Well, first let me apologize for being a person who plays games for fun. I'm not a connoisseur like PwnStar, who has spent twenty years of his life developing a refined taste in First Person Shooters far superior to mine. I also play on console- so I apologize for that, too. I'm more likely to use my computer for, I don't know, working.
So even though I'm no expert, here are some cases I'd like to make:
Rainbow Six
Only mentioned once on this list, R6 revolutionized the tactical shooter. I still remember the first time (playing on a friend's PC) I planned an assault badly and got my whole team hosed. The series was the first that I know of to use the one shot, one kill mechanic, along with squad-based tactical planning.
Though the series went stale for awhile, it also deserves some credit for reinventing itself for console in the Vegas series (which, full disclosure, remains my favorite). Though the mechanics became simplified, the essence of squad-based combat was distilled to a room-by-room planning procedure rather than charting an action on an overall floorplan, making the game more dynamic and less tied to individual, world-hopping missions. Besides, the neon lights of the strip really brightened up the series, which had previously taken place in institutional government offices, drab parking garages and shabby warehouses. A+ for art direction there. I'm unsure if it was the first to use a dynamic cover system, (it may have borrowed it from GRAW or elsewhere) but that mechanic truly changed the way we looked at the battlefield. And frankly, how many franchises can you think of that started well, lost quality for a period of almost a decade, then rejuvenated themselves? The first R6 was released in 1998 and we're still playing the franchise 11 years later- it has points for staying power, at least.
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
I may be in a real minority here, but I loved this game despite its flaws. Maddeningly difficult at times, and with a plot that's nearly impenetrable without reading 200+ pages of H.P. Lovecraft stories, it's no wonder it went under the radar of most of the gaming population. However, I would still contend that it's a fantastic example of capturing the feel of a literary work in interactive format.
It had a sanity system that was simple but effective- seeing an unnamable thing that should-not-be would cause your vision to blur and your character to hear voices- and used it to terrifying advantage. Other games would later take some of these ideas and use them in their own games (if you thought vertigo was unique to Mirror's Edge, you thought wrong). Also, though it was not the first to use the spot-healing system (splints for a broken leg, bandages for bleeding, etc.) I never felt those injuries as acutely than in CoC
CE. Anyone who has played it will never forget having to shoot themselves up with morphine in order to limp across the room to the first-aid kit, hearing their shattered femur crunching and grinding with every step.
This immersion went for the guns as well- no ammo counters or aim reticles. You can always tell someone's playing CoC when you hear them chanting, "Six! Five! Four! Three! Two!" between pistol reports. That is, when you eventually got your hands on a gun. The first third of the game consisted entirely of investigation. You invariably found things that you didn't like when you poked your nose into basement windows and the staff rooms at hotels, but the rewarding feeling of having found something unique was the same as if you'd discovered a power-up or easter egg.
All these elements of realism combined to create a game that carried a much truer sense of threat than anything else I've ever played. Never before have I been killed so many times by ordinary troopers, and in no other game did I feel so overpowered by alien horrors. All in all, not bad for a game that created it's plot by expanding the five-line description of the Marine raid on Innsmouth and naval destruction of Devil's Reef contained in the original short story, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth."
Well, that's my take anyway.
So even though I'm no expert, here are some cases I'd like to make:
Rainbow Six
Only mentioned once on this list, R6 revolutionized the tactical shooter. I still remember the first time (playing on a friend's PC) I planned an assault badly and got my whole team hosed. The series was the first that I know of to use the one shot, one kill mechanic, along with squad-based tactical planning.
Though the series went stale for awhile, it also deserves some credit for reinventing itself for console in the Vegas series (which, full disclosure, remains my favorite). Though the mechanics became simplified, the essence of squad-based combat was distilled to a room-by-room planning procedure rather than charting an action on an overall floorplan, making the game more dynamic and less tied to individual, world-hopping missions. Besides, the neon lights of the strip really brightened up the series, which had previously taken place in institutional government offices, drab parking garages and shabby warehouses. A+ for art direction there. I'm unsure if it was the first to use a dynamic cover system, (it may have borrowed it from GRAW or elsewhere) but that mechanic truly changed the way we looked at the battlefield. And frankly, how many franchises can you think of that started well, lost quality for a period of almost a decade, then rejuvenated themselves? The first R6 was released in 1998 and we're still playing the franchise 11 years later- it has points for staying power, at least.
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
I may be in a real minority here, but I loved this game despite its flaws. Maddeningly difficult at times, and with a plot that's nearly impenetrable without reading 200+ pages of H.P. Lovecraft stories, it's no wonder it went under the radar of most of the gaming population. However, I would still contend that it's a fantastic example of capturing the feel of a literary work in interactive format.
It had a sanity system that was simple but effective- seeing an unnamable thing that should-not-be would cause your vision to blur and your character to hear voices- and used it to terrifying advantage. Other games would later take some of these ideas and use them in their own games (if you thought vertigo was unique to Mirror's Edge, you thought wrong). Also, though it was not the first to use the spot-healing system (splints for a broken leg, bandages for bleeding, etc.) I never felt those injuries as acutely than in CoC
CE. Anyone who has played it will never forget having to shoot themselves up with morphine in order to limp across the room to the first-aid kit, hearing their shattered femur crunching and grinding with every step. This immersion went for the guns as well- no ammo counters or aim reticles. You can always tell someone's playing CoC when you hear them chanting, "Six! Five! Four! Three! Two!" between pistol reports. That is, when you eventually got your hands on a gun. The first third of the game consisted entirely of investigation. You invariably found things that you didn't like when you poked your nose into basement windows and the staff rooms at hotels, but the rewarding feeling of having found something unique was the same as if you'd discovered a power-up or easter egg.
All these elements of realism combined to create a game that carried a much truer sense of threat than anything else I've ever played. Never before have I been killed so many times by ordinary troopers, and in no other game did I feel so overpowered by alien horrors. All in all, not bad for a game that created it's plot by expanding the five-line description of the Marine raid on Innsmouth and naval destruction of Devil's Reef contained in the original short story, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth."
Well, that's my take anyway.
