From 'Quake' To 'Call of Duty': A First-Person Shooter Revolution

From Quake to Call of Duty - ScreenCritics Sam takes a deep dive into the legacy of first-person-shooters - asking where they might be heading.

[TankCrossing]

Revolution? Quake to mordern day COD?

I'd call that a regression, or perhaps a tragedy.

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

Quake was shooter of true skill, modern day COD mp is built around skill gap compression, randomness and DLC.

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

I really wish the thoroughbred old school competitive arena shooters would have a resurgence. Doom (2016) had so much potential to do this, but the co-developer instead chose to mix and match various old and modern aspects to make a gimmicky (albeit fun in small dosages) mp. I also miss the Goldeneye-esque shooters, like Perfect Dark, Timesplitters and 007 Nightfire, but the sub genre has all but died off. There are still lots of fun first person shooters, but I personally don't think a revolutionary one has come out in a longtime.

[Perjoss]

Overwatch is pretty cool, although I often wonder if it would be better off if all ultimates were removed as many of them require little to no skill. Also lets see how the new Quake turns out, id software arent what they used to be but it could still be great.

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

I haven't played Overwatch enough to get a strong grasp of all the ultimates,I only played when it was free recently. However, I did get a bunch of easy kills using soldier 76's (I character I found too easy to play as) ultimate. I don't think the new Quake needs to have heroes, the PC community wants equal starts and just gun-on-gun gameplay, map control, weapon pick ups and power ups to fight over. Old school arena shooter multiplayer is what people wanted from Doom, but the dev didn't listen, even during the games early stages. Loadouts are something that I personally don't think work too well in shooters with long kill times like Quake.

[franwex]

Halo 5 is a rather good arena shooter right now. Probably the best one in the market. What are your thoughts on that game (erm...multiplayer wise) out of curiosity?

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

I played hundreds of hours of Halo 5. It is great arena shooter. Right now Halo 5 has the most balanced deathmatch on consoles. I'm currently Diamond League in both team deathmatch and free for all, the highest rank I've reached was ONYX in Free for all and Swat. I still want a old school arena shooter though. Halo 5 (and the rest of series) is more of a new wave arena shooter and not a traditional one.

[Gamist2dot0]

I remember being a noob to Quake and camped a lot with the rocket launcher and still got the least amount of kills lol.

[Allsystemgamer]

You HAVE to move in a game like quake. Rocket jumps. I miss those.

[Profchaos]

Doom 2016 felt like a highlight to me this year it's constant paced gameplay really reinforced the if you stand still and take cover you die keep moving deamons are everywhere keep an eye on your health and supplies it felt amazing.

Alternatively bf1 also felt like a breath of fresh air by going old school with new school mechanics.

Cod iw made me want to cry myself to sleep glad it's selling poorly after two flops in a row infinity ward need to get their game together