Question of the Day, September 4, 2010

[Jesus Phish]

Half-Life was the first FPS which was genuinely clever and had an emphasis on story that combines with the gameplay. It was basically the first, truly good FPS. And the one that set the standard for single-player shooters.

As far as multiplayer shooters go, Quake was probably the one. And GoldenEye007 for console multiplayer shooters.

Not many FPS followed suit of being clever and having an emphasis on both story and gameplay. Gameplay has been turned down to hide behind building, pop out, shoot, move to next hiding spot, repeat til you get to an escape vehical.

I voted for Halo, not because it's my favourite of the list but I think it's recharging shield and later health system has no been pretty much copied into every single fps out there.

 

[Digikid]

Halo. Bar none.

 

[Mr. Omega]

On actual impact, I'd have to say Doom. It perfected what Wolfenstein made, and made shooters practical.

2nd (tie): Goldeneye/ Half Life.
Goldeneye: Made multiplayer on consoles not only possible, but marketable. Where would games like Halo, Modern Warfare, and others be without it?
Half Life: What Goldeneye did for console Multiplayer, Half Life did for Story in the genre. This might seem like a bigger impact, but it didn't stick as well as Goldeneye's selling point.

3rd: Halo. Not entirely happy about this, but I can't deny Halo's impact. Introduced two mechanics that have been in many modern FPSs, regenerating health and limited weapons. Doom was the template for many old shooters. Halo is the new template for most shooters.

Honorable mention:

Team Fortress 2: I WISH other developers took this game's route in online shooters. Instead of making a sequel, just keep updating it, adding new weapons, new attire (hats), new maps, and updating any bugs or fixing overpowered weapons. And do all this FOR FREE! But this is in an ideal world. Plus, all these good features only apply to the PC version. Not necessarily a bad thing, but for the ideal shooter nowadays, needs to be console based.

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

People voted for Halo? Children no doubt.

Or people who just accept that it was pretty much the template for modern FPS'.

Bahahahahahahahaha.

No, seriously - what?

Yes, because taking notice of the way that Halo introduced a number of elements that are still heavily prevalent in shooters that succeeded it... is childish? Normally, I'd say "I'm not following you, here", but I know exactly where you're coming from: you're just using this as an excuse to take a shit on a franchise you don't like, instead of actually considering the question. I don't know if you've noticed, but the whole "I'm on the Escapist, therefore I hate Halo and Call of Duty" thing is quickly becoming embarrassingly passe.

 

[Anti-Robot Man]

Halo did do a lot of things to mix things up (such as seemless integration of vehicles, a really good control scheme for consoles etc.) but influence is a hard thing to pin down, a lot of stuff that Halo does (for example actually using a bright colour scheme) has not become the norm. Halo's main legacy is how the FPS currently plays on consoles.

DOOM is probably the best known FPS (if not best known PC game fullstop) but it didn't really innovate that much on Wolfenstein (mainly on increased map complexity and the Sci-fi horror theme, which is still the dominant setting/enemy in the genre).

Quake took online multiplayer to a new high (though people had been playing DOOM networked extensively for years by that point).

Half-life's really innovation was its ambitious storytelling, things like the train journey into the facility at the beginning of the game - however storytelling throughout the genre is still relatively weak so it's influence is not as strong as some of the others.

Goldeneye was like these other games very popular and I believe refined targeted damage (shooting someone in the leg causes a different effect to shooting them in the arm, butt, chest, foot, head, etc.). It's control scheme became dominant on the N64 - but it's influence beyond that console has not been strong.

Overall I would say that DOOM is the most influential given how it popularised and set a great deal of the mechanics and setting of the genre, but a good case can be made for many of the other games. It does show something of the richness of the genre that there are so many notable titles, compare this with say RTS where you'd have something like 4-5 good claims.

 

[Jodan]

Where is wolfenstein 3d thats my other
but if i had to chose from those listed it would be goldeneye for being so darn fun

 

[FURY_007]

I pretty much agree with everyone here (including the halo part, may not have been for the better but it did hugely influence a lot of games since, and thats what the poll is about.)

I'd also like to throw the Battlefield games (before Bad company 1/2) into the mix because they proved you could have a huge amount of people playing the same game and the game wouldn't degenerate into full-blown chaos/break, and it was (IMO) the first really popular class-based shooter. Also they inspired the Battlefront series

 

[oppp7]

Considering Halo clones outnumber every other type of game clone, I'd say that one had more influence. But Doom and Half-Life are close.

 

[EightGaugeHippo]

DooM IMO got FPSs out there.

Second would be Halo 2 with online.

[Edit]

I know it's not the most popular, but after Halo's release regenerating health became a staple in all modern shooters, so I voted that...

Apart from Half-Life, Unreal Tournament, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Quake, Dai-Katana, Duke Nukem, Team Fortress 1/2 and a whole lot of others.

Hell, a lot of these have DEgenerating health.

Halo 1,ODST,Reach dont have regenerating health. They have med packs. Halo 2/3 did but there was no health bar to indecate this.

 

[Crazyjay]

i would say quake because fps's have turned into a multiplayer genre, and quake did it the best back then and without it, we would most likely not have unreal tournament and halo and many more multiplayer fps. maybe half life for single player, but in my opinion almost all single player fps are lackluster.

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

Mmmm, because I loved Halo before coming here and now dislike it solely because everyone else does

And thanks for telling me what I do and don't like. You may want to check your facts though; I like the Call of Duty series.

What exactly are you trying to argue, here? All you've managed to refute is whether or not you like Call of Duty, and we both know that was never an issue to begin with. You've said nothing to convince me that you went out of your way to insult people that like a certain series for any reason other than "look at me, I hate something popular". Trying to bulletproof yourself with saran wrap would be a more ingenious attempt at deflection than "you're wrong because I like that other game I didn't mention".

 

[AngryMongoose]

Wolf 3D!
Pretty much cemented the FPS genre into what it is today, even if it wasn't technically the first.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

We wouldn't have DOOM clones without DOOM.

 

[Azure Sky]

Probably Doom, if only for it starting the Genra.

 

[Nazulu]

Either Doom or Golden Eye. I reckon Golden Eye though since it set the standard in multi-player, split-screens, sniper rifles and it is still an all-round impressive game.

Nostalgia hits me like a brick when looking back.

 

[Azure Sky]

People voted for Halo? Children no doubt.

Or people who just accept that it was pretty much the template for modern FPS'.

Bahahahahahahahaha.

No, seriously - what?

Yes, because taking notice of the way that Halo introduced a number of elements that are still heavily prevalent in shooters that succeeded it... is childish? Normally, I'd say "I'm not following you, here", but I know exactly where you're coming from: you're just using this as an excuse to take a shit on a franchise you don't like, instead of actually considering the question. I don't know if you've noticed, but the whole "I'm on the Escapist, therefore I hate Halo and Call of Duty" thing is quickly becoming embarrassingly passe.

It is such a pity that Halo, a brilliant game, abandoned all efforts of continuing its rather interesting storyline (You know, the one thing most shooters lack?) in favor of pandering to the insult-fest that is currently more then half the player-base.

Also, making assumptions to justify an argument is quite unbecoming, Cassita has a point.
If what Halo has become is truly the template for what is yet to come, it will be a dark, dark day for the genra.

 

[Mariakitten]

I have to say 007 goldeneye for what it did for multiplayer.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

Halo generic har har.
Halo is far from a generic game. Perhaps its gameplay is not the same as what some would call a 'good' shooter, but as a whole game it is most certainly not generic.