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Forgotten FPS Games - Part 1


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http://youtu.be/yMH7QpcTVE0

 

 

Not every series of first person shooters gets a proper sequel like Call of Duty or Halo. Instead some FPS games come on the market, maybe get a sequel if we're lucky and then sadly fade into the pre-rendered low textured sunset. Well, I'm here this week to make sure these 6 unloved FPS gems get one last glance from fans of the genre.

 

What games should be in Part 2 & 3? Let me know!

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I didn't know about the Deus Ex Project Snowblind relationship. I'll have to actually try it now, since I'm sure I have it on at least one system.

 

When I saw the topic, I instantly thought of Deus Ex: Invisible War. It doesn't sound like you're much of a fan, but I'm one of the few who just love it--my favorite in the series. I liked all the pointlessly interactive details in the environment (totally missing from the other titles), flexible ammunition system, and all the different solutions to the same problems. I don't think it was even necessary to kill anybody to finish it, where IIRC that's not possible with the other two. It challenged me to think up such creative solutions that sometimes I got places where I shouldn't have been, or did things that the game didn't account for.

 

I prime example is the choice between killing a scientist or stealing his fancy gun. I carried a box nearly halfway through that level to prop the door open as I stole the gun, only to pass through it and find the scientist to be invincible.

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Another great vid Metal Jesus!

 

One series of FPS that seems to have died out and that I really liked is the Hexen series.

I always thought it was a cool game. The magic, the fantasy settings, the RPG elements. I know the game did have a sequel and I think other games kind of tied into the series, but I don't think they've released anything related to Hexen since the 90's. It's one title I'd LOVE to see resurrected! It's just kind of been, forgotten!

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A few that I really enjoyed back in the day were Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold and its sequel Planet Strike. Another one is Rise of the Triad, which was supposedly going to be the sequel to Wolfenstein but instead became its own game. Both games are kinda older (predating 1996) but were a lot of fun back in the day and introduced me to the FPS genre.

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Just bought a copy of "The book of ID" (isn't here yet!)

 

Includes:

CD Vintage:

-Dangerous Dave

-Soldax

-Shadow Knights

-The Catacomb

-Catacombs 3D

-Hover Tank 3D

-Wolfenstein 3D

-Wolfenstein Spear of Destiny

-Rescue Rover 1 and 2

-Commander Keen x 4 games as follows:

-Invasion of the Vorticans

-Aliens ate my babysitter

-Keen Dreams

-Goodbye Galaxy

 

CD DOOM:

-Ultimate Doom

-Doom 2

-Master Levels for Doom 2

-Final Doom

 

CD Quake:

-Quake

 

 

I'm so excited about the Catacomb games. We had those back in the day. I just bought the exact model of Pentium 1 my Dad had in 1993. It's a Gateway 2000 P5-60 (socket 4 baby! yeah!). It just came today.

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Great video and I never even heard of the game SiN, which looks like something I'd enjoy. A couple games that I personally enjoy that may be worth taking into consideration are Powerslave and Shadow Warrior. I think they use the same engine Duke Nukem 3D used, though I'm not sure.

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A couple of ones I thoroughly enjoyed (that most seemed to dislike, or not have much experience with):

 

KISS: Psycho Circus, the Nightmare Child (PC) - Solid DOOM-style run 'n gun, released in 2000, I believe. Four different characters you play as that account for your "Episodes", each with a different melee attack and final weapon. I enjoyed the dark feel of the game, and liked the pseudo electronic-industrial soundtrack. It also gets pretty manic when you slap it onto the hardest difficulty mode. Uses some iteration of the Lithtech engine, so for the time it was pretty impressive.

 

PowerSlave (PlayStation/Saturn) - Mixes DOOM/Duke 3D elements, with non-linear gameplay and backtracking in a manner not unlike Castlevania Symphony of the Night. The PC version is good too, but it's a linear romp more akin to Duke Nukem 3D.

 

Unreal (PC) - Pretty revolutionary for the time, but I think most have forgotten about it due to the Unreal Tournament series. The original Unreal still has some cool environments, an excellent soundtrack, and fun gameplay if you can withstand the challenge.

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I can't watch your video yet (Internet is being uncooperative), so I have no idea which games you've already covered in it.

 

Chasm: The Rift was a really cool game, though it had a shallow vertical viewing cap, so trying to shoot at things at your feet (like those scorpions that kept getting at you) could get frustrating at times. Everything else about it I really liked though, it was well ahead of its time. There were a lot of impressive features that Quake didn't have, like rain/weather, being able to shoot/dismember different body parts on monsters, breaking glass, insects buzzing around lights, bulletholes, wavey water, etc.

 

Also, I could mention (the very unfinished) Jurassic Park: Trespasser, though I'm sure everyone would groan if I did =)

 

I can't think of too many other FPS that aren't extremely well known (and aren't bad games) in the classic gaming circles. If a modern gamer were to ask me, obviously I could think up tons of titles...

 

Edit: Got the video to play, now I know that I have nothing to add because Thief II is prettymuch the best game ever made. The first one was alright, but I didn't like all of the "Okay, we know people probably won't 'get' the stealth part of the game, so lets have lots of zombies and insect/rat monsters to kill." aspects of it.

 

Also, I don't know if you knew this, but SiN did kind of have a sequel. They were planning on doing an episodic series, but only Episode 1 was released before the whole project got canned. I've never played it, and I don't remember what the reception was, but they probably still have it on Steam.

 

I remember liking SiN a lot when it came out, but I replayed it (well, the demo) not too long ago, and the square doorways really creep me out. I know Quake engine's scale is very short-and-wide, but geeze...

Edited by Asaki
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Chasm: The Rift was a really cool game, though it had a shallow vertical viewing cap, so trying to shoot at things at your feet (like those scorpions that kept getting at you) could get frustrating at times. Everything else about it I really liked though, it was well ahead of its time. There were a lot of impressive features that Quake didn't have, like rain/weather, being able to shoot/dismember different body parts on monsters, breaking glass, insects buzzing around lights, bulletholes, wavey water, etc.

 

Nice one, I completely forgot about Chasm. If I recall correctly, it even came out just a little prior to Quake, or around the same time. It was pretty buggy in areas and had some poor enemy placement (for instance, getting locked into tiny rooms with a strong enemy with no room to dodge), but like you said it had some elements that Quake was lacking.

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GREAT video! I really enjoyed watching it!!

 

While watching the video I thought of Powerslave, Hexen, and Congo for the Saturn as I spent many, many an hour playing each of those games. And I really enjoyed the first Turok on the N64.

 

 

Mendon

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Just picked this up on eBay (thanks to your video recommendation MJ)

$T2eC16hHJGQE9noMcSkHBQ!Yc7TJyQ~~60_12.JPG

Set me back $5 plus $4 shipping. Great price! I love western games like Gun, Red Dead, and Dead mans hand. This will be great!

 

On a side note, I got the Pentium 60 working on the Epson S30 projector using a TVator (VGA to S-Video) I picked up for $3 at a thrift shop. So I'll be rocking this in 150" of classic glory.

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One of the best 1st person shooters I played in the 90's was a Star Wars game called Jedi Knight Dark Forces II:

I loved the original Dark Forces. Played all the way through it at least 3 times. Lost the disc, though. Probably let a friend borrow it.

 

Wow, if you liked the original one they improved on it by leaps and bounds with the second. It almost made no comparisons with the first. I don't know if there is a way to play the 2nd other than maybe Steam or some hacks out there to get it to run on modern machines. Of course it wont be as good today as back then but it was very good at the time.

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Yeah, Unreal was not a bad game, nut I think it was overshadowed by Unreal Tournament. In Unreal, I remember feeling quite alone. A lot of empty space and forbodingness.

 

Now that you mentioned Heretic, I may need to pull out my DOSBox and play a round.

 

Unreal Tournament was an amazing game! It was the game that began my move away from the iD shooters. The weapons were fantastic, the level designs were great, so many game types to choose from, and great audio (the commentator is legendary, "double kill! triple kill! multikill!"

 

this "forgotten fps games" thread is nice for reminding people about some great fps games. but nearly all of these games were highly acclaimed in the day and sold well.

 

there were a lot of fps games that were great but for some reason didn't generate great sales or public enthusiasm. now that's a more interesting list.

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there were a lot of fps games that were great but for some reason didn't generate great sales or public enthusiasm. now that's a more interesting list.

I think that would depend on what the OP's definition of "forgotten" is. Is it forgotten, because it's old and not many people play it any more, or forgotten because it didn't have wide appeal? If it's the 2nd definition, then I'd ask why it didn't have wide appeal. Was it good, but low-budget and didn't get a lot of ad time? Or was it a piece of crap that deserves to be forgotten?

 

Not a FPS, but Hugo's House of Horrors was an indie adventure game of the same type as the Sierra series of games. Could it have made it on store shelves if put next to Sierra's stuff? Probably not, especially at the same price point. But it was an excellent game as it was, and well worth the time to play. If this thread was about DOS adventure games, HHoH is one of the games I'd definitely list.

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