So I’m an old, old first-person-shooter hand. “I vas dere… at de beginning” with Wolfenstein and Doom and Half-Life and Duke and all the rest, and long ago exhausted the Half-Life series (except for some of the HL2 extensions). Still jonesing badly from the loss of City of Heroes, which was FPS-sy.
Played through Bioshock, part of BS 2 and a little bit of BS:I. Okay, but the sequels are a little too heavy on the eye-candy over gameplay.
So I played through the rebuild of Rise of the Triad, which drove me crazy with its bugginess (about the third or fourth reload of any game save, the map would be corrupted, which sometimes was fun. I finally gave up on the last two or three levels for this reason).
Then Far Cry 1-3 with all the extras came up for sale. I tried it. I tried FC2. I can see the appeal. But it’s far too demanding - the character is far too fragile and the controls are too clumsy for me.
Anyway… what’s a good, engaging solo FPS, preferably cheap, that I might like? Something I can kill time with 15 minutes at a time? On a very heavy-duty, high-end system?
They’re not FPS games so much as RPGs in 1st-person, but if you’re looking for something to scratch the City of Heroes itch you might be better off with an RPG. They’re also both plenty cheap at this point.
As a gamer who is basically anything but a gamer, I meant FPS-sy RPGs more than old school Duke style stuff. My ignorant bad.
Mass Effect and ME2 were on sale on Steam; that will do. They have been on my list for a while since I’ve heard and seen that they’re spiritual heir to Babylon 5.
As for Skyrim etc. - I am absotively, posilutely not a fantasy gamer. Can’t stand anything WoW-ish. No magic, mages, knights, quests, dragons, elves, pseudo-Elizabethan language or faux medieval settings.
I am less adamantly not a “real combat” gamer - which is why Far Cry failed for me and I’m not really interested in Gritty Grimy Call of Duty Black Ops Ghost Recon Strike Commandos.
I have Fallout 3 as well, but it never engaged me for some reason. I am very picky, selective gamer who finds something he likes and then stays with it until everyone else is going “What? That shit still runs on your system?”
Thanks for input. ME up for play in 24 minutes 30 seconds…
Borderlands 2 might still work for you. It has an actual story (unlike BL1 where a story barely existed), side quests, an advancement system, etc. It also doesn’t take itself very seriously which might appeal to you. Anyway, there’s a reason why it’s so popular – it’s a good deal of fun.
Stalker has some RPG elements but a lot f its atmosphere is definitely “grimy” with a Soviet-style grimness and a strong survival element.
How determined are you that it be FPS as opposed to third-person? Because if you’re willing to go third-person, I highly recommend Just Cause 2. You can pick it up on Steam for less than 5 bucks during any sale, and it’s great stupid fun.
I disagree on skipping the first one. The return of the characters in Borderlands 2 means more if you’ve played the first one. The DLC in the first one isn’t as good in my opinion, mostly due to the lack of in-DLC Fast Travel stations. While not a huge deal with the first one, it really hurts with the third and fourth packs. (I did not care for the arena DLC at all). But I think it would hurt to play the new pre-sequel game before Borderlands 2.
Mass Effect is a series that rewards the player for keeping the same character going across all three games (and it does help to get all the DLC). But the inventory management system in the first game is painful, especially on console, although I can see it being easier to deal with on PC. And to be fair to Bioware, they were trying to do something new. On the other hand, ME2 got a lot of criticism from PC players that it was dumb-downed for console. And of course ME3 got all sorts of criticism, from on-disc DLC to the ending itself. But in my opinion, ME2 is the most fun of the series although ME3 is a very good game as well up until the last five minutes or so. The whole series has that whole Bioware flaw though in that it’s not very rewarding to play as an evil character, no matter how much they pitch the morality system as a great thing.
Differences of opinion and all. The characters in BL1 weren’t exactly rounded characters, just classes/skins with a few catchphrases. So seeing them come back wasn’t worth much more than a “heh” to me since it’s not as though I’d gotten attached to Brick or something. The NPCs like Scooter, Claptrap, Moxxi, etc are a little more interesting but not enough to recommend spending 50+ hours in BL1 first.
For how much better the BL2 mechanics and story is compared to BL1, I’d say that playing BL1 these days is largely a waste of your time.
I think the main issue with Borderlands 1 is that it was such a poor port on PC. No real graphics options, no FOV (critical for FPS game son PC, IMHO), floaty mouse and keyboard controls, and poor performance.
It’s why Borderlands 2 had the whole “love letter” to PC gamers thing where they promised a proper PC game. And they definitely delivered. Borderlands 2 was an amazing PC game.
Huh. I really loved BL1 on PC and based on what I’ve read online and what my friends have said about it, that seems to be the prevalent stance. Graphic options or FOV sliders don’t really matter to me as long as the game looks good enough and the controls were just fine IMO. And I never had any performance issues whatsoever.
There’s a number of other complaints you could have about the game that’d be far more valid from my point of view like the stupid level scaling of the enemies, some DLCs having no fast travel options, the plot being paper-thin and nonsensical and so on, but your list just makes me feel we played a different game altogether.
Just a bump to thank those who pointed me at Borderlands. I picked it up cheap on a Steam sale and the first hour or so seemed to have the boredom potential of Fallout, I stuck with it until I understood all the pieces and am having a ball. Picked up B2 while it was still on sale.
It’s almost exactly the right mix of elements, very much like playing solo in City of Heroes. I am about to do some serious keyboard remapping, though - a lot of the subsidiary commands are hard to access.
The only glitch/bug/flaw I’ve found is that managing the inventory is clumsy. Switching weapons in and out of the slots seems to follow no logical sequence, and trying to drop inventory items means I just keep dropping stuff until all the junk is gone, then pick up the items I wanted to keep. (Is there some simple approach to swapping weapons? Dropping items?)
But fun, and I have the rest of the holidays (dead time in my industry) to play. I also have all of the DLC for both installments, so this one should occupy me until City of Titans/COH2 finally shows up. (I am a very selective, dogged gamer.)
You can pick up Crysis 3 for $4 right now. Possibly more combat-y than you like (it’s made by the same company that produced the Far Cry games), but it is gorgeous and one of the best FPSs I’ve played in a while. Possibly worth a flyer at that price. Check it out on Youtube if you’re not sure if it’s for you.
Wolfenstein: the new order is the best FPS I played in years. I would favorably compare it to Half-life 2. Both games understand to let the player breathe once in a while instead of constantly throwing enemies at you ala COD. The gameplay is appropriately old school with no regenerating health. Shooting Nazis is really visceral and satisfying. You can dual wield all the guns which feels cool as hell.
The story is really good too. It’s strange that a pulpy alternative history Nazi killing FPS made me care for the main characters in a way many more “serious” games failed to do. Blazkowicz, the player character, should be the quintessential meathead but you really start to empathize for him and his inner turmoil as the game progresses.
