Criminally Underrated First Person Shooters?

[AnthrSolidSnake]

I'm somewhat of a first person shooter enthusiast. It's not all I play, but I own, I'd say about:

70% First Person Shooters

30% Other

I've become a bit lost in my travels for new ones to play however. I recently picked up a PS2 again and played a few that I missed when I was younger and have gotten great fun out of them. These included:

Black
Red Faction 2
007: Agent Under Fire
Timesplitters 2

I'm currently looking for others, not necessarily just on the PS2, but on:

N64
PC
PS3/PS4
Wii/WiiU

Basically, I'm looking to expand my library by seeing what you guys think is under-rated or overlooked and should be played. Don't worry about whether or not I've played it before, because I'd also like to discuss games I agree about.

 

[Pelox2002]

Black was a good game indeed! It successor Bodycount seems to be a bit less but maybe worth playing?

I just installed Metro Redux and it's a pretty good shooter as well.

 

[AnthrSolidSnake]

Black was a good game indeed! It successor Bodycount seems to be a bit less but maybe worth playing?

I just installed Metro Redux and it's a pretty good shooter as well.

Currently my Steam profile reads "42 Hours" under Metro 2033, and that's just the original version of the game XD The atmosphere in that game was so engrossing to me, that I kept coming back making up new challenges for myself.

But as for Bodycount, I actually remember hearing the title before, but couldn't exactly place from where or when until I looked it up just now. I recall downloading a demo for the game years ago and enjoying it slightly, but overall forgot about it. I might have to see if I can pick it up again, $7 at Gamestop doesn't seem like a huge risk.

 

[Pelox2002]

Well i haven't played it so i can't really tell. Have you played the brothers in arms series? I really liked those.

 

[AnthrSolidSnake]

I haven't actually. From what I've seen they are military shooters, but with a bit more tactical control?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I only played 2 FPS on the PS2: Black and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect. Both very good games. I guess you could also add Killzone and Resistance, though I haven't played them. From what I've gathered, Resistance is the better series, though you'd be hard-pressed to call it underrated.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

Timesplitters 2 and 3 are infuriatingly underrated. I don't even understand how Halo or CoD is more fun than TS, on any level. At least for local multiplayer shooting, TS has no equal. The number of weapons and characters, the humor and personality; it's very disappointing that bland, brown, interchangeable settings and characters, with no sense of fun beyond pwning n00bs has become the universal standard.

 

[Michel Henzel]

Project Reality,

A former Battlefield 2 mod that, with the closure of the servers is now standalone. A game, that to me, sit in this nice spot between arcade combined arms shooters like Battlefield, and sim combined arms shooters like Arma. And is pretty much one of a kind.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

This may sound weird, but Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Hear me out.

At its time, it was highly praised, but that was EIGHT years ago--a really long stretch in modern-gaming years--and given what CoD has become in recent years, it's really hard to convince modern CoD haters (and I am one most of the time) that CoD4 was a legitimately amazing game. Even those who have have liked CoD for a long time tend to gravitate toward Modern Warfare 2 as "the best" while I think MW2 is a pile of wank.

 

[spartandude]

While it was by no means amazing, Brink did not deserve any where near as much hate as it got in my honest opinion. A very fun, if not flawed, multiplayer team focused fps.

 

[Gray-Philosophy]

Darkwatch for the PS2. Old as heck by now, but damn it if it wasn't an entertaining little jaunt of a western vampire themed shooter.

 

[AnthrSolidSnake]

Darkwatch for the PS2. Old as heck by now, but damn it if it wasn't an entertaining little jaunt of a western vampire themed shooter.

I believe that game even had co-op in campaign as well? I remember playing it at a friend's house

 

[AnthrSolidSnake]

This may sound weird, but Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Hear me out.

At its time, it was highly praised, but that was EIGHT years ago--a really long stretch in modern-gaming years--and given what CoD has become in recent years, it's really hard to convince modern CoD haters (and I am one most of the time) that CoD4 was a legitimately amazing game. Even those who have have liked CoD for a long time tend to gravitate toward Modern Warfare 2 as "the best" while I think MW2 is a pile of wank.

Oddly, it actually stands as having my favorite story campaign out of all the Call of Duty games. Something about the mix of "stealth" sections and full-on warfare sections was unique to me at the time. I only dabbled in the multiplayer for that game playing locally with my brother. It wasn't until MW2 was out for quite some time that I actually started playing online.

 

[baddude1337]

Project Reality,

A former Battlefield 2 mod that, with the closure of the servers is now standalone. A game, that to me, sit in this nice spot between arcade combined arms shooters like Battlefield, and sim combined arms shooters like Arma. And is pretty much one of a kind.

Was just about to mention this too. I personally don't play it online but with bots (It has full bot support on pretty much every map, which you can tweak to 48 bots a team). Very good fun. It's my go to military shooter. Assault on Grozny, a new map in the recently released update, is amongst my favourite maps for it. Forgotten Hope 2, another BF2 mod (but not yet standalone) is my go to WW2 shooter as well with full bot support..

I personally find the Doom modding scene criminally underrated. Although Doom itself is obviously well known, there are a suite of fantastic gameplay mods that make Doom an entirely different an more modern game, like Guncaster:


If you like the look of it I put links in the description. I also highly recommend this monster pack, which raises the challenge and provides a great amount of enemy variety:
http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=49524

In terms of commercial releases I have to agree with Black and Timesplitters. Black was a short but very sweet experience, and it''s graphics and destruction effects were fantastic for a PS2 game. I never played TS3, but TS2 was one of my mostplayed games on PS2. I think I managed to unlock every character, which was certainly no small feat. I'd love a HD re-release on Steam, but I think that is very unlikely to happen.

Another one I can think of, which kind of doesn't count as it's not released yet, is STRAFE. It's a 90#s styled FPS that looks utterly fantastic, and having played the proof of concept demo it is certainly one to keep an eye on. Here's a video of the Zaibatsu playing it:

 

[Gray-Philosophy]

Darkwatch for the PS2. Old as heck by now, but damn it if it wasn't an entertaining little jaunt of a western vampire themed shooter.

I believe that game even had co-op in campaign as well? I remember playing it at a friend's house

It did! Had lots of fun running through the co-op with friends too
Unless you couldn't agree on which path to take. There was this whole good/evil choice thing throughout.

 

[I can't enter my old name]

No One Lives Forever 1 & 2 would fit the definition of criminally underrated. Amazing FPS stealth game. This is one of those critically acclaimed games that nobody remembers for some reason.

Serious Sam First & Second Encounter. I don't know if these are underrated but they sure don't get enough praise.

Red Orchestra 2/Rising Storm. Basically the only WWII multiplayer shooter right now. It's buggy, broken at times, and a far cry from the original. It's also incredibly difficult and frustrating by design, but it is a unique experience in itself.

 

[Cowabungaa]

More recently, I still think Bulletstorm is pretty underrated in various ways, especially considering the period I came out in.

I mean, here we are back in 2011 back when the "brown military shooter" trend was still alive and kicking and here comes a shooter that fully embraces the crazy gunplay of yore. Next to that, amidst all the same-y looking shooters it had incredibly vibrant graphical design. Yeah, humour-wise it was incredibly dumb, but I found it to be a real nice change of pace.

 

[Hawki]

TimeSplitters 2 is underrated? Yeah, it may be a bit obscure today, but I thought it got quite a lot of praise (and, IMO, rightly so).

Anyway:

-The World is Not Enough: As in, "the N64 James Bond game that wasn't GoldenEye." No, it's not as good as GoldenEye, but IMO, it's still solid, does its own thing, and actually surpasses GoldenEye in some areas (e.g. bots in multiplayer).

-Medal of Honour: Frontline/Pacific Assault: I've noticed that when MoH was big, Allied Assault was the "big thing." And while I enjoy it, I actually place Frontline and Pacific Assault above it for various reasons. Frontline is a good mix of tragedy and humour, being both serious war drama and humorous WWII escapade and actually succeeding (oh, and the Arnhem music...jeez). Pacific Assault is far less personal, but far more challenging, what with the squad mechanic, limited health, and...yeah. Given the Pacific setting, I thought it did a great job in map layout, with the need to flank enemies, and there's a hill defence level where you have a shortage of rounds. A turret section, but one where every bullet counts.

-Marathon: Yeah, Doom was the big thing back in the day, and Marathon is undoubtedly a "Doom clone." That said, Marathon holds up - it's far more tactical than Doom (more limited ammo, a reload function), and actually has a story with plot twists, characterization, etc. While I think Doom is the superior game due to its gameplay, Marathon is, IMO, a gem that needs more attention.

 

[The White Hunter]

Killzone 2 is pretty underated.

Singularity is one of the most criminally underated games I've ever played.

As others have said Bulletstorm is underated as hell and was fun on a bun.

 

[Bobic]

For a not overly well known shooter I love: Shadow Warrior (PS4, PC, Xbox One).

It's a reboot of the 90's shooter of the same name. It's a reboot that keeps it old school however, fast pace, lots of enemies, health kits, secrets, the whole shebang in a modern package that doesn't feel dated. But, what makes this shooter really stand out (and cause a doubt in my mind as to why I'd bring it up in this thread, but backspace is for quitters) is the swordplay. You play as Lo Wang, an oddly chinese-named (but who could resist making 'wang' jokes) assassin for the Japanese underworld of the kill bill, they said nothing about not bringing katanas to a gunfight, school of thought, then demons invade, because humans make boring, generic enemies. Sword swing angles are altered by how you move, you can slice off different demon bodyparts depending on your aim, and combat is very fast paced and frenetic. It's so much damned fun. And in case you think I'm ignoring the threat title, there are plenty of guns too, each with upgrades and a secondary fire mode. But mostly the swordplay, oh god, the swordplay.

Also, Bedlam, this is a very tentative recommendation because I haven't played it, but being such a shooter fan, you might get some enjoyment from it. It's basically, from what I gleamed, a game that through various plot shenanigans, takes you through the evolution of FPS's in lawsuit avoiding parody versions of classics. I've heard the gameplay is sadly a bit janky, but it really delivers on the writing and in-jokes around old shooters. Worth looking at a review from someone who's actually played it, if nothing else.