Brainstorm: new FPS themes/settings??

[stevesan]

If you were to make an FPS today and wanted to stand out amongst the cest pools, what themes, settings, and styles would you choose to use?

Some ones that have been done to death:

WWII
Post-apoc/Space marines
Modern warfare/tactical squad

Now for the hard part...novel themes/settings/styles:

Medieval/wizard - I'm thinking more like Heretic where you actually shoot stuff, not Thief or Oblivion. Nothing new, but we haven't seen one of these in a while. Maybe refer to ICO and Shadow of the Colossus.
Anime - CEL-shaded FPS? Probably has been done, but it would stand out in today's market I think.

Any other ideas?

 

[Stammer]

I think an enormous clash of weapons would be a neat-o idea. Think Timesplitters but way beyond that. You use crossbows, bows, slingshots, early hand-held cannons, modern weaponry, slightly high-tech gizmos, and all the way to alien warfare. You could also hold melee weaponry too. Fists, swords, shields, pocket knives, tasers, etc.

You could possibly deflect the bullets with your sword or shield or something and then have a full-scale hand-to-hand weapon combat. Maybe even super powers that allow you to throw fireballs or electrify your melee attacks.

 

[Somethingironic]

A good Wild-West shooter, or a horror shooter on board a derelict US naval base/ship.

Maybe even a gunpowder age shooter:

"Line up lads, aim! Fire!"

*Bang*

"Damn, we missed. Okay, reload, second line, ready, aim! FIRE!"

*Bang*

"We got some of the bastards! We.... My God, the little drummer boy. You shot our drummer boy, you bounders!"

"It was an accident!"

"Oh, well carry on then. Right lads, Ready, AIM...FIRE!

And it would continue on into the night.

 

[Aidanadv]

I would love to see a FPS set in Harry Turtledove's WorldWar or Settling Accounts series. I would love to play as the defenders of Chicago, a Northern solider during the Blitz up Illinois, or play as a Confederate solider during the Battle of Philadelphia. A WorldWar would be hard to balance, but I think it could be done and the company that made it would have my money. Perhaps in the WorldWar you would do missions from all the different perpesctives, like a solider race in China, a German solider in France, or a British conscript during the Invasion of Britain.

 

[Ursus Astrorum]

/Space marines

Don't diss Space Marines. The Emperor Protects!

Anime - CEL-shaded FPS? Probably has been done, but it would stand out in today's market I think.

An Appleseed-based FPS would be the awesome. I call Briarios.

Here's the thing: Those FPS themes have bee done to death because they're the best settings for FPSs. In medieval times or earlier, you had what: Sling, Bow, Crossbow, Magic. Not a lot of weapon choice, and all of those serve better as RPG weapons. Colonial days? You've got muskets which have horrible accuracy and take forever to load. Wild West hasn't been done in a while, but it's pretty good. It's got a good array of weapons that all have decent accuracy and a good ammo count and reload time. But after you think about it, the best settings are in modern-day and future times, where accuracy is great and guns can hold dozens of bullets and can be reloaded in all of two seconds.

If you're talking about place however, I agree that war games have been done to the bottom of the hells, though people generally think war when they think guns. I just don't have any unique settings. New, rich plots (Not Halo)? Yes. New, interesting locations? No.

Though a Meiji-Era Japan style would be awesome, allowing player to pick the remaining Samurai or the Emperor's army as their side. Think Last Samurai.

 

[9574121795741217]

It's tough to think of new settings because there are only so many places where a first-person shooter can be set without being considered controversial. A lot of the places I think would be interesting are a little strange. For example, I'd love to see an FPS set in a normal suburban neighborhood or maybe a store or something like that. It would make people uneasy seeing me laugh maniacally as I shoot at a bunch of alien/demon/zombies/frozen turkeys in a supermarket.

As for a medieval FPS, I think it would only work if you don't use guns and use medieval projectile weapons. And for the love of god, no magic.

 

[stevesan]

Some good ones from the replies:

Wild West - Has been done before (Outlaw), but I wouldn't mind seeing one now.

Gunpowder Era - Hmm this one sounds like a good idea! Design would be a challenge, but certainly it'd stand out and I'd be interested.

Feudal Japan - That'd be a great setting. Again, design would be a challenge. But you can always fall back on shooting magic spells (ala Heretic)! No one said you had to be historically accurate.

 

[the_tramp]

XIII was a cell shaded FPS.

 

[IndieRocker]

XIII rocked it was like playing a comic. I would like to see some more games like this.

 

[Takatchi]

I personally like a lot of the game concepts that have been released regarding either industrial-era shooters or Wild West shooters. There was one where you were a vampire cowboy who fought other evil critters and had kind of a choice between developing your vampire powers or purging yourself, and it was intriguing. The mingling of Victorian Era architecture and design and steampunk technology always makes me tingly inside.

 

[jad4400]

I'm thinking world war 1, that one has a lot of untaped potential, the guns had decent accuracy and did not take 5 minutes to reload and lets not forget WW1 was a large Trench war so some aspects of a strategy game could be intertwined. My Idea of a good ww1 game is somthing like brothers in arms but with a lot more people to control AND you can build, create and stockpiles you very own trench that you can use as a base and have to repel attackers from time to time (most battles in that war ended as stalemates). You could also corrordinates with other trenches to planoffensives and gain a few miles of land (most of the time in this war the victors usually only gained a few miles of land and at this one battle after it was over the casuality count was 200,000 dead but they gained 20 miles and many considered it a great bargin) And because in this war there were no real clear good and bad sides so you could also play from multipable prospectives. Also much of the technology that was previlent in WW2 was just being developed in WW1 (planes,tanks guns that held more then 10 rounds or ammo) So some older technology llike Zepplins and Calvary were used a lot in WW1 and those could also be used in the game.

 

[AntiAntagonist]

I like some of these ideas, but they feel like retreading old ground. Mind you, ground that hasn't been seen for a few years.

Hmmm... what about an East Indian themed (not post-) Apocalyptic game? You are charged with protecting the last of the fleeing survivors of Earth before, during and after the vehicle launch.

...

Actually why haven't there been more games where the Apocalypse is unavoidable and hasn't already happened? Has any gamer ever said to themselves "wow I saved the world"? More often at the end of an FPS game I think about the challenge, or the plot.

edited for clarification

 

[Stammer]

Damn. An Appleseed FPS. Yeah, that'd kick ass.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

If you were to make an FPS today and wanted to stand out amongst the cest pools, what themes, settings, and styles would you choose to use?

a zombie puzzle FPS set in urban tenant buildings and complexes. sort of based around the beginning scene in Dawn of the Dead, where the SWAT team is systematically clearing buildings of zombies, block by block often encountering stubborn survivors who are protecting their undead family members.

the logistic puzzle element is huge in zombie films, but i have never scene a single zombie game accurately convey this element.

in any zombie movie, the mass of zombies is more like a giant flow of slow flood water, where the entrapped survivors have to re-inforce and construct strategically placed barriers to restrict access from the zombies. when a section breaks, firefights break out to quell the influx of zombies long enough to re-establish or repair the barrier.

barriers should be based around objective placement involving a real world physics engine. resources should randomly spawn and zombie routes should change dynamically making even the same level play out differently every time.

 

[000Ronald]

I wouldn't mind seeing a western-style FPS, but it would have to be very well designed.

Or mabe I'm a douche.

Apologies for the douchery.

 

[Mr Wednesday]

I'm not entirely sure what a "cest pool" is, but I'd say FPS is one of the healithest genres about, with some of the best games available today.

I'd like to see more accessable, tripple A modern warfare games, if I'm honest.

 

[shatnershaman]

WW1
Ye olde medieval (gun-longbow)
Marching in a line dressed in shiny uniforms and drummers sim.

 

[Mister Shades]

Ooh! How about a modern warfare FPS!! (...kidding)
Some of my favourite games ever where Micro Machines and Sub Culture and I quite enjoyed the TV series 'Land of the Giants' and the film Honey I Shrunk the Kids (sue me, I liked the concept), mostly because they brought things to a cool new perspective to mundane every day objects and situations.

Perhaps an FPS where by you are part of a miniature community of primitive miniature humans living in alongside a family of unaware 'normal sized' humans, have to battle insects and another tribes for control of the various parts of the house.
This kind of game would really need to have a totally off its tits to it for it to work, but it could work well with some rather dark humour by having the people in the attic base their religion on a disembodied teddy bear head, or have the garden people choose the most worthy of their clan to be plucked from the ground during storm season, to an everlasting life with their vengeful god (the lawnmower).
Maybe the cruel twist to the game could be that the family mistake the subsequent damage to the house as termites and shortly after you win, pest control gas you and every other mini-human in the place.

Basically, as with any FPS, if you make the story detailed and different or wacky enough, people will play it simply to enjoy the story (Deus Ex is a good example).

===

A zombie game would be good. I liked the Ravenholm map in HL2, and was a little disappointed when I had to leave. I personally would love to see a game like that, which game a much more open feel to it. Allowing you to run around an open ended city, collecting a few survivors and equipment to convert buildings into bases strongholds and set up some creative traps, and obviously kill zombies!

Probably the technology doesn't quite yet exist for the true scale of what I have in mind (not fully documented here), and probably without that scale you'll have another generic shooter

 

[lukemdizzle]

I always wanted to see a more abstract setting for an FPS. like have the environment inside someone's mind. (kind of like phyconots but a bit grittier) it would also make for some interesting enemies. imagine what somebody's mental demons would look like

 

[Anarchemitis]

An intense and almost horrific World War I game, cept you're a bit lucky and don't get shelled or gassed. Much.

Which, if was made, ESRB would probably add the amendment [that they should put right now]:[img_inline width="100" caption="IT IS A FELONY TO BE PLAYING THIS GAME UNDER THE AGE OF 17"]http://www.thegamesnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/esrb_m.png[/img_inline]