Which oldschool FPS you haven't played or finished and why?

[Optimus]

Sometimes I remember a classic FPS that I would like to play or finish just for historical reasons or because I heard so many good words about it but never played it during it's time. Some of them are on my list to play, others I tried to play but stuck somewhere or lost interest.

 

Wolfenstein3D/Spear of Destiny: Too blocky maze generic, back in the time for some reason I got horrible motion sickness from this one after 10 minutes, and there was Doom already anyway. I could try just historically with modern accelerated ports and mouselook.

 

Marathon series: I never had a mac, heard people saying it was better than Doom, could recently try it with Aleph one source ports, it's interesting historically with the terminals story but more maze like and bland color/level design and generic enemies, got stuck sooo badly even after many levels, lost interest, might go back again or maybe the 2nd.

 

Hexen: Started at some point and got really stuck hard, not knowing what to do next at some point. Could go back again because I like more the feel of the weapons than Heretic, the 3 character classes, the environments.

 

Hexen 2: I never even played it and looks interesting actually, using the Quake engine but having the medieval environment.

 

Rise of the Triad: never finished it, again similar looking squary rooms, I lost interest after a while.

 

Descent: Too dizzy..

 

Dark Forces: Would try again, never finished it, stuck somewhere in first few levels and lost interest.

 

Daikatana: I actually tried this one 2, 3 times, historically. One I got crashes, second one the AIs stuck and couldn't go on. 3rd attempt I go to greek levels, which were more open and nice than the first episode, and the AIs have space to move and work better, so it gets a bit better later but 1st episode gives bad impression before you can move on. Lost my saves. Have to start all over again.

 

Could be more if I go on..

[DiEnd]

Zero Tolerance. First two chapters are fine, but there is a general lack of ammo in the third chapter and the game switches some of weapons from the second part. And aiming on Megadrive gamepad is pretty hard.

 

Quake. "SSG isn't the main workhorse" started to weird me out of it. Then I gradually lost interest.

 

DN3D. I just can't get used to it. I usually start playing, but on the second level I start to wish it was Doom.

 

These are those that I want to beat, but they don't always go very well.

[[McD] James]

I'd rather just list the ones that I've played, and haven't finished.

 

Dark Forces. Played it for a bit on Dosbox and thought it was decent. Played it on DarkXL and found it to be exponentially more enjoyable. Didn't play beyond maybe five levels because I knew the DarkXL engine was in alpha and had bugs that could lock you out. At this point, I can't really go back to playing the game on DOS. Don't think I'll be seeing a completed source port anytime soon, but I'm hopeful.

 

Dark Forces 2. Too many and graphical errors to be enjoyable. The patches did nothing to help. I might try it out again later.

 

Jedi Academy. One of the missions was bugged, and certain markers weren't showing up when they were supposed to. I probably would have been okay if I had just restarted the mission, but screw that, the game was incredibly boring, and even more poorly written than Jedi Outcast. I was happy to find an excuse to stop playing. So far, the only Dark Forces game I've ever gotten any enjoyment out of was the first.

 

Blake Stone. I played through the first three missions. I feel that I'd seen everything I needed to and was content with that. It's an alright game, but nowhere near as good as Wolfenstein 3D or Rise of the Triad. 

 

Redneck Rampage. Hot garbage. Couldn't stomach it for more than maybe 25 minutes.

 

Shogo. Happiest I've ever been to be locked out of a game due to a game breaking bug. Pathetic game.

 

Almost every game made by Capstone Software. Do I really need to explain why?

[ShoDemo]

Wolfenstein 3D: Opened the game, played first level, noticed awful "you move with the mouse" controls, closed game.

 

Quake: For some reason I stopped playing after the first episode, even though I was having fun (especially with the low gravity secret level).

 

 Strife: Quite good of a game, but I stopped playing after I went to the second area (after the city/village level). I started losing interest.

 

Duke Nukem 3D: Couldn't get used to the controls, but somehow the 20th anniversary felt a lot better. I got close to the end of the second episode, before stopping (why did they make those facehugger/whatevers and used them? They are annoying!).

 

Thief 1 and 2: Thief 1 I stopped playing, because I reached a mansion where I have to retrieve a sword and the mansion is decorated like an interdimensional looney building, so I got lost (to make me get lost, a game has to try really hard) and when I found the sword I accidentally saved while a guard saw me... (I suppose I could play the tutorial again and take the mission from the beginning, but I am not feeling like it yet. Thief 2 I don't know why I stopped. It went very smooth, compared to 1, gameplay-wise. Maybe it was that "don't take down more than x enemies or you lose" quest.

 

System Shock 2: Was defending pretty well with my wrench at the start, but then I learned I had to do stealth.

Let's just say it didn't go very well (a zombie appeared all of a sudden and scared the living daylights out of me) and I need to find my courage before playing again (someday...)

 

I haven't played Daikatana, but I would gladly try it out. That and maybe Blood, Descent and Rise of the Triad.

[Deleted_Account]

Rise of the Triad - Couldn’t get into 

Blood - Never played

Strife - Never played

Descent - Never played

Heretic/Hexen - Couldn’t get into

[42PercentHealth]

Most of them.

[therektafire]

Doesn't really count as "classic" but I tried to play HacX yesterday in GZDoom and couldn't even get past MAP01 because I couldn't find the passwords to any of the doors :/ And I looked in every nook and cranny that I could physically access up to that point... I didn't jump or crouch around things though, is that a requirement for that wad?

[wheresthebeef]

I hadn't played Blood until around 2013 and I fell in love; I was mad about what I was missing all that time until then.

 

Shadow Warrior is one I just can't get into. Tried many times to play it and just get burned out by the second level. I like the design of the levels and the locations, but they are too labyrinthian for me for some reason. That and the fact it seems way harder than both Duke and Blood

[Percival232]

Wolfenstien 3D And Quake Are The Only OldSchool FPS I Never Finished That I Own At Least. I Never Finished Quake Mostly Because Quake Gets Pretty Hard For Me. Plus I Never Bothered To Use Any Other Source Port Besides GLQuake But Eh Its Gets Boring and Looks Yuck IMO. I Should Really Finish Quake Though. Wolfenstien 3D Lowkey Bores Me After 30 Minutes. I Thinks Its Fine But Its Super Simple Compared To Shit Like Doom.

[yakfak]

hexen and dark forces own, strife owns, quake owns and after that the list of FPSes i don't dread playing sorta tapers into maybes

rott i sort of admire for being crazy but it still lets you die when you slide off the level by accident and you have to redo the whole thing :P

blood and redneck rampage are deeply tacky and make me feel like i am watching wrestling

im more nostalgic for time splitters 2 and outlaws than for duke nukem 3d

[Jello]

For all the love and praise I give Blood, I've never actually finished it. I finished the first and second episodes years ago, but I never finished the rest. Recently I've decided to alleviate that and finished E3 a week ago and I'm working on E4. And yeah, it's still just as fantastic as I remember it. It's definitely my favorite Build engine game. Which is odd, since I've finished Duke3D and Shadow Warrior, but not Blood. 

 

Never finished Hexen either, I always ended up in the third hub and couldn't figure out how to get through the overly convoluted level design. Not to say I didn't like it, it was fun, but it wasn't fun enough to warrant dealing with the level design. I was also pretty disappointed when I realized each character only had four weapons, and that the levels were exactly the same despite the class you selected. (Yeah, I was 10 when it came out, I didn't have the internet, and my expectations were greater than what Raven could deliver.) I still want to finish it some day, maybe after Blood.

[Chow Yun Thin]

Half-Life 1. I dread having to fight the grunts. Not a fan of tripwires, both the ones that activate sentry guns and the ones that go boom. Why the hell is there a level composed entirely of avoiding them?

 

System Shock 2. Them spiders, man. I just noped the fuck out of there once they showed up.

 

Blood. I lost interest in the third episode. I did persevere through episode 2 with the introduction of the spiders and the she-bitch that spawned them. Call the Spray Cans underpowered compared to the Napalm Launcher, but at least they let you see the eight-legged fuckers fry.

 

Descent. Damn that yellow cyclopean bastard on Mercury with his cloaking and Smart Missile spam. And damn his posse of three of the toughest bots at that point and three high-damage hitscanners. I heard the last boss is even more of an asshole and armed with one-hit-kill Mega Missiles.

 

Quake 2. I think I stopped somewhere in the Outer Palace because it became a chore to slog through.

 

Hexen. The base game doesn't interest me and the item fetching is tedious. Those spikes that rise out of the ground still terrify me.

[silentzorah]

I started on Shadow Warrior Classic for the first time about... I dunno, three or something years ago, but didn't make it much further than E1M3.  Dunno what it is, but the level design choices in Build-engine games from that era just put me off.  Either that, or it's the increased aggression of AI when compared to Doom.

 

I want to like it, but I just don't.

[Barry Burton]

To anyone who didn't finish System Shock 2: FINISH IT!!!

 

Incredible game. Just level up heavy weapons so you can use the grenade launcher, and then stock up on all the ammo type for it and you can breeze through the entire game.

[Resigned_34]

17 hours ago, Optimus said:

Marathon series: I never had a mac, heard people saying it was better than Doom, could recently try it with Aleph one source ports, it's interesting historically with the terminals story but more maze like and bland color/level design and generic enemies, got stuck sooo badly even after many levels, lost interest, might go back again or maybe the 2nd.

 

That lift puzzle in M1 certainly didn't help things much for me.

 

 

I still need to finish Hexen, played it for an hour and two but got distracted.

Edited March 28, 2018 by Resigned_34

[KVELLER]

Rise of the Triad: I got to the final level and... couldn't figure out how to beat the final boss. I wasn't having that much fun anyways, so I didn't bother to look it up and just abandoned it.

 

Redneck Rampage: I got to a level set in some sewers and couldn't manage to go up a ladder. I was using an incomplete source port based off of EDuke32, so maybe it was a bug, but just like with ROTT, I wasn't having too much fun in the first place.

 

Dark Forces: I was playing with the DarkXL Engine, got lost in a level and called it a day.

 

Marathon 2: While I love the storytelling (impressive stuff for an FPS from the 90s) the gameplay isn't anything amazing. I may try to replay it some day, though.

[[McD] James]

I really don't know if I'll ever want to try the Marathon games. I know they have a cult following, but when I watch gameplay footage, everything about them looks very dull. 

[GarrettChan]

4 hours ago, ShotgunDemolition said:

Thief 1 and 2: Thief 1 I stopped playing, because I reached a mansion where I have to retrieve a sword and the mansion is decorated like an interdimensional looney building, so I got lost (to make me get lost, a game has to try really hard) and when I found the sword I accidentally saved while a guard saw me... (I suppose I could play the tutorial again and take the mission from the beginning, but I am not feeling like it yet. Thief 2 I don't know why I stopped. It went very smooth, compared to 1, gameplay-wise. Maybe it was that "don't take down more than x enemies or you lose" quest.

 

That mission in T1 is very cool to me because the house is decorated by a madman, just as the owner; According to the thing you said, I think you stopped at Mission 3 in T2 since you can't knock out/kill more than 5 guards in that mission (3 for hard and 0 for expert).

 

Yeah, I understand the game is somewhat irritating since most of the missions are just a maze. It's not friendly for blind playthrough since you may just run into something around the corner, which may completely turn the game into a save scum situation.

[ShoDemo]

2 hours ago, GarrettChan said:

That mission in T1 is very cool to me because the house is decorated by a madman, just as the owner;

 

Yes, it was definitely cool from a design perspective, but it's like you said about the save scumming situations.

Truth be told though, I think I liked Thief 1 more than 2, for that supernatural feel it gives off and the unique level design (I had lots of fun with the Hammerite mission and the zombies infested level with the killer holy water).

Determination refilled right now. I want to play some more, so I might boot it later today (I don't know what it is, but when I talk about games I left in the middle, I get an urge to replay, so this thread is really helpful).

[seed]

Quake 2.

Blake Stone.

Strife.

Blood.

 

And probably many more, because of time, low interest, and then $.

 

7 hours ago, 42PercentHealth said:

Most of them.

 

Yeah, does sum up my experience with oldies.

[Catpho]

Quake 2 is literally collecting dust right now on my computer, should be playing it.

Heretic and Hexen sounds like they would really fit me, but for some reason i still havent played them.

[KVELLER]

1 minute ago, Catpho said:

Quake 2 is literally collecting dust right now on my computer, should be playing it.

 

Literally? As in, the disc is collecting dust?

[Catpho]

Just now, KVELLER said:

 

Literally? As in, the disc is collecting dust?

Nah, its means that i havent touched the game for far too long, like when you leave something too long it "collects dust".

[snapshot]

Every Quake game except 3, the environments are so repetitive, always feels like I keep revisiting the same location, I don't know if it's the textures or the lighting but most of them have the same "Déja vu" vibe, Q3A was definitely a different beast compared to the other entries and I enjoyed it alot, I liked the music and aesthetics and the guns feel much better to use compared to Quake 2 in my opinion.

[KVELLER]

14 minutes ago, Catpho said:

Nah, its means that i havent touched the game for far too long, like when you leave something too long it "collects dust".

 

I was just confused by you using the word "literally" :P

 

(Sorry everyone for going off topic).

[Catpho]

Just now, KVELLER said:

 

I was just confused by you using the word "literally" :P

 

 

It was for emphasis :P 

Heh

[Xaser]

Daikatana. Started it to see what all the un-hype is about, and I'm maybe about halfway through the second episode (which is an immediate improvement over the first, as expected). It's surprisingly fun in a derpy, janky sort of way, and I feel like I owe it to myself to finish it at least so I can pick it apart from a game design perspective. :P

 

Other than that, Dark Forces is maybe the most notable gap in my classic-FPS history. I also really need to give Chasm: The Rift a go just 'cause a certain developer of DUSK is quite fond of it.

[[McD] James]

I'd love to someday try Chasm: The Rift, but I hear it's difficult to run properly on Dosbox. I know there's a reverse engineered source port for it, but I've heard very mixed things about it.

[taufan99]

Just now, Ajora said:

I'd love to someday try Chasm: The Rift, but I hear it's difficult to run properly on Dosbox. I know there's a reverse engineered source port for it, but I've heard very mixed things about it.

I once played it on DOSBox a few years ago, and don't recall encountering any problem.

[KVELLER]

28 minutes ago, Ajora said:

I know there's a reverse engineered source port for it, but I've heard very mixed things about it.

 

That port is still unfinished ATM. I haven't tried it because of that.