What are the “classic” single-player FPS games?

[racketboy]

That’s ok.
For anybody interested, making a bullet list of characteristics for games is a step in the right direction. We can just collect thoughts in here for a while.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Here are some defining characteristics, to me:

* Single-player campaign
* Played from a first-person perspective
* Gameplay focused on gunplay
* Released more than ten years ago
* Pushed the genre forward with regard to aesthetics, gameplay, or popularity (i.e., it was really influential, really good, or really popular)

Thoughts?

[RCBH928]

I don't get why Bioshock is on the list, other than the setting(and I am a big sucker for settings) what was the significance of it?
Also Doom II was just a refined Doom I unless it had more on the multiplayer side of things?
Is Turok on the list because it had open space levels?

[racketboy]

Here are some defining characteristics, to me:

* Single-player campaign
* Played from a first-person perspective
* Gameplay focused on gunplay
* Released more than ten years ago
* Pushed the genre forward with regard to aesthetics, gameplay, or popularity (i.e., it was really influential, really good, or really popular)

Thoughts?

This is helpful, but just to clarify, I was thinking it would be cool if we collected specific bullet points of for each specific game to point out their strengths and what set them apart.

[racketboy]

I don't get why Bioshock is on the list, other than the setting(and I am a big sucker for settings) what was the significance of it?
Also Doom II was just a refined Doom I unless it had more on the multiplayer side of things?
Is Turok on the list because it had open space levels?

I’m far from an expert in the genre, but wouldn’t a good story/setting be a defining feature in Bioshock’s case?

[marurun]

Bioshock’s importance is actually directly inherited from another game: System Shock 2. Levine and company wanted to basically make a spiritual successor to System Shock.

[isiolia]

I don't get why Bioshock is on the list, other than the setting(and I am a big sucker for settings) what was the significance of it?
Also Doom II was just a refined Doom I unless it had more on the multiplayer side of things?
Is Turok on the list because it had open space levels?

At the very least, Bioshock easily checks the boxes of popularity and critical acclaim. More generally, it took things that the System Shock games already did, and streamlined them into a product that worked on consoles and appealed to a much wider audience. Arguably, its success is what demonstrated that there'd be a market for things like Dishonored or Prey later on, if not the Deus Ex reboots n' all.

Either way, I think it's easy to hold up as a classic in the genre.


For DOOM, it's just a fair bundling up. DOOM II came out not even a year after the original shareware came out, and had a retail version on shelves first... just kind of fair to count them both I'd say. It's a much closer relationship than, say, the Quake and Quake 2 pairing.

Not sure about Turok either. Or, again, Blake Stone. It technically offered floor and ceiling textures for the Wolf3D engine, and an automap...but DOOM launched weeks later. There are so many potential games to pick from that it just doesn't seem to stand out much.

[Ack]

Turok makes the list due to its impact and legacy. It was the first third-party game to become a Nintendo "Player's Choice" title and proved that console FPS could be successful. Its open areas do separate it from the corridor tendency that most FPS games had at the time and does serve as a stepping stone towards the likes of games like Far Cry, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and so on. While it does now get overshadowed by GoldenEye, it also proved that local splitscreen multiplayer could be successful for console FPS six months before that game's release.

[RCBH928]

If we are going just by popularity and critical acclaim the list should be a lot longer.

I can accept Turok for the following but correct me if I am wrong:-

-1st 3D FPS on a console
-1st to implement open areas(or was that Rise of the Triads?)
-1st first FPS to have animals as enemies also the enemies do not carry guns to shoot back at you?

I thought Turok was not liked by gamers due to gameplay choice implemented like far away save points and lack of guidance on what to do. I think everyone was impressed by it at the time because the jump from 16-bit to 32-bit was probably the biggest jump in computer graphics history, just imagine going from something like Battletoads to Turok.

[Ziggy]

I thought Turok was not liked by gamers due to gameplay choice implemented like far away save points and lack of guidance on what to do. I think everyone was impressed by it at the time because the jump from 16-bit to 32-bit was probably the biggest jump in computer graphics history, just imagine going from something like Battletoads to Turok.

The first two Turok games were more than just "impressive at the time," people did like them beyond that. That's why they were recently remastered on PC. The rest of the series is a different story.