8th Gen - The Death (Finally!) of Corridor Shooters?

The blog picture comes from here: http://memearchive.net/meme... , and I think it's a fitting way to describe the modern FPS genre. I like shooters. I really do, but I've been a bit worn out on them recently. I have my reasons, but chief among them would be how every FPS these days seems to be a corridor shooter. I grew up on shooters like Duke Nukem, Strife, System Shock, and Dark Forces, games that gave you complex environments to explore with hidden ammo caches, alternate paths, divergent hallways, and all the sort of stuff that modern FPSs omit. After a while, running down the same street with the same column of burned-out cars being blocked by the same pile of concrete rubble gets really boring, and I've wanted the FPS genre to follow the lead of games like Dishonored (okay, not a shooter) and Far Cry 3.

My cynical side is saying "wait and see", but if what I'm seeing is true, I think the Dark Age of Corridor Shooters is coming to an end, and I couldn't be any happier (well, please announce a new Dark Forces, but I'll take SW: Battlefront I guess).

First, there's Killzone: Shadows Fall. I've beaten every single Killzone game, but I'm actually not that big of a fan of the series. I enjoy the games, but I consider them solid B-rate shooters, nothing more. Still, I like them and I was pleased to see a new Killzone announced. When I saw the first trailer (here: http://www.vg247.com/2013/0... I thought to myself "yeah, that looks fun". I figured I'd pick it up after it dropped down to the ~$20 range, but after seeing the footage, I may have to expedite my purchase (footage + interview here: http://www.youtube.com/watc... ) The color palette, the feel, and the semi-openness of the maps gave me really strong Halo: Combat Evolved vibes, and I mean that in a good way. Killzone is actually pretty bad when it comes to scripted, linear areas, so I was mighty impressed they broke out of the corridor and gave us very open-ended maps to mess around in.

Next up is Titan Fall, which blew a lot of people away, and it was my second-favorite showing at the Microsoft conference (topped only by MGS5). The Xbox One gameplay can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watc... . Setting aside the integration of mechs (HECK YES!), it really wowed me with its verticality and parkour-ish movement around the map. During the demonstration, the player jumped, slid, flew up onto rooftops, wall-ran on billboards, and more. I was watching and there were plenty of parts during the trailer where I pointed and said "it looks like you can go in that drain pipe" and "that bombed out house looks like an alternate route". Based on the demonstration, it seems as though the maps will be nice and open-ended, which is never a bad thing, in my opinion.

Lastly, we finally got to see a beefy demonstration of Bungie's new game, Destiny. Brimming with Bungie's signature quality, the game looks like a ton of fun (here: http://www.youtube.com/watc... ) and possibly an early contender for the next big thing in the FPS genre. I'm sure Bungie has plenty of their own ideas, but the core gameplay resembles Borderlands, which isn't a bad thing at all. The weapons look like a lot of fun, and everything in that gameplay demonstration just oozes quality and creativity. Best yet, the maps look massive, perhaps on the same scale of an MMO. Who knows? Either way, Destiny is yet another game breaking away from the corridor-shooter style we've all grown so bored of.

I don't know about you, but I really like shooters. Yet, I get burned out them when they devolve into same-ol'-same-ol'. Hopefully, this new generation of first person and third person shooters breaks out from the rigid, linear molds created during the last gen of gaming.

Those are the three shooters that really stood out to me. Did I miss anything? What FPS games did you like seeing at E3? Do you agree with the premise of my blog? Comment below.

[Nicaragua]

Titanfall was definitely one of the most interesting games I saw at E3, it sucks that its currently an Xbox exclusive. Hopefully that will just be a timed exclusive and it will land on the PS4.

[JonahNL]

It's also landing on the PC, so I wouldn't rule out a PS4 version just yet.

[Nicaragua]

to be honest by the time it gets around to being on PS4 then there will probably be something bigger and better out, still sucks having to wait though.

[SilentNegotiator]

And it's EA. EA essentially told Eurogamer 'We're in a contract with Microsoft and I can't reveal details because it would breach that contract'

The obvious implications being that they're in a temp "microsoft exclusive" situation and revealing that would greatly devalue the way people view the game as "exclusive"

"Obviously a business relationship between Electronic Arts, Respawn and Microsoft led to this," EA Games Label boss Patrick Söderlund - the executive directly responsible for managing Titanfall - told Eurogamer. "There are always reasons for that, but we can't go into them."

"business relationship" = contract
"reasons...can't go into them" = breach of contract

Why else couldn't you be allowed to discuss simple ideas of the game coming to other platforms? What would stop them from saying either "It's not coming to non-Microsoft platforms" or "It might"? Because you're in contract not to disclose that the exclusivity might be temporary.

TitanFall, PS4, ~1 year after initial release. I guarantee it.

[shadow2797]

I encourage you to watch the gameplay of Tom Clancy's The Division if you haven't already. That game is the definition of open. Technically, it's an MMO, but it's done in a way that feels like a huge step forward for shooters.

At least in my opinion.