhruin

Dhruin

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I have the 'flu, so I taken a day off. I should do some work (including RPGWatch) but I can't concentrate. I'm also stuck in Knights of the Chalice and suddenly thought I'd like a change of pace.

Maybe a shooter.

I read skavenhorde's FPS thread but my tastes are a little specific: I only like something with a strong story (and *no* real world military ones, WWII etc). I've played heaps of classics...Deus Ex, SS, SS2, Nolf/2, Jedi Academy/Outcast, Max Payne, HL/2...

I think HL2 is probably the last one I played, so I must have missed a few. So, new-ish, story-based shooters. No old classics (I've played them) and no "action only" games - something with some plot or interesting characters. Anything out there recently?
 
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Bioshock?

Personally, I think it's vastly overrated - but even despite that, it's quite good.

Other than that, I assume AvP2 is an "old classic" but if you for some reason missed out on it, I advise you to correct that mistake :)
 
Max Payne 2?
 
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I'd vote for Bioshock. Couldn't say whether the shooter mechanics are any good since I don't have much to compare to, but the atmosphere of the game is exceptional. I thought the story was pretty cool, too, although some people didn't agree.
 
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My vote for Bioshock. But don't expect good story, just interesting setting.

Well, actually I don't know any new FPS with good story, everything I played was mediocre or bad but I'm not FPS player anyway, all I want is to play some multiplayer FPS from time to time.
 
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Konjad said:
My vote for Bioshock. But don't expect good story, just interesting setting.

Well, actually I don't know any new FPS with good story, everything I played was mediocre or bad but I'm not FPS player anyway, all I want is to play some multiplayer FPS from time to time.
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You should try System Shock :)
 
My vote is for Call of Cthulhu. If we're throwing in HL2 as examples of FPS's with story, then I'm going to toss FEAR 1 and 2 into the ring as well.
 
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Rithrandil said:
My vote is for Call of Cthulhu. If we're throwing in HL2 as examples of FPS's with story, then I'm going to toss FEAR 1 and 2 into the ring as well.
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I'm actually getting ready to replay CoC soon. I thought it was pretty average the first time I played, but I've been reading a lot of Lovecraft lately, which has inspired me to play it again.

F.E.A.R. was great imo, one of my top ten FPSs ever, but F.E.A.R. 2 is a consolized piece of crap.
 
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Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, maybe, if you haven't played EFBB. I've only played the original, but I thought that had a pretty nice story and a great setting. It's a little weak on characters though, Riddick isn't a very sociable person.
 
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In general you have mentioned some of the best (I assume "SS" is System Shock), but you didn't mention how old you mean with "old classics".

Here are some of my suggestions;
Alien VS Predator 2
Bioshock
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
Condemned: Criminal Origins
Deus Ex 2 (Yes, the 2nd game is still good, even if it's not as good as the first)
DOOM 3 (Yeah, Doom 3 actually had a story, and a rather good atmosphere)
Far Cry (not the 2nd)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R (Some of the best twists ever)
The Chronicles of Riddick (probably best with Dark Athena)

I do not know if F.E.A.R is that strong on the story department, but it might do.

Does it have to be first person (Max Payne isn't). The Suffering and Gears of War might not be shakespeare, but they are storydriven.

I wrote you a list on the shooters I finished the recent years, if you have questions on any of them, feel free to ask.
Alien VS Predator 2
Bioshock
Blacksite: Area 51
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
Call of Duty 4&5
Call of Juarez
Clive Barker's Jericho
Condemned 1&2
Contract J.A.C.K
Crysis, Warhead
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic
Deus Ex 2
DOOM 3
Enclave
F.E.A.R, Extraction Point, Perseus Mandate, Project Origin, Reborn
Far Cry 1 & 2
Gears of War
Half-Life, Blueshift, 2, Episode One, Episode Two
Halo, 2
IGI 2
Infernal
Jedi Knight, Mysteries of the Sith, Outcast, Academy
Max Payne 1&2
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
Mirror's Edge
No One Lives Forever 1&2
Operation Flashpoint
Painkiller
Penumbra 1-3
Postal 2
Prey
Psi-Ops
TUROK
Quake 2, 4
Red Faction 1&2
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Clear Sky
Serious Sam 2
Soldier of Fortune II
System Shock
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
The Suffering, Ties that Bind
Unreal 2
Will Rock
Wolfenstein
 
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JDR13 said:
I'm actually getting ready to replay CoC soon. I thought it was pretty average the first time I played, but I've been reading a lot of Lovecraft lately, which has inspired me to play it again.

F.E.A.R. was great imo, one of my top ten FPSs ever, but F.E.A.R. 2 is a consolized piece of crap.
Click to expand...

I loved CoC and thought it was a good game, but my love for Lovecraft would probably make me love anything they stuck his name on.

As for FEAR, I thought it was better than FEAR 2. The consolization of FEAR2 didn't bug me all that much, though. There are some things I want answered (in spoiler tags):

Where the hell are the Point man and Holiday? Some files in FEAR 2 imply that Point Man is still alive doing … something. Genevieve Aristide mentions in a note about wanting to capture and reprogram him, and that she's using Dark Signal as a distraction for Alma. Is Jin still alive You don't actually see Alma kill her, just the chopper pilot. And so forth. Are there still a bunch of civilians running around Fairport outside of the Auburn district? I mean, after the damn explosion there appear to be news teams covering the event on TV, but when you get outside you only see Dark Signal, Replicants, and ATC guys walking around.
 
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Rithrandil, I don't think the devs even knew the answers to those questions. They screwed up so many things in the sequel that I question how many of the same people from FEAR 1 were even involved. I never played very far into Fear 2 to be honest, it was just such a disappointment to me on so many levels that I couldn't bear it…
 
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Cryostasis wasn't too bad. Definatly a plot based game, not really a shooter though. Your main weapon is your body heat and whatever melee weapon you happened to find.

It's interesting how you can save peoples souls by traveling back to the point where they died and changing their fate.
Worthplaying's review

Call of Cthulhul is a good choice as well, but you better be a H.P. Lovecraft buff or like stealth games because it's a bit difficult to get into. No weapons for quite a long time. It has a great plot though. Metacritic's reviews

Stalker of course, although you probably already played that one. If you haven't I would say go with that one.

Dues Ex 2: The Nameless Mod is different to say the least. If you haven't downloaded that mod you might want to check it out. It'll save you a few bucks and it's not half bad. I didn't even get close to passing it, but for being a free mod it's surprisingly well done.

I would say your best choices would be Call of Cthuhul, Cryostasis or Bioshock.

If you've played Bioshock before you could try it this time with a difficulty mod. It boosts the difficulty of the game making it a bit more challenging.
Difficulty mod download.
 
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From the newer ones I can recommend Riddick and Prey. An older one is Shogo.
 
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Realms of the Haunting, even though it's old. *It* was the peak :biggrin:.
As for slightly newer shooters-with-a-story: Undying.

And I second the AvP 2 and Riddick proposals.
 
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I loved Undying. Vastly better than Clive Barker's Jericho. He said he already played the "old classics", so I don't know if it includes Undying or not... but Undying is a game I would call "Old classic". I played a mod that acted as something of a Sequel that was rather cool.

I have actually looked into Realms of Haunting and I will probably end up playing it eventually.

I never finished Crystasis... I wanted to like it, but I couldn't get past the engine problems. I might get back to it when I updated my computer and have more time on my hands.
 
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Thanks for all the suggestions. I realised I didn't finish HL2 EP2, so I'll tackle that and then see how I feel.

From the suggestions above, I haven't played the Riddick games or FEAR. I also always meant to play CoC but forgot along the way - that will be more than enough until the big RPG releases hit.

Bioshock is the obvious one I should go back to at some point. I bought it on Day 1 and just couldn't get into it...I don't really know why. The movement feels a little herky-jerky and I think I prefer less cramped environments but I should still like it...not sure what's going on there.

It doesn't look like I've missed much, though. I wonder why they don't seem to produce more of them? Looking at review scores for things like NOLF and Max Payne, they seem to strike a chord.
 
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