Poll: Is age of unique online FPSs over?

[smithy1234]

Portal was a pretty unique first person shooter, proves there are original and new things to be done with the FPS genre.

 

[A Raging Emo]

How is TF2 unique? I do agree its awesome but they had been doing Class Based games lONG before TF2.Art style? Tell me when you play Online do you really pay attention to the Graphics? or the others trying to KILL you?

I would imagine it's just the way it is. You can't re-create moments you have in TF2 in other games.

I was a scout once with the enemy intelligence. I was running up the spirral staircase in their base away from a Pyro Chasing me, only to find a Heavy Weapons Guy waiting for me at the top. I pull out my baseball bat, jump over the Heavy and club him twice while I was in mid-air.

I actually know a few people who have done that, but that was just an example of moments you can get in TF2 you can't in say, CoD, Halo, Gears of War, etc.

EDIT: Well, I suppose you can in Halo, but my point about TF2 still stands.

 

[axia777]

Just because something is unique does make it great.

Just because something is not unique does not mean that it is crap.

Bioshock is a case in point. It was not unique at all but it was great.

I just want a great FPS with a great story. FPS gameplay is all ready perfected. Like Bioshock. Fun and entertaining at the same time. What a great mix.

Nuff said.

 

[GamerLuck]

Uhh, ever heard of Mirror's Edge? Unless you mean multiplayer. Then try Red Orchestra. Also Cryostasis is a good one.

Mirror's wasn't meaant to be an FPS... sure that concept kinda piddled all over itself towards the end of the game when the developers seemingly forgot just what they had set out to produce, but at its core it was supposed to just be a running game, done in first person to strees the "realism" the game had to have to keep with current trends..

 

[DazZ.]

"Original FPS" is an oxymoron, for the most part, so I'll say "Yes."

Well its not, there had to be a first one.

The formulas been used to death, the best way I can see from getting rid of "Get from A to B with these in your way" is to incorporate ways that you don't need to kill everything or anything if you are so inclined.

Deus Ex for example, so that makes that not original either...

 

[Ushario]

Well its not, there had to be a first one.

The formulas been used to death, the best way I can see from getting rid of "Get from A to B with these in your way" is to incorporate ways that you don't need to kill everything or anything if you are so inclined.

Deus Ex for example, so that makes that not original either...

"For the most part."
Obviously, it had a beginning.
But look at any "modern" FPS, and it'll boil down to the exact same thing - even using the same weapons.

Those weapons and the settings and missions in which you use them can vary wildly though.
To say that no FPS games have delivered in terms of creativity is falling back on the arguement that health regen was an old and crap mechanic when Halo used it.

Guess what, Halo invented that mechanic. FPS games don't progress in the leaps and bounds that other genre's do because developers have been doing them so well within the graphical limitations of their time for so long now.

 

[Neonbob]

As for missions, who can forget the timeless classic that is "go here kill everyone?"

Better than the default RPG "go there, get the thing, come back."
Amiright?
Maybe FPSs aren't the most cerebral of games, but there is something cathartic about blowing the head off of someone...thing. Something.
Perhaps some of the shooters are losing a bit of originality, but if they're fun, who are we to complain, really?
If you're going to complain about how nothing is fresh anymore, nothing is realistic, and nothing stands out to you, just make sure that you don't ever smile while playing one of those games.

 

[irishstormtrooper]

Personally, I think MAG looks "unique" enough for me. 256 players in one match is original enough.

 

[Ushario]

Not so much.
Pistol, shotgun, machinegun, rifle, grenades, heavy weaponry, special weapon.
Some variations exist, but more often than not, those are the categories.
And it's boring.

As for settings, why not try some exciting WWII action?
Or maybe SPACE WARFARE?

As for missions, who can forget the timeless classic that is "go here kill everyone?"

You've never been a competitive CS, CSS, COD, COD2 or COD4 player have you?
There is a world of difference between each of those games for a competitive/skilled/pro player.

A M4A1 Carbine from CSS is nothing like the M4 Carbine in COD4. It looks the same but it behaves like a completely different weapon. The same with comparing grenades, with pistols, with light machine guns and with sniper rifles.

Edit: Or how about sneaking through a post soviet union eastern bloc state in order to assasinate a single target. Then you have to escape the helicopters and infantry searching for you. That hardly sounds run of the mill.

 

[Count_de_Monet]

Online experience is what sets games apart for me. Sure, on the surface a lot of FPS's are similar but if you spend the time to get used to the game you always find interesting methods of playing, using the various weapons, and ways of moving around maps. I never played Ravenshield at all similarly to how I played CS but both were round-based first person shooters. I don't play CoD4 like I play Battlefield (any of them) but both are point-based capture shooters. I don't even play the original TFC at all like I play TF2, the classes are completely different and they removed grenades which while removing a level of gameplay added a whole new emphasis on teamwork because now one demoman or engy can't clear an SG nest with one suicide grenade.

 

[GuerrillaClock]

Uniqueness is overrated, and nearly impossible besides (especially by internet standards).

I dont know i want an FPS with nothing but slingshots...will my dream ever come true?

You'll be wanting <url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_3D_Noah%27s_Ark>Super Noah's Ark 3D then... although there's no online.

 

[Legion]

Uniqueness is overrated, and nearly impossible besides (especially by internet standards).

Exactly.

Strictly speaking, any FPS after the first one ever made is unoriginal by the very fact that a game based from the first person with guns has been done before.

 

[j0z]

How original can a game when its very foundation is "Those are bad guys. Go shoot them."?
Plus, many of the great shooters are unique in their own way. CS, CoD, TF2, Halo, etc. They are all based on the same basic mechanics, but playing DM in CoD is completely different than playing DM in Halo.
Plus we have games that push the boundaries of what an FPS is, Portal comes to mind. You don't kill anything through the entire game, yet it is just as fun as other shooters. Mirrors Edge is another example, evn though some people don't classify it as such.
So I think originality is still here, but it will take few brave companies or indie studios to continue pushing the creative envelope.

 

[xxcloud417xx]

I think uniqueness in an online FPS is sort of pointless if your gameplay is shite. It's more about gameplay than uniqueness. I'd rather keep playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare series, even if they are all similar, as long as the gameplay remains just so damn good.

 

[SultanP]

Well, OP, or dragonnewby, you talk a whole lot about Gears of War and Grand Theft Auto considering you are talking about FPS games. And what do you mean when you say unique. All the games are different, which makes them unique, so what is your point? There is not a whole lot that can be done with FPS games, apart from giving the players special powers or something, like the multiplayer part of Crysis. I don't see your point, I suppose.

 

[Wargamer]

The 40K player in me has shook his head and all but walked away from the FPS scene for many a year... until Resistance and Killzone. You see, I am a story-driven gamer more than anything. This applies even when playing online multiplayer. There HAS to be a story. Why are Master-Chief clones all killing each other? That makes no sense, it's stupid, and so Halo gets a nice fat "this is RETARDED!" stamped on its forehead and shoved out of sight.

Conversely, Resistance. Fine, Deathmatch suffers the same problem, but every other mode is "Humans vs Chimera". That's a good start - we're generic soldiers of one side, fighting generics of the other. What next... well, I can justify the fact I'm sniping as a Chimera with a Human weapon because A) Chimerans haven't got any Sniper weapons and B) I spent most of the Campaign mode using Chimeran guns playing as Hale, so I'm not above the notion Hybrids can loot corpses.

Why are we fighting? It's a war of extinction! We're here to invade the town of Orick, to defend Chicago, to capture vital enemy tech, to deny the enemy ground or simply to butcher every last son of a ***** in the locale. Resistance gives me enough to make the battle 'real', whereas Halo does not. The general lack of Mic-users on PSN is another boon in that area.

And no, this is not mindless 360-bashing either; I give props to Gears of War 2 on the very same grounds as I give Resistance. I can see a storyline within the multiplayer battles of Gears just as I can in Resistance, or Killzone.

As I said, this is because of the 40K player in me - I don't see 40K as "lol lookit my little plastic men! I roll dice and you DIE NOOB!". I see 40K as a mechanic to convey a story. It just used dice, models and plastic terrain, a console / PC.