I want a truly oldschool, single player FPS. Any recommendations?

[Kae]

If you liked Jedi Outcast give the other games in the series a try they are all good, the first one is more similar to something like Doom than anything else though, the other ones are rather Quake-y.

I'd also recommend a game called XIII, it's a spy themed shooter, it kinda reminds me of Goldeneye in the way it does the objectives, but anyway that's really good sadly it's not available for purchase legally anymore, I managed to get it from GOG before they removed it, well anyway if you manage to get your hands on it you shouldn't be disappointed.

If you don't mind shooters on consoles the TimeSplitters trilogy is ridiculously good, it's like a more refined version of Goldeneye but with time travel and stuff, the setting varies greatly from level to level, Wild West, Haunted Mansions, Cyberpunk, World War II, etc... Some personal highlights include the Haunted Mansion mansion from the first game which features ridiculously scarce ammo and zombies that can only be killed with head-shots, it's really tense and surprisingly creepy for a comedy game, Neo-Tokyo from TimeSplitters 2 is also amazing, this cyber-punk Blade Runner style level that is just great, you have to sneak around for like half of the level though but it's great stuff, Chicago from the second game was pretty great too, typical Noire setting has you killing gangsters in a dock, the streets and a theater great stuff, and then there's the third game which is hilarious, I loved the James Bond parody levels and the Resident Evil parody too, great stuff, introduces time paradoxes as gameplay which is fairly fun, since it's all about time travel the weapon variety is huge and there are lots of cool weapons, sadly you can only get them for consoles but they are definitely some of the best shooters out there.

If you don't mind 3rd person shooters also the first 2 Max Payne games are amazing too, but they are more focused on clearing rooms quickly and precisely, they are pretty good, the narration by Max is pretty great too and the self aware humour is great, it's played straight but it points out how ridiculous everything is while still taking itself seriously, great stuff lots of memorable lines.
If you try Max Payne though you're going to have to mess around with mods and fixes since modern computers don't run them all that well.
[sup][sup]Not commenting on the 3rd one which failed at the story so much that I didn't even get past the first level, plus it was way too directed forcing me to do stupid shit like head-shotting a guy while diving out of a window, don't get me wrong that kind of stuff is cool but not when it's the only way to progress and you have to retry it over and over again until you get it right...
OK forget it I just gave my opinions on the 3rd game, as you can see I really don't like it.[/sup][/sup]

 

[RaikuFA]

Resistance 3 fit quite a lot of that list. No regen, health packs, carry all your guns. I love it.

 

[the December King]

Sounds like you might like some S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl, to me!

Usually pretty cheap on Steam, and there's two more games after it, all done in the same style, with improvements to gameplay with each iteration, and different missions and features as well. Mind you, it's more than a run-and-gun, but it's not really a cover-based 'chest-high-walls' type game, either.

 

[TheArcaneThinker]

Why go for Old School ? When you can get PAINKILLER !
Its quite a polished fast paced fps with a tons to guns , enemies , levels and much more.
It was even liked by Yahtzee http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk7DlYcQ0uM

 

[incal11]

It's not sci-fi by any mean, but you should try Hexen.
And I don't see System shock 2 on your list, for shame!

 

[ecoho]

maybe try the first perfect dark its on the Xbox live arcade its a lot of fun, between the multiplayer and the campaign your looking at 20+ hours.

 

[Signa]

Man, I was going to say Hard Reset, but your last item in the spoiler was just that.

I dunno then. Ever play Chasm? It was the first game I played that had model dismemberment as a key feature, was unplayable without mouselook (I did so many stupid things with FPS games back in the day before I realized mouselook was a thing), and had character animations that involved polygons warping and shifting to accommodate the motion. Other games at the time like Jedi Knight just had fixed limbs that would rotate much like how Minecraft handles it.

 

[joest01]

Definitely Serious Sam 1 and 2.
A little less awesome but more likely that you haven't played, there is a Serious Sam game for gamecube from a different developer.

The DNF DLC the doctor who cloned me was pretty good.

Speaking of DNF, those pigs, huh. On the hardest setting the ones that rush you were pretty much game over

Edit: omg, I forgot to mention Far Cry Vengenace on the Wii. That is the most mindless shooter ever made. So bad it's good kinda thing.

 

[ninja666]

All right, looks like some people can't read and keep recommending titles that are on the list. As for the games that aren't on the list:

- Bioshock isn't what I'm looking for. It has really poor gunplay and relies more on environmental kills and plasmid kills.
- Ziggurat looks nice. Kinda reminds me of the first Heretic game. I might pick it up.
- I completely forgot Call of Juarez had sequels. I think they're gonna keep me occupied for a while.
- EYE: Divine Cybermancy looks kinda like a Deus Ex wannabe. I'm not sure if I can get into that. I don't really like FPS/RPG hybrids.
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games never really clicked with me. They play like a normal FPS with RPG elements forced into it without any rhyme or reason.
- I have a CD of XIII, but never really played it that much. I have to give a it a second shot.
- I never really liked Jedi Outcast that much. It was an okay shooter to me, nothing else. Not sure if I wanna play any more Star Wars games.

I think I have enough to play for now. If you wanna suggest anything more, though, I have to clarify something - I don't have a console, so don't recommend any console shooters. I keep forgetting that, unlike on other sites, this isn't a PC exclusive board, but rather dedicated to gaming in general, so I instinctively don't include the PC-only requirement.

 

[Daft Ada]

How about No One Lives Forever 1&2? Old school, and very funny!

If you have access to a 360, the Perfect Dark HD remaster still holds up pretty well too. It's obviously a bit stealthier than a straight up Doom-style game, but I still find find it hugely fun to play.

EDIT: didn't see that last post...

 

[Savagezion]

I know you said you have enough but did you ever play the first Ghost Recons? There is no healing, just don't die and its brutal. No health regen, no health packs, just death. My fav FPS's to date. Then CoD got big and Advanced Warfighter came out and fucked it all up. This is the good stuff:

 

[ninja666]

I know you said you have enough but did you ever play the first Ghost Recons? There is no healing, just don't die and its brutal. No health regen, no health packs, just death.

Sounds... hardcore. I'm not sure if I'll be able to handle it. What about the tactics part? Is it like in Raven Shield where you have to order around two or three teams of operatives at a time? Cause if it is, it's, unfortunately, too much for me.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Someone already mentioned it, but I second Resistance 3. There's minor regenerating health, but it's mostly picking up healthpacks. You can carry all your weapons, and the weapons are AWESOME. They have great sound effects, very unique and cool designs, and genuinely feel like they pack a punch.

What's even cooler is that the weapons upgrade themselves by being used a lot, and each upgrade not only visually changes the weapon, but adds cool new features to the weapon as well (ie. new firing modes, scopes, etc.), not just "weapon does 10% more damage".

The fact that it actually has a pretty good (and surprisingly heartfelt) story is just icing on the cake.

 

[Eliam_Dar]

You should try 'Quarantine' or its second part 'Road Warrior' not really a FPS...except that it is, but you drive a taxi, rather than being a soldier/marine/tough guy. Is also a sandbox game. It's old, but good.

 

[Schadrach]

I had to try to think of something that wasn't on your list aside from the other Painkiller titles, but if you don't mind a little RPG being splashed in your game, there's always System Shock 1/2 and a fairly obscure title called Strife. It's an FPS built on the Doom engine with a handful of light RPG elements (like dialog) and multiple endings. Side note: Save your game when you reach the part where two people claim each other has the next piece of the Sigil, because that's the main forking point between endings.

 

[WindKnight]

Unreal 2 isn't actually half bad. It got a fair bit of bad press on release since it didn't quite live up to the original, but truth be told I rather liked it.

It surely isn't gonna recreate the awesome atmosphere the first Unreal had, but might be worth a try.

Its basically its own, unrelated story with the unreal name slapped on it. The Skaarj (green scaly aliens) show up a few times, and some of the weapons sort of carry over, but its mostly In Name Only related to the original. Its also my favorite example of embarrassingly out of place sexualisiton (you are a powered armored soldier, and your ship is crewed by an middle aged tech gent in greasy overalls and tech harness, an alien pilot in a big, heavy encounter suit, and a hot 20-something tactical genius who wears a split-front halter top and hotpants. Also, theres three seperate 'human merc' factions using power armours and landmate/dreadnought-scale mechsuits... the mech suits for the all female faction have glass fronted cockpits to display the pilots, and said pilots wear thongs and bikini tops).

 

[ninja666]

Its basically its own, unrelated story with the unreal name slapped on it. The Skaarj (green scaly aliens) show up a few times, and some of the weapons sort of carry over, but its mostly In Name Only related to the original.

Good for you to mention it. It helps me set an attitude for this game.

Its also my favorite example of embarrassingly out of place sexualisiton (you are a powered armored soldier, and your ship is crewed by an middle aged tech gent in greasy overalls and tech harness, an alien pilot in a big, heavy encounter suit, and a hot 20-something tactical genius who wears a split-front halter top and hotpants. Also, theres three seperate 'human merc' factions using power armours and landmate/dreadnought-scale mechsuits... the mech suits for the all female faction have glass fronted cockpits to display the pilots, and said pilots wear thongs and bikini tops).

Is this game Japanese or something?

In case you didn't get it:

Spoiler

 

[renegade7]

Marathon. That's all you're going to need.

I'm in a mood for some oldschool shooting action game. Can anyone recommend something fitting these criteria, that I haven't played already? Here's what I want:
- a lenghty single-player campaign (10-12 hours or something close; the longer, the better);
- fluent controls unhindered by anything;
- complex levels;
- truly oldschool style of gameplay (run n' gun, health and armor pickups, no regeneration of anything, carry all your weapons at once, little to no covering);
- preferably no modern games (2008 and up) because the devs of these are for the most part doing a shit job at making any of their "oldschool" games actually play oldschool;
- preferably a dark, gritty sci-fi setting (ala Quake 2 [http://fps.maros.pri.ee/images/galleries/q2e1433652.jpg]), but to be honest, everything will do as long as I can happily shoot my way through enemies;
- traditional saving, or at least checkpoints that are relatively close to each other;
- weapons that "feel" powerful, can pack a punch, and have a strong kickback (it's a major part of what makes the shooting in the game fun)

I'll go through this point by point:
-The campaign of the first Marathon game is some 15-20 hours. The second two games in the trilogy are of similar length, and the fan-made total conversions (which are absolutely worth playing) in a couple cases get past 50 hours.
-The controls are pretty simple. It's just the standard WASD to move, space as the general context-sensitive command, and mouse to look
-Gameplay is as oldschool as you can get. No cover mechanics, you dodge projectiles, you regenerate hit points only at "recharge stations" (and the occasional extremely rare pick-up)
-Marathon's levels are non-linear. It's not like modern FPS games with a start point and an end point. You're given an objective and you complete it. They levels have a structure that might be most reminiscent of a dungeon in Legend of Zelda. They can get pretty complex and maze-like.
-The setting is pretty heavy. The first Marathon feels pretty Metroid-like in its atmosphere, as in not necessarily a horror game but can get pretty tense. The second is more pedestrian sci-fi, but the third really takes a turn for the dark. All three of those themes are also present in the total conversions (which, again, are very worth playing)
-That's pretty much exactly how saving works. You can only save at certain checkpoint locations. If you die, you have to reload a save.
-The weapons are pretty standard where sci-fi games go, but they do feel pretty good to use. Example, there are certain enemies you'll encounter that are vulnerable to one of the weapons, the fusion pistol (works like the plasma pistol from Halo, regular shots and charged shots), when they are killed by the fusion pistol or explosive weapons they explode and do splash damage, making a huge mess of an entire squad of enemies or potentially setting off a chain reaction where a bunch of them explode at once.

The game is free and open source now, also. So that's all my recommendation.

 

[WindKnight]

Marathon. That's all you're going to need.

The game is free and open source now, also. So that's all my recommendation.

Only played the sequel, but I really enjoyed it, and loved its approach to ammo/reloading (no manual reload key, but you automatically slip a fresh mag in when the current one is emptied). would have preferred a manual reload, but you lose whats left in the mag (ala chronicles of Riddick), but liked the way it felt compared to other games where reloading is effectually dipping a clip into a pool of bullets and getting a full one each time.

 

[Savagezion]

I know you said you have enough but did you ever play the first Ghost Recons? There is no healing, just don't die and its brutal. No health regen, no health packs, just death.

Sounds... hardcore. I'm not sure if I'll be able to handle it. What about the tactics part? Is it like in Raven Shield where you have to order around two or three teams of operatives at a time? Cause if it is, it's, unfortunately, too much for me.

I know Island Thunder had tactical squads but the Ghost Recon 2 titles Advanced Warfare and Summit Strike didn't have it I don't think, nor did the original. They were more 'commando' games. It can be infuriating at times but I ate it up. It may still be too much. I recommend it to some people who say they want a more 'hardcore' experience than CoD and it ends up being too much for them. All I know is I spent a lot of hours playing these games during the Xbox/PS2 generation. Whenever I didn't know what I wanted to play I would just load up a fire fight on here and see if I could clear a map. Mostly recommended to see if it is your cup of tea or not. I have met others online who loved them.