A FPS Retrospective

This article ran in the Daily Cardinal on Wednesday February 8, 2006

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With games like “Far Cry,” “F.E.A.R.” and of course “Half-Life 2” doing so much for the first-person shooter genre, it is easy to forget the true pioneers. The following games earn recognition not only because they are really great games, but because each one contributed something to the industry, either via software or hardware. Come back with me and let’s revisit the top five most important FPSs of all time.

5. Halo

There’s not much that can be said about this game that people don’t already know. Aside from single-handedly assuring us that the Xbox would stick around for a console generation, “Halo” also perfected the console FPS experience. With top-notch level design, an enemy AI that seemed too lethal to be a computer, a well-told narrative and a multiplayer component that people still play to this day, “Halo” has earned its place in history.

4. Quake II

Yes, the aiming system was a little wonky at times, but that’s pretty much it in terms of flaws. “Quake II” comes in at No. 4 because of the superior technical achievement it was in its day. Fully 3-D enemies, dynamic lighting, a mouse-based look function and scarily good LAN multiplayer simply outclassed everything else at the time. And the code was so well written, pocket calculators could probably have run the game. After this, game developers could no longer get away with a slapdash running-down-hallways simulator and call it an FPS game.

3. GoldenEye 007

What “Halo” finished, “GoldenEye 007” started. Up until Bond strode onto the N64, FPS games were the domain of the PC, but this title proved once and for all the viability of consoles for the genre. Due to its success, the next wave of game machine controllers came equipped with a second stick for controlling the look axis after “007” utilized the then-strange joystick so well. The multiplayer was so good that many more titles, like “Halo,” would include some variation on the game type. And of course four controller ports, which let more people partake in the fun, made their way into current generation systems.

2. Doom

Believe it or not, but before “Doom” FPS games were relatively tame. Nobody got worked up over the simple graphics, single plane levels and enemies that were pretty indistinguishable. But then everything literally went to Hell, in a good way. The graphics were sharp for the time, the lighting was eerie, the levels weren’t just rooms and hallways and the action was very intense. There was also the fact that “Doom” became one of the first video games to be a scapegoat for troubled, violent kids. That, I suppose, is technically bad, but it only goes to show you the power of the game and how important it was at the time.

1. Half-Life

No conversation of first-person shooters would be complete without mention of the incomparable “Half-Life.” Widely regarded as the greatest FPS of all-time, the list of qualities “Half-Life” introduced or improved upon are innumerable. “HL” did away with levels and made the game one long, continuous trek through its setting. Before, an FPS was usually not much more than a shooting gallery, but “HL” introduced a plot. The graphics were stunning, the controls impeccable and the puzzles (also rare in a FPS) were not of the mundane “find the key to advance” variety. But perhaps the best thing “HL” did was allow its source code to be modified and released in what is still the most popular online game ever: “Counter Strike.”

Along with Mario-esque platformers, first-person shooters are generally what people think of when they think about video games. If you consider yourself even a casual gamer and haven’t had a chance to play all of these titles do yourself a favor and get them ... now.