90's Shooter Nostalgia.

[Soviet Heavy]

So I bought Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight off of Steam. After downloading the graphics mods and fan patches, I was amazed at how well the game stands up. Running around at high speeds de-limbing stormtroopers and scaling massive buildings is still fun to this day.

Of course, it still has a couple caveats. The deflection is a bit wonky, and there is no music for some reason. But just being able to go back to my childhood to play this awesome game makes up for it.

Since I doubt many of you have played this game, and it wouldn't make for a big discussion, instead refer to the title, and talk about shooters from the 90's that make you nostalgic.

DOOM, Quake, Duke Nukem, you name it. Do they still hold up? Can they still be enjoyed the same way they used to be in today's world?

EDIT. Wow, missed my 3000th post mark. Cool I guess.

 

[Skorpyo]

Ah yes, one of my favorite times for shooters...

Gotta say that System Shock 2 is still one of my favorites. I sold an original copy (box, manuals and all) I had a while back, and I missed it so much that I purchased another (cheaper) copy.

I can't stay away from it. Gotta get around to a review of it...

 

[badgersprite]

Yes. I personally find that I enjoy them and other games from my childhood just as much as I did back then. I mean, I guess some people might be bothered by graphical shortcomings or just be so used to certain control configurations we take for granted that it hampers their enjoyment, but, honestly, maybe this is just me but I've never really understood "it hasn't aged well" as a criticism. Screw that. Star Wars: Dark Forces number one is still one of my favourite games of all time, even without any mods or upgrades.

Sure, I can think of things I don't like about these games, but those things I don't like are things I didn't like at the time either. It's not like the games themselves have changed over time. They're doing exactly what they did before.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just weird. Or maybe people just assume other people are blinded by nostalgia when someone else likes some old games that they personally don't, because god forbid people like different things.

Besides which, I never hear people being accused of just being nostalgic when they say they like Psycho, Casablanca or Citizen Kane. Some things are just timeless and amazing.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Seeing as how most early FPS games would give me motion sickness, I'm going to have to say I prefer more recent titles.

I can still play a few of the "classics" however. I used to play Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight on an almost daily basis for a few years.

 

[impcnrd]

Quake 2, Half-life, System Shock 2, Doom, Thief 2, and Blood 2 have got to be the greatest games ever created, (in no particular order). Just the opening sequence of Quake 2 just blew me out of my pants.

not to mention, i took one of my old computers i had laying around, which had the awesome of being a Pentium 3 processor, and loaded Win 98 just for these games as well as others. i just need to find my old copy of Counter-Strike to make it complete

 

[JPH330]

I've been playing Half-Life 1 and its expansions recently. Is it weird that I've been finding them more fun than the modern shooters we've gotten in the past few years?

 

[Irridium]

Ah yes, one of my favorite times for shooters...

Gotta say that System Shock 2 is still one of my favorites. I sold an original copy (box, manuals and all) I had a while back, and I missed it so much that I purchased another (cheaper) copy.

I can't stay away from it. Gotta get around to a review of it...

"Look at you hacker. A pathetic creature of meat and bone. Panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect immortal machine?"

System Shock 2 kicks ass.

OT: I love shooters of old. All about fun. While I think there's a place for "realistic" shooters and believe they deserve to stay, they should not be the only form of shooter on the market. Hopefully Duke Nukem Forever is good. It'll either be a throwback to shooters of yore, and might even spur a revival along with Serious Sam 3.
Or it'll be hilariously outdated. Time will tell.

But yeah, I love 90's shooters. Few things are just as fun as running around at 60MPH firing a huge-ass gun into a wave of enemies.

EDIT: Also, feel as though I should post this.

Spoiler

Not sure whats sadder, the fact that I can run that DOOM map with my eyes closed, or the fact that FPS games(and games in general), have become ridiculously linear...

Granted thats not entirely fair. Occasionally a modern shooter has a large square room full of crates!

And yes, DOOM still holds up. Even though you can't look up, its still just as fun to play. Level design is damn amazing to.

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

Duke Nukem 3D and Perfect Dark. I'll confess, the pig cops in Duke 3D scared me shitless as a kid.

As for PD...Finishing everything on Perfect Agent to get that DAMN Psychosis gun took up a good portion of my childhood. It was worth it though.

 

[Tallim]

I've been playing Half-Life 1 and its expansions recently. Is it weird that I've been finding them more fun than the modern shooters we've gotten in the past few years?

Not at all. They are cracking games. Well apart from maybe Blue Shift which felt a bit odd. Opposing Force is good.

No mention of the original Unreal? I really liked that. Unreal Tournament took a fantastic amount of time out of my day too. But at that point I was at Uni and in a shared house with a massive LAN network so we almost always had matches going.

 

[Rooster893]

Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake 2, Quake 3: Arena, and Half Life 1.

As far as I'm concerned, nothing beats these games in their respective genres.

 

[Someone Depressing]

I've been playing Half-Life 1 and its expansions recently. Is it weird that I've been finding them more fun than the modern shooters we've gotten in the past few years?

No, it's not. Because it's an awesome game, and FPSes nowadays don't get what was so great about '90s shooters.

As for me:

Doom II. So... FUN!!!

 

[Zaik]

Just the other day I bought Duke Nukem 3d off GOG.com. It's a bit rough, it took forever to work the controls into something I could actually use, but it works now. It's still harder to play than most due to the controls, but it's not bad or anything. A lot more fun than playing another brown and brown shooter at least.

 

[Sixcess]

The fPS has been my favourite genre since I got into gaming in the 90s, so I've got a lot of affection for the era.

Doom (and it's immediate sequels, Doom II and Final Doom): still the king of the FPS. I don't think that game will ever go out of fashion or not just be damn good fun to play.

Duke Nukem 3D had amazing level design - so many alternative routes and secrets, and I was lucky enough to play it on the PS1, which has an absolutely amazing soundtrack.

And rounding out the 90s FPSs with titles starting ith D - Disruptor. Insomniac's first game, and one of my favourites. High tech weapons, psionic powers that you could use at the same time as your guns, and (something that I wish more games would do) every level looked different, with a lot of variety in enemies and environments.

It also had the most insanely intense timed mission I've ever played.


Got to love those 90s FMVs