These days, I hear a lot of people complaining about the state of the First Person Shooter genre. They say it has devolved into an indistinguishable amalgmous mass of samey goo. They say the genre is on its way out unless it gets kickstarted. They say that this year’s E3 presentation was just a string of presenters showing them the exact same ultra-realistic, modern anti-terrorist, psuedo-cover based, red dot scoped FPS game with different skins on top of the levels. They say all of that in line to buy a copy of Battlefield of Modern Honor 35.
Well, it’s easy to complain that other people are screwing up and not give a better solution, but it’s a hell of a lot harder to actually think up a way to fix a problem. But not so hard that I can’t do it. Why? Because I am absolutely amazing, that’s why. Don’t try this at home.
4. Cowboys and Aliens
I don’t necessarily mean the movie, though a Cowboys and Aliens game would kick ass. Actually, no. A game based on High Plains Invaders, the movie Cowboys and Aliens totally ripped off, down to the very last minute plot point.
The point is, blockbuster FPS games all look the same, because they are ostensibly about the same thing. The vast majority of our powerhouse shooters are the same anti-terrorism crap we’ve been seeing since Modern Warfare first hit the scene. Those that do stand out as being a little different are Borderlands 2, Bioshock Infinite, XCom: Enemy Unknown, and Halo 4. Did you notice a trend? The only games that are different, are the sequels to existing intellectual properties: we’ve reached a point of videogame narrative saturation so high that it rivals Hollywood. We now find ourselves in the unfortunate situation of being forced to swallow the leftovers of FPS pie that wasn’t all that great the first time.
Yes, annoying indie fan guy I hear you. You play games that are VERY different. Well I have something to say to you – I don’t mind indie platformers, and I get that there are indie shooters available that challenge the mold, but I want high production value in my shooters. I want the kind of production value that put’s chips in the stylized wood grain of my AK-47.
However, I want diversity. I want to aim that AK-47 at a dinosaur with a rocket launcher for a face and chainsaw feet, because not even John McClane has slain as many ethnically ambiguous bad guys as I have.
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3 Comments
Nice work, Clayton. I hope ZombiU turns out as a great game, because I think the gamepad can make some strides for the genre that have been needed for a long time.
The dinosaur-rocket-launcher-John McClane comment made me piss myself. Briliant.
Agreed. The fps genre is not what it used to be. Regenative health was unique, but that’s in EVERY shooter today. I feel bad for people who buy into these new shooters and they only get a campaign that last over 8 hours. I also agree that every shooter today has “go in one direction” level design. It’s just go in one direction and follow the blinking waypoint to the next area in todays single player fps campaigns. Afterwards, the consumer is left with mulitplayer. It’s just shoot, kill, respawn, shoot, get spawn killed, and finally rage quit. Then it’s a trip for the stupid consumer back to gamestop to trade it in. In the end, NO shooter today is worth the full retail price. Multiplayer can be fun, but it just seems to be what every modern fps relies on these days. The servers to support online play for these games will be eventually shut down and then the sole reason to play these game will be lost. That’s my two cents. Peace.