Truly Great FPS's

[fix-the-spade]

#Edited to reflect my opinion, my additions in bold.
- Wolfenstein 3D
- DOOM
- Quake.
- GoldenEye 007
- Counter Strike.
- Perfect Dark.
- Half-Life
- System Shock 2
- Deux Ex
- Metroid Prime
- Battlefield 1942.
- Half-Life 2

All of those games changed what people expected to see in an FPS, most of them have rightly endured as a result. My problem with other 'great' games like Halo, CoD or Bioshock is that none of them added anything to the genre.
To be truly great you have to be well executed and do something no-one saw coming.


Of that list Metroid Prime is my favourite. It's so different to any other FPS you will ever play.

I would put FarCry 2 in the list if it wasn't broken mess, sadly it's hobbled by poor execution, three years from now everyone will look back and wonder what the hype was about.

 

[-IT-]

Quake and Unreal series, fast paced frag fests who will keep you on the edge of your seat.

 

[The_Prophet]

The absolutely most awesome FPS is Star Wars: Republic Commando

 

[bodyklok]

Pretty much all of the above (yes most of the games already mentioned) and Farcry 2.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

Portal, BioShock, Half-life 2, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Goldeneye.

Does portal count? Its a more a puzzle game really.

But anyway, for me, CoD 4, Halo CE, TF2 and HL2 Eps2

 

[aeros320]

Anything Valve has ever made. But specifically Half-Life and Portal of course because of the absolutely wonderful stories. Other than that, I'd say Bioshock and Metroid Prime. Bioshock obviously but MP because it is one of the hardest and scariest games I've ever played. It didn't have to TRY to be scary at all; it was scary because the save points were incredibly far apart, so by the time you got close to the next one, your health was near depleted, which makes your hands grip on to the controller even tighter and makes every step even more tense. Atmospherically, it is incredible and the game does a great job of making you feel helplessly alone, which adds to the intensity and scare level.

 

[aeros320]

OBVIOUSLY Portal counts because it is basically the best FPS I've ever played next to Half-Life and Bioshock. It tells a great story without actually saying anything and its in FIRST PERSON. And you SHOOT THINGS. Hence the term FPS. It's basically the closest the industry has come to true art through combined story telling, environment, and wonderful gameplay.

 

[Metonym]

For me being able to prone, crouch, lean and crawl in a complex enviorement with lots of cover.
That and the feel of the weapons with ironsights, along with somewhat realistic frags oh and gore. Huge maps or small good ones.

BF2 Fear I and cod IV and V does it best. EDIT: I forgot RO VERY nice fps with high resolution grafx ála CoD 5 it would kick so much ass.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

hrrrrrrrmmmm...
I'm gonna go with the following. Remember kids: we're talking shooters with bullets and ammo of some sort, not just games in first person. And I'm not counting multiplayer. I'm thinking great campaigns, personally.

Bioshock
Doom series
Marathon series
Duke Nukem series
F.E.A.R. and its kin, including F.E.A.R. Files
Call of Duty series
If its first person mode qualifies, Ratchet and Clank 2-4 would beat all the games here.

 

[quiet empire]

Far Cry 2.
I'm not a big fan of FPS' but hiding in a bust and shooting a guy in the face with a silenced pistol is very satisfying.

 

[Zersy]

What, in everyone's opinions, are some truly great FPS's? What makes a FPS great? Is it the weapon selection, the enemies, the flow of combat, the setting, or something else?

i should be able to see my feet when i walk and look down

actually come to think of it every game that did that was low rated and boring

e.g.

Fear, Halo 3, and hmmmm okay they weren't shit but they weren't as good as the one's were you couldn't see your feet

e.g.

Call of Duty 4, Resistance 2 ,Killzone 2

 

[soren7550]

Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare - This game is truly good for several reasons. For one, it re-invented the way the series is done, and for what was possibly the first time in a FPS, you really felt a sense of urgency to finish the game. The story is great and you truly feel for the characters as well.

Half Lifeseries - Another fine example of an FPS that makes you feel for the characters and gives a sense of urgency. A beautifully rendered FPS, several times in the game you will find yourself stop what you're doing in order to get a better look around.

BioShock - The first twenty minutes are all it takes for BioShock to bring you in. The brilliant use of guns and plasmids never make this a boring experience.

 

[johnman]

Not one mention os STALKER yet? That was on par with half life 2, im still palying right now

 

[KiKiweaky]

deus ex 1 (drool) was a great and story and lasted longer than 10 seconds

 

[oktalist]

In no particular order: Quake, Quake 2, System Shock, System Shock 2, Deus Ex, Portal, Counter-Strike (I think that counts as a game), Stalker, SWAT 3

 

[karpiel]

Firstly let me point out that a truly great FPS has to be on a PC and not a console game
As you dont really aim on a console, you need a mouse for that. For all those who said |Halo you are the type of person stook in the matrix whilst Neo and niobi fight to save your ass! You will never know Halo was over hyped, poorly made copy of much better games, (like all ms stuff) it wasnt the first, it wasnt the best, it was just the most advertised to fat yank brats who had shiney new consoles to wank over whilst mom made them more burgers. It has such a following purly as it was most people's first FPS game to which it does deserve credit for the rise of FPS games but its actual graphics, weapons, netcode, balance and playability were many evolutions behind the PC gamers and consoles always will be. When you think that the PS3 has a 10 year life cycle imagine how pants the graphics will be in 8 years time! whilst the PC will have evolved for 8 more years and be lifelike, the cutting edge console graphics of today are dated in 18 months, yet your forced to wait 10 years for an upgrade. Whilst graphics cards on PCs come out newer and faster every 4 months or so.



The one guy who said PORTAL needs a labotomy, great game but not an FPS in anyone else book but yours. Its a puzzle game.

Now to the real list of best FPS's

As a FPS gamer for 20 years ive been there from the start and ive played them all. I also have had a hand in making half the games mentioned here although i wont go into detail. Goldeneye was the first true multiplayer and deserves a mention in any of these lists. ID say overall best ever would be
COD 4the first 3 were pants but they hit the sweet spot with that game. Wether its single or multiplayer, on console or PC, this game is superb all the other games are great at one thing but not great at them all, although without quake, counter-strike series, Unreal series, and the battlefield series it would never of gotten to that status, all of these games were once the greatest but nothing currently compares to cod 4 although COD 5 is looking good in testing.

FEAR was excellent as an actually scarey riviting story, it should of come with a free nappy.
Far cry and crysis for graphically beauty (free tissues)and
BIOSHOCK is the best immersion fantasy world ive ever been in (free LSD).
the cartoon styling of Team fortress games is great as is the olde style of DoD Valve make such top quality stuff.

I think that's a bit of a stretch saying that COD4 is the best ever. I'd put the original Call of Duty in my top 5-6 best FPSes; it is certainly my favorite WWII shooter, but when the fourth installment rolled around, I felt that it was really wanting in terms of kinetic sensation and set-piece spectacle in comparison to the first. You're preaching to the choir in terms of PC supremacy in the genre, though . I don't think that its any coincidence that game quality, especially in the FPS genre, started to take a precipitous drop around 2002.

 

[Joeshie]

So many FPS scrubs in this thread...

Anways, for great FPS I'll go with Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Doom 2, Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Battlefield 1942, Battlefield 2, Unreal Tournament '99, Unreal Tournament 2004, Duke Nukem 3D, System Shock 2, Call of Duty, Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, Team Fortress Classic, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Quake, Quake 2, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Counter-Strike 1.6, Counter-Strike Source, Day of Defeat, Day of Defeat Source, Deus Ex, STALKER...

Games that are good but not great include Crysis, Goldeneye (oh shit!), the Halo series, Call of Duty 2, Farcry, FEAR, and a few others I probably can't remember.

Anyways, that's just the opinions of someone who has been playing FPS for the past 16 years....

 

[EzraPound]

#Edited to reflect my opinion, my additions in bold.
- Wolfenstein 3D
- DOOM
- Quake.
- GoldenEye 007
- Counter Strike.
- Perfect Dark.
- Half-Life
- System Shock 2
- Deux Ex
- Metroid Prime
- Battlefield 1942.
- Half-Life 2

I think you got the order wrong, haha.

But seriously: yeah, Quake, Counter-Strike, Unreal Tournament Perfect Dark, etc. are all fairly excellent, but they're also fairly generic extant one or two innovations each (Quake was in full 3D, UT pioneered the area shooters, etc). Hence my not including them on the list. Allow me to explain further.

Quake: was graphically cutting-edge but also problematic; id had done little to advance DOOM or DOOM II's gameplay, causing many to defect to other FPSses like Duke Nukem 3D. The beginning of the end for id, who couldn't recapture their pre-Quake stranglehold on the PC shooter marketplace.

Counter-Strike: an enduring classic, but those wetting their pants over this skillful HL mod were in the minority. Accessibility was a big issue: while CS had "l33t" appeal, most gamers I knew just didn't have the time to sink in to getting their online play to a respectable level. That's a problem for CS, not a badge of hardcore honour - oh yeah, and the technology was naturally derivative of HL, too.

Perfect Dark: as console shooters go it's the most exhaustive, but not the best - that honour goes to GoldenEye. Bots or no, there were a slew of problems with PD: it was grainy, had slowdown issues, required an expansion pak and on the whole just didn't seem nearly as inspired as Rare's earlier effort (and some of the weapons actually detracted from the gameplay).

Battlefield 1942: I haven't played it much, so I'm not really qualified to give an opinion.

And, admittedly, it may be too early for the verdict to be out on BioShock...

As a FPS gamer for 20 years ive been there from the start and ive played them all. I also have had a hand in making half the games mentioned here although i wont go into detail. Goldeneye was the first true multiplayer and deserves a mention in any of these lists. ID say overall best ever would be
COD 4the first 3 were pants but they hit the sweet spot with that game. Wether its single or multiplayer, on console or PC, this game is superb all the other games are great at one thing but not great at them all, although without quake, counter-strike series, Unreal series, and the battlefield series it would never of gotten to that status, all of these games were once the greatest but nothing currently compares to cod 4 although COD 5 is looking good in testing.

Dude, you're an idiot, whether you single-handedly developed DOOM or no.

 

[Unknower]

Half-Life. Others explained why.

Far Cry. As no one picked this, explanation might be necessary. Great AI, great maps, one of the few games with non-linear, great combination of stealth and action, great story,

Halo. Okay, I wasn't sure about picking Halo as a "truly great FPS" but whatever, let's pick it anyway. It was a very fun game and I enjoyed it very much. It doesn't deserve all the hate it gets.

Republic Commando. Kinda same as above.

 

[TheGreenManalishi]

Metroid Prime, Perfect Dark, GoldenEye, Jedi Knight II, Turok 2

... might be drawing off topic a bit, but Turok?

Really?

I'd rate the Turok games in my list of worst FPS games. (And probably high on the Worst Overall as well)

What was I missing?

Turok 2 was great. Had some truly awesome weapons, good boss fights and some intricate, interesting locations. Granted, it was a bit linear and repetetive, it had some things working for it.