Shooters! I Need Shooters!

[Starbird]

So I expect that after I'm finished DOW:2 and it's 2 expansions, my recent RTS itch will be quite thoroughly scratched.

Now...I'm in the mood to shoot some monsters with massive chainguns. Or using my massive chainguns. Whatever.

However I'm starting to suspect that I've played most worthwhile modern shooters to death already and am considering going back and seeing if I missed anything from the previous generation. Or just replay HL:1 Source.

But before that, I'm hoping that there is something good that I've missed.

So...any suggestions?

Points for:
- Varied enemies and weapons.
- Lengthy game while still being fun.
- Non horrible graphics.

Not interested in:
- Multiplayer.
- 'Modern War' combat, unless it has a Spec Ops 2: The Line level of storytelling.

Already played:
- Dues EX: HR.
- Bulletstorm.
- Painkiller.
- Battlemage.
- Doom 3.
- Quake 4.
- Half Life 2.
- Bioshock 1, 2 and Infinite.
- Far Cry 1, 2 and Blood Dragon.
- Crysis 1, 2 and 3.
- Everything Half Life.
- Everything Dead Space.
- Everything Resident Evil.
- Everything Borderlands.
- Serious Sam 1 and 2 HD.
- Painkiller.
- Fallout 3 and NV.
- All recent Wolfensteins.
- Prey.
- Timeshift.
- F.E.A.R. 1 and 2
- Call of Cthulu DCOTE.
- Unreal 1 and 2.
- Probably many I've forgotten.


Mainstream releases I have not played yet:
- Singularity.
- Metro Last Light.
- Serious Sam 3.

I really enjoy games like:
- Blood
- Sin
- Unreal
- Painkiller
Not a massive sandbox fan, but I can live with them as long as exploration is worthwhile and there are cool things to fight.

Any suggestions?

 

[Tohuvabohu]

What about the Max Payne series? I remember having problems getting the first game to run on my PC, but the 2nd one worked fine afaik.

Max Payne 3 is there as well to scratch a more modern itch with its fancy graphics. I wouldn't say the series has a large variety of enemies, especially the first two games, but they have tons of guns, a lot of action, and very well told stories.

 

[Starbird]

Ooh, MP3! Yes, this is what I'm talking about. Forgot that even existed! *Adds to backlog*.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

TimeSplitters! Lots of enemies, lots of weapons and as far as Future Perfect goes the graphics were pretty good. The design and the animation have stood the test of time really well, since Rare went for a very cartoony approach.


You listed "Far Cry 1, 2 and Blood Dragon". If you haven't played Far Cry 3 yet I strongly recommend it, I think it has some of the best (optional) stealth in an otherwise action-y shooter.

The Max Payne games are also very good. Yeah, the story gets a little redundant by MP3 but the game is just so much fun. I love the level design in that one. And you can finally take cover, which you'll be needing a lot anyway.

 

[Starbird]

I...tried FC3 but got sandboxed out pretty quickly. I may have to revisit it though.

Generally I'm not a fan of games where my opponents are mostly humans. I want to feel like I never know what massive, tentacled horror is waiting around the next corner. Not 'oh look, slightly different guys with slightly thicker armor!'.

 

[Aerosteam]

Shadow Warrior? I hope you've already played that...

 

[Frezzato]

Eh, Binary Domain is pretty non-stop action-y, as well as lackluster, but it's actiony nonetheless.

 

[Morgoth780]

Hard reset was a pretty decent indie shooter, and I thought the weapons were nicely stylized.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Hard Reset and Shadow Warrior are two of the best first person shooters of the last gen as far as I'm concerned. You're in luck if you haven't played Shadow Warrior yet because it's on sale right now for $4,99 on Steam.

Gears of War for the PC was pretty good. It's a GFWL game though and I don't think they patched that out. But you can just create a local profile and play without issues. If you can find it though.

Dishonored is a weird one. I wouldn't call it a shooter exactly but it's definitely an action game if you want it to be. Pretty brilliant game. Great art direction, great level design, powers, weapons and upgrades are all satisfying. Unless you're not into steampunk.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Yes it's a stealth game. But it can be played like a shooter if you so desire. And there's plenty of weapons and gadgets to choose from. Aside from lack of Ironside I have to give props to Ubisoft. The gameplay is so fluid and entertaining.

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood and Call of Juarez: Gunslinger are AMAZING. Especially Gunslinger. It's not a long game. But replay value is un-freakin'-believable on that one. It's more replayable than old school shooters.

If you don't mind something older then Star Wars: Republic Commando, Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast and Star Wars Jedi Knight 3: Jedi Academy are great single player choices. And they have multiplayer with bots which is incredibly addicting.

 

[Bad Jim]

Firstly, have you played Doom 1 & 2? Yes, the graphics are shit, but Blood also has shit graphics and that was first on your list of favourite shooters. Doom holds up gameplay wise. It really does.

Also, you've played the recent Wolfenstein games, and you've probably at least glanced at Wolfenstein 3D, but have you played Return to Castle Wolfenstein? That was pretty fun.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

I really enjoy games like:
- Painkiller

Any suggestions?

Might I interest you in Dreamkiller?

Think Painkiller, but with the premise that you're a psychologist who literally enters people's dreams to cure their phobias by literally gunning them down with stuff like Miniguns.

I'm not kidding. That's the premise. Your first level has you running around what looks like a post-apocalyptic city overrun by giant demonic spiders, as you shred them to pieces to cure someone's arachnaphobia.

It's AWESOME.

My only complaint is this: I wish they did a little bit more with the premise. It feels mostly like window dressing and as an excuse to go to all kinds of trippy, weird locales with no connecting logic.

My 2 pieces of advice:

Spoiler

1) As soon as you hit the second level (when you get access to a second weapon pickup), make sure you ALWAYS ditch your "Flame-hands" weapon ASAP. It's horrible and literally any other secondary weapon is better.

2) In the jungle Dream, when you get to the invincible boss, look in the background for a giant brown ball thing. That's a beehive. You can't kill the boss until the beehive is gone. Yes, I got stuck on that for an hour. You are welcome.

 

[CaitSeith]

Metroid Prime Trilogy.

 

[Evonisia]

Gears of War for the PC was pretty good. It's a GFWL game though and I don't think they patched that out. But you can just create a local profile and play without issues. If you can find it though.

Seconded, Gears 1 is easily my favourite of the series, and makes for a good conciliation prize seeing as Gears 2 isn't on PC AFAIK (and Gears 2 is more gun-action-shooty than the first game).

Gears 1 also works if you like fighting enemies which are clearly very evil given its heavy horror focus and some of the boss fights.

 

[Dizchu]

Firstly, have you played Doom 1 & 2?

You should do this with a source port like ZDoom or GZDoom that'll allow mouselook. Also head to Doomworld and download some of the classic user-made map sets. The maps in the original games don't hold up so well in terms of design or difficulty (though Romero's maps are quite memorable).

 

[Signa]

Why isn't Doom/Doom 2 on that list?! If going that far back isn't your idea, then at least try Brutal Doom.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Vanquish.

It's not a super long game, but it's incredibly fun and very replayable (you can't max out the stats on every weapon in one run through the game, and it's a lot of fun replaying the game with focuses on different weapons).

It's made by Platinum. PLATINUM! Why aren't you already playing it?!


Just remember, if you spend more than 2% of your time in cover while playing this cover based third person shooter, you're playing it wrong.

 

[Albino Boo]

Saints Row 3 and 4.Lots of shooting and very silly.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Ooh, MP3! Yes, this is what I'm talking about. Forgot that even existed! *Adds to backlog*.

MP3 is one of the worst games I've ever played. The controls are horribly stiff like not being able to go from prone to cover and having to stand up in the middle. The story was packed with characters you're not going to give a shit about while not being able to skip cinemas due to the game loading during them.

Eh, Binary Domain is pretty non-stop action-y, as well as lackluster, but it's actiony nonetheless.

I loved Binary Domain even if it's not that great. Those last 2 chapters were awesome and the characters were surprisingly good. The vehicle sequences suck and some of the boss fights are so overlong, but the last couple chapters do away with all that and the story picks up. The game was the equivalent to a really fun B-movie sci-fi action flick.

Vanquish.

It's not a super long game, but it's incredibly fun and very replayable (you can't max out the stats on every weapon in one run through the game, and it's a lot of fun replaying the game with focuses on different weapons).

It's made by Platinum. PLATINUM! Why aren't you already playing it?!


Just remember, if you spend more than 2% of your time in cover while playing this cover based third person shooter, you're playing it wrong.

Vanquish is hands down the best shooter of last-gen, nothing even comes close to touching it. I love that the game deducts points for every second spent in cover because unless you're in cover to smoke a cigarette or jump over it in slow-mo, you shouldn't be in cover.

 

[Pikey Mikey]

TimeSplitters! Lots of enemies, lots of weapons and as far as Future Perfect goes the graphics were pretty good. The design and the animation have stood the test of time really well, since Rare went for a very cartoony approach.


You listed "Far Cry 1, 2 and Blood Dragon". If you haven't played Far Cry 3 yet I strongly recommend it, I think it has some of the best (optional) stealth in an otherwise action-y shooter.

The Max Payne games are also very good. Yeah, the story gets a little redundant by MP3 but the game is just so much fun. I love the level design in that one. And you can finally take cover, which you'll be needing a lot anyway.

Do you know where to get TimeSplitters? I've been looking for it but it's nowhere to be found :'(
Loved those games (well, 2 and FP, didn't play the first one)

 

[MetalShadowChaos]

Metroid Prime Trillogy is pretty great, if you're willing to put a little thought into your shooting. I'll stand by the Wii as having one of the best control schemes for FPSes of all time, the pointer offers all the precision of a mouse with a much more natural and immersive delivery, and you get to keep your full analogue movement control too. I'm playing it myself and I've finised the first and am halfway or so through the second game, and they're both pretty excellent. 1 is definitely the highlight for me, but so far 2 has been just as enjoyable, even if it can be a little bad at giving directions at times and borrows a lot from other games. I've heard nothing but great things about 3 too.

Also it has the best extra features. Playing the games gets little token things that can unlock bonuses like concept art and even stuff like the Fusion suit for 1 (normally you'd use a GBA link cable for it as a bonus) and bumper stickers for 3. Pretty neat.