Most innovative FPS

[Ace of Spades]

Resistance: Fall of Man since it actually had some new kinds of guns. A homing machine gun, and gun that allows to split bullets, and a gun that allows your bullets to burrow through walls? That was the first game since Painkiller that had some cool exotic weaponry.

 

[Buffoon]

Doom.

It wasn't the first FPS, but it was the first FPS that truly harnessed the potential of the genre. It was the first one was truly immersive, that truly made you feel like you were the guy holding the gun, that when the claws of the hellspawn tore open your throat you'd experience the agony.

 

[Arachon]

I'mm gonna say Crysis on this one, not only because it brought graphics to the next level, it also featured a physics engine that allowed manipulation of the in-game world, aside from explosive barrels, this is something not seen very often in most FPS games. Also, form a modders perspective, the Crysis Sandbox2 is wonderful.

 

[Silver]

i didnt mean it was the first to do it but made it very popular and made people more aware of it

Which does not make it innovative in any way.

In this exact order:

1) Wolfenstein 3D
2) Doom
3) Half-Life

No other FPSs are as innovative or influential as the above. This is a fact. If you disagree you are wrong.

I'd put Jedi knight: Dark forces or it's sequel in there too. I don't remember which one of them it was, but one of them brought some really new stuff into the genre, most specifically the engine introduced the Y-level, making higher levels possible. A number of other things were introduced as well, but they may not have been the first with those, items, force powers (which is a pretty important mechanic in many games, even if they don't have exactly the same shape), etc.

But still, the Y-level is pretty darn influential.

 

[acer840]

In order of year they appeard and reason for innovation

Wolfenstein 3D - The first game that could call itself "3D" and get away with it. Immersive (sp?) and fun, it put FPS on the map. Secrets, puzzles and key hunting added additional elements to a simple yet massive task for it's day and age.

Doom - First of the games that put fear into your heart along with the adrenaline, best range of weapons for the day, key hunting (Wolf3D had this too, I know) height differences in maps added staircases, windows and cliffs for gameplay. Damaging floors (lava, slime) and crushing ceelings. Coined the term "Deathmatch", the most played type of multiplayer ever.

Quake - With level on level abilities, proper bases and locations could be designed along with traps and secrets. Water was introduced as well adding another realsim aspect to gameing, breathing, jumping and crawling. Smarter AI was introduced as well. Lighting and GFX were also major innovations for the time Weapons haven't changed too much tho.(I see an ID pattern here...)


After Quake... i can only really say a Multi-Player type game, Like Counter Strike that enabled team based combat, but I'm open to suggestion.

*To above Post*
I think you mean the Z level for height. X and Y were length and width. Was it Dark Forces Or Quake that came first?

 

[MercenaryCanary]

I'm amazed that Halo has not come up yet. I didn't think it was very inventive but some people do.

And most of those "people" are on Bungie.net saying this...

"omg ur such an idoit evry1 knoz 360 is bettar enjoi ur NO GAEMZ"
"rune-blam!- sucks more than wii and 360 combine all of humanity go it rite, me n him iz tight now, mad respakt"
"arbiduck u just a m$ n niinten-ho fanboy, preaching how much better your consoles are!1"

This is worst than 4Chan. I can't even read this really. Its like they just tried to type then had an overdose on stupidity. And I'm going to go out on a limb and say that since I found this on Bungie.net just now that these people would probably say Halo is "innovative and the best." Here's the link if you actually don't believe me about the quotes.

Stupidity Train---> http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=29445776 <---Stupidity Train

 

[Ravenholm27]

I'm amazed that Halo has not come up yet. I didn't think it was very inventive but some people do.

And most of those "people" are on Bungie.net saying this...

"omg ur such an idoit evry1 knoz 360 is bettar enjoi ur NO GAEMZ"
"rune-blam!- sucks more than wii and 360 combine all of humanity go it rite, me n him iz tight now, mad respakt"
"arbiduck u just a m$ n niinten-ho fanboy, preaching how much better your consoles are!1"

This is worst than 4Chan. I can't even read this really. Its like they just tried to type then had an overdose on stupidity. And I'm going to go out on a limb and say that since I found this on Bungie.net just now that these people would probably say Halo is "innovative and the best." Here's the link if you actually don't believe me about the quotes.

Stupidity Train---> http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=29445776 <---Stupidity Train

that was pathetically entertaining

 

[Zer_]

Reviving this old thread to say that Trespasser has to be the most revolutionary FPS ever made. It was terrible as a game, but as from a technical viewpoint the game was simply astounding. Dinosaur models were not actually animated. The AI actually controlled the animation. The game had Newtonian physics in 1998. It also had bump maps and specular mapping.

To elaborate more on the animation system think of it like this. Imagine a baby learning to walk for the first time. He moves his arms and legs in a fashion that makes the baby move forward. Trespasser's dinosaurs are essentially the same thing, the AI is actually the one moving the arms and legs and is not some animation scripted into the model.

View this video for a bit of history: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6A3SaRr26M&fmt=18.

Full video here: http://www.archive.org/details/LPTrespasser.

Early screenshots and engine builds featured amazingly detailed and fantastic graphics for its time. Unfortunately due to limited hardware at the time most of the graphical effects were done through a software renderer which lead tot he game actually looking better in software mode.

It's sad to see such a great piece of code end up so bad as a game.

 

[Atmosck]

Goldeneye pretty much invented the headshot. I believe it was the first to make headshots result differently than any other shot, and afterword, it became expected of FPSs. It also pretty much invented decent FPS multiplayer on a console.

Half-Life 2 really took physics out of the realm of eye candy and into the realm of gameplay.

And i really like what Battlefield 1942 did for multiplayer. Nothing else has executed FPS multiplayer on that large a scale as well, and i also really loved the addition of Titan mode in Battlefield 2142 as well. Since then, however, the franchise hasn't done that well. (Bad Company was a flop for the gameplay, even if the campaign was kind of entertaining. The Battlefield: Heroes beta hasn't really met my expectations, and i'm not exactly excited about Battlefield 1943)

 

[Nova Tendril]

Half-Life

 

[Atmosck]

And Condemned: Criminal Origins did some things in terms of atmosphere and puzzles that we'd never seen before, and then Condemned 2 kept it going, without any huge innovations, but was a great game nonethleess.

 

[Frostedone]

Aliens Vs. Predator/AVP2 for the PC. Three completely different species to play as with completely different ways of playing.

All three were so different from each other, and in AVP 2 each species had 4 different classes. Like an early Team Fortress.

 

[MagnumJoe]

System Shock, Deus Ex?

I agree.

But i like to think, that each game has put its stamp on FPS gaming, but nonetheless these 2 are the best.

Quake, was actually the source of the engine and technology.

Half-life, forces you to use your head, as well as keeping you sucked in for its adventurous nature.

Thief: Stealth, stealth & stealth! Then more stealth, then put some more, then all what you have got of stealth!

Unreal took the genre to a new level of aggressiveness and weapons.

Project IGI, is worth mentioning as a trial to make a covert missions military game, but indeed wasn't a success. But i loved it, and you have to give them their credit for that trial.

Operation Flashpoint, made it to frustrating reality, and i congratulate them for that. And i truly loved this frustrating reality.

Painkiller, made it through monster spamming and innovative ways of killing. Very innovative.

Call of Duty and Medal of Honor, didn't do much. Except reformatting the quake engine for a WW2 map. With some new ideas, and good gaming. But not innovative enough.

Modern Warfare, is i think the best modern warfare game ever made, with moderate realism.

Brothers in Arms, combined strategy and FPS very skillfully.

Far Cry, Crysis, or crytek engine in specific, made it to graphics really.

Didn't play S.T.A.L.K.E.R, so don't know if it's innovative enough.

Aren't they RPGs?

It's hard to classify them. But, it goes like this: Action/Adventure First Person Shooter Role Playing Game, lol. And i am serious really.

They have it all. And believe me when i tell you, i hate RPGs because they are boring, and got long cut scenes. But those 2: Hell not boring. And the Action/ Stealth parts in them are incredible.

 

[johnman]

Stalker, so different on so many levels.

Crysis, i loved that game

 

[MagnumJoe]

Doom and Wolfenstein. They were the first to get massive recognition and kick start interest in the genre.

I think these two shouldn't be in this contest. Because they are the genre. They are not just innovative, they are the origin of creation of FPS.

Any other game, took what these 2 had, and added up on them. The point is, what did they add to make the game "innovative" ?

Like the pizza dough. Doom and Wolfenstein are the pizza dough. Or a pizza Marguerite.

 

[Fablaam]

Gears of War with the stop & pop gameplay.
Made cover a necessity instead of an option.

Edit:
Sorry just realized it was a 3rd Person Shooter
It's been a slow morning to say the least...

 

[Sebenko]

STALKER.

Alright, difficulty wasn't new, but we'd lost it to the sands of time in a sea of regenerating health and pathetic enemies.

go on, play STALKER and tell me there isn't a sense of achievement from killing a group of guys in exoskeletons on master difficulty. And by achievement, I don't mean the pathetic 360 achievements- you beat the tutorial! is not achieving anything.

and taking out an entire faction on clear sky was damn fun, even if that part of the game had some massive glitches.

 

[JokerGrin]

The most recent to my mind is probably Portal. The whole system of play is just completely different, hence "now you're thinking with portals". I'm sure I wasn't the only one that for a time after playing the game, started applying those thoughts to everyday life?

But innovative could mean any FPS that did something new along the timeline. Quake was true 3D for example. I have to say I disagree with Halo. It's an alright shooter for a console but just feels completely average. What's new?

 

[orangebandguy]

Team Fortress 2 is certainly very distinctive, I like the art style they use.

 

[ZerOmega]

In PC, I'd say DukeNukem 3D. Though it might've not been the most innovative, it had something that had been lacking on the FBS at that time: interactive enviroment. You could blow up trash cans, walls, urinals, bottles, lamps and buildings (or just one, I don't remember). This made the game world seem so much more alive.

Also, Alien vs. Predator is very high in my list when we're talking about innovation. I didn't even bothered to play with the marine more than a level or two. It was the Alien that caught my attention. The game was no longer "point the gun and shoot everything", but "sneak around and bite their head off one-by-one". *glee* I could deal with the harsh graphics and hard difficult. The atmosphere was so rewarding. The predaor was ok, I guess.

In consoles, my choice is perfect dark for Ninentdo 64. It did many things that the oh-so-hallowed Halo did, but much rearlier. Dual weapons, cretive weapons, aliens and great plot. Again, the keyword here is "innovative", not popular. I do consider Halo to be a popular, but not innovative. I understand why so many people like it (not really), but we are talking about innovation in here.