Six Reasons I Don’t Like FPS

Patrick of GAMElitist.com - "Recently, I've begun to notice that every game is slowly becoming the same. Surely it's not just me, but I'm having a genuine problem telling some games apart these days. It's more than just following a trend like what happened with racing games post-2000 where everything was a street racer. It's a set of points starting with Halo: Combat Evolved and going all the way to modern day."

[Pikajew]

I am very picky about my FPS games.

I don't get them if it has a grey and black setting
I get them when they are unique (half-life and metroid prime)
I rather have a tropical environment
I don't want respawning enemies
I don't care about the story for an FPS. I care more for gameplay

[r21]

isnt half life great for its story?

[saladthieves]

The Half Life series is pretty much up there with the rest of my top First Person Shooters of all time.

I wonder when the Black Mesa mod will be completed...

[madpuppy]

egidem, I am looking so forward to play the Black Mesa mod!

I don't want them to hurry up but, I sure wish they would release it soon.

[TheFirstClassic]

I feel like a good story is important to improve the experience, which is why I liked Killzone 2 better than 3.

[ATi_Elite]

This article reeks of inferiority and the whining of a casual gamer who knows ZERO!

1. the two weapon rule - Go play Half Life or Stalker...on the PC

2. Cover - Go play Half Life or Stalker...on the PC

3. XP based multiplayer - Go play Half Life or Stalker...on the PC

4. Story lines - Go play Half Life or Stalker...on the PC

5. The inevitable co-op waves mode - Go play Half Life or Stalker...on the PC

6. Xbox live is full of complete idiots - Go play Half Life or Stalker...on the PC

there problem solved! If you only play halo and COD your gonna have these issue but branch out and play other FPS (Hard Reset, Nuclear Dawn Red, Orchestra 2 and many others) then you will be playing quality titles.

Me myself I love the FPS....well only the quality ones!

[Kran]

You live a sad gaming life...

[Bigpappy]

Keep them to yourself. FPS are not all the same!

[Xof]

Maybe not aesthetically, but mechanically the First Person Shooter is right up there with 2D fighters in terms of genres that have evolved the least in the past 2 decades.

[palaeomerus]

What the hell?

Did Faceball 2000, Doom, Witchaven, Borderlands/Dead Island, Portal, Thief, Dark Forces, Mirror's Edge, Bioshock/SystemShock, Morrowind/Oblivion/Fallout3, The Ball, Quake, Unreal, Killzone 2, Tribes, Halo, Team Fortress 2, Blood, Unreal Championship 2, Amnesia the dark Descent, Metroid Prime, Geist, Serious Sam, Starwars: Force Unleashed, Condemned, Outrigger, Red Faction, Maken X, Breakdown, Aliens Vs. Predator (2000), Singularity, Kingpin, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Half Life, Postal, Redneck Rampage, GoldenEye, Vampire the Masquerade: Blood Lines, Battlefield, Left 4 Dead, Prey, No One Lives Forever, Rainbow Six, Painkiller, Crysis and Deus Ex, all just pass you by somehow?

There is a WHOLE DAMNED LOT of variation and evolution going on in FPS games over the last 20 years.

I'm sorry that you either missed it or did not recognize it for what it was.

[thats_just_prime]

In general I agree FPS suck. However there are a couple that I enjoyed.

Jedi Knight 1&2
Bioshock
Borderlands

All of those were great games

[mayberry]

must not have played killzone 2/3. Very great games imho.

[dinkeldinkse]

Strongly disagree about Killzone 3(I am starting the habit of explaining why I clicked the disagree button).

[madpuppy]

"I am starting the habit of explaining why I clicked the disagree button"

nothing wrong with that, if a person hits disagree, they should have the mental acumen to be able to explain why.

[NewVegasTroop]

i disagree with you killzone 3 was, no wait,IS great.....

[dinkeldinkse]

I disagree, Killzone 3 is the opposite of a great game. Killzone 3 is to Killzone 2 what the last two levels(and story for those levels) of Deus Ex: Human Revolution are to the rest of the game(and story).

[josephayal]

Fighting games r way better

[TheFirstClassic]

Random and pointless comment as usual bro.

[saladthieves]

Well that's your opinion, one that can't just be applied to everyone else.

[ATi_Elite]

I'd rather play an action RTS than a fighting game proving i can make pointless off topics like josephayal !

But clean it with commenting on how Red Orchestra 2 is the finest FPS shooter out and if the writer of this story would get out the casual isle and into the hardcore gaming isle he would see a HUGE difference in FPS titles.

[vickers500]

Nu-uh

[Muitnorts]

I don't get why a Horde mode would make you dislike FPS games. It's clearly an extra and one that I personally really enjoy, especially when you want to just hang around with friends.

[Brownghost]

i love horde and beast mode plus its really fun with friends

[thespaz]

I've grown really tired of every game these days being a first person shooter (or first person perspective). Where are all the platforming games? Where's the adventure games. We have a few Tomb Raider games, Uncharted and InFamous, but I feel like there aren't enough of those types of games.

I guess I like exploring more than I like just killing wave after wave of enemies. Seriously I get so bored with games like Crysis 2 where I have to get to a checkpoint, but on the way, I can't stop and take in the scenery, I'm forced to keep shooting and shooting these people who have it in for me and it gets annoying really fast.

I also miss having to actually figure things out in a game. Now-a-days it's like get to the next check point, fight some more, get to a check point, fight some more. I like the games that make you think.

I hate to bring up Uncharted every time, but Uncharted 2 had the perfect blend of killing enemies, figuring stuff out and crazy action set pieces that really suck you into the game.

Also, multiplayer is getting stale because it doesn't tell a story... it's just spawn, kill, get killed, rinse and repeat. I'm not talking about just CoD either... every multiplayer I play is exactly like that... it's just cheap entertainment for short attention spans.

[Ducky]

"Where are all the platforming games? Where's the adventure games."

A game can be a plat-former or an adventure game while still being an FPS. They aren't mutually exclusive.

A game like Portal or MirrorsEdge is a puzzle-platformer, yet is also in the first-person view.
A game like Amnesia can qualify as adventure, yet it also is entirely in first-person.
Then there's the hybrid FPS/RPGs such as DeusEx and Fallout, which also have a lot of FPS elements thrown in.

There's a wide spectrum of FPS games. They're popular because they can draw you in and immerse you in a world much more effectively. Bioshock's twist wouldn't have had the same impact if it was a TPS.

I believe Killzone and Brink try to tell stories through their multiplayer portions. BadCompany2 does a bit of it too... but MP matches are usually treated like a sport. The story is dictated by the in-game chat and the struggles faced during the match.

[thespaz]

I don't feel like I'm looking through the eyes of the person when I play FPS games. I feel like I'm controlling a camera with a gun mounted to it.

I'd rather see who I'm controlling since I'm not actually holding a gun. I'm holding a controller and I'm controlling a virtual puppet to do what I want it to do.

If I want to roll, I can see myself roll... I like that visual feedback.

Plus, most FPS games don't show your feet when you look down, you don't cast a shadow on a wall and sometimes you don't even hold ladders when you climb.

[ATi_Elite]

Well my friend may I suggest you build a gaming PC and start experiencing some AAA PC FPS titles!

Hard Reset, Red Orchestra 2, Nuclear Dawn, Team Fortress 2, Arma II and very soon Firefall, Planetside2, Blacklight Retribution, Arma III, Hawken and Natural Selection 2.

STALKER 2 will be multi-plat and it's a FPS/RPG

Then you have Action RTS games like Dota2 and League of legends. Vindictus and Dragon's nest are free 2 play Action RPG's and I could go on for a while!!

[Brownghost]

thanks to the success of COD more developers want to make a fps's

[Who]

I've never enjoyed FPS as well, or even FP-view games for that matter. I get that you're supposed to 'be' or feel the character you're playing, but like you said it feels like your controlling a camera, which I find to be true. Plus I feel more 'badass' when I can actually see what I'm doing in character-form.

Another reason I can't play FP games is mainly because of the camera, I get motion-sickness when moving/looking around. After about 5-10 mins of playing, I have to put the game down, to go puke or lie down, lol.

Aside from the massive slaying, I look for problem-solving/puzzles in games. Back in the day, I enjoyed point and click adventure games because of this - collecting/combining objects [even some you didn't need], looking for clues, etc - it required a lot of attention to detail. But now, it seems you just run into a room, pull a lever, turn some type of revolving column, or stand on a switch to open a door.

I loved how at times you didn't know what the heck you're supposed to do, and as a result you'd be running around looking for clues or passageways. Then you'd just stand still and THINK... But now, everything is so clean-cut and obvious, you just want to get the puzzles out of the way.

[Bathyj]

Strongly agree with Point 1.

Ever since Halo, everyone copies the 2 gun law.

I play shooters to shoot things. I want more guns, not less. I want to use said guns, when I feel its appropriate, not when they're handed to me.

Thanks god Resistance 3 brought back the weapons wheel. Its great getting it a situation and having 4 or 6 different options to tackle it with.

The only exception is in a tactical, realistic type shooter like Rainbow 6 where you really only need one or two different weapons. Even then it should be 2 rifles, a handgun and a melee.

Anything else, and certainly anything based in fantasy, should let you carry every gun you've acquired.

PS
If you must limit the number, at least go a Deus Ex type set up with slots you fill so you can vary what you carry, depending on the size.

[madpuppy]

Hey, man a perfect example was Resistance 2, they went 2 weapon and it actually ruined the tenor of the game for me, you always knew you were going to fight a boss because the level would have to conveniently have a particular weapon laying around that was the only weapon to kill the boss.

the cry for the weapons wheel was so loud that insomniac had to bring it back for the third installment.

so, their is hope to bring that particular fun back into FPS games.

[Brownghost]

thats why i love half life

[Venjense]

I love FPS games, I'm just tired of cookie cutter ones - COD was great but everyone copies it's gameplay which is fairly basic, although COD does have great button layout and controls. There's nothing wrong with the camera angle just the gameplay and story depth.

Bioshock Infinite should rectify that soon enough.

My fav is a FPS/3PS hybrid like Deus Ex and Rainbow Six Vegas.

[Bathyj]

I also love the 1st and 3rd person mix. RB6 has the best cover system and its great for a game with stealthy gameplay, which is how I always try to play.

But I want AI to improve drastically.

I want a game where the AI get injured. Only head and chest shots are kills. If you hit a leg or should they will limp around and scream in pain until you kill them or bleed out eventually if its a gutshot. But even that take ages.

Pain will not only cause screams, but stop them for shooting straight. A hit to the shooting arm will likely have them drop their weapon, and have to shoot (badly) with their wrong hand. Any non fatal body, leg shot will make them immediately grab that area, just like you want if you got shot, less you bleed out quicker.

Can you imagine an enemy limping away desperately for cover holding his leg or arm or arse.

Plus, getting shot, will change your mindset. Some would panic and try to go down in a blaze of glory. Others keep cool and look for cover. They would all be different and have varying degrees of reaction.

If someone were to get a system like this in place, the game would be so dynamic. It would play differently everytime. I'd play a game like that over and over, even if it had no story, crappy graphics and no MP.

And this is why I hate devs wasting all their time on MP. AI is the biggest area of games with the most room for improvement. Its barely changed in 10 years while graphics and everything else has gone in leaps and bounds. The longer devs concentrate on MP and neglect the single player game the longer AI will stay stagnant.

[Venjense]

I want it to b if I get shot in the leg or arm I'm affected as well, and have head shot kill me and chest shots too (but taking into acount body armour)

[Wintersun616]

They're usually made with mostly multiplayer in mind and I don't care for multiplayer too much. I have fun with MP from time to time, but I'm not a competitive or even a regular online player and single player experiences are more important when making a choice of which games I'll buy. I love good stories, exploration, adventures and things that are not possible in this world, but most FPS games usually don't have any of those features.

[gcolley]

can't play linear hand-holding respawning FPS anymore. give me options and i am happy. Haven't been able to play CoD/Halo for years
This gen SP favourites... Riddick, Deus Ex, Bad Company 1
Forget MP I just play BF anything

[A LIVING LEGEND]

meh.
for every 31 cods,bfs and immaculate opinions,1 Dark Souls is inevitably born...Skyrim,etc.
as opposed to 80/1 last year. progress.inevitable

[AriesSiren]

i personally cant stand first person view. my main thing is I need to connect with my character and if i cannot see them, I cant get into it. imagine if you never saw lara croft or leon kennedy. all you saw was there hand and gun. it would not be as successful. the only game i mildly enjoyed was condemned and i still cant tell you what my character looked like to save my life. they marketed Mirrors edge faith bigtime and it sucked because we NEVER see her on screen. its just lazy to me.
i wish develepors would find a way to make both options for 3rd person and first person in the options menu. oh wait, they did in fallout 3 and look how clunky the animation was. atrocious and just lazy

[Quagmire]

I hate FPS's for a different reason, mainly because developers care mostly about cookie-cutter MP, rather than single-player. Last FPS game I played WITHOUT a MP attachment was Metro 2033 (I was suprised it DIDNT have MP), and yes thats recent, but before that...heck I can't even think of one this gen...

[NarooN]

These are only problems on todays casual-oriented shooters like CoD and...any game that tries to be like CoD.

You want a real, non-BS MP experience? Try pretty much any classic FPS on the PC. CS, Quake, Doom, UT, Painkiller, etc.

[BlitzAK]

I thought this was going to be another whine article, this guy however does put up a lot of valid points that I agree to.

[Coach_McGuirk]

I agree with the point on XP-based multiplayer. I'd rather see more games give you all of the guns, and let your fps skills shine through. Instead, it's the guy who has the most time to spend on a game who gets the good guns.