21 First Person Shooters you shouldn't have missed

The first person shooter genre is indisputably one of the most popular among PC gamers and has been for well over a decade. Whether it is for the technological leaps that a game has brought with it, the unseen interactivity for its time or just the plain fast-paced action that is fun to play, every couple of years there is at least one such great title that makes people drool incessantly until it’s finally out there for public consumption.

Yet, unfortunately with the staggering number of games that get released year after year, it’s not hard to miss the target and never come to play some of the best games this genre has to offer. Even some titles that have been critically acclaimed for some reason just don’t click with consumers and their fate inevitably leads to becoming one of those hidden gems of yesteryear, likely to never surface again.

We have come up with a list of 21 first person shooters that any serious FPS player shouldn’t have missed. The usual suspects obviously had to make it, but you're also sure to find some other oldies that you either didn't give a fair chance or just missed in the process. Simply put, we are going to take you on a stroll down FPS memory lane.

Read the full article at:
http://www.techspot.com/article/140-21-first-person-shooters/

Please leave your feedback here. Thanks!

I jumped from Wolfenstein to doom 3, to call of duty 4, besides rainbow 6 on the xbox. I cant go back and play some games because of the "pale" graphics, that haunt me. I love my cod4.

Great article though, most on the list are user friendly to the common pc.

wow... would have never expected such an article here on TechSpot; great job :grinthumb
I've played most of them.

But you did forget to mention some:

-Unreal Tournament 2004 (2004)
Don't quite understand why you failed to mention it in the UT'99 section...
It was, and still is, considered a terrific multiplayer game with a huge array of quality maps, game modes and mutators.
It continued to use interactive AI (it even had voice command) present in UT'99 and UT2003.

- Star Wars Republic Commando (2005)
Probably the best SP squad-based tactical game... not even RSV2 beats it

- F.E.A.R. (2005)
How could you not mention it?! great graphics, phenomenal gameplay, superb AI... a Crysis of its days

- Quake 4 (2005, same day as F.E.A.R.)
IMHO, a rock solid FPS with a good story and great graphics that ran well even on older hardware

- Prey (2006)
Guys, come on!!! the first game to include portals. It had great OpenGL graphics, a terrific story and interesting gameplay.

- S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (2007)
At least to mention its great atmosphere... not its bugs.
Its terrific atmosphere was further supported by its prequel, Clear Sky, that also included an overhauled engine (with DX10 features), much better AI and a compelling story.
Not to mention the terrific mods out there...

Ohh... and the obvious zombie-mashing Left 4 Dead :rolleyes:
And why not even Mirror's Edge, for it's interesting twist of a platform game in first-person perspective.

And even so, I probably missed one or two...

BTW, the second screenie for BF2 is broken

EDiT:
will you do the same for the other genres? (RTS, RPG, Racing etc.)

Thanks for the great feedback!

Now on a more proper response, we didn't include any sequels explicitly considering that for all we wanted to mention we had already included the original version of the game. In most if not all cases it was the original game that was the most memorable anyway.

As for those titles that didn't make it to the list, we knew it was going to be impossible to please everyone from the get go.

Besides the sequels, F.E.A.R. was probably the game we considered the most and probably we should have included it, but in the end we dropped it in favor of Undying which is also a "terror" FPS but of a complete different style.

You don't have to please anyone... the games in there are more then enough. I was only adding/underlining a couple more titles I found worthy to mention

About F.E.A.R.... I guess you're right, Undying was far more genre defining than F.E.A.R. at that time

I do hope you guys will make something similar for the other genres...

I give this article the absolute fail award 2009 for not mentioning Deus Ex
Ok ok, it was mentioned under System Shock but it deserves it's own section
Especially since it is one of those games that not many people played really
It is in my view to this day the unbeaten champion of FPS games, and I don't really see it likely that any game will ever surprass it!

Can't agree with you there, Per. Deus Ex can't really be called a FPS - it definitely falls under the RPG category more. Maybe even System Shock, too, though Deus Ex really shined in that aspect.

Great article its too bad most of the older games are getting so outdated that to go back and play through the entire games is nearly impossible. You can play a little but then you have to stop because there's all those great games of today. In other instances I started off by playing the sequels to the original games before plying the original making for a really weird experience when basically back tracking through a games story. At any rate this was a great article to read through and have a chance to look back on how one of, if not the biggest genre of gaming came to be. A nest twist would have been what requirements the games required at the time to show how hardware has evolved with the games as time progressed.

Star Wars JKII did not deserve to be on the list IMO. Ditto for Tribes.
Deus Ex and Thief: The Dark Project deserved these spaces far more.

Still, decent list. I agree with most, if not all, of the choices there.

I am wondering as to why Mech Warrior was not added to this impressive list? It is in the same category as Shogo.

I am wondering as to why Mech Warrior was not added to this impressive list? It is in the same category as Shogo.


this is true, a great and forgotten game, glad someone still remembers it.

This article brought back many memories. However, IMHO omitting the entire Delta Force Series is Blasphemy to the FPS genre. Delta Force introduced 16 player fragfest (ok maybe they weren't the first) starting in '98, followed BY DF2 which improved on the original and gave you Destructible structures, (something the vaunted Battlefield 2 failed to deliver). The Search and Destroy game mode was, in my experience the best Co-operative game play mode in any game to date. Followed By DF: Landwarrior( better graphics) but crap multiplayer, Skip past DF: Task Force Dagger To DF Black Hawk Down. How can you not at least mention BHD in a discussion off FPS?. Later this was followed by Joint Operations, and JO: Escalation; which gave you user friendly Flying and driving in a truly massive world (64 square KM)compared to BF2 ( which came a yr or more later LATER.) Sure BF2 had better graphics but their Hitbox code was terrible. While I was one who loved the DF series (excluding DF:Xtreme), i like many of the others who played in Nova's world, wasn't always happy with Novalogic. They rarely listened to the playing community. Otherwise loved the article LOL

X out.

Star Wars JKII did not deserve to be on the list IMO. Ditto for Tribes.
Deus Ex and Thief: The Dark Project deserved these spaces far more.

Still, decent list. I agree with most, if not all, of the choices there.

Tribes was one of the greatest multiplayer games of all time - along with Quake II and III. I agree with JKII being undeserving though - but again, you can't please everyone. After all, I'm the only person in America who hated CounterStrike.

great list although it makes fell my age thinking back to times when games like doom were cutting edge

No Unreal or Return to Napali, No Medal of Honor, No PainKiller :confused:???

Sorry but the List is very very weak...

Halo (overrated game - MS pay $$$)?? Crysys (The gameplay is ridiculous) ?? It´s a JOKE only :haha: .

Cauptain

No mention of Pain Killer? UT, Doom II, and PK are my top 3.
There is another one that was around the days of Doom 2, but I have forgotten it's name, title had 4 words, first one I think started with T.

this is true, a great and forgotten game, glad someone still remembers it.
supersmashbrada.......

My brother and I would connect via PHONE MODEM and play against each other. Actually, if I do some searching, I am positive that I still have the original game and possibly one or two expansion packs!!

Truly an unforgettable game and experience.

So, take that you n00bie on line gamers! LOL!!!!!!!!!

Rise of the Triad: Dark War. Too many people missed out on this game. It was awesome, and I recommend that if you can get your hands on it, (and you enjoy old games) check it out. Ludicrous gibs!

I agree Rise of the Triad is one of the good old ones, so-called Doom clone that shouldn't. Unfortunately in a way ROTT just served as a transition from Doom to Duke Nukem (also developed by 3D Realms) which was a more memorable title.

As I said earlier, it was going to be impossible to please everyone but I'm glad most of you agree with our picks. Many of you also seem to remember better certain sequels than the originals, which in a way makes sense, for example I almost didn't play the original Diablo but with Diablo 2 I went from start to finish and then all over again :)

That was an awesome article, and article I did not expect to see on TS but very welcome.

Quite a few of the games I had never heard of before (generally the earlier games because of my age) but I agree with the ones that I do know of.

I really want to play some Duke Nukem 3D now :p

Some good titles on there. I think Max Payne could have been added, as there were no games like it at the time, and it's still fun to this day. I mean, who doesn't like slow-mo/bullet time?? haha

..Wasn't Max Payne a third person shooter?

Why don ya change the title to "22" First Person Shooters you shouldn't have missed... and include Half-Life 2 as well eh eh?

To quote Julio from post #4:

Now on a more proper response, we didn't include any sequels explicitly considering that for all we wanted to mention we had already included the original version of the game. In most if not all cases it was the original game that was the most memorable anyway.

As for those titles that didn't make it to the list, we knew it was going to be impossible to please everyone from the get go.

I still play Doom frequently with Xbox 360.

Is Portal really a first person "shooter" ?

I own nearly every game mentioned in the article except Duke Nukem which I tried as a demo and it would not run on my PC so I skipped it. The walk down memory lane is nice but the future is bleak. As one who refuses to buy into the Securom Online Activation thats all the rage with Developers now, I find myself in a position where I will refuse to pay $50 for a game I'm told I can only install so many times. I will also not allow the Securom root kit on my PC, and although I have found ways around it in the past, its getting harder to do without joining in with what the Pirates have to offer in the way of circumventing the DRM.

It seems to me that this push to squeeze the paying customer instead of the pirateers, is going to doom the PC game all together. In 2007 I probably bought more than 10 games at $50 a piece, this year I only bought 2 even though there were many I would have bought if they didn't have securom. I suspect the way things seem to be going, I will probably buy no games in 2009 as it appears nearly every game maker has turned to the root kit and decided its easier to tinkle on the paying customer than the pirates, and they do want to tinkle on someone.

no mention of Chex Quest? for shame...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chex_Quest

What, no Shadow Warrior? You tiny grasshopper! You should try harder get along.

Have to say the omission of F.E.A.R. is darn near unforgivable - it's probably the best FPS ever. Undying may have been critically acclaimed, but as a game it blew chunks often and hard. ROTT was a great game, but for some reason I think of it as much as a platformer as a FPS - must be the vertical element.

Great article, anyway. Thanks. I've owned and played everything mentioned except that Shogo thingy, as I avoid anything with even a hint of anime. Wolfenstein 3D was my first good PC gaming experience after Rogue, and I've never looked back.

Where is left 4 dead? Now that's a nice shooter.

No Bioshock?

I agree, it is impossible to please everyone, and many of the games listed here gave me great moments and great thrills. But I hope Bioshock made you hesitate a lot before excluding it from the "2007 and beyond" as it opens a lot of doors to the creation of future very original FPS.

Thanks for this very interesting topic, it caught my eye at first sight, even if I react to it only today.

The "consensus" for Bioshock seems to be that it was great at setting an atmosphere but gameplay got a tiny bit boring after the first few levels. Then again this could happen to anyone in any given game... All in all, one of the best single player games released in recent times for sure.

Rise of the Triad, that's the one I was thinking of, great co-op play is what I remember.

The "consensus" for Bioshock seems to be that it was great at setting an atmosphere but gameplay got a tiny bit boring after the first few levels. Then again this could happen to anyone in any given game... All in all, one of the best single player games released in recent times for sure.

It might also be related to different cultural backgrounds --I mean from different countries-- that some might prefer a game to another one; so we are back to square one: it is impossible to please everyone.

Anyway, you did a great job synthetizing all the FPS from the beginning to today, comparing their merits, and thinking them over to chose from so many. Definately, an article that has to go in TechSpot "have-to-keep-do-not-erase" archives. :)

time crisis? :D
love my cs tho

It would be great to see an update for the past nine years for those of us who became old and disinterested by about 2000... it might be fun to try a few after all these years.
It seems to me that gaming is a young person's sport.

No Marathon? Bungie's prelude to Halo? It was Mac only but it was light years ahead of the Doom era when it came out.

Only missed four of those, although I would contend that some aren't FPSes. :)

No Marathon? Bungie's prelude to Halo? It was Mac only but it was light years ahead of the Doom era when it came out.

I agree, the Marathon Trilogy was great, we only have to look at how many very good sequels were made by fans. Marathon's scenarios were way ahead of many games and when Microsoft bought Bungie, many feared for the originality of the Bungie team. But Halo 1 was a relief, one of the best FPS ever.

By the way, Marathon 2 was issued for PC also. And with AlephOne, every PC can play Marathon games now, although it has aged.

Thanks for not forgetting about a classics like Duke or Doom. Strange to see Shogo or Portal on the list without Monolith's Blood, though.
Anyway, everybody looking for old-school FPS experience is welcomed on the FPS Ports - fps.maros.pri.ee

Also, IMHO, there should be Quake 2/3 in competitive multiplayer section - they had much more impact on today's gaming than tribes.

Excelent article, bringing back good old memories.
I've played Wolf3D 1000 times, and games so called FPS before it... (read: not 3D).
"I stopped" playing games so I have not played the most recent ones (but its not to late).
I do do an effort to play DeusEx and Quake series (always).

although already explained for DeusEx I believe that:
-DeusEx (yes its FPS! one of the first if not the first to introduce unique features, and what makes it not be on the list is the reason why it should be on the list)
-Delta Force (because of the gaming style, engine, multiplayer...)
these two should have definitely be on the list...

other games that bring good memories (That I can remmeber the names.. lol)
-Black Stone: Aliens of Gold****!!!!
-Skynet (terminator stuff)
-Heretic, Hexen
-Descent
-SWAT series (Rainbow Six alike)
-Soldier of Fortune
-Star Trek Voyager
-Alien Vs Predator series

I forgot the name of a old game.. noooooooo! maybe someone remembers...
old game like BlackStone, but it was somewhat magical, with bats, vampire (i think)
we could get out of the "house" to the gardens, day and night effects, curtains...