Poll: The Purest FPS

[Iron Mal]

The 'purest', most simple FPS ever made has to be DOOM.

There was next to no plot (you're a space marine, there are monsters, here are guns...figure the rest out for yourself), you had a simple objective (live long enough to get to the next level) and there was no extra bullshit getting in the way of any of the fun (no side quests, no missions objectives, no friendly NPC's force feeding you dialogue al'a HL2...just pure mindless fun).

I also think it was perfect just the way it was (simple, yet effective).

 

[Sombra Negra]

Why are there no Unreal Tournaments or TF2 (Pre unlockable weapons) on this list? Nothing beats either mowing down 5 guys with a whirring minigun and hearing that crazy Russian shouting: "CRY SOME MOOORRRREE!", or bisecting a man with the flicky-outy armoured claws of a Scorpion in UT3. M.m.m.m.monster kill.

 

[oliveira8]

It really isn't. When something requires several paragraphs of discussion to even figure out where the main enemies came from, it's not deep, it's just plain cruel. Even after an entire game (Half Life 2), both of the following episodes and guidance from the internet I still only have a vague idea of who the Combine are or how they work.

They are an inter-dimensional Empire, that enlist by force the population of the planets they conquer into their ranks, and clean the said planets of resources to turn into profit or just use them for something else. They synthezise alien wildlife and most of their war gear is based on the gear there already is on the planets they conquer.

See didnt take that long.

Yes, but when I've played through all of the games multiple times and I still don't know that, you can't really credit the game with brilliant story telling. And I dare say you probably got that explanation from somewhere on the internet. Okay, so maybe it is hidden in the game somewhere, but that's not storytelling, that's being forced to scrape together random guys because your character can't ask and everyone's too retarded to explain. Even Eli. Yeah that's right, I called the dead guy retarded.

Fuck Eli.

Its a form of storytelling.

And a rather good one. You see the story develop trough the eyes of one character and one character alone. Theres a reason that characters dont explain whats going on. Cause they think you already KNOW whats going on. Most of them dont know you been frozen in time. Only a few know. And if Gordon talked asking everything it would ruin the whole idea of HL storytelling. And most likely most characters in the HL dont actually know whats going on.

Think of HL storytelling methode as how you watch the world. You dont know exactly whats going on behind the scenes, and if you ask your friend he probably doesnt know either.

In HL you stuck to watch the story unfold trough Gordon's eyes. Also HL was always praised cause of its unique way of storytelling in video game.

Editidnt see your edit..dang.

 

[blankedboy]

http://cubeengine.com/

No series (even half-life O.O) will ever equal this.
Multiplayer fans, AssaultCube.
OldSkoolers, Cube Engine.
Visuals/features junkies, Sauerbraten.
Open-source, fully editable in-and-out of game, good graphics, purest and best FPS ever.

 

[Pezzer]

I back Serious Sam. It has nothing but shooting stuff with over-the-top guns. making no attempts to be something it is not.

 

[slipknot4]

Quake 3, i have had countless hours of fun blowing my friends into meaty shreds with the rail gun.

 

[Anachronism]

As much as I love Quake, I voted for Doom. It took everything that made Wolf 3D good, and improved on it. No story, no out-of-place cutscenes, no pretensions to being anything other than a mindless-kill fest. That's purity in a shooter.

 

[HazukiHawkins]

Painkiller. There's so much at stake.

Seriously though, it's an FPS fan's FPS. Fun weapons, cool and varied enemies, impressive and innovative levels, a neat little power-up system... if you like shooters and haven't played this one, I suggest you do. You're more than likely to find a lot of whatever you like.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

Why is there so little love for Unreal in this thread? It's PURE FPS, against equally matched enemies, all with the same objective, and a shit ton of some of the best guns ever assembled for a videogame.

There is no auto-replenishing health, there is no stupid cover system, just a series of rooms littered with guns and badguys (for the most part, in deathmatch at least).

The game even goes out of its way to reward you for killing enemies in quick succesion, killing enemies without dieing, scoring headshots, killing enemies with certain weapons enough times, or in specific ways, all by basically yelling out whatever awesomeness you just did. All just to make you feel even better about the mindless violence.

You can't get purer than that.

 

[HazukiHawkins]

Why is there so little love for Unreal in this thread?[...]there is no stupid cover system,[...]

I would just like to point out that Unreal has the same stupid cover system we've had since Wolfenstein 3D and whatever game probably came just a little bit before.

Corners.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

Why is there so little love for Unreal in this thread?[...]there is no stupid cover system,[...]

I would just like to point out that Unreal has the same stupid cover system we've had since Wolfenstein 3D and whatever game probably came just a little bit before.

Corners.

Er.. well, if you consider that a cover system then I guess ALL FPS' have it, but I was specifically refering to things such as whatever system Killzone or somesuch uses, you know, things that allow you to stick to walls and crap that was specifically coded into the game.

Unreal does not have that.

 

[cipher_nemo]

I had to vote other. I'm not a big fan of FPS, but these are all old titles that are not necessarily "pure" in terms of FPS. They are certainly classics and I enjoyed old-school FPS games like Doom and Quake more than newer FPS games, but I think a "pure" FPS game would actually be one with a modern military/armed-combat theme.

 

[Wazaki]

Duke. Nukem.

 

[Nuke_em_05]

<----- Guess

Wrong! Doom. First love I guess...

 

[curlycrouton]

Unreal Tournament 3. It's everything ridiculous and yet fantastic about FPS games all rolled into one, and in touch with the modern age.

 

[TheGreenManalishi]

I have to say GoldenEye. The first true 3d FPS, barely a plot (unless you watch the film), great splitscreen, intuitive controls and some bloody great weapons.

 

[51gunner]

Doom:

Point, shoot, thing dies. Purest FPS experience. Wolfenstein had some kind of continuous story (Kill hitler, kill aides, kill ...), Doom had an excuse to give you a chainsaw and get cracking.

 

[Steve Dark]

Quake. Half life has too good a plot to be called pure, and Doom has gone too much down the horror route. Granted I haven't played the other two so I can't properly judge, but from what I know Quake is the purest.

 

[HazukiHawkins]

Er.. well, if you consider that a cover system then I guess ALL FPS' have it, but I was specifically refering to things such as whatever system Killzone or somesuch uses, you know, things that allow you to stick to walls and crap that was specifically coded into the game.

Unreal does not have that.

Oh, you mean like the chest-high walls of Gears of War and such? (Watch the ZP review of the sequel if this does not ring a bell...) I suppose I'd call that "gimmick cover", as opposed to the general and logical use of cover that is central to any FPS, assuming we're not counting rail shooters. Sticking to walls, in my experience, has never really helped the player... except possibly when you use it to lean around the wall partially and shoot things over there, thus exposing less of your body to the enemy. And even then it was seldom worth battling against the various fiddly controls.

 

[Tattaglia]

Quake. Half life has too good a plot to be called pure, and Doom has gone too much down the horror route. Granted I haven't played the other two so I can't properly judge, but from what I know Quake is the purest.

The poll doesn't refer to a game series, just the original game that started it all. And I thought Quake was a bit more horror-ey than Doom - Quake was much more Gothic in its style.

The rush of firing a rocket launcher at an oncoming helicopter.
The satisfaction of chainsaw-ing a demon in two.
The thrill of mowing down a horde of Nazis with a machine gun.

You've probably felt these adrenaline-fuelled moments before, or at least something similar. These moments in an FPS game, when done well and consistently, help to make the purest form of an FPS. There are many first-person shooters nowadays with silly regenerating health

As opposed to the very realistic health pack that automatically revive multiple bullet shots including to the head.

Regenerating health forces you to cower behind walls and indestructible crates like a pansy until you regain it. The waiting can cost you a good five seconds of enemy killin'! Bah is my response to your regenerating health system.