6 FPS Games that Helped change a Genre

GamerFitNation Gregory Laporte gives 6 fps games that have helped change the genre of first person shooters into what we know today. The first person shooter genre is one that has been ever evolving throughout consoles with story telling and gameplay experiences that they have offered. Here are 6 titles that I feel have changed the genre into what it is today. A fast, fun, and competitive experience.

[TitanUp]

usually don't agree with most list but this one i can agree on. but i also think counter strike should be on the list.

[Hagaf22]

Agree, counter strike played more to the genre than crysis, but looking at the bio at the bottom of this page this kid wasn't around for these games anyways.

[just_looken]

@Hagaf22
yep same can be said about alot of ”gamers“ but side note cod4+ gave a huge boost to campers 1-3 shots anywhere your dead and 2 shots anywhere sniper in order to die BS robocop run in gun mindless fps's ftw right kids? lol.

sidenote:
bfbhd
socom 2
mgo 1
socom 1
counter strike
how many here played still own copies of these true fps/3rd person online shooters the good old days. its my 5th month of no gameing online shooters just xmb

[XxBarretxX]

@just_looken

since when is Socom an FPS?

[alien626]

where is counter strike? i think that game made a big difference in FPS

[MaxXAttaxX]

And Quake and Unreal Tournament and Half-Life, etc.
Just saying.

I don't see how Crysis changed anything aside from pushing graphics on PC.

[da_2pacalypse]

@NathanExplosion Halo gets credit because it was the first successful console fps that felt natural, and didn't feel awkward to play. Most FPS games to this day still use the same control scheme of Halo CE. While counter strike was probably a better fps than halo, it was only like that on PC. when CS released on console, HALO CE was still a better game because the halo control scheme was just so fluid and well done. Additionally, Halo CE had some great battle sequences in the SP story which had never been done before the launch of Halo. Not to mention that Halo CE was a day1 launch title with the original xbox... It shouldn't really shock anybody that the game is in this list, if it wasn't for Halo CE, there probably wouldn't be an xbox 360, because the only reason anybody bought an original xbox was because of Halo CE lol

[awi5951]

NO unreal or quake is fail too. Hell rainbow6 pc or Swat should replace the console shooters as well except for halo ce. Because halo made shooters on console not suck with the control system everyone ripped off.

[MaxXAttaxX]

Story is a different subject. And honestly, great story telling has been done before. Maybe not in FPS games, but there wasn't anything new about it.

[lastdual]

The lack of Half Life is pretty glaring.

Also, listing both Goldeneye and Perfect Dark is redundant.

And listing Crysis purely for the graphics? Maybe, but Far Cry 1 was what put Crytek on the map, and was arguably the more influential game for the genre.

[JellyJelly]

Good call. Half-Life should definitely be on there.

[da_2pacalypse]

yeah, I'd replace crysis with halflife. That's pretty accurate. Halo 2 is also a pretty significant shooter, the online capabilities of halo 2 was amazing, because they were really the first game to make a good lobby/friends list system. Over all though, not a bad list.

[awi5951]

Fail no half-life or half-life 2 total fail.

[stevenhiggster]

No Half Life and no Wolfenstien = Fail.

[Gray-Fox-Type0]

Doom - Check

Goldeneye - Check

Perfect Dark - Check

Halo CE - Check

Call Of Duty 4 - Check

Crysis - ( Hmmm )- Did Crysis change FPS? It was more used as a graphical benchmark IMO but was a great game too. Its origins should be Far Cry then...

Half Life - Che....

WHAT THE F*** WHERE IS HALF LIFE

[Swiggins]

Agreed

To not have Half Life on this list is tant amount to high treason.

Hell I'd probably also replace Perfect Dark with Half Life 2.

[NukaCola]

I would replace Perfect Dark with Half Life.

Goldeneye is the definitely pick for the N64 genre. PD isn't really needed. Unless you could make the list longer and I would add the N64's 3rd FPS of choice Turok 2.

[MrDead]

Wolfenstine 3D gave us FPS, Doom popularised the genre then everything changed after Half-Life this brought us the story and the brains.

Without Half-Life this list it just a collection of stuff.

[Phantasm]

I also agree.

No Half-Life... WTF?
No Half-Life 2... WTF?

Not a game changer, but I'll always remember playing through Red Faction 1.

[Coffin87]

Crysis gameplay was nice. You could feel like Solid f*in Snake or Rambo, whatever you wanted. It was fun.
But .. changing the genre, not sure it did.

Also, when I saw "6 FPS games" mit Crysis picture, I initially thought it was "frames per seconds", lol.

[M_Prime]

Counter Strike would not exixt without HALFLIFE.. i remember playing Counterstrike when it was FREE and in BETA! i have a lot of games on my steam that are paid HL mods now that i got for free because i played since day 1

[Sizzon]

Perfect Dark...?

Where is Half-Life?

But I agree with Goldeneye 007 N64 and Halo CE Xbox.

[MrDead]

I still play Halo 1&2, I have them on my PC though

[Sizzon]

nice, I also have Halo CE on PC, it's really fun, but I played it first on the original Xbox.

[xf]

Timesplitters should be on this list.

[Kee]

I liked timesplitters a lot, but did it change the genre?

[barb_wire]

No Half-Life?

No Quake 2?

No Duke Nukem 3D?

No Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II?

Whoever wrote that list needs to play a few more games..

[xtheownerzx]

To be honest there are a ton of games i could have added and some that I forgot to add and am kicking myself for not adding to the list. I hate when I do this. Sorry about that guys, I'll improve for next time.

[xf]

There is nothing wrong with your list. There are just to many great games to squeeze into a small list. :-)

[2pacalypsenow]

how did crysis Change the genre?? where Wolfenstein? Quake?Half life

[bozebo]

TimeSplitters, Quake, Half Life and Counter-Strike also had an impact. Crysis... nah, maybe farcry though. System shock 2 also, maybe - because it lead to Bioshock and it also had a lot of similarities to half life but was in development at the same time.

6 is quite a short list in all honesty :P

Here would be mine:
Wolfenstein 3D
Doom
Quake
Half Life
Counter Strike
Goldeneye

damn... need more space :P

Yeah, its just not possible to give all the deserving games a mention with 6 slots!

edit:
ooh, this is interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

[Aggesan]

Your list is exactly the same as mine. Just add Battlefield 1943 and System Shock and it's perfect!

[aGameDeveloper]

That was a pretty sweet link. Lots of the games weren't AAA, but plenty were. I'd like to see a family tree that starts with Doom (which would include all the Quake stuff, of course).

[xf]

It's annoys me to read this list and peoples suggestions and see that the truly great FPS's are from last gen or the one before. Are all the COD clones killing the genre?.

[bozebo]

Sort of.

There are a limited number of core mechanics that are possible in a FPS game in all honesty.

I think there is still room for some new arcade stlye FPSs, like a new timesplitters.

I have plenty of great FPS ideas ready to implement whenever my programming skills get up to scratch :P (more the maths that I am slow with to be honest)
Curving bullets and ricochet in multiplayer ftw...

There are a lot of great FPSs in recent times - but they just havn't influenced the genre because there isn't much left to be discovered.

[aGameDeveloper]

I was in the same situation before I got in the Games Industry as a programmer. Unfortunately, a couple of my ideas are still bouncing around in my head while I work on OTHER peoples' ideas...

[bozebo]

You mean while you make other peoples' ideas work because they are inherantly flawed due to their lack of understanding? And then they get all the credit for the outcome :P

[mamotte]

I dont say they're killing the genre. But the list say "change" the genre, wich means, make it different.

This generation FPS are just economically exploiting it to the max.

[maniacmayhem]

Where the heck is Faceball 2000 for SNES!?

*snickers*

[solar]

you cant have a list of genre defining FPS's and not have CS or HL on it. list looses all credibility.

[EdwardS087]

The list is solid, except Half-life is missing. Swap Crysis (was mainly graphics) and your good.

[clrlite]

Good list, but it almost fails due to the lack of Counterstrike and Halflife. Counterstrike is still one of the biggest and best FPS after all these days and many things were "borrowed" from it's mods and features. Replace crysis with halflife and add counterstrike.imo

[Brownghost]

Yah to this day over 60k people still play it such a great game funny it wad just a mod for quake

[M_Prime]

are you sure it was a mod for QUAKE? i could swear that it was a MOD FOR HL.. since it runs on the HL engine and all..

but i didn't start playing it until HL.. so if it was before on QUAKE then i am sorry

[Darkfocus]

Gldsrc was a modified quake engine sooooo....but ya it was never on pure quake engine just Gldsrc...

[Brownghost]

sorry for the mistake my bad

[Cpt_kitten]

i'd take call of duty off that list and place something more practical not to mention cod's only bench mark was online play which battlefield had way before cod did and is still better that cod

but half life, quake, or halo would take it's place nicely

[Kee]

Dude, are you kidding me?

Hate it or love it, every FPS game that comes out nowadays gets compared to call of duty.

Are you trying to say that it hasn't changed the genre? Of course it has.

Sure, they're sticking to the same old formula and aren't really innovating, but no one can deny that CoD4 was an incredible game at it's time and nothing could touch it when it came out.

As for me, I still enjoy call of duty, but try and level with me... You must see how it has changed the genre?

[typeN8]

I agree very much so...fps is so much popular now then ever..and like it or not cod made this happen..most of you people here never really played fps untill the cod craze..and hey i enjoy bf more then cod but the facts are there... for you to hate on.

[Shackdaddy836]

No Half Life, Battlefield, Medal of Honor, or Counter Strike?... WTF horrible list.

[Brownghost]

Yah they should have added those and made it a top 10

[nintenflo]

Ah halo the second most overated gaming series of all time! Second only to gears of war!

[bozebo]

Halo is a masterpiece.

[andibandit]

@nintenflo

nice trolling, we are only talking Halo1 and not the series, try again.

[nintenflo]

Hmmmmmm think again chap in no way am I a troll, I own all 3 current gen home consoles and I actually play the 360 the most!

Ok let's take our fanboy hats off for a sec and speak facts!
Halo 1 and 2 were great at the time but wen halo3 came out on current gen consoles things had moved on and halo didn't change at all!
Games like cod 4, half life 2, and battlefield came along and made halo look amateur!
Gears is quite frankly a slow, boring mess of a game, especially in multiplayer!

My gave games this gen are crackdown and forza 3 so next time think before pulling out the troll card!

[kevnb]

no system shock?

[Brownghost]

I agree with the list a lot especially with crysis since it was more than a shooter and wasn't only about gunning and cover loved the nanosuit

[Lord_Sloth]

And destroyed almost all variety in the industry.

[KendrickGLS]

007, Perfect Dark, and Crysis are the bad*ss games!

[SpartanZero]

Where is Unreal Tournament

[NnT3291]

Take out Perfect Dark and add Halflife. I dont get me wrong, PD was great but it was similar to 007, so it didnt really change FPS drastically.

[tiffac008]

How could the author leave out Wolfenstein, Half Life, Quake and Medal of Honor? Doesn't he know that these games helped changed the genre too?

[tarbis]

Wolfenstein should be on top of that list.
Counterstrike should be in there too.

[sagapo]

except for Call of Duty. Medal of Honor Allied Assault should be on that spot.

[ninjahunter]

Crysis isnt really a great pick for this list, but there are a few things that it helped push forward. Like non linear levels in games, destructible enviroments, and it set the graphical bar that makes developers say "i want to beat crysis".
But halflife (2) should be in that spot.

[nskrishna2]

where the hell is CS???

And WHERE THE HELL IS HALF LIFE??..:O

[bobrea]

How the hell is CS or Half-Life on this list? And Crysis didn't do shit to help change the genre. A fun game with amazing graphics, but it didn't do anything to change the genre. I agree with the rest though.

Although there will always be disagreements with these stupid list-based articles.

[jimykid86]

The article should be named "My Favorite FPS" instead...

[Kakasquall]

Counterstrike should have def. been somewhere on this list.

[GoldenPheasant]

You know, I dont want to rip anyone, but no half life? You must of started gaming recently...but even that dont make sense since u list doom. List fail!

[GoldenPheasant]

edit: just to point out, I don't think the author was even an idea yet when doom came out.

[TocTheYoungest]

What ignorant idiot made this list? Where is Half-Life?

[AKS]

How can you have this type of list and not have a single title from Valve?

[SebastianSB]

This just seems to be a list of six shooters that the author liked. It makes no effort to explain how any of them were important at all...

[zero_cool]

I know many people here hate PS3 & trash all over it as much as humanly possible everyday but resistance 1 & 2 & Mag increased the player count in online multi player gaming in fps games that at least deserves honorable mentioning!

[EditorAtGNG]

Ridiculous.

No Half Life.

No Deus Ex.

No Quake.

No Unreal.

...

[VforVideogames]

THIS was written by a 16 year old, and this are his favorite fps's , is he including all consoles of all time and pc's? not cool

[fr00ty-wizenhymer]

Crysis did nothing to the genre but show off it's pretty graphics. Call of Duty did change the genre, but imo for the worst. Many other games deserve to be on this list.

[Bits-N-Kibbles]

Half Life (& Counter Strike)
Quake or Unreal Tournament

[zero_cool]

I guess i should refresh haters minds what made these 3 fps games multi player experiences a blast....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

[death2smoochie]

This article is what FPS games changed the genre.
NONE of those PS3 games you listed did this.
If you can list just one feature in those games that did, I will give you a carrot.
Having more players on board is not game changing, in fact there were games before the PS3 came out that had more than 50 players online for PC gaming.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...
And those games had vehicles also.
RFOM and MAG brought nothing new to the table...especially the amount of players online when the PC was doing this for YEARS before the PS3 even came out. Get your facts straight.

The Battlefield series had 32 players per side for a total of 64 players. A game that came out well before the PS3.
Novalogic Delta Force games for the PC had large number of online players.
Your mistake as the norm is you think anything that comes on the PS3 is new and cutting edge and Sony invented it, when most of this has been done on the PC years before...ESPECIALLY large amounts of multi-players within the game.
This is not new...only to you as you only have a PS3 to game on...

We all know you love the PS3 blindly based on your foolish comments and think its a super computer more powerful than a PC, but your posts of late are so silly its becoming a comedic relief.

The very fact you try and put RFOM and MAG in the same category as Half-Life/Counter Strike/Deus X/Unreal/System Shock and Doom etc is laughable at best. Wow you win the dumbass award of the week.

[SillyBastid]

I can't read such a poorly written article

[lionelglitchy]

half life??????????
and wheres rise of the triads

[Koromaro]

No Duck Hunt?

[Snowii]

halo helped to change the fps genre?

sorry but thats a huge bullshit right there

its just another sci fi shooter with nothing new and recycled graphics

[death2smoochie]

Ok list but they should have HL2 on it as well as System Shock and CS or Deus X.

[Relientk77]

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Unreal Tournament
Syphon Filter
Quake 2
Timesplitters

^ not all of these neccessarily deserve to be on this list but theyre a few good FPS's out there that arent on the list

[Koromaro]

Syphon Filter is not a First Person Shooter =/

[xtheownerzx]

I'm glad that some people actually enjoyed the list i wrote. I just find it funny that some people can make assumptions off of the article. You know you've done something good when you attract trolls and people who know nothing about you. FYI to the guy that asked, I'm 23 and yes I missed adding half-life but there are just so many great games to add.

[xX-StolenSoul-Xx]

Personally i think Medal Of Honor changed the FPS place alot on consoles and it started a new breed of fps proving that fps games work on consoles with dual analogs.

[Father Murder X]

Here is my list:

Haze
Duke Nukem Forever
Elite Forces: Navy Seals
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty
Legendary
Jericho
Turok

LOL!!!

[MarkusMcNugen]

These list articles are getting more pathetic as time ticks away. Especially when people just throw together half-assed articles and it makes it to N4G...

[nano88]

The game that had the most impact for me was halo