First Person Shooter (Hidden Gems)

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

8 hours ago, geo said:

Enclave. Its a medieval shooter.

 

Legendary. Its a $1 Unreal game.

 

Vampires the Madagascar or something like that. Its a Half Life 2 engine game that had the misfortune of coming out the same week as the legendary game.

I wouldn't have considered it for an FPS thread since it defaults to third-person (although you can put it into a first-person view and it's pretty playable that way), but seconding Enclave.  It may not be another Heretic/Hexen but it might be the next best thing.

[geo]

5 minutes ago, ETTiNGRiNDER said:

I wouldn't have considered it for an FPS thread since it defaults to third-person (although you can put it into a first-person view and it's pretty playable that way), but seconding Enclave.  It may not be another Heretic/Hexen but it might be the next best thing.

I'd consider Enclave to be Medieval Quake. Feels like the same engine. Its been given away and stuffed in bundles multiple times. If I remember, playing as the rogue faction resulted in a far more difficult time. Then again I played the rogue side after completing the heroic side of things.

 

If Enclave and Vampires were default third person, I never played them that way. I just didn't recall, then again its been maybe 6 years since I've played them. Perhaps that's why they're so hidden as first person shooter gems. Its also tough to consider Vampires as a good shooter so much as a good game that has shooting.

[MARVELLER]

Blood deserves a spot on any top 10-100-whatever fps of all time list, It's a shame it doesn't get the recognition it deserves.

 

[Agentbromsnor]

Vivisector: Beast Within

 

This game is from the same developers as Chasm: The Rift, and it's actually pretty damn good. The singleplayer campaign is pretty lengthy, and some of the levels are spiced up with some rather atmospheric bits.

Prepare to save a lot though, especially towards the end of the campaign, because this game is buggy. Very buggy.

[MrGlide]

14 hours ago, geo said:

Legendary. Its a $1 Unreal game.

I personally hated that game.

 

12 hours ago, Nems said:

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise.

Dev team has kinda gone to peices, Doubt we'll see another good one, but I could be wrong.

 

A newer game I find not many have played was bullet storm, I really enjoy the gameplay for that game. Oddworld: Strangers wrath is good fun. as with all the oddworld games the art is top notch imo. the darkness 1+2, the chronicals or riddick, escape from butcher bay are some I don't see people talk about a lot that are very good.

[geo]

17 minutes ago, MrGlide said:

I personally hated that game.

Probably why its $1 a lot.

[Pencil of Doom]

Hacx, Redneck Rampage, Kingpin, SiN, Powerslave/Exhumed, Witchaven I and II, Clive Barker's Undying.

 

[Uncle 80]

I loathed Hexen, on the other hand I'm a big fan of Hexen 2. Great game!

Blood was really good, Blood 2 not so much.

Never got Dark Forces to work on my computer, but played the hell out of Dark Forces 2 (Jedi Knight). Absolutely loved that one!

[Agentbromsnor]

1 hour ago, Uncle 80 said:

I loathed Hexen, on the other hand I'm a big fan of Hexen 2. Great game!

Blood was really good, Blood 2 not so much.

Never got Dark Forces to work on my computer, but played the hell out of Dark Forces 2 (Jedi Knight). Absolutely loved that one!

The first Hexen game is a really nice game to look at, but to play not so much... The level design ruined it. The atmosphere was great though.

[june gloom]

Marathon is what I wish more FPS games were like. Though at least Half-Life comes close to matching its vibe.

[MARVELLER]

1 hour ago, Uncle 80 said:

Blood was really good, Blood 2 not so much.

I agree, Blood 2 is kinda disappointing and feels like a more generic, watered down of the original, the weapons, enemies and artstlye are a lot more formulaic. 

[june gloom]

I don't agree. Blood 2 actually had a really fun vibe to it with its 90s dystopian-slash-horror theme, which was fairly unique. The problem with Blood 2 is that it was a shoddily-put-together game that was rushed to market at a time when the graphics wars was in full swing. Remember that it came out at the same time as Half-Life.

 

SHOGO came out around the same time and despite its own jankiness I'd say it's the better game overall.

[MARVELLER]

I prefer Blood I's atmosphere and vibe a lot more, and i never really liked Blood 2 too much, but to each his own.

[Revae]

Trespasser is probably my favorite obscure-ish FPS.  It had some decent publicity back when it was announced and some bad publicity when it was released, but I've only met 2 other people in my life that have played/knew about it.  It's a pretty stupid game, but unique enough that I still go back and play it occasionally.  Ambitious as hell.
 

 

[HyperLuke]

Eradicator: http://store.steampowered.com/app/329640/ 

 

Not sure how good it is though, own it but haven't played it yet.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

8 minutes ago, HyperLuke said:

Eradicator: http://store.steampowered.com/app/329640/ 

 

Not sure how good it is though, own it but haven't played it yet.

It's fairly good, nice aesthetic, kind of puzzley, some interesting weapons/inventory items to use.  The load times are bizarrely long for some reason, though.

[HyperLuke]

36 minutes ago, ETTiNGRiNDER said:

It's fairly good, nice aesthetic, kind of puzzley, some interesting weapons/inventory items to use.  The load times are bizarrely long for some reason, though.

Is it different from other old school fps games?

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

1 minute ago, HyperLuke said:

Is it different from other old school fps games?

Define "different".  One of the things it has is little kamikaze drone attackers that you can remote control which I don't think was in many other games of the era.  They're also used to solve a few of the puzzles.  You also get other drones that float around following you and adding to your firepower until you take a certain amount of damage, which is something a lot of 2D games had but not so much in the FPS genre.

 

The view is switchable between first person and third person, being, I think, one of the early adopters of that type of option.

 

Otherwise not that much I suppose?

[HyperLuke]

17 minutes ago, ETTiNGRiNDER said:

Define "different".  One of the things it has is little kamikaze drone attackers that you can remote control which I don't think was in many other games of the era.  They're also used to solve a few of the puzzles.  You also get other drones that float around following you and adding to your firepower until you take a certain amount of damage, which is something a lot of 2D games had but not so much in the FPS genre.

 

The view is switchable between first person and third person, being, I think, one of the early adopters of that type of option.

 

Otherwise not that much I suppose?

Different as in having a unique mechanic, or the gameplay or level design is unique. 

[Lila Feuer]

While not a hidden gem Wolf3D is pretty underrated compared to the likes of Doom, Quake and Duke Nukem. There's a lot of great custom content for it, albeit nowhere near the volume of stuff released for other classic shooters.

Hexen and its id Tech 1 powered sequel aren't traditional FPSes due to their pseudo-RPG elements, largely unconventional weaponry, and the less strong emphasis on intense combat, but they're definitely great first person action games which seem to get notably less love than the more shooter-oriented prequel to the Serpent Rider trilogy; Heretic.

Doom 64, while there's a number of ways to play it on PC nowadays not a whole lot of people who had grown up with the N64 original know about that which is rather unfortunate. It's pretty underrated altogether even with the Doom fan base to support it, and it's enough of a spin-off to be uniquely different but not so far removed from the original Doom as to be completely unrecognizable I feel. Basically a wonderful marriage between Doom and the first Quake.

Redneck Rampage is often considered part of the Big Four when it comes to BUILD engine games, but it's still overshadowed by the likes of Shadow Warrior and Blood. It's honestly not a terrible game and you can tell a lot of effort went into it, it's just not the most cathartic BUILD engine shooter to play and can get repetitive. I highly enjoy the mapping and atmosphere however.

Turok is an interesting if flawed series of FPS games, more known for their console presence than the few dodgy PC ports that were made. The first two games are regarded as the best and were thankfully resurrected by Night Dive, while the third one is mostly OK if very streamlined and sadly underwhelming for a conclusion to a trilogy. Evolution, the prequel to Turok 1 was pretty awful I thought and killed the original Turok series before being sent to the grave for good with the forgettable '08 remake. If you can get past some 90's FPS-on-a-console level design there is some good fun to be had in here.

Lastly, Unreal was the beginning of a mostly multiplayer-oriented Tournament series which has a great line up all on its own, but the single player Unreal experience is definitely underrated. The original game is among my most cherished when it comes to the early 3D mid-to-late 90's FPS scene, featuring an incredibly well aged and beautiful alien world, an equally beautiful and moody soundtrack, and some of the smartest AI to ever face off against in a shooter besides FEAR. It came to a depressing end with the generic Unreal II: The Awakening, handled by third party Legend Entertainment instead of Epic themselves, probably because they were busy working on Unreal Tournament 2003. I still hope for the day that this series may return to its mysterious and fantastical single player roots.

[Agentbromsnor]

21 minutes ago, cyan0s1s said:

Hexen and its id Tech 1 powered sequel...

Uh... Hexen had a sequel powered by id Tech 1? You mean the add-on? Unless you're talking about the Quake engine, which is technically id Tech 2.

[R1ck]

There's this game I forgot the tittle. It's a new retro shooter with Wolf3d like level design. It was great and cute. 

[Revae]

Undying was a good Unreal engine game...  Just throwing that out there.

[RobbingSnake]

Singularity, Time Shift, and Black. Those are the only ones I can think of.

[Lila Feuer]

2 hours ago, Agentbromsnor said:

Uh... Hexen had a sequel powered by id Tech 1? You mean the add-on? Unless you're talking about the Quake engine, which is technically id Tech 2.

Is Doom regarded as id Tech 1? That wouldn't make sense as the engine that powers Quake II would be considered id Tech 3, Quake III would be considered id Tech 4 and Doom 3's engine id Tech 5, which is just blatantly wrong. I just see the Doom game engine as the Doom engine, and the id Tech line-up starting with Quake all the way up to Doom '16.

E: Well I learn something new, id Tech 2 is Q1 AND Q2, no wonder Q2 doesn't really seem that much more groundbreaking than its predecessor.

[thaquoth]

Despite not caring for KISS one way or the other, despising Todd McFarlane with a passion and it being received as mostly a middling game back in the day, I've always liked the KISS Psycho Circus game. There's just something about that game that made it really appealing to me, and I still have a soft spot in my memory for it. I guess I just like shooters with super cheesy scenarios or something?

 

In any case, that's my one "not sure if anyone else likes it" fps. Haven't played it in more than a decade though.

[ranhcase]

Outlaws is a excellent game made by Lucasarts,  and i think it's not really well known.

[DoctorGenesis]

For me one of the good DOOM clones that is forgotten these days would be Marathon for Mac OS 9, really good game, just started playing it this month actually.

Also for open-source games, I'd say Cube 2 Sauerbraten is good fun, the engine actually supports a lot of different model files (MDL, SMD, MD2, MD3, MD5, OBJ and so on...) it just sucks all anyone ever plays now is instagib.

[DoctorGenesis]

2 hours ago, thaquoth said:

Despite not caring for KISS one way or the other, despising Todd McFarlane with a passion and it being received as mostly a middling game back in the day, I've always liked the KISS Psycho Circus game. There's just something about that game that made it really appealing to me, and I still have a soft spot in my memory for it. I guess I just like shooters with super cheesy scenarios or something?

 

In any case, that's my one "not sure if anyone else likes it" fps. Haven't played it in more than a decade though.

I hope you don't mind me asking, but why do you not like Todd McFarlane?

[YukiHerz]

Not really a "shooter", but i had some decent fun with Magrunner Dark Pulse, some decent puzzle elements with more depth than simple portals.