Why aren't their any FPS's in the industrial period?

[Mavinchious Maximus]

I have been wondering this for years why any major developer hasn't made a major release of the american revolution? or maybe the civil war, or the siege of Vienna, or of Napoleon's campaigns? These seem like excellent story lines for a FPS game, it seems weird no one has even scratched the surface of the genre. It seems promising for a great multilayer experience as well. I think it would be a nice refreshing FPS instead of the flood of ww2 games and modern warfare games.

So Escapist, how you like A FPS like that?

 

[irishstormtrooper]

I feel like this topic has been done before. The reason nobody has made any FPSs in that era is that there is exactly 0 variety in the weapons, not to mention that they would be incredibly inaccurate and take forever to reload. The maps would mostly be the same, as they would usually be varieties on "open field #3".

In short, any shooter made in that era would be boring and repetitive, and not very fun. Good story concept does not equal good game concept.

 

[kasperbbs]

I bet shitty WW1 era weapons are to blame for this. And really, whats the point? Scenery wouldn't change all that much, and who could ever replace nazis as the bad guy?

 

[Mavinchious Maximus]

I bet shitty WW1 era weapons are to blame for this. And really, whats the point? Scenery wouldn't change all that much, and who could ever replace nazis as the bad guy?

flesh eating monkeys?

 

[Jelly ^.^]

Because niche historical periods are for enthusiasts. You can't make enough money on enthusiasts, and you'll never get enough braindead call of duty fans excited about any date later than 1939 in games to bother with.

However, that leaves a gap for the modding communities to step in and inject some awesomeness for the enthusiasts. A great example was Battlefield 1918, bringing gameplay back to the trenches. There were Napoleonic mods for Operation Flashpoint and the sequel. Hell, even look at the popularity of Battlefield Pirates. Some of the things we take for granted today were just mods. Capture the Flag mode, anyone?

Oh, and just for giggles, to see what happens when a 'proper' publisher tries to pull off historical and non-mainstream shooters:
http://au.gamespot.com/xbox360/strategy/historychannelcivilwar/review.html?tag=summary%3Bread-review

Yeah, bargain bin material.

So anyways, yeah, just look for mods, the modding community is overlooked far too much in all the rhetoric about 'the medium moving forward.'

 

[Cronq]

Yes, we need a realistic FPS from that era where it takes 45 seconds to reload in between each single shot...

They'll be lining up to buy that one.

 

[triggrhappy94]

Becuase most of the period guns suck.
I know if you're willing to gamble on the quality, there are a couple out there.
History Channel made one about the Civil War that looked kind of interesting.

 

[nukethetuna]

Am I the only one that sees a long reload time between shots as an opportunity to add some finely tuned, diverse melee combat? Horseback combat? Time to run over and use that cannon who's operator was recently decapitated?

Maybe first person wouldn't be best, but third person perhaps?

 

[jesskit]

I have to say why not a decent steampunk shooter? could be quite interesting

 

[Dense_Electric]

The real reason is because most people don't like to think outside the box and instead assume that any game pre-American West = waiting thirty seconds between each shot. From a historically accurate perspective this would be true, but there's no reason a good developer couldn't find a way around that.

Besides, in the American revolution the traditional way to fight was to stand in a line and shoot a round, then duck and let the line behind you shoot, etc. I understand that not every fight happened like so, but it would make for a boring game.

Case in point. Actually, that was mostly how the British fought. The Colonists typically hid behind rocks and made guerrilla-style ambushes and raids (or at least they did quite often), which would actually make for quite fun gameplay.

 

[BryceS62]

I mainly think the lack of decent firearms would be the reason that no one has made a FPS during the industrial era

 

[BryceS62]

also there would be allot of sword fighting if it was to be made

 

[Blindrooster]

Eh. if you want swords+guns+cavalry+multiplayer, go get mount and blade with fire and sword.

 

[Grond Strong]

I would play it! I think that there may be a lot of opposition against it, but I believe that if there is a will, there'a a way and that if it was done right, it could be very entertaining. I'm all for experimental shooters. It would be a cool idea. First person swords, bows, muskets, crossbows, spears, hooks, flails, and axes would all play a roll. It would be sick. I say go for it.

 

[Zaik]

This has already been done to a limited extent.

About 40% of Darkest of Days(time travelling FPS) is set in the American Civil War, and you fight on both sides, however your objective has nothing to do with the actual war.

They worked around the issue with muskets being slow as ass to reload by allowing you to modify weapons from that time period back in the lab in order to make them reload faster, do more damage, fire faster, whatever.

They'd also randomly toss you completely overpowered future weapons and let you go apeshit on people.

It got not so great reviews, mostly people complaining that there were muskets in the game, but it wasn't particularly slow or anything. Hell, you never actually even had to use them, there's a lever action repeating rifle available almost the entire time you play in the civil war time period.

 

[ZeroMachine]

Shitty guns. That is all.

I'd like to see a game where that was an option. A full blown game? I wouldn't pay a penny for it.

 

[KrazyShrink]

Because if it was the US Civil War Europeans would be like "lol why should I care about that war" and if it was any of the European wars of that time Americans would be like "lol why should I care about those wars."

 

[Wayneguard]

Perhaps a first person shooter really wouldn't do the era justice. Perhaps what is needed is maybe a story and character driven drama game like Heavy Rain set in the civil war or revolution that has battle scenes/set pieces. Would that be more agreeable than a Spanish-American war arena shooter?

 

[Katana314]

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood's first mission was in the Civil War. You were fighting for the losing side though. And they weren't quite realistic enough to include muskets and all; you get 10-shot lever-action rifles.

There was also a time-travel game where you join the civil war and pull out a futuristic pulse rifle to mow people down.