Most influential FPS game?

What did Halo do differently, aside from being on a console? I'd say Half-Life was way more influential, seeing as it and Dark Forces II pretty much invented the modern shooter. 

Halo created very open environmentsshaji84

Wrong.

and also added an incredible multiplayer.shaji84

Incredibly bad, maybe.

It made the FPS genre very easily accessible to the mainstreamshaji84

Even though it already was.

there is no way it is not influential as most FPS games nowdays, use it's strategy in some way.shaji84

What's its "strategy"? Use "copy and paste" to make levels? Use as little different enemy types as possible in a fictional universe? Be as generic as you possibly can with your weapon design? Make the game super slow so that it's easier to play? (Oh snap, you got me there, today's FPS do use that strategy).

I have no idea what the most influential FPS game would be. I had to guess I would say Half-Life and what ever game was the first to offer class based gameplay (such as Team Fortress). I'm not sure which game that would be though.

in fairness to Halo, it really did solidify fps online multiplayer on console.  Also, it was one of the first console first person shooters to do a really good job of dual analog stick control.  At least, that i can remember.

Anyway, Doom, Wolfenstein, and Goldeneye are all up there.

[QUOTE="shaji84"]Halo created very open environmentsReddestSkies

Wrong.

and also added an incredible multiplayer.shaji84

Incredibly bad, maybe.

It made the FPS genre very easily accessible to the mainstreamshaji84

Even though it already was.

there is no way it is not influential as most FPS games nowdays, use it's strategy in some way.shaji84

What's its "strategy"? Use "copy and paste" to make levels? Use as little different enemy types as possible in a fictional universe? Be as generic as you possibly can with your weapon design? Make the game super slow so that it's easier to play? (Oh snap, you got me there, today's FPS do use that strategy).

Ok you've gotta be kidding me. Incredibly bad multiplayer? The Halo series is one of the most played FPS games online in the world, don't say stupid things like it had bad multiplayer. And FPS games are possibly the most popular genre today, Halo being probably the most widely played of them. And the Halo strategy is there, no other FPS (that was very popular anyways) offered the diversity in the story mode such as co-op and vehicle sections. How could Halo not be influential? Think about the term "Halo Clone" its used all the time and for a reason.

First-person shooters are divided into two eras: post-Doom and post-Half-Life. Everything else pales in comparison. Every old-school type FPS like Serious Sam and Painkiller owe everything they've got to Doom and every modern FPS owes at least one element to Half-Life. There are games that introduced new stuff to the genre, but like I said, it all pales in comparison to Doom and Half-Life. I don't even care if you like other games better (hell, I don't like Doom at all), but these are cold hard facts.

I have no idea what the most influential FPS game would be. I had to guess I would say Half-Life and what ever game was the first to offer class based gameplay (such as Team Fortress). I'm not sure which game that would be though.ff7cloudking

That would be Team Fortress. :P

Halo created very open environments, and also added an incredible multiplayer. It made the FPS genre very easily accessible to the mainstream, there is no way it is not influential as most FPS games nowdays, use it's strategy in some way.shaji84

If I'm not mistaken, Tribes introduced large environments many years before Halo even came out. As far as I know, Quake and Counter-Strike made FPS multiplayer history long before Halo did anything - and Counter-Strike is still hands down the most popular multiplayer FPS on the market. As for accessiblity and mainstream, I think Doom did that almost a decade before Halo.

Halo did do all that for the first time - on consoles.

It's difficult to consider Halo being the most widely played FPS right now, nor do I think it was at all revolutionary. I think it was a very polished game. I think it was one of the reasons that console FPS' stopped being a joke, specially in a multiplayer aspect, and I think this opened up FPS games to a bigger crowd, as you didn't need a crazy computer to play them. Further than that, though, it wasn't a novel idea, it was just novel execution of it. It's kind of like Super Mario Bros. It wasn't the first platformer to ever exist, it was just the first one to get it right.

Nevermind that Halo bores the living daylights out of me. I don't blame that on Halo as much as I do on a complete FPS overload due to years of CS, UT, Quake, Doom, etc etc.

As far as the most influential FPS game. That is, the game that has affected the way in which most FPS' play nowadays, I think it would be an even split between Doom and Half Life. Doom brought a fast-paced, unforgiving, dark gritty atmosphere to a gaming community which needed to point out Jazz Jackrabbit had some animated violence. The level design, the music, the graphics, the pace. It was just such an uncommon and well executed game (Well, Doom 1 anyway) that I think it had a resonating impact beyond the controversy it's ultra-violence kicked up.

As far as Half-Life goes, I think it was one of the first games to really present an interesting story while remaining an FPS at heart. I think that there were many games like Deus Ex and System Shock that kind of followed trend, but they leaned so much towards the RPG side of things that it was almost expected. Whereas Half-Life was this kind of pure, untainted mirage of what FPS could do. They could tell a story, they could be engrossing and in-depth, yet at the same time not lose the fast gameplay. I think it falls squarely between the two.

Call of Duty 4 is the FPS game all games will be measured by  

 

Call of Duty 4 is the FPS game all games will be measured by  

ExtremeOne316

We're talking about the most influential FPSes. CoD4 really wasn't that influential.

these days cross fire become my favourate , i think it's a game with all the characteristics of cs ,half life and halo..

:shock:

Doom

/thread

For PC, it's Half-life considering CS as a mod, that game had everything plus more.

For consoles, I would rate Goldeneye in terms of story, multiplayer, and influence. 

For console online multiplayer, Halo would be a contender.

for pc: half life 2

for the 360: halo 3

Doom

 

/thread

equimanthorn01

I think this all depends on whether or not you count Ultima Underworld as an FPS (it might be called an FPS/RPG hybrid nowadays). That was, afaik, the first 3D first-person game to actually feature movement in all three dimensions (you could jump, climb/descend stairs, swim, etc.) - and this was before Wolfenstein 3D (Wolf3D was apparently based on a tech demo of UU).

UU set the standard for movement in FPS games, and paved the way for all FPS/RPG hybrids (the company went on to make System Shock, etc.).

...but yeah, it probably doesn't count as an FPS.

UU set the standard for movement in FPS games, and paved the way for all FPS/RPG hybrids (the company went on to make System Shock, etc.).

...but yeah, it probably doesn't count as an FPS.

Planeforger

It counts as an FPS about as much as Oblivion does. More like an FPG or FPRPG.

Although Wolfenstein was the first, it was Doom that pioneered the FPS genre.BladesOfAthena

Yeah, I gotta go with doom.  And Quake.  They broke so much new ground they are still the basis for most FPS mechanics. 

hahaha there are people here who say "halo"...

seriously what did you play before halo i wonder, no fps at all i bet...

doom is the real deal here. and half-life can be considered too because even though we had story-telling in other genres ( so honestly, i dont think it achieved something in overall gaming ), fps genre gained this ability with half-life.

also quake made fps genre real fast, before half-life.

and if you want to talk about multiplayer, CS ( half-life mod ) is still played today...

With all the FPS games out there today, they must take there inspiration from somewhere. I have to say Halo, or Half-Life.shaji84

you mention are all fairly new and build on earlier games.

from this perspective one has to look further back when FPS's moved from the arcade in the form of

games like Doom to games with a story. The first of these was the original Quake and

Thief: The Dark Project. It was arguably Quake and Thief which started the modern generation of

games that begn with Half-Life then went on to Deus Ex and the games you mention.

First-person shooters are divided into two eras: post-Doom and post-Half-Life. Everything else pales in comparison. Every old-school type FPS like Serious Sam and Painkiller owe everything they've got to Doom and every modern FPS owes at least one element to Half-Life. There are games that introduced new stuff to the genre, but like I said, it all pales in comparison to Doom and Half-Life. I don't even care if you like other games better (hell, I don't like Doom at all), but these are cold hard facts.

 

UpInFlames

 Couldn't agree more. The FPS era started with Wolfenstein but it definetly got really improved by the Doom series and than the Half Life just rocked the FPS world.

People need to climb off all the kids saying 'Halo' was influential, and realize that most 12 year olds have never played Doom. Because if they had, they would find Halo as bubblegum, generic and disappointing as the rest of us whose first gaming experience was on something other than the xbox they begged their parents to buy them.

Also, merely defining Half-life as an 'FPS' seems somehow...dirty.

ooh. Post #100. Please mail me my renewed nerd card. Thank you.

There's already been plenty of reasons given, but Doom and Half-Life.  Doom for the first big game in the genre that inspired a whole ton of clones, and Half-Life which brought a lot to the genre in terms of storytelling, scripted events, etc.  Half-Life also had so many mods like Counter Strike which were influential in their own right. 

Halo was only influential in that it brought a lot of what was loved about shooters on the PC to the consoles.  For someone who had played many shooters on the PC before getting an Xbox, it was a solid game, if not too original.

Why are people saying Quake. That was basically the same game as Doom only re-skinnedTrooperdx3117

Hehe The main thing Quake brought was the definition of "first person." You could look up/ down/ all around and the world was in 3D (considering Doom more 2D). Unreal was a re-skinned Quake, in my opinion.

Why is no one mentioning Duke Nukem 3D? That game had in 1995 everything we have today: interactive environments, online co-op, realistic explosions, even a primitive particles system.

By the way, some reasons why Halo 1 is influential, regardless if you like it or not:

- Physics: in 2001, it was the first game to use a passive physics engine with gravity, balance and item collision
- Weapons: most games nowadays limit you to carry two or three weapons at a time. Halo invented this, since in earlier games you could carry all the weapons at the same time
- Grenades: in FPS prior to Halo, you had to manually cycle through weapons looking for grenades. Now every game does what Halo did first: use a button to instantly throw grenades.
- Recharging health: all games have it and Halo was the first to use it.
- Enemies: in Half-Life, marines could take cover in some scripted places. In Halo this is dynamic (look at how elites take cover in random places every time you play) and every game does that now.
- Vehicles: you can use vehicles in most recent FPS, Halo was the pioneer of this feature.
- Melee attacks: again, it's a common gameplay component today, but it wasn't until Halo invented it. Before Halo, you had to switch to a melee weapon, like the chainsaw in Doom or the crowbar in Half-Life. Now you can melee with anything you're holding, just pressing a button.

You may not like Halo, but you have to admit it was influential.

Doom and half life are of course the biggest pioneers in the genre. Still, counting games not being 10 or more years old, halo CE has probably had the most influence in the genre. 

Halo CE introduced lots of small changes like recharging health, 2 weapon limit and allowing you to melee with any weapon, and throwing grenades with every weapon in hand. They don't seem too big, but they're changes every fps out there pretty much adopted. Also it made console fps popular.

Games nowadays would look pretty old without the game mechanics of halo. Could you imagine playing call of duty 4, switching around between your 9 weapons, including knife and grenade, and have your health being projected as a percentage, rechargable by healthpacks? Some people will of course like old ways best, but since halo CE fps do play differently.  

Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, Half-Life, MAYBE Goldeneye (first good console fps?)

Halo... heh...

Doom since it essentially revolutionized the shooter into what we now call "First Person Shooter". Shooters prior to this used to be entirely in 3rd person, like Contra, or Gradius or whatever, something along those lines. Not to mention Doom was pretty much the poster child for the modding community.  And at the time it really wasn't half bad of a game either.

Quake however took Doom and stretched it into 3D. That was it's place of significance.

But what really is my newest most influential shooter is not a first person, but a third.

Gears of War. Why? The cover system may have been invented prior, but nothing before or since has made it work so well. Sure Perfect Dark had it, but that was gimpy and slow and non functional. But I'm talking about new critical hits like Grand Theft Auto 4 and Uncharted directly taking from Gears cover gameplay mechanic making it an integral part of combat. 

Doom and Half-Life represent landmarks in the genre and, most recently, I would argue that Portal was another step forward for the genre. SciFiCat

Portal is not a FPS, it's a puzzle game.

[QUOTE="SciFiCat"]Doom and Half-Life represent landmarks in the genre and, most recently, I would argue that Portal was another step forward for the genre. UpInFlames

Portal is not a FPS, it's a puzzle game.