Shadowstar39
Gold Member
What happened to single player fps games?
The genre was born on the 386 pc and then came to console in ps1/n64 generation, improved in the xb/ps2 gen and had a golden age in the PS3/60 era, then it seems they faded from memory outside of a few series.
We basically have Doom and Far Cry left, which I doubt either will be around much longer with how low the sales were for the last two entries. Both series, imo lost their way.
I remember the start of it all with Wolf3d (which spawned from Catacomb3d). Played wolf3d on my humble 386sx a 16mhz 32bit machine I had to run with a border to get the full speed but it was something new.
This bought us to Duke Nukem, Blood, Rise of the Triad, etc.... Qausi-3d era.
Then we got Quake and the 2nd half of the 90s with the first true 3d fps and its progeny: Quake2, Unreal, Rune, Star Trek Elite Forces, Star Wars Dark Forces, Jedi Knight, Half-life, Golden Eye, Redneck Rampage, Heretic, Hexen, etc....
The whole decade brought on innovation after innovation. It spurred pc growth and mores law let it thrive. Coupled with the first gpus --3dfx voodoo , then later Nvidia and it's Geforce line (and the Radeon, matrox, powervr, etc...)
Then we get to the 2000s. PC had hits like Half-life 1 & 2 ( Amazing immersive games that still hold up today). Undying, No One lives Forever, Soldier of Fortune, Serious Sam, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, Painkiller
Plus spin off games that used the fps engine but weren't shooters, and some rpgs, like Rune, Thief, Dues Ex, Vampire the masquerade Bloodlines.
No one can forget Halo. The console juggernaut. Back then we got some multiplayer only games like Quake 3 and Unreal tournament, but even those could be played single player with bots. Halo set the tone for many Console FPS games.
Many had a multiplayer component but none were really multiplayer only on console outside of MAG and Socom confrontation (that I recall from back then).
Halo Games, Resistance and Killzone, Socom, etc...
Then we had Black, Bioshock, Farcry, Quake 4, Fear, Dark Messiah of M&M, Crysis, Borderlands, Time splitters, Brothers in Arms, Stalker Doom 3, Fear 2, Prey, Rage , Crysis 1-3, Bad company 1 and 2, etc...
The spawning of 3rd person shooters, Gears of War, Uncharted, Rainbow Six Vegas, etc...
It seems that after ps4 era hit these games were few and far between outside of Farcry5, deus ex mankind divided, game, halo, Metro, Doom2016, Far Cry 3-4 and 5, and Metro Exodus
Hell after 2020 we got what: Doom Eternal and Dark Ages, Cyberpunk 2077, and Atomic Heart and Robocop (the last three being the only original fps games of this generation, that i know of in the AAA/AA space. )
Robocop was a breath of fresh air and I have a feeling that is the future of the genre. Smaller scale AA budget games. And I am ok with that, make them 8-12 hours and make them on a lesser budget but with dedicate passionate smaller teams.
Charge $50-60 and watch people buy them.
What do you think changed? Was it Gaas? Multiplayer shooters were around before Gaas and single player fps thrived in that gen, so i doubt that's it. Or this a cyclical wave or will they dye out like Adventure games and RTS?
What are some of your favorite fps games and memories of single player classics?
The genre was born on the 386 pc and then came to console in ps1/n64 generation, improved in the xb/ps2 gen and had a golden age in the PS3/60 era, then it seems they faded from memory outside of a few series.
We basically have Doom and Far Cry left, which I doubt either will be around much longer with how low the sales were for the last two entries. Both series, imo lost their way.
I remember the start of it all with Wolf3d (which spawned from Catacomb3d). Played wolf3d on my humble 386sx a 16mhz 32bit machine I had to run with a border to get the full speed but it was something new.
This bought us to Duke Nukem, Blood, Rise of the Triad, etc.... Qausi-3d era.
Then we got Quake and the 2nd half of the 90s with the first true 3d fps and its progeny: Quake2, Unreal, Rune, Star Trek Elite Forces, Star Wars Dark Forces, Jedi Knight, Half-life, Golden Eye, Redneck Rampage, Heretic, Hexen, etc....
The whole decade brought on innovation after innovation. It spurred pc growth and mores law let it thrive. Coupled with the first gpus --3dfx voodoo , then later Nvidia and it's Geforce line (and the Radeon, matrox, powervr, etc...)
Then we get to the 2000s. PC had hits like Half-life 1 & 2 ( Amazing immersive games that still hold up today). Undying, No One lives Forever, Soldier of Fortune, Serious Sam, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, Painkiller
Plus spin off games that used the fps engine but weren't shooters, and some rpgs, like Rune, Thief, Dues Ex, Vampire the masquerade Bloodlines.
No one can forget Halo. The console juggernaut. Back then we got some multiplayer only games like Quake 3 and Unreal tournament, but even those could be played single player with bots. Halo set the tone for many Console FPS games.
Many had a multiplayer component but none were really multiplayer only on console outside of MAG and Socom confrontation (that I recall from back then).
Halo Games, Resistance and Killzone, Socom, etc...
Then we had Black, Bioshock, Farcry, Quake 4, Fear, Dark Messiah of M&M, Crysis, Borderlands, Time splitters, Brothers in Arms, Stalker Doom 3, Fear 2, Prey, Rage , Crysis 1-3, Bad company 1 and 2, etc...
The spawning of 3rd person shooters, Gears of War, Uncharted, Rainbow Six Vegas, etc...
It seems that after ps4 era hit these games were few and far between outside of Farcry5, deus ex mankind divided, game, halo, Metro, Doom2016, Far Cry 3-4 and 5, and Metro Exodus
Hell after 2020 we got what: Doom Eternal and Dark Ages, Cyberpunk 2077, and Atomic Heart and Robocop (the last three being the only original fps games of this generation, that i know of in the AAA/AA space. )
Robocop was a breath of fresh air and I have a feeling that is the future of the genre. Smaller scale AA budget games. And I am ok with that, make them 8-12 hours and make them on a lesser budget but with dedicate passionate smaller teams.
Charge $50-60 and watch people buy them.
What do you think changed? Was it Gaas? Multiplayer shooters were around before Gaas and single player fps thrived in that gen, so i doubt that's it. Or this a cyclical wave or will they dye out like Adventure games and RTS?
What are some of your favorite fps games and memories of single player classics?
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