No Right Answer: Best FPS Plot Ever

[Endocrom]

Timesplitters 2. It's basically Quantum Leap with guns, aliens and monkeys

I win.

 

[Mr_Terrific]

I'm going with that one game about shooting aliens in the face...and it's really a shame I have to be more specific than that...

 

[VincentR]

Marathon vs. System Shock.

Fuck yeah! With little hesitation, I say the Marathon trilogy has the best, most ambitious, most delightfully far-fetched writing in the whole history of video games. The gameplay has aged quite a bit, but the plot is just insane.

Anyone who didn't yet, go play the damn thing. [http://source.bungie.org/]

I love you both so very, very much. And of course I agree; although maybe I'm just being stubborn, but I still enjoy the game-play just fine. It doesn't have Doom's brilliantly absurd amounts of mass murder, but it's got enough 'Oomph' for me.

 

[Beautiful End]

I'm ashamed of myself. When I saw the title, I thought "Hm, maybe Blops and Gears? Eh!". I never thought of Half Life and Bioshock, and I own both games. *sigh*

Anyway, that final word made me think. I was leaning more towards Bioshock 1 because it does have a very original plot with a great plot twist that makes you facepalm yourself for not realizing it sooner. The atmosphere was indeed awesome and...just everything about it made YOU feel like you're part of the game. However, Valve does at better job at intertwining its worlds.
HOWEVER! Half Life had a good story but not as good as Bioshock. Maybe it was me but as I was playing the game, at one point I completely forgot what my character was supposed to be doing. People showed up here and there, gave me a palm on the back and left. Then I wandered all over the world until someone tried to kill me.

Valve is awesome. But as far as Valve goes, I actually think Portal has a better story, even if its shorter. Also, Portal = Best original FPS ever.

Hm, that would be a good episode. Best original FPS ever. Portal vs. ???

EDIT: Best FPS nominee? Minecraft! You're armed with a sword, dirt, grass and your fist. You're stranded on a world where you're the only survivor. How did you get there? Is there a way out? Why is there a gate to another world? Who are you? Kinda blows your mind. ;]

 

[Do4600]

Bioshock and Half-Life have become so overlyhyped and stained with nostalgia that I think it's near impossible to convince some people they aren't as great as other games. It seems saying something often enough and loud enough turns opinion into universal predisposition.

Half-Life consists of killing aliens because a portal is opened and Bioshock relies on atmosphere and a single line twist that ultimately means nothing. I think people confuse story telling and atmosphere with genuine plot and meaning.

I only beat Half-Life for the first time earlier this year so I'm not seeing it through nostalgia. What Valve does in Half-Life is take a reasonably mediocre plot and tell it in a reasonably believable way with extremely novel gameplay elements. I think the reason Half-Life is always mentioned in these kinds of discussions is because it packed together so many memorable gameplay elements in the progression of a rather simple plot. Many of these elements have become their own cliches in time because they have been reused by other developers. For instance I can't think of another game that had a helicopter chase like the one in Half-Life before Half-Life, and yet now it's a bygone conclusion that action games have persistent helicopter chases that end with you finding a rocket launcher and shooting it down.

 

[Clearing the Eye]

Bioshock and Half-Life have become so overlyhyped and stained with nostalgia that I think it's near impossible to convince some people they aren't as great as other games. It seems saying something often enough and loud enough turns opinion into universal predisposition.

Half-Life consists of killing aliens because a portal is opened and Bioshock relies on atmosphere and a single line twist that ultimately means nothing. I think people confuse story telling and atmosphere with genuine plot and meaning.

I only beat Half-Life for the first time earlier this year so I'm not seeing it through nostalgia. What Valve does in Half-Life is take a reasonably mediocre plot and tell it in a reasonably believable way with extremely novel gameplay elements. I think the reason Half-Life is always mentioned in these kinds of discussions is because it packed together so many memorable gameplay elements in the progression of a rather simple plot. Many of these elements have become their own cliches in time because they have been reused by other developers. For instance I can't think of another game that had a helicopter chase like the one in Half-Life before Half-Life, and yet now it's a bygone conclusion that action games have persistent helicopter chases that end with you finding a rocket launcher and shooting it down.

It's definitely a case of storytelling being mistaken for actual narrative. It's the same deal with Portal; the actual story there is very flimsy--there's just nothing to it--but the way the story and world unfold around you is a great example of player immersion. Like you said, you'd be hard pressed to find a developer in the genre not at least somewhat influenced by Half-Life. That alone, however, doesn't make the story anything to write home about.

Half-Life's plot is about as B class sci-fi as you can get. It was simply told in a fashion people hadn't seen in many games, especially first-person shooters.

 

[leviadragon99]

Yeah... point of order, Bioshock is a shooter with a small quantity of RPG elements. you don't have so much as an inventory screen.

Thus Kyle is visiting wrongtown right off the bat.

 

[Scrustle]

Bioshock 2 has to be on my list as well, people prefer Bioshock 1 it seems but as far as I can tell they only like it more for it's twist which really doesn't fulfill the entire game in my opinion.

I think people preferred the first game's plot because it was more concise. The characters in it seemed more important (to me at least) because they really felt like they were important to the history of Rapture. Tenembaum didn't really feel like she fit in to the lore as well as Ryan and Fontaine. Those guys were the reason why Rapture exists and why it was in the state it became. Tenembaum just kind of showed up later. The plot of the first game really felt like the official story of Rapture, while Bioshock 2 felt like a spin-off.

 

[Susurrus]

Half-Life? Really? But it's inherently silly. Sure, HL2 moves away from that, but... What about HL end boss? A giant floating baby? That whole section on the alien planet. Sure, the premise is alright, and they use it well, but in parts it's pretty silly.


SPOILERS


Unreal I would get my vote. Whilst the rest of the series descended into stupidity, Unreal I's story is simple on the surface (crash-landed prisoner off a prison ship, fighting for a way to escape terrifyingly hostile world), look a little deeper and there are excellent undertones, told through the story itself. As you progress through the game, it becomes increasingly obvious that you're the prophesied saviour of the subjugated Nali race, who are eager to help you at every opportunity. But not once are you interested in helping them. Throughout the entire plot, your only desire is to move forward, to try and survive and escape. The idea tha you can be a saviour, whilst also being a terrible criminal, and help only incidentally, was really excellent.

 

[blackrave]

Deus Ex anyone?
Anyone?

 

[BrotherRool]

That was a masterclass of debating by Dan, I was unsure but wow that was convincing (and funny). Then again that Lost thing was suicide

 

[Gammaj4]

[snip]

Also, Metroid Prime had a awesome backstory. The problem was that the methods of getting said backstory were scattered around the world, able to be missed, out of order and told just through text.

That was actually one of the things I loved about Metroid Prime. If you were interested in just what happened on Tallon IV, you could go exploring, scouring the depths of the ruins, searching for answers.

Or, if you didn't care, you could skip the whole darn thing, and just shoot stuff.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

infernal had a more interesting plot than bioshock.... almost better game play too. As for HL2...it was just to generic for me. HL1 is still great!

I prefer Doom 3. Go to hell, fight demons, what's not to like.

A game, Doom 3 is too busy trying to hide everything in darkness than be a fun game...it also did horribly since it was "cenimagic" and not a coherent game...

Thing about doom3 is that it's like HL1, you get there when the base is pretty status quo then everything goes to hell and you have to deal with the result. Which, as far as story telling goes is kinda of routine but it does help get the player engaged imo. I didn't have a problem with the darkness thing, even if you're in a pitch black room the Imps would light up before they began to attack so it wasn't a huge deal. The scripted sequences were cool as well and how they introduced all the bad guys in little spot lights. (though panning into the back of the head maybe is a bit silly today).

The only thing that bothered me about the gameplay is that it was super obvious when the spider guys were going to come out of the walls and attack you, because the little vents they used were never present in any other instance. That and the cyberdemon was too easy

I had 3 issues with Doom 3 one its not Doom, 2 its hella linear(far more so than HL1) and 3 it was ultra formulistic for the times albeit for the can't see for crap and ducttape seems to be not invented yet. I guess thats 4...but frankly it was a mess its not what people really wanted carmack just made a film game out of it because he is engine crazy but not much crazy for better gameplay/layouts.

Oh and 5 the multiplayer stuff was hella weak..... Its like Quake 4 did they even bother looking at Quake 2 and Quake 3..... then again the other half of the game is in quake wars......

 

[endtherapture]

I do agree with the statement that Biohock was 80% atmosphere, 20% plot. Maybe different percentages, but the point stands. Still, both are tarnished because of their endings, or HL's lack of one...

SAying there is a lack of an ending makes a story worse is completely unfair - A Song of Ice and Fire has no ending in sight but that doesn't impact on the story.

 

[The Admiral]

There is a BioShock novel.

 

[maninahat]

Bio shock and Half-life? best plot, seriously?

DeusEx vs System Shock anyone?


BTW: I think I saw the MW series mentioned above, I really hope that was meant as a joke...

In my opinion, Far Cry II and Call of Juarez are better contendors. Half Life is a fairly generic dystopia story albeit told very well, whilst System Shock 2 is...well, another dystopia story told very well.

I say Far Cry, because of its clever meta-narrative (see blogs/recordings written by the characters outside the game) and its re-telling of Heart of Darkness. This version of the story is far more involving than most other adaptations. The ending sure can go fuck itself, but otherwise, Far Cry makes for an atmospheric and unusually provocative FPS.

I say Call of Juarez for its twin narrative. You play as a boy framed for murder, and his vengeful uncle, trying to kill the boy for said murder. In any other medium, it would be any old cat and mouse story, but because the game lets us play both the cat and mouse, there is a clever suspense around who kills who, or rather - who you end up killing. Unfortunately, it doesn't go through with it in the end, and turns into some shlocky "Aztec gold rush" in the third act, but I give it points for trying.

The best though is Zeno Clash. Hands down. You won't see another plot like it. Or rather, there are plots like it, but it is buried under such bizarre aesthetics and colourful characters, it won't feel familiar: A guy murders his mother and father, who are actually both the same person; a hermaphrodite stalk who leads of a tribe of cavemanesque freaks. The game is figuring out why you did it, what you'll do now you've done it, and what the god damn is going on.

 

[Winthrop]

Bioshock is way more of an FPS than an RPG. It just is.

But what about The Darkness? That had one of the most emotionally involving plots of any game I've ever played. It had a big affect on me anyway.

You're not alone on The Darkness, it deserved so much more attention than it got for it's story and colorful characters.

Bioshock 2 has to be on my list as well, people prefer Bioshock 1 it seems but as far as I can tell they only like it more for it's twist which really doesn't fulfill the entire game in my opinion.

I think the reason the darkness wasn't popular was the marketing. If I remember correctly it looked like a subpar plotless survival horror from the commercials to me. I know a bit of the plot now and it seems like a cool game, but the marketing just made it seem like it would be a boring typical shooter. Its a shame though it sounds really interesting.

 

[Yeager942]

I busted a gut at the ME3 ending reference.

 

[Andrew Andrew]

Going to have to go with Marathon + Halo as best FPS plot. I didn't read to see if anyone mentioned this, but Halo is the spiritual successor to Marathon, which had a KICK ASS story. Google Marathon story to see how amazing it is.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

infernal had a more interesting plot than bioshock.... almost better game play too. As for HL2...it was just to generic for me. HL1 is still great!

I prefer Doom 3. Go to hell, fight demons, what's not to like.

A game, Doom 3 is too busy trying to hide everything in darkness than be a fun game...it also did horribly since it was "cenimagic" and not a coherent game...

Thing about doom3 is that it's like HL1, you get there when the base is pretty status quo then everything goes to hell and you have to deal with the result. Which, as far as story telling goes is kinda of routine but it does help get the player engaged imo. I didn't have a problem with the darkness thing, even if you're in a pitch black room the Imps would light up before they began to attack so it wasn't a huge deal. The scripted sequences were cool as well and how they introduced all the bad guys in little spot lights. (though panning into the back of the head maybe is a bit silly today).

The only thing that bothered me about the gameplay is that it was super obvious when the spider guys were going to come out of the walls and attack you, because the little vents they used were never present in any other instance. That and the cyberdemon was too easy

I had 3 issues with Doom 3 one its not Doom, 2 its hella linear(far more so than HL1) and 3 it was ultra formulistic for the times albeit for the can't see for crap and ducttape seems to be not invented yet. I guess thats 4...but frankly it was a mess its not what people really wanted carmack just made a film game out of it because he is engine crazy but not much crazy for better gameplay/layouts.

Oh and 5 the multiplayer stuff was hella weak..... Its like Quake 4 did they even bother looking at Quake 2 and Quake 3..... then again the other half of the game is in quake wars......

Well, obviously they wanted to make the game more atmospheric like Fear sort of thing, whereas Doom 2 is probably closer to something like Bulletstorm or Painkiller in the speed and style of game play. So . . . I mean if they want to scare the player, they need to make the player character not super badass whereas in Doom he kinda was right. The key to fear is making the character feel weak and scared of the potential enemies that might get him. At least in my opinion. The scariest game I played was actually Thief Dark Project, because combat wise the guy sucked and the sound design and atmosphere were great especially when you got into the super natural areas.

I get it but it didnt make that good of the game mainly due to shallow content, it needed better built level layoutss , levels that take into account vertical layouts. I was expecting so much more from Doom 3 and Quake 4(rage even has generic linear level layouts, least it was slightly better than D3/Q4) and what I got was a mostly generic shooter experience only Doom 3 was more frustrating due to it being more film than game.

And games being more of a visual thrill ride than a game just irritates me to no end , its a game focus more on non shallow game play and level design I am tired of "playing" movie.