Favorite first-person shooters

jaes

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As a long time FPS fan - and occasional sceptic - I thought it would be interesting with a thread where people could list their favorite games.

For hybrid games - maybe the "rule" should be that people can list them if they treated them at least partly as shooters, otherwise we could end up with a few lists that are essentially someones favorite stealth games…

My top 5 (no hybrids):

1. Duke Nukem 3D - I love the silly style and the cool level design.
2. Half-Life - the atmosphere and the interactive environments makes the game special.
3. GoldenEye - a bit dated, but still very solid and the Bond theme makes it even better.
4. Halo - co-op was very fun, and the core design is solid.
5. TimeSplitters: Future Perfect - one of the most varied FPS I've played.

Honorable mentions: Half-Life 2; Rainbow Six 3; Call of Duty 3; Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

Disclaimer: The list is partly characterized by the fact I didn't play many FPS from 2005-2014 (I was kind of bored with the genre for a long while). So I'm still catching up…

I have the feeling the new Doom will enter my top 5 (I'm circa 1/3 into the game) :)
 
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Man, great choices there, including a few of my all-time favorites like Half-Life, Halo and GoldenEye. :)

I would say my favorites have to be Doom, Doom II, Final Doom and Doom 64 (am I missing any original Doom titles?), as well as the 3 I just mentioned. :)

Was never really that fond for Quake. Unreal Tournament was really cool, though. :)

Duke Nukem 3D never really caught on with me. I liked the urban setting but I would just rather play the (in my view) superior Doom games. :)

Can't make a top 5 and I'm sure there's some I'm forgetting, but can't go wrong with any of these. :)
 
I've heard good things about Doom 64, unfortunately I don't own a N64 anymore.
 
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Hmm. I played exactly 6 shooters in my life:
- COD 1
- COD 2
- Unreal
- Unreal Tournament (1st one)
- Half-Life 1
- Half-Life 2

Out of them, Half-Life 1 was the best followed by COD 2. I remember tried a bunch of others but never got "into them" and never finished them.
 
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Good topic! For me:
- Doom II
- Quake
- Far Cry (the original, except the last two levels were bloody ridiculous…)
- Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (if this counts…)
- Half life

Honorable mentions for Unreal (which I loved back in the day but has aged sooooo badly) and Medal of Honor: Frontline, which I had a blast with over the course of one summer when I was relegated to a Gamecube. Oh, and Serious Sam.
 
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Let me see, while I haven't played that many shooters there are some I really enjoyed.

1. Dark Forces ( I really loved that game )
2. Half-Life 2
3. Fear... I guess this is a shooter?
4. Doom 1 and 2, played a lot of those.
5. Duke Nukem 3d.
 
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Top 5 shooters? In no particular order.

Quake 1. No question about this. I logged hundreds of hours of life playing this game. So ofcourse the multiplayer gameplay is what was really exciting here. Back then I had no experience of online gaming. Quake was my first step into that world and much to internet as well. And due to quake, I met so many fun people online and in real life. No other fps game can top that kind of experience. It wasn't just a game, it was more than that. And ofcourse single player campaign wasn't bad either. I did play it through few times and I think the level design was quite expectional quality. The game even had one of the best soundtracks.

Jedi knight 1. The singleplayer campaign was something truly unique. I've always loved star wars films and jedi knight kind of nailed that sw feel perfectly. It was a game designed with love and care. I literally spend whole xmas holiday week inside playing that game all night long. And then logged into microsoft gaming zone. I had such a crappy modem connection back then, so the ammount of lag was enormous, but how exciting it felt to have lightsaber duels against other players. :)

Jedi knight 2. Now it is a really special moment when a modern sequel manages to top an old classic like jk1. However Ravensoft did just that. I don't remember many times when I've been so impressed by a single gameplay feature, but when you ignite your lightsaber first time in that game… It was pure joy. I truly felt like a kid in candystore. Like all my childhood dreams of being a jedi knight had suddenly come true. Igniting a lightsaber felt even better than in jk1! :) And later on they released JK:Jedi academy which perfected the saber combat system. Naturally it didn't have the same impact on me because it was heavily based on jk2 design, but an other great jedi game worth of mentioning as well.

Half-life was indeed a game that redefined the whole fps genre. Even though jk1 had a good story, half-life's way of telling story was something truly new to me. It was more immersive and dynamic. And ofcourse gameplay and level design was suberb quality as well. Plus it was such an epic campaign. Not like thse modern short fps games where the whole thing is over too soon. Half-life 2 was a good sequel. but not that memorable for me.

Tribes 2 is the most ambitious online shooter I've played in my life. Ofcourse the big thing here was the free movement with jetpack. And the jetpack wasn't just a gimmick, it was a real thing. You could ski over the hills and leap through sky :) This was an other one those gameplay features which really left me utterly speechless. A big smile on my face when I was jetpacking through the wilderzone a spinfusor in my hand. The game did have a pretty steep learning curve though, but imo a good fps should be like that. There should be always room to improve. Online gaming can't get any better.

Honorable mentions to these games: Crysis 1, Shadow warrior (2013), team fortress 2, Bioshock, Doom II, Return to castle wolfenstein. Well I'm sure there are plenty of more, but these are the ones that pop into my mind first. :)
 
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Cant go with 5, so I select a few defining ones from each timespan:

First Wave
Wolfenstein 3D: Was my first Shooter. Great fun, loved finding the Gatling and mowing down Enemies with it.
Corridor 7: Loved it's different visions and futuristic style
Blake Stone: Had cool morphing enemies and first neutral NPCs if I remember correctly

Second Wave:
Duke Nukem 3D: Spent a lot of time on playing it in Multiplayer and editing levels.
Shadow warrior: Mostly the same Duke3d. Just different setting, cool new weapons like double Uzi or the Atomic gun.

Graphics Wave:
Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight - Mostly because of it's graphics but the star wars atmosphere was also neat
Unreal: Great new graphics. Still remember the frist time when enemy rockets flew by and you saw and heared them passing by. Awesome!
Hexen 2: Not really that much in terms of Graphics, but regarding release date it's in the same category. This game had a great dark fantasy setting and awesome music

"Current Games":
Call of Juarez Gunslinger: That was a fun game with a great story, and a nice action mode. The most fun recent FPS I played.

Games I didnt like as much as other players did: Doom. Never really saw the appeal of it over Wolfenstein/Corridor 7/Blake Stone
Quake - just looked ugly as hell. Why should you play it if you could play Duke Nukem 3D instead.
Half Life 2: Imho totally overrated. Yes it might have been a nice engine demo. But imho the game play was totally dull. Shot 10 people, drive vehicle, solve physics puzzle, shot 10 people, drive vehicle, solve physics puzzle…
 
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I've only played one, Counter Strike.
I was very addicted to this game back in 1999 to 2001 and also got very good at it.
 
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Cool lists with many interesting games!

Jedi knight 1. The singleplayer campaign was something truly unique. I've always loved star wars films and jedi knight kind of nailed that sw feel perfectly. It was a game designed with love and care. I literally spend whole xmas holiday week inside playing that game all night long. And then logged into microsoft gaming zone. I had such a crappy modem connection back then, so the ammount of lag was enormous, but how exciting it felt to have lightsaber duels against other players. :)

I really need to bump this up on my mental note of games to play, I've heard so much good about it over the years. Even got it in a bundle last year.

I've only played one, Counter Strike.
I was very addicted to this game back in 1999 to 2001 and also got very good at it.

Never got a addicted, but it sure was fun to spend a few hours here and there in various internet cafés in the late 90s competing against friends
 
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I've heard good things about Doom 64, unfortunately I don't own a N64 anymore.

If you Google around, I believe you can find an unofficial PC version. I could be wrong, but I think some fans somehow ported it awhile back.. or at least I remember reading something like that.

If not, you could always play it on an emulator. I've never played Doom 64 myself, but I've always been curious about it as a fan of the series.
 
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I don't play them anymore, but the list of my past most definitely be this:

1. Quake III \ Quake Live (online only)
2. Deus Ex
3. Painkiller (single player on trauma was golden!)
4. Unreal Tournament (both online and offline)
5. Blood (I enjoyed single player mode a lot)

If we're talking only about offline single player shooters, Quake 3\Live is off the list and Deus Ex with Painkiller top it for sure.
 
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The evolution of FPS for me has basically been like this, with a few games in between:

  1. Wolfenstein 3D
  2. Doom
  3. Duke Nukem 3D
  4. Quake
  5. Unreal
  6. Farcry
  7. Doom 3

And each time was I was more amazed at the graphics engine. :) I'll add a few more great titles that have not been mentioned here yet:

  • Rise of the Triad
    Had some gameplay innovations over the other shooters at the time
  • No One Lives Forever
    Great graphics, environments and humor at the time
  • Descent
    A bit different than the others, but still significant and a lot of fun

And a special mention for the first console FPS I ever played: Halo 3 on Xbox 360. I thought it was well-designed and well-paced, with great graphics and an interesting enough setting/plot. Having to use a controller didn't bother me in the slightest. Hell (on Earth), we used to have to use the cursor keys back in the day ;).
 
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Hmm - off the top of my head:

1. Ultimate Doom (Thy Flesh Consumed was quite challenging for me on Ultra Violence back in the day)
2. Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Inspired me to rent WW2 films for a month!)
3. Unreal Tournament (Some wonderful multi-player memories with this game)
4. STALKER: Shadows of Chernobyl (Not a classic FPS obviously, but it still counts as far as I'm concerned with shooting its primary game-play. Great post apocalyptic feel.)
5. Doom 3 (I tend to like plodding atmospheric shooters more these days than the caffeine induced madness of the faster games…)

Honorable mentions: Heretic, Quake, Wolf3D and Spear of Destiny, Duke 3D, Hexen, Rise of the Triad, Blood, Halflife.

I've always felt Crysis was overrated; never enjoyed it that much and so never bothered with the sequels. Never liked CoD and its lineage particularly much either.
 
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Hmm - off the top of my head:

1. Ultimate Doom (Thy Flesh Consumed was quite challenging for me on Ultra Violence back in the day)
2. Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Inspired me to rent WW2 films for a month!)
3. Unreal Tournament (Some wonderful multi-player memories with this game)
4. STALKER: Shadows of Chernobyl (Not a classic FPS obviously, but it still counts as far as I'm concerned with shooting its primary game-play. Great post apocalyptic feel.)
5. Doom 3 (I tend to like plodding atmospheric shooters more these days than the caffeine induced madness of the faster games…)

Honorable mentions: Heretic, Quake, Wolf3D and Spear of Destiny, Duke 3D, Hexen, Rise of the Triad, Blood, Halflife.

I've always felt Crysis was overrated; never enjoyed it that much and so never bothered with the sequels. Never liked CoD and its lineage particularly much either.

While Stalker brought some great experiences, it was somewhat of the most disappointing experiences when it ended. Just as you think you are half way through the game - the end.

Heretic was also quite cool. Doom in a fantasy setting. Pretty awesome and I prefered it to Doom. ^^
 
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I really need to bump this up on my mental note of games to play, I've heard so much good about it over the years. Even got it in a bundle last year.

Well it is a quality shooter, but please remember that the game was released in 1997. Almost 20 years ago! (omg I feel old now) So I doubt it will same impact today. :) It is still a fun fps, but visually it looks quite dated. There are ofcourse some JK1 mods which improve things like textures.
 
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Hexen 2: Not really that much in terms of Graphics, but regarding release date it's in the same category. This game had a great dark fantasy setting and awesome music

I started to play this 3-4 years back. Still a pretty nice game. I'm liking the hub structure and RPG feel. Need to go back to it when I have time.

If you Google around, I believe you can find an unofficial PC version. I could be wrong, but I think some fans somehow ported it awhile back.. or at least I remember reading something like that.

If not, you could always play it on an emulator. I've never played Doom 64 myself, but I've always been curious about it as a fan of the series.

Thanks for the tips. For a couple of reasons I'm not going play those versions, though.

Well it is a quality shooter, but please remember that the game was released in 1997. Almost 20 years ago! (omg I feel old now) So I doubt it will same impact today. :) It is still a fun fps, but visually it looks quite dated. There are ofcourse some JK1 mods which improve things like textures.

Thanks for the warning. Fortunately I'm kind of immune to dated graphics ;)

Weirdly enough, in recent years I've even begun to think that 90s 3D graphics is kind of charming. The only thing I usually can't stomach is crappy draw-distance, but from the videos of JK I've seen it doesn't look like an issue.

EDIT: Clarifications, etc. Sorry for the multi-edits; I had to hurry before.
 
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Doom: it was something of a "you had to be there" game, though. Going from Wolfenstein 3D to that was a huge tech jump! Making mods for it was a new form of fun, too.

No One Lives Forever (1 and 2): I do remember a really dull Siberia level but the rest was great. Unfortunately, finding a copy is just about impossible. There was talk about a remake but nobody is sure who owns it. That's actually a relief to me. It would be great to see this game on GOG but, after seeing what they did to poor Lara Croft… let's just leave Cate Archer alone.

Crysis was another 'had to be there' one that acted as a huge leap for graphics. It had other moments, too, like the crumbling mountain part. I actually enjoyed the story quite a bit, too - enough to be really ticked when they essentially dumped the whole thing in Crysis 2.

Oh! Descent! Good point Thaurin! That countdown to escape each level was awesome. The guide bot in Descent 2 took some of the fun out of it but the sequel was still worth playing.
 
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