What are the most unique and original FPS games you’ve played?

[Julian]

Fredrik said:

Metroid Prime is about as original as wearing pants.

OMG! There are people who wear pants?

[Shaviro]

Dark Fox said:

Halo, everyone likes seeing the same damn thing over and over and over and over and over again.

I'll put my required SS2 note along with my Half-Life recomendation.. I acually found a human being who had not played half-life before, he is not buried under my porch after I beat him silly with a shovel.

heh. Half-Life wasn't very original. Basically another Doom clone with scripts.

[toxicfluff]

Shaviro said:

heh. Half-Life wasn't very original. Basically another Doom clone with scripts.

Heh, a Doom clone. Bullshit. Much as I love Doom, it's SP is less original than HL. Apart from engine and game media Doom is in concept (find key, shoot) the same as Wolf3d or Ken's Labyrinth. It's immeasurably more fun than either (sometimes more fun than anything else to me), but not so original. Doom clones haven't really been around for a while.

Half Life did more than that. The first level was just your first day at work, an idea never seen in an FPS. The heavy scripting was a brand new atmospheric tool, and has had an undeniably huge effect on pretty much every modern FPS since - and imitation always flows most freely from an original idea doesn't it? RTCW and D3 - the last and next Id game respectively - both use scripting and are, incidentally, both games made after HL shaped the modern FPS (which it did, whether you like the format of modern FPS games or not).

[nycgamer]

Okay, so maybe the general concensus is that Halo isn't unique or original. Fine. But it's brilliant, single-player or multi. I don't care what anyone else says, it will remain in my mind a masterpiece. As for unique and original, I don't think anyone can deny that TRON 2.0 simply isn't like any other game. Completely stunning and unique. The idea behind it is so classic, so simple, yet the end result makes just about everything else pale by comparison.

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/tron2_082103_029.jpg
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/tron2_082103_012.jpg

[Shaviro]

ToXiCFLUFF said:

blah blah

Well HL didn't do anything original either then. It wasn't the first fps to include scripting, a story or a peaceful environment.

afaik Sin predates Half-Life.

[Ralphis]

Halflife feels like the first game to make you the player as far as I'm concerned. The first time I played it, I expected Quake style jump into the game and shoot some things, but I ended up going through a 20 minute process of me making my way to work and interacting with NPCs. And on top of that, the voice acting didn't suck like in most games.

[Grimm]

I've never played Half-Life. I did play Blue-Shift and Oopposing Force, though.

Metroid Prime is pretty original, in my opinion. Have you ever played it, Fredrik?

[Vile]

Rise of the Triad.

Maybe not the most original, but definitely unique. Crazy powerups and tons of weird Easter Eggs really give it a personality of its own.

Also had to admit the music was pretty upbeat for the type of game it was.

[Remilia Scarlet]

Vile said:

Rise of the Triad.

Maybe not the most original, but definitely unique. Crazy powerups and tons of weird Easter Eggs really give it a personality of its own.

Also had to admit the music was pretty upbeat for the type of game it was.

Actually, that was the first game with rocket jumps, required to beat the game w/o codes (and knowledge of the Mercury Mode powerup at the start). And it was also pretty early with the pseudo room-over-room stuff, bullet holes, destructable objects, and a mode for extra blood in an FPS game. Check out the Rott In Hell article.

And I loved the music. I recorded it all onto CD. Twice. And once onto a cassette.

[pritch]

ROTT and Doom. Unreal was good too. Quake had great atmosphere.

[AresGodofWAR]

Well, if we're looking in terms of orginally and oldness, I'd say Catacomb Apocalpyse/Abyss/Armageddon. It's the Game that predated Wolf3d. Look around for it, AByss is the shareware.

And it's a damn cool FPS. For it's 1992 debut! :)

Older than even Wolf3d, made a year before it by Apogee. Anyway, I"ll stop delurking, and go back to lurking.

[Fredrik]

Grimm said:

Have you ever played it, Fredrik?

From start to end.

[Grimm]

I don't see how you don't think it's original then. Oh well.

[deathz0r]

System Shock 1.

[Dark Fox]

deathz0r said:

System Shock 1.

Quoted for truth

[toxicfluff]

Shaviro said:

Well HL didn't do anything original either then. It wasn't the first fps to include scripting, a story or a peaceful environment.

afaik Sin predates Half-Life.

I've got Sin, and it seems to use hardly any scripting to the same effect that half-life does. It's got cutscenes, but those aren't really the same thing, seeing as they pull you out of the game (or do so for me anyway). In this way, the story was integrated into the game in a way which hadn't been done before.

//edited for lack of restraint

[Dark Fox]

Half life was the first game I ever played that felt like a movie.. that I was gordon freeman.. and only few games can touch that.

Sin was steamy pile of crap.

[nycgamer]

I would put Half-Life in the same category as Halo... the "who cares whether it does anything new, it's still one of the best games ever" category. So, am I the only one here who has played TRON 2.0 or what?

[Vile]

Sin... wow, I forgot that game even existed, and I played the demo. It wasn't that bad, but it was just pushed out of my mind. Oh well, better than playing through a bad game hoping it will get better (Unreal 2).

[Remilia Scarlet]

nycgamer said:

So, am I the only one here who has played TRON 2.0 or what?

Played it. Didn't see anything too interesting, imo.

[GS-1719]

nycgamer said:

So, am I the only one here who has played TRON 2.0 or what?

I thought it was a great game, but borrowed too heavily from System Shock 2 in certain areas to class it as original.

[knife_puppet]

el zee said:

Deus ex is probably the most unique and realistic game i've ever played

This one is very wise, aside from the realistic part.

There are not too many games I can think of that can successfully integrate an RPG with a fps-er, and which includes such immensely open game play tripled with heavily explorative environments.

Doom also gets my vote considering it was the first(?).

[JavaGuy4230]

I believe that Tron 2.0 and Metroid Prime are the two most original FPS of late. I have to say Metroid because though it's a first person perspective, it doesn't play so much like any other FPS. Like the earlier games, it focuses a lot on exploring and areas, which is what makes the series one of my favorite. I have as much fun scanning as many creatures as possible and unlocking new areas with neat items as I do blasting up enemies, and the beautiful environment is truly unique.

Tron 2.0 also has my vote, though I only played the one level Demo. In one way, from what I played, it seemed that the objectives were pretty much the same. You run around, kill enemies, hit some switches and exit. However, there are a few cool things about it that set it apart from the rest. The weapons aren't your standard set. It seems an odd combination that requires a lot of strategy to use (in the hardest difficulty level, anyways), and I'm guessing your simple disk (it's cool to block enemy fire with that) is a factor throughout the entire game. And the feel for the game is pretty different. You're inside this computer world, and it really is surreal.

So yeah... if you haven't seen them, you should.

[toxicfluff]

JavaGuy4230 said:

And the feel for the game is pretty different. You're inside this computer world, and it really is surreal.

Again, check out the end of System Shock 2 - it's got some pretty cool cyber world stuff, although I'm betting not as impressive as Tron, since SS2 is so much older.


Deus Ex is probably my favourite single player game, but I wasn't sure whether to include it into the FPS list....

[myk]

darknation said:
those bugs are all over the place,

Well, as long as they don't crash the game, mess with playability, or look really bad, it's okay.

[Dunbar]

myk said:

Well, as long as they don't crash the game, mess with playability, or look really bad, it's okay.

I think he was referring to the Aliens.

Great game, by the way.

[Remilia Scarlet]

I also thought Shogo was cool and unique since it seemed to successfully introduce anime-elements into an FPS, including driving an anime mech. Whether this was a first or not I don't know.

[myk]

Dunbar, I'll get you a new joke detector for christmas.

ToXiCFLUFF said:
Half Life did more than that.

I suppose it's arguable but I feel your arguments are kind of watered down by the fact that Half-Life mostly merged elements existing already within the gerne:

Duke 3D added realistic elements/details
Hexen used a lot of scripting that certainly affected the setting/play
Quake brough 3D in the (true) modern sense to the FPS
Strife was similar to Hexen and added NPCs

Half-Life's a key step in the way FPS games have been and are being developed, though. That'd be influence within the existing gerne.

I personally think DOOM is the most original because it defined and fleshed out the gerne (after that any FPS is practically a clone with added elements, and when you add too many you just start questioning whether it actually belongs to another gerne or what.) Wolf3D was a start, by all means, but basically still the same as a side scroller in every way except perspective... too flat and lacking multi-player.

[Job]

It really pissed me off when Game Pro gave Half-Life an 11/10.

[toxicfluff]

Hexen had scripting, but only in the most technical of manners. Rather the game had scripting, in the form of ACS. Hexen's scripting usually involved flicking a switch or placing an artifact to move some stuff and going through a portal to get to the affected area.

Whereas HL had no scripting language but a variety of actual scripted events, which didn't rely on any action of yours other than being there - used for atmosphere rather than functionality.