Will shooters ever be anything else other than just military again?

[ohnoitsabear]

I don't think it's so much about "why are all shooters military" (they aren't) than about why all military shooter campaigns are so brown, boring, linear and scripted. There's an abundance of great shooters to play out there but if you want something military-themed and GOOD, you're shit outta luck. I guess someone could bring up Spec Ops, but I heard that outside the story it repeats all the bullshit of other military games and is gameplay-wise pretty awful.

Actually, I would argue that Spec Ops: The Line has gameplay that is best connected to the story/plot/atmosphere/point the game is trying to make in just about any genre. Sure, the gameplay isn't "fun," but it's not supposed to be. The thing is, some of the things it does are a little subtle, and you might miss it if you aren't paying attention. On paper, it may look a lot like other recent shooters, but in execution, it most certainly isn't.

Although I must agree with your other point. The problem isn't an overabundance of military shooters (there isn't), the problem is the overabundance of excessively linear, regenerating health, aim down sights, wait until bad guys poke out of cover and then click on their heads, oh look at our pretty explosion type games. And it doesn't seem like there's a huge push to make games that don't do most of these things. Yes, I know there are exceptions, but that doesn't change the fact that there are entirely too many games that are like this.

 

[ultrachicken]

Halo 4 is getting mentioned a lot less than I would expect here. It's a game about colorful space marines firing from the hip at purple aliens with guns that shoot explosive pink needles and green goop, all set in bright and varied environments, yet it doesn't get a mention because the protagonist is technically military, or because it's popular?

And other than Call of Duty (which seems to be leaving the modern shooter realm) and Battlefield, there aren't even any successful modern military shooters, anyways. This is a non-issue, especially since you can just not buy games you don't like.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I'm sorry, I'm having trouble hearing you over the noise of Borderlands 2. Max Payne 3, Bioshock Infinite and Farcry 3

And that's all within a single year.

Escapist needs "Like" buttons. I second this.

I would also like that post. I don't understand why the OP thinks CoD and others like it are the only shooters. There is plenty of variety and it's not like you have to look all over for it.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Halo 4 sold like hotcakes.

There's your answer.

And so did all the other non-military shooters released the last few years. It's just that CoD and Battlefield get a lot of media coverage.

Halo 4 is getting mentioned a lot less than I would expect here. It's a game about colorful space marines firing from the hip at purple aliens with guns that shoot explosive pink needles and green goop, all set in bright and varied environments, yet it doesn't get a mention because the protagonist is technically military, or because it's popular?

Yeah it's almost funny how people whine about Halo being sooooo generic while frankly I can think if very few shooters these days that do what Halo does. It's closer to Doom-style shooters than anything CoD-like.

 

[seditary]

Been a lot of non military shooters lately and thankfully most of them are quite good.

Expand your horizons.

 

[rob_simple]

Gaming has never been more varied than it is today, go look at some of the stuff that's on PSN or Xbox Marketplace and then come back and tell us all that military shooters are dominating the landscape.

What you are referring to is the most heavily marketed games; there's still a wonderland of weird and wonderful shit out there if you're willing to look for it instead of pissing and moaning that everything's the same.

 

[Mr Dizazta]

The military have always been involved in games.

The very first games were designed using military technology.

At their core, games are about offense and defense. Some studios even produced military training aids (RIP Pandemic). It only seems natural that games should be so tightly bound to military themes. I have no qualms with it. And like other posters are saying, they're not even close to dominating the market.

can you please post some examples?

because the only early shooters i know are:
- castle wolfenstein.
- marathon
- quake
- doom.

and they dont really have something to do with the military.

or are you talking about video games in general when you could play a pong/tennis game on a oscilloscope?

But all of your examples have the military in the game.

 

[Vault101]

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Spec Ops looks pretty brown and military if you ask me

it is, and thats the point, its a deconstruction of the whole "brown military shooter america fuck yeah!" thing, when deconstructions come around then the "pure" version of a genre falls out of grace before it is reconstructed again

 

[jollybarracuda]

Shooters will of course change, and new types of shooters will emerge, and gamers who grew up with Call of Duty will complain about how all shooters are the same, and it was so much better when we were killing terrorists with AK-47's. it's just kinda the cycle of things, unless shooters go through some sort of renaissance and we see the genre go somewhere completely different.

It's looking like the future of the genre will be taking place in the future, which may mean we could see the return of games such as Unreal, and Quake.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

I have heard my friends say that Halo 4 isn't very military like anymore.

EDIT: also Dues Ex human revolution is a shooter that I highly recommend playing. it not military shooter either.

When was Halo ever that military? I mean, yeah you were part of the military, but the focus was always on killing aliens and laser guns and space age mysticism and whatever. It certainly wasn't ever approaching COD.

Anyway, OT:

Yes, of course they will. Go play Far Cry 3 or Halo 4 or fuck it, even Portal 2 probably counts as an FPS in terms of mechanics, so play that. Do they seem overly focussed on the military to you?
[sub]bioshock infinite...[/sub]

 

[Terminate421]

I have heard my friends say that Halo 4 isn't very military like anymore.

EDIT: also Dues Ex human revolution is a shooter that I highly recommend playing. it not military shooter either.

They are correct. In a way it felt more like Metroid.

Also it was never really "military" it felt more like...well metroid

 

[Terminate421]

no because trends do not come and go and things stay the same ALWAYS/sarcasm

there has been talk that we may be seeing the end of brown militairy shooters what with borderlands 2, facr cry 3 and spec ops (and the upcoming bioshock infinate)

images

Spec Ops looks pretty brown and military if you ask me

I think the point was that Spec Ops isn't: "AMERICA FUCK YEAH!" or "War is fun, pew pew!" like lots of other brown military shooters tend to be in glorifying war. Spec Ops is quite the opposite actually.

Oh I know.I was just jokingly referring to the fact that on looks alone Spec Ops is probably the brownest military shooter released this year.

And Medal of Honor: snorefighter gets a free pass? Lol

 

[Mikeyfell]

Well (As much as I'm of the opinion that all military shooters suck and they should go away and the genera should die) not all shooters are military.

I mean Borderlands 2 and Farcary 3 came out this year and Bioshock Infinite is set for next year.

It will most likely be a few years before a new popular trend overtakes "CoD killer" as the go to shelf flooder, Hopefully.
With the current development strategy for every game publisher ever being find one thing that worked as one point in the past and stamp out uninspired clones of it on a yearly basis until doomsday (Which was supposed to be yesterday, fucking Mayans) I'm not exactly confident that the hunt for the illusive "CoD Killer" will ever go away.

But decent shooters (Uh, I mean... "Non-military" shooters) are out there you just have to look for them.

 

[Christopher Fisher]

Gaming has never been more varied than it is today, go look at some of the stuff that's on PSN or Xbox Marketplace and then come back and tell us all that military shooters are dominating the landscape.

What you are referring to is the most heavily marketed games; there's still a wonderland of weird and wonderful shit out there if you're willing to look for it instead of pissing and moaning that everything's the same.

Couldn't have said it better



Oh, to op: check out Natural Selection 2

 

[OldDirtyCrusty]

I miss the mentioning of Bulletstorm in this thread.
Other than that i`m not even that sick of modern military stuff as long as i can rent them there are still ok for an evening or two. Bring up some games like Vietcong, that`s the type of military i really like to see again. The problem aren`t military shooters it`s the whole modern war stuff and developers trying to jump on the sucess of COD or BF, which doesn`t pay out anyway since the masses still play those titles instead of the new game developed by "whatever". It seems like the devs are starting to get this slowly. This years new or different ips showed it.
As for competitive gameplay i can still have fun with Gotham City Impostors.

 

[MetalDooley]

And Medal of Honor: snorefighter gets a free pass? Lol

I haven't played Doorfighter(copyright Miracle of Sound 2012)but from what I've seen in videos not every level takes place in a desert

Spec Ops on the other hand takes place in a city that has been swallowed up by the surrounding desert so every level is filled with sand and for that reason alone yeah I'd say it's the brownest game of the year(along with Journey probably)

I wasn't making any comment about the quality of the game.I simply found it funny that Vault101 named Spec Ops as one of the non-brown military shooters when judging purely on looks it's one of the brownest ones in years

 

[J Tyran]

When was Halo ever that military?

The closest it came was Halo: Reach, the franchise really did flirt with becoming CoD in space at that point. It was still a long way off but there was a definite change in tone from the original trilogy.

 

[DustyDrB]

I'm sorry, I'm having trouble hearing you over the noise of Borderlands 2. Max Payne 3, Bioshock Infinite and Farcry 3

And that's all within a single year.

And Tribes Ascend, Planetside 2, and Natural Selection 2. I mean, there are military factions in those, but I'm pretty sure those aren't the kind of games the OP was talking about.