Poll: Do you classify Portal as a FPS?

[Cid Silverwing]

FPPP. First Person Puzzle Platformer.

Besides, the only way to kill the turrets is to either portal objects at them or throw them to the floor.

 

[obliviondoll]

It's FPS, in the strictest sense, because it's first-person, and you can shoot. Just because you're not shooting things which cause death (at least not directly), doesn't mean you're not shooting. And a few other, more conventional, shooters give you weapons which can only harm enemies indirectly, and those weapons are usually the most fun to play with.

 

[Kurokami]

Bit of back story: Recently me and another Escapist have been having an interesting debate about FPSs. It began when, in their thread, I stated how Portal 2 was the FPS I was looking forward to.

He claims it's not a FPS, as FPSs center around combat. Portal, he states, is a puzzle game.
Yes, it is a puzzle game, I counter, but it is a FPS too, since it uses a first person's perspective.
No, he remarks, FPSs are combat oriented. Portal is not combat focused.
Well, there's plenty of gunfire and dangers, but that doesn't mean a FPS has to be an action game.
No, FPSs are shooters, Portal is a puzzler. Portal needs a gun for it to be a shooter.
It has a gun, the Portal Gun.
It's not even classed as a FPS. QED.

So, I'm not entirely sure if Portal is or isn't a FPS, and seeing his opinion, I decided to survey the Escapist.

TL;DR: Do you consider Portal a FPS?

You're in first person, and you shoot. Seems closed case to me.

Call it FPP if you'd like, but really both are correct.

 

[slipknot4]

Just because it's viewed from a first person perspective and you shoot things does not mean that it's a fps in the same way that saying that Diablo II was a RTS because you saw the battlefield from an isometric view and you controlled the unit by clicking the mouse.

It's a puzzle game set in a first person perspective.

 

[Azure Sky]

Probably a FPP (First Person Platformer)
Mirrors Edge also falls under this, for comparison.

 

[Dexiro]

FPS might not be the best classification but you could definitely call it that. It has a gun that you shoot things with, you're just so used to FPS meaning "shooting people in the head".

It's probably better classified as a Puzzle game though, or a Platformer.

 

[Pearwood]

First Person Puzzle, there are no enemies you can defeat just by shooting so it can't be anything else.

 

[PurplePlatypus]

Technically you could call it an FPS, but it doesn?t really say much about what the game is like. It may even be a bit deceitful considering what usually comes to mind when you say a game is a shooter.

You could call it that, but there are so many better ways to describe it.

 

[moose_man]

Puzzle. You don't actually kill things, so IMO it's not an FPS.

 

[hyperdrachen]

Simpletons, It's a SPCYAG: Second Person Choose You're Adventure Game. You are GLaDoS, an artificial intelligence attempting to catalogue every manner in which a human can die. However in a creative stroke of genius the game is played in Second person, you view the labs through the eyes of chell, you're most recent test subject, and subtley manipulate her toward your desired test chamber. The final confrontation is a complete mindblow as from the second person perspective you must use reverse psychology to manipulate chell into defeating herself and freeing you from your prison. The fact that some of the non-player characters at times fire a gun hardly shoehorns all that genre-shattering gameplay back into FPS land.

 

[Alandoril]

No, it's not a first person shooter.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

While it is set in the form of an FPS, I prefer to call it an FPP (First Person Puzzler) due to the lack of any shooting (The portals do NOT count)

 

[TheGameXXVII]

i think of it as a FPP, First Person Puzzler.

but that's just me...

 

[TOTL_UNIALAYSHUN]

I'm not gonna vote, I'm just gonna say portal is a puzzling-action-semi-shooting-first-person-sonuvagun-video-game.

Game, set, match.

Winner;

Me!

 

[TOTL_UNIALAYSHUN]

Okay just so no one gets mad at me, I found an actual answer:

First-person shooters are a type of 3D shooter game,[3] featuring a first person point of view with which the player sees the action through the eyes of the player character. They are unlike Third person shooters which are seen from the back or side, allowing the gamer to see the character they are controlling. The primary design element is combat, mainly involving firearms.[4] The first person shooter may be considered a distinct genre in itself, or a type of shooter game, in turn a subgenre of the wider action game genre.[5]

Tah dah!

There are countless variables and exceptions, but I think when it comes down to the basics, you need a REAL gun, a FIREARM, and combat is the, or one of the main obstacles. Combat meaning beings shooting back at you, not a robot who fires like mad when you step into it's lazer sight.

 

[suhlEap]

yes it is. it's first person, and you shoot stuff. you may only shoot walls with a portal gun, but it's still shooting. plus it's a puzzle game.

 

[veloper]

Puzzle game.

Calling Portal a FPS would be misleading. Primary gameplay is not combat and the portal gun is not a weapon, but a tool.